17,858 miles flown + 41 hours 40 min. flight time = Experience of a lifetime

What a trip! Getting to India is not easy. Including layovers we spent about 27 straight hours just in travel time to Bangalore. One way. And they are 9.5 hours ahead of us.
I'm not sure where to start. We arrived in Bangalore a little after midnight. We got through customs and met our driver outside the airport. (Scott's company paid for our driver. If you're not from India, you don't drive in India. It's CRAZY how they drive! Having a driver is very common there.) It was about a 45 minute drive to our hotel. We took showers and went to bed.
The next morning our driver took us to Scott's office so Scott could get some things done. Then we went shopping at a place called Commercial Street. Lots of vendors and stores. We were able to get some pashminas (like a shawl) and some gifts.
The next day was Friday and we left to go to a place called Kabini. It's a 4 hour drive from Bangalore and set in a rain forest. We stayed at Cicada Resort and Spa. (will do a separate post for this).
On the way back to Bangalore on Sunday we stopped in a major city called Mysore. We drove to the top of a mountain to a temple. We saw monkeys along the way and great views of Mysore from the moutainside. You have to pay to see the temple and then pay again if you want to go inside. There are TONS of vendors on the walk to and around the temple. Monkeys were climbing on the statues on the temple. This is when I started to notice the staring. People in India stare at you if you're not dark skinned. Now I expected some of this, but it was a lot worse than I thought. They stop and stare. A lot. And if they have a camera they'll take pictures of you. Or video. And they'll follow you. And the vendors beg you to buy their stuff. And they'll follow you, too. Made me really uncomfortable. I told Scott to start taking pictures of those who were taking our pictures. Left there and went to another temple called Mysore Palace. You have to pay to get in to this one, too. We didn't. Again, tons of vendors and the staring. These vendors were the worst ones we dealt with. They, too, will follow you. When we stopped to take pictures, they swarmed around us. When we were leaving we had to go find our driver. We had about 10 vendors following us into the parking lot. We got in the car and it was a bit of a wait to leave b/c of the traffic. These vendors stood at our car and would not leave us alone. They kept hounding us to buy their stuff. Honestly, I don't know how celebrities do it. The vendors reminded me of paparrazi. Then back to Bangalore to enjoy the Indian holiday, Diwali, also known as the festival of lights.

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