Nandi Hills, Pakora! and Marketplace

I am unable to sleep at the moment so I will begin to write.

I forgot about my fly.  The fly disappeared after the "other" man cleaned my hotel room.  I don't know if the fly was killed or flew out on it's own power.  I have not seen the fly.
Thinking about flies...There are more flies than mosquitoes in Bangalore.  I prefer the Bangalore flies over the monster mosquitoes of Mumbai.

Shibin, Celina (his wife) and Nethra came to pick me up around 5am IST on Saturday.  We were heading to Nandi Hills.  On TripAdvisor Nandi Hills is one of the top ten places to see while in Bangalore.  Nandi Hills was the summer retreat for Tipu Sultan (1750-1799).  There are temples built during the Chola Dynasty between 3 century BCE through 13 century CE.  The attraction of Nandi Hills is the beautiful views.  The countryside was beautiful.  There are fields along the route.  There are coconut groves, corn fields and other agriculture.  There were a lot of cows tethered though.  They were not walking around freely.  This is good, because traffic.  It would cause even more problems.

The goal was to get to the top of Nandi Hills before to watch the sunrise.  Due to traffic we watched the sunrise will crawling at a snail's pace up the hill.  The road is 2 lanes but 3 to 4 lanes of cars, buses, auto rickshaws, motorcycles, bicycles were moving slowly but the winding road.  Again, this is a 2 lane road.  One lane to go up and one lane to come down.  If you were trying to come do before 7am IST, you would not make it.  Everyone was trying to get to the top to see the sunrise.  The air temperature is cooler as we climbed higher.  The people on the motorcycles and in auto rickshaws must have been cold if they were not wearing warm clothes.  BRRR!  As we were driving there was passenger videoing her ride on the back of a motorcycle.  There really was not much to see other than vehicles in front of us.  Thinking now, maybe she was video chatting with someone.  I would have been hold on the driver or anything on the back of a cycle.  I have not been on the back of a motorcycle since my Aunt Kathy had one on my grandparents' farm in Nebraska.  I remember it was fun riding on it with my Aunt Kathy on the country roads and in the fields.  I was only 8 or 9 years old think...

We were moving upward, than a gate went down.  We were stopped.  We were so close but yet so far.

The gate lifted and the motorcycles zoomed ahead of us, but we continued onward.  The view was more spectacular as climbed to the top.

We finally were at the entrance and guess what I saw!  A monkey was sitting on top of the ledge right in front of us.  A MONKEY.

Wild monkeys

Shibin did a great job with the traffic and hairpin turns climbing and climbing.  

Winding road

We finally made it - not to the top - but too an parking area.  Shibin was directed to go to the parking area.  He drove and found nothing.  We did see a hundreds of motorcycles parked.  

Motorcycle parking

There was a long line of people waiting to climb to the top.  I thought this was the top.  The top was still up.  After circling the full parking area, we continued to drive upward.  Then we stop again.  The gate to get to the top is down.  There was a taxi in front of us.  The man would not lift the gate.  There were vehicles piling up behind us.  The taxi handed the man some money, the gate lifted and Shibin stayed close behind the taxi before the gate came down.  We continue to climb up the hill.  The motorcycles that made it past the gate were passing us on the way up.  The higher we moved to the top the monkeys were everywhere.  They were sitting on the parked vehicles.

Monkey on a jeep

I was so excited.  Now I have seen a cow walking in the road and wild monkeys.  I wanted to see the first time I came to India.  The monkeys were amazing.  They were jumping in the trees, sitting along the rails and in the trees.

We made it to the TOP!  Shibin created a parking spot.  There were people everywhere.  There was a man shouting PAKORA! PAKORA! ONION PAKORA!  The smell was in the air.  Nethra, Celina, Shibin and I started walking to the area with the most beautiful views.  The air was crisp with a slight chill.  It remained me of Autumn in New England.  There were prayers being broadcasted over a loud speaker.  We made it down the steps and to the edge.  The view was amazing.  There was a light fog in the valley.  It looked so peaceful.  The simple beauty of Mother Nature.  One thing to remember - Do NOT lean on the guard rails.  They are not bolted down and you could be going down the hills the hard way!

Look at the views.  The fog was dancing across the valley below.  The blue sky started to appear to enhance the beauty below.  It was absolutely amazing.  There were hundreds of people, but I felt at peace at the top of Nandi Hills.  

Celina, Nethra, me, Shibin

After watching the monkeys and checking out the view, we were walking towards the car.  PAKORA! was being shouted.  Then I realized what was being said.  I love onion pakoras.  Shibin and Celina bought the freshly fried plate of pakora.  The smell of the spice and frying oil made my mouth water.  A fresh warm pakora is so delicious.  It was absolutely delicious.  Nethra and I sat in the backseat eating the onion pakora.  We did offer them to Celina and Shibin.  Nethra and I ate most of them.  I still can smell the oil and spices 2 days later.  

We were heading down and back to Bangalore.  After a short rest Celina, Shibin and I were off to the Marketplace in Bangalore to meet up with Preeti and her daughter, Kiara, for a little shopping.  The marketplace is lit up like Time Square in New York City.  There are lights, vehicles and people everywhere.  There is also a cow walking in the road as well.  The cow would not be in NYC.  There are so many stores and street vendors everywhere.  

One lesson is Preeti will not pay actual price for anything.  She bartered with every shop.  She has an amazing talent.  I did buy a few things.  There was a store with ELEPHANTS everywhere.  I had to go into the store.  It was an amazing place.  Thank goodness I do not live here or there would have been more than 1 elephant bought.  The elephant fits in my luggage.

It was amazing time.  I loved the whole experience.  We went out to eat.  The chicken was boneless.  It was delicious!  

I had a wonderful day and night.  I have to run to the office now.  More pictures to come.