Out of town (or 'out of station' as they would say here)

Last Sunday we went on a trip to Nandi Hills, a granite monolith, about 2000 feet high, north of Bangalore. During the British rule, Nandi Hills was used to throw prisoners off. Last Monday a well known rocket scientist jumped to his death there. Luckily there were no casualties last Sunday (that we know of).

On the way over we missed the exit so we took a lovely road through the country side. Lots of little villages, farmland and animals.
We stumbled upon a big temple area and decided to go in and have a look, Coming through the gate we came into an open area with grass and walkways enclosed by a covered walkway along the walls. The first thing we noticed was a huge wooden cart. Unfortunately we couldn't find out what it was used for.

Joshua, Adriaan and I went into the actual temple area. We were a bit hesitant to leave our shoes behind after our last temple visit, but this time there was someone supervising. As soon as we entered a man dedicated himself to be our guide. He didn't speak any English and didn't understand it either. We could only make our "Shiva" and "Main temple". We were allowed to enter all the areas and even to take photos.

In the main temple we were blessed with smoke and holy water. It is expected to leave some money on the plate with the holy fire, so we did. When we continued our tour we found there were many more main temples... after 4 or 5 we had to take a peek inside from a distance, since all our small change had been used.

We drove from there to Nandi Hills along a small winding road through beautiful nature. Along the road were many groups of monkeys. We knew not to bring any food outside the car, because they will try to steel it.

Nandi Hills is a popular weekend trip, so we were not the only ones there. They say it is the favourite place for your couples and newly weds to go.
The views were great and we walked through the botanical gardens.

On the way back we had to stop frequently because Adriaan went trigger happy with the camera (when we came home he went into mr. Vandelete-mode and threw most photos out).

We also visited a Jain temple, but were were not allowed to take any photos there. There were 118 statues that were only different in colour and decoration.

Another fun day with the family!