Chamandi Temple. Another famous Hindu temple. I wasn't going to go in this one, but a guide said the inside was incredible. He lied.

He did however take me right up to the cool part, where people aren't supposed to go (next photo). Then he asked for 500 rupees for orphans without arms or legs, and another 200 rupees for himself. Later, he also added 200 rupees for the guys that watched my shoes. But he didn't start asking for this until after I had my shoes back.

He gave me some stuff and then had me give the stuff to the dude in the temple. Turns out, the dude is a priest, and for that packet of powder and 100 rupees (same I gave at the other temple) he blessed me. Only I didn't know what it was.

You can see, if you look at the full-size version of this photo, a red dot on my forhead. It's a powder. That's the blessing, and you aren't supposed to wash it off, its supposed to just go away by itself. As long as it lasts, you are blessed. (I think.)

Only nobody told me this. So I wiped it off after I got out of the temple. The annoying student stopped trying to sell me the 800th set of photos of inside I'd been offered of everything and asked seriously "You don't like the blessing?"

I didn't know.

The monkeys are sacred or something too. I was going to try to photograph some, but they all mysteriously cleared out when the guide started asking for cash. So I retook this instead.

The 7 doorways are significant somehow. I didn't really get how, since the guild didn't speak enough english to explain it to me so I could understand.

Again, fantastic detail. But by now, this is the 4th place I'd been to that day with this kind of detail, and it was starting to all blend together. Later at work the following week, two of the Brits said the same thing to me too, making me feel good that it wasn't just me.

A giant bull. They kept trying to sell me temple offerings here, but I was done with that shit. The driver was waiting engine running, and I was glad I could say that. I snapped this shot and got out.

Next stop was a bird santuary in a park by a lake. I saw the lake, though declined to rent a paddle boat for 30 mins and go out on it. I never did find the damn bird sanctuary. Or the butterflies that were supposed to be here too.

In the park by the lake with the missing bird sanctuary. Sometimes, you take the damnest photos for no reason you can articulate.

This kind of thing was all over, and I approve. Brightly colored flowers and petals arranged floating on water in a bowl like this or even just what looked like a fancy baking pan. This one was outside my hotel, but they were all over, anywhere guests were expected.

Another one of those "sometimes you take the damnest shots" photos.

The two big sandwiches for Micky Dee's in India: the McChicken and the McVeggie. I never went into a McDonalds, so I don't know what else they had, though they also advertised fries. I wonder if they cooked them in shortening (lard) like they do here in the states?

Parked directly out in front of the hotel, this Rolls Royce was there as a decoration. It never moved, and I kept forgetting to ask if it even could. They'd even gone to the trouble to make all the hubcaps have the double-Rs upright.

The effect of sophisticated, upper-class, snobbery was ruined by the missing hubcap, in my humble opinion. They could at the very least take one off the other side and replace the one facing the door of the hotel.

One of the airlines that will take you to Bangalore is Lufthansa, which will make you stop in Frankfurt, Germany, on the way. There is joke in international road-warrior circles that if Jesus ever comes back to lead Christains to the promissed land, he'll have to change planes in Frankfurt.

Anyway, on the flight back, the plane wasn't going to be boarding again for a while, so we didn't get to park at a gate. They wheel out steps, you walk down, board a bus, and ride to the terminal. I actually walked down steps at the back of the plane (I was in coach on the segment out of Bangalore) so I didn't actually have to walk in front of the engines. Would have been cool though.

This kind of thing is actually pretty common internationally.