This is a continuation of a post that I kind of started way back in 2011. There’s not much to that post – just a picture list, all of which are duplicated here, I think. It was before I migrated the site to use a true gallery plugin, so I’m reposting a number of the pictures here. As it turns out, I’m also in the process of posting a picture each day and some of these pictures have enough story to go with them that they’ve gotten their own write-ups and I’ve delayed this post just enough to get the individual pictures out there first.
We had a day available before the meetings and took a little tour over to the Bangalore Botanical Gardens. The first half of the pictures came from there. I don’t remember a lot of what our guide said beyond the descriptions on some of the pictures. As a second part of the tour we went to the Bangalore Palace – an old ‘castle’ kept up for tourist visits. After the palace we went to one more ‘attraction’ which was actually a rug shop (apparently Indian rugs are especially special) but they were all absurdly expensive.
After our three days of meeting, we had an overnight safari type tour out into the more rural areas of India. It was about a 4-hour bus ride out there, if I recall correctly. We did an evening animal viewing tour and got to see a few animals in the wild. From the comments of the guy who arranged the tour, he didn’t think we saw much. Might have been the case, but I was happy just to have a chance to see the some of the country we spent 24+ hours getting to and from.
I don’t have any good pictures from the ride out – but it was interesting to see the more rural areas of India. Interesting things we saw: random cows grazing on the streets in towns; expanses of trash accumulated in low-lying areas; lots of coconut farms;
The view off one side of our hotel.
I’m not sure the significance of this, but I thought made a cool picture. A walkway just outside the Chinese gate.
Just some pretty flowers growing on a tree… Not a tourist attraction
Capturing the nice tree canopy. You can see the glass house in the distance
The biggest mango tree in the garden. Mangos are delicious, BTW.
I don’t recall the Indian name, but we would call this an Umbrella Tree for it’s wide canopy.
This was the first attraction of the gardens — a giant slab of granite.
On our way out, the crows were putting up a fuss. Apparently it’s because one of the parks many dogs had taken one down… who knew dogs could do that.
The Chinese Gate - not that I understand why there's a Chinese Gate in the Botanical Garden in India...
Bangalore Palace
Bangalore Palace
Ballroom
Maharajas like hunting elephants. This one was mounted just inside the entry way of the palace. They apparently don't like cleaning bird poop off the elephant's head.
You can’t really tell from the picture, but that’s a sizable stool. This was one of many pieces of ornamental furniture made with animal parts.
I think this was the most impressive chandelier in the palace.
Bangalore Palace
Half way around the world, you can still get your McD's fix. Not sure what the menu was like, we never went in.
A couple of the monkeys lounging on the rooftop outside the hotel
Coconut Stand
Coconut Stand
Coconut, chopped and ready to drink
One of the many coconut farms en route to the jungle tour
Our accommodation in the jungle
Cows do not care that you want to drive down the road
These monkeys were running around the grounds of the place where we stayed.
These were the work elephants of the nature preserve and you might be able to tell by the chains around their legs
One of the monkeys we saw on our tour
Another of the monkeys we saw on our tour
Peacocks are apparently native to India - we saw several of them on the tour.
Some variety of deer or elk that we saw on the tour
A second peacock
This was the only wild elephant we saw - it was getting pretty dark at this point so pictures were getting blurry.
This guy found his way into the shower in the Bungalow.
A pair of oxen - this variety of cow was quite common.
Termite Mound
Just a random picture of some farmers in their field, but I really like this one.
I think this is the best of the many shots I took of this guy.
I think this is a Hallikar Ox
Just some flowers we came across on our walk, don't know anything in particular about them.
This was the standard beer in India
