Monday, 1997-06-16          Trip Report #7

I'm mostly recovered from the GI problems, I think.  I should know
for sure by tomorrow.

I had mentioned the problem to the concierge on Friday, when I came
back to the hotel at noon.

Later that afternoon, the butler knocked on the door, and gave me
two get well cards and a small tray of chocolate candies.  The cards
were from the butler, and from the concierge.

Saturday was mostly a day of rest, sticking close to the hotel.  I did
get out to do a little shopping, however.  I bought 3 silk shirts
for about $19 each.

On Sunday morning, I finally gave in to the hotel's suggestion to call the
"hotel doctor".  He came to my room at 12:30 PM.  700 rupees
later, he left with the advice to "avoid spicy foods".  I'm thinking ...
yeah, right ... this is *INDIA* ... even the water's spicy!  

After the doctor's visit, I took a taxi to Lal Bagh, the
large botanical garden in Bangalore.  Not particularly colorful. 
The "glass house" I'd read about turned out to be a wall-less, empty
glass roofed area. 



The Sweden Syndrome struck again.  [On almost every trip, no matter
how remote, I'll run into someone from Sweden ... it even happened
on the island of Yap, where there were maybe 30 tourists on the entire
island!]  I was walking in the garden, and ran into the only non-Indian
I saw there all day ... he's Swedish.

On Sunday late-afternoon, I went out with a local friend.  His car
is one of those 50-ish models ... he said it was built (in India) in 1984.
Imagine a Mercury from 1955, and you've pictured it.  We went to the
newly built temple for International Consciousness for Krishna (?),
a gigantic building, with a thousand or so people milling around in & out.
We all had to take off our shoes & socks, and check them in at the 
shoe booth, prior to entering the temple.  No photographs were allowed
inside.  Inside, the main altar had 3 sections, each with a pair of
gold (or gold plated?) statues of Krishna, in various avatars.



We left, and went to a local crafts festival ... where I bought some 
nice Bidri ware.  (A black metal, variously called "gun metal" and zinc,
with cleverly inlaid silver.)

While arriving at the festival, I was in the first auto accident of the trip
(the only one, so far).  A scooter rammed into the driver's side of the
car.  No harm, no foul, but lots of excited rapid-Indian/English shouting
for a minute or two.

Later, we went to the Westin hotel (aka "The Taj") for dinner.  It turns
out we went there because we'd been talking about hotels, and my friend
said "eat Westin food?", and I thought he'd said "eat Western food?".

We sat at an outdoor table, and I noted that I hadn't seen any indication
of mosquitoes on the trip so far, which was good, because I'd forgotten
to put on repellent today.  Little did I know.  This morning,
I found 3 bites ... *all* where clothing was covering me (e.g., shoulder,
thigh, back) ... so repellant wouldn't have helped anyway.   Hmmm ... this
doesn't feel like mosquitoes to me ... fleas perhaps?  I'll ask around a
bit.

I've got a list of things for the next report, but I've left it at
the hotel ... till tomorrow, then.

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