Bangaloree: gardens of the Maharadja
Door: Me, myself and I
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Remco
04 Februari 2013 | India, Bangalore
It's about half past 11 when I leave the hotel. Ignoring all tuk tuk drivers overly interested in me, I ask the first uninterested driver (that is uninterested in me) I come across what it will cost... Shit, he doesn't speak English... It takes a couple of minutes to make him understand where I want to go to (the Lalbagh gardens) and at first he says 50 rupees upon which I say 80. Well I eventually got him down to 100 rupees for the 2,5 km but that's as low as would go (though it should have been around 30)...
The drive there was well... Interesting, to say the least. It seems like Indian roads are in a perpetual state of rush hour except when everyone's asleep that is. And even though he overcharged me, it like taking a whirl at a funfair ride, a very cheap whirl that is. Any way, we got to the park and after paying the man and the entrancefee, I walked in.
For those of you who know Amsterdam's Vondelpark, it comes close to that in area (I didn't check this though) and in it found an empty (except for an elderly guard) bandstand, a greenhouse inspired by London's crystal palace and a big piece of Granite sticking out of its surroundings. Inside the glasshouse is a Eiffeltower concisting of dead flowers (giving the whole thing a bit of a "nightmare before christmas" feel), something resembling mountains and some other floral display. Apparently these are the leftovers of a flowershow which finished recently. Afterwards, I walked up the granite bulge, took in the view (and rubble; once again the indian bag problem) and the perpetual "excuse me sir, do you want...", and walked down again to sauter through the rest of the park and give my neck some shade from the sun.
Other then the usual couples and ubiquitous squirrels, there wasn't anything of real further interest except for the weird ass flower clock.
As the name suggests the digits on the clock are made out of flowers (no idea what kind) but the thing is that it's surrounded by sun-bleached Disney dwarfs from Snowwhite... Oh and it's also a hangout of a certain dog who took exception to my camera's lens..
Oh well, on to Tipu Sultan's palace (a relatively short walk away). It' a summer palace and the layout is rather interesting with a rivate section and a public section which was cut in half lengthwise. With dark wooden beams and sme interesting painted mosaics, it was woth the 30 minutes spent there. From there it was another short walk to the city market which was really busy and rather filthy a stream of urine ran in between the stalls (or rather tarps) spread on the floor. The people were friendly though. I again took a riksja back in the general direction of my hotel and went off to buy a real Puma track jacket which I had seen the day before.
I made ravel arrangements afterwards for tuesday's bus to Mysore and
ate a quick meal at the same place I ate the day before (coconut grove) and went to bed at around 12...
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