This week Alpana and I headed to Mysore for a quick sight-seeing trip. It was so liberating to just strap on our backpacks, hop on a bus and play it by ear. We had a fabulous time! Here we are with our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook...
Highlights of the trip included:

• the gorgeous Mysore Palace
• wandering around the old markets
• the cute, hip young monks on holiday we saw all over town (there's a Tibetan refuge nearby)
• being complimented on my Kannada (!!!) by our waiter at the hotel and one of the hawkers I bargained with
  
• sipping tea at night in the garden of our charming, eco-friendly converted-palace hotel on the outskirts of town
• fresh slices of juicy watermelon dusted with chili powder and salt -- the perfect balance of sweetness and spice
• Bombay Tiffany's sweet shop
  
• the naughty monkeys on Chamundi Hill
  
• spotting other Lonely Planet guidebook-dependent tourists

Wandering around Mysore's markets...

On and around Chamundi Hill...

Mysore Palace

My friend Alpana has come into town for a few days and so I'm playing tour guide. I picked her up at the airport with grand plans for a night out and then promptly got us lost. Very embarrassing. But after a long walk we finally made it to the restaurant, a chic place on the 13th floor of a mall downtown. The food was so-so but the incredible view from our terrace table more than made up for it.

I'm on another mini-trip this weekend, back to my family's native place to attend a couple family functions. Today I took a day bus to Mangalore -- a ten hour trip which I spent glued to the window. Here are a couple shots I took from the bus as we zoomed by. (I took a ton more that didn't come out well -- the timing was pretty tricky.)

My cousin and her son picked me up at the bus station, and as we were walking to the car we ran into a few small children who were playing in the dirt. The kids were totally fascinated by my cousin's son -- an adorable two-year-old named Abhiram -- and he was enchanted with them too.

Next month is the big trip to Bombay and Goa with my Chicago pals, Satya and Chris, and I'm terribly excited. Since I'm dying to try the street food that Bombay is famous for, but a little nervous about the impact on my digestive system, I've been trying to gradually prepare my stomach for the trip by eating at progressively dodgier places.

On previous (shorter) visits to India, I've followed the standard advice pretty religiously -- only drink boiled or bottled water, stick to the more expensive (assumed to be cleaner) restaurants, avoid food which is uncooked, etc. But lately I've been experimenting with more of the roadside vendors and occasionally even (gasp!) drinking tap water.

One of my new favorites is fresh roasted corn. I found a reliable source just down the street. 7 rupees (about 15 cents) buys a corn cob which is roasted on hot coals right in front of you and then rubbed with fresh lime, salt, and chili powder.

The corn is cooked at such high heat that I'm sure it is perfectly safe. The fresh juices and some of the other snacks are probably a little less hygienic, but I can't resist. To be honest, for my own peace of mind, I do occasionally look away while my food is being prepared, but the taste is definitely worth it...

After a few days in Chennai, I'm back home in Bangalore again. It's good to be back. I missed my internet connection... Going back and forth between my family's native place and the cities (whether Bangalore, or Mangalore or Chennai) makes for really weird contrasts. One week ago I was staying at the house my mom grew up in, in rural Karnataka, sitting on the floor, eating dinner by faint candlelight (thanks to frequent (and often scheduled) power outages) and drinking tea made with milk from a buffalo who lives in a shed just a hundred feet away. Today I'm back in Bangalore shopping for Kellogg's corn flakes at the supermarket and signing up for seventymm, a new Indian online DVD service modeled after Netflix. Things are changing incredibly fast even in the smaller cities (example: Mangalore's new multiplex movie theatre) but in the rural areas, things look the same every time I visit. I know I'm the five millionth person to comment on this theme of the urban/rural divide in India, but it really is incredible when you actually experience it.

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Totally unrelated -- I saw this on my way home tonight and couldn't resist. She's shopping! Even the shopkeeper was cracking up, though whether at the cow or at me trying to snap the photo of the cow it's hard to say. (My last cow picture, I swear! Neha, this is for you :).

Panambur Beach, in Mangalore.

And later in the week, one of my cousins took me to Karkala to see a Jain temple built in the 15th century at the top of a hill. The temple is dominated by a large statue of Bahubali (a Jain saint) that was carved out of a single stone.
From the same hill, we had a gorgeous view of the surrounding area. Here's a shot of another Jain temple we could see in the distance. And at the base of the hill, ready to prey on tourists about to make the trek up: more monkeys!

After finishing all my family visits, I spent my last few days in Kasaragod and Mangalore relaxing and sight-seeing. On New Year's Eve, we went boating in backwaters in North Kerala at the Nalanda Resort.