Day 7 - 300 km = 500 miles

Alright, so for those that know that actually conversion, this doesn't make sense. Here is how it is really calculated. We drove 300 kilometers today. We were away from the house for 15 hours. I figure that we were in the car for about 9 hours. When driving on the various roadtrips I have done, I drive an average of 60 mph on the freeway and highways. So, driving in the US for 9 hours at 60 mph = 540 miles. For the sake of argument we will round down to 500 miles. Needless to say, distance here is a completely different story. By the way, the real conversion is 1 mile = 1.609344 kilometers. The real distance was about 187 miles.

We got a late start around 9 am leaving to Badami. Subhash Uncle was able to arrange for another physician to cover the clinic for him today as he wanted to take me on a 1 day 'holiday'. I love that Bristish English is spoken here (with a strong accent) so you get lots of different ways to say things. We drove in Subhash's Ford Fiesta. Here, it is a very nice vehicle. Ishvar, the driver, Rohini Aunty, Uncle, and myself made the trip. It is right hand drive here so I squeezed into the front left seat. Driving, as always, was an adventure in and of itself.

Vehicles on the road consist of autorickshaws, compact cars, huge trucks, huge buses, small vans, scooters, motorcycles, bicicles, oxen drawn carriages, tractor pulled trailers with huge loads, and many many pedestrians. It is an intricate weavework done to avoid potholes and crumbling roads while avoiding oncoming traffic and accelerating past slower movers. I would designate most roads as one-lane while here there are 2 1/2. Drivers are very good at driving past oncoming traffic with only inches separating them. Sometimes I really want to drive here. More often, I can't wait to drive back in the US.

We visited 3 sites today, all within 35 kilometers of each other. Badami, Prattadakal, and Aihole (Ay-ho-lei). They were built between the 5th and 8th centuries. Pretty awesome.

Badami- there are four caves built into the rock. They are monolithic temples meaning built from only one rock. Very impressive when you see them. Amazing artistry and sophisticated design. We were only able to go into the first 2 caves because there was a swarm of bees attacking from the 3rd cave. Because it is a daily occurence, I would think they would exterminate them but that is not the case. The caves we saw were Hindu caves for the God Shiva. At some point I will explain my understanding of the Hindu religion. I have been learning everything I can and there is a lot more to understand. Surpising that a several thousand year old religion can't be understood in a week. I loved these cave for the sole awesomeness of knowing the work it must have taken to make it by hand and knowing that if you messed up...

Prattadakal- this is a world heritage site. There are 6 temples of varying designs here. Very intresting. The rock used to build them was from about 4 km away. There was no cement used. It was a 'dry' build. Because of their skill in metalurgy, they did use iron rods to secure principle pillar and clamps to secure several foundation stones. The whole complex was very impressive. The was one still functioning temples but the rest were no longer in use because something had broken meaning you cannot use them anymore. I have been to 6 temples now and seen a little of how Hindus worship. These buildings were very impressive. On the pillars of the temples were carvings of the Gods which told stories. Each pillar with a new story. There was a large tablet which explained that 90 kings had been coronated at this site. They would come from all over India to be crowned. The writing was in Kannada using san skrit letters. All of the temples we say today were either dedicated to Vishnu or Shiva (again, an explanation will follow at some point).

Aihole- This was an 'Architecture school'. There were 126 temples in the area. The village was living among most of the ruins. Each temple was a small scale model of a temple to be later built. We didn't spend much time here but I really found impressive the dedication they had to learning architecture and the creativity in design.

While driving home, we saw probably about 15 people defecating on the side of the road. They ranged from all ages and gender. I was surprised. Because they do not have bathrooms, they will use the fields during the day but at night, they use the side of the road. The reason for this is because they can't see what is in the field and so they find a clearing, the road. I have only seen this in the villages. However seeing men urinating even in the city next to a road is not uncommon. Although this was an unpleasing sight, and Aunty was especially apologetic for me seeing it, it was hilarious when a little girl got up and as soon as she did, they was a pig there to clear up after her. Her face was priceless. I love the funny things in life.

Oh and Santusht, I am definately LOVING my time here in Bailhongal. I could easily stay here for a year (and I am sure that will be the case with Bangalore and Delhi). I am sad that my time is already coming to a close. So, Radha 1, Santusht 0.