On Saturday Adam and I decided to SLEEP in and enjoy a leisurely morning at the hotel, but unfortunately our bodies woke up early anyway so the day got started way earlier than we intended. Adam also had invited a young man from another company to come and interview with him that morning so he left for that while I finished up getting ready. I joined the two of them towards the end of breakfast though and was once again asked for a picture with the young business man. If you ever want to feel like a movie star, go to India! People there seriously love foreigners!
That morning we needed to run a few errands and so our driver took us around looking for laundry mats. We couldn’t find a laundry mat but found a place that did dry cleaning and we were able to convince the place to stay open a little longer to fit our dirty clothes in. We were in desperate need of clean underwear so we were very grateful that the man agreed to to do business with us. It was a little more expensive than usual ($20 for probably 2 loads of laundry) but we were just grateful to find a place open and willing to work a few more hours on a Saturday. It was definitely a tender mercy. While Adam and our driver negotiated with the gentleman at the laundry mat though, I took a moment to take a few pictures.
An older man resting on the side of the street
A random temple (which you see EVERYWHERE in India). And a very typical site of garbage off the side of the road. India’s garbage system is very different than what we are used to in America and often you will see areas of the city that are just chuck full of garbage. This is usually where you can see the cows grazing as well.
Three ladies sitting by their little shop selling bananas in typical Indian attire.
I was kind of in love with all the little school kids and their adorable uniforms. Here is a little girl in her blue uniform with her mother and siblings. All the girls wear their hair in braids like this. So cute!
Looking down a typical street. Which reminds me about another common occurance in India…the Dogs. There are wild dogs all over the city which during the day are mostly completely harmless but at night become like a pack of wolves and very territorial. You often hear in India not to be out on the streets after dark (which is about 6 pm) and that is one of the reasons why. For some reasons once night comes the dogs think they own the whole town and can get very aggressive. For the most part, dogs are not owned as pets, but just roam wild around the city.
After running our few errands – we had our driver take us back to the Leela Palace so Adam could see it for himself. I was also glad to go back because I really only got to see a small area of the palace and was excited to see more. Once again it did not disappoint! We loaved roaming the grounds and feeling the majesty of it all. Such an amazing place chuck full of incredible architecture! But I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…:)
Copying the statue by pretending to play my invisible flute.
The palace even had its own waterfalls and garden. So pretty!
Adam couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a little bouldering – even if it was on fake rocks…
We were a little surprised to walk into one of the doors of the palace and realize we were now in a shopping mall!
Even the ceilings were so ornate and detailed.
I loved all the decorative furniture through-out the palace as well. I think someday I need to own a couch like this! 🙂
We loved exploring the palace (for free too) and getting a glimpse at one of Bangalores most beautiful buildings. At one time the palace had a 7 star hotel rating and was the best place to stay in the city.