On to Madikeri

We left Mysore on the 6 am bus and arrived in the busy city of Hassan about 9:30. It is difficult for us to take these crowded buses with our backpacks which we take inside the crowded buses. We sat in the back of the bus with our packs on our laps, next to a very nice Indian family, a teacher, his wife and two lovely daughters about 10-12 years old. They said they were traveling to Hassan for their daughter to receive an award for some drawings. The father was very proud. In Hassan we found a hotel (barely meeting our minimum standards) and took a bus ride in the afternoon to see the fabulous temples and ruins at Belur and Halabid. These Hindu civilizations had their heyday in the 11th to 14th centuries. They are very impressive with much extremely detailed, intrikit sculptures of different gods and goddesses and animals such as elephants and cobras. There were many school children here on excursions.

The next day we left Hassan by bus and arrived in Madikeri about 4 hours later. Madikeri is a town in the Kodava (semi-independent) coffee growing region that borders on the Ghats mountain range that runs along the western edge of southern India. This small city has a great climate since it lies at about 3000 feet elevation. The food in this region is non-vegetarian. Our first week in India we only ate vegetarian food. In fact, in our hotel in Mysore, a sign said meat products were prohibited from entering the premises.

Today we took a taxi a few miles and walked the rest of the way to a waterfall. On the way back, walking up the quiet road, we hitched a ride with a young Indian couple driving a fancy car. The young man was a businessman from Bangalore and his young wife was very dressed up. They offered to take us with them to see some temples in another town about 30 miles from Madikari. They stopped at a park by a waterfall and river, but the young woman did not want to get out of the car with us. We wonder if it was because we were not appropriately dressed since we were wearing shorts or because of some quarrel they were having. After that, we returned to Madikeri by bus.