Walking the Coffee Plantation

After visiting so many palaces, temples and cities, we had a welcome respite and spent a morning walking around a coffee plantation and farm in Madikeri.

A worker picking pepper from a tree:

A cotton tree and a pod up-close:

A flowering coffee plant:

Our guide, Joy, enjoying the walk and taking pictures:

A lychee tree:

One of the dry rice fields on the plantation:

The Mysore Palace - By Day and Night

Once a week, the Mysore Palace is lit up with thousands of white lights and thousands of people come to watch the magic happen from the main square.  It was absolutely beautiful!  We came back the next day to tour inside as well and it did not disappoint...

Favorite Videos of India - Part 2

Some of the buildings in The Vitthala Temple:

The Mysore Palace, which is lit up only once a week and we happened to catch it:

Worshippers at a temple playing traditional instruments:

Favorite Videos of India - Part 1

A "pop-up" parade in Delhi:

The Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar:

A wedding procession we happened upon in the street:

One of the courtyards of the Bundi Palace:

Exploring Hampi - Part 2

More of Hampi, including several different temples and the exquisite stone sculptures inside:

The Ranga Temple:

The old marketplace of the Vitthala Temple:

Structures within the Vitthala Temple complex:

Exploring Hampi - Part 1

We spent several days in the wonderful little area of Hampi, India, surrounded by rice fields and ancient ruins.  It was peaceful at night, with our first real signs of green fields, birds chirping and expansive trees.  (There was still lots of trash and naughty monkeys chasing us, but it was a little bit of nature at least!)

The view from our "hotel" restaurant:

An elephant getting a bath:

My roommate, Mira, and I hiking around:

 

Books!

A great novel about Albert Einstein's first wife, who was a brilliant mathematician and physicist in her own right, breaking barriers and forging her way in the late 1800's.

                                                    

This book is set in Myanmar and India and tells the tale of several families during and after WWII.  A fascinating read while traveling through these countries to get some historical background...

The six-generation family story behind Jim Beam Kentucky bourbon whiskey interwoven with a solid dose of historical events in America from the mid-1700's until present day.