Sunday 27, January - 11:00 PM

Oh thank you, Lord Vishnu and all of your ten incarnations!!

I have landed in Bagalkot with an awesome family -- the president of the Rotary club here!!

Tonight's presentation went very well. The crowd had a good sense of humor and we had some great food. It was actually the first real meal I'd had all day. We left Bijapur around 10:00 AM and made some stops and saw some ruins.


Temple carved into a rock.



I don't know why it is but I am not super-interested in seeing all the historical sites and temples. I'm kind of that way with museums too. Yeah, I get it - it's all old and amazing that they carved these big, impressive buildings out of rocks and stuff. Cool. Neat-o. Can we go somewhere else now?


"Oh goodie... more temples."

I thought this was pretty funny. At the sites, they charge foreigners 25 times more admission than citizens:



At least I did get to see some monkeys today. They were really funny and cute! One went after this guy who was carrying a bag full of fruit. The guy screamed like a little girl and ran away, dropping his bag (which the monkey ran off with.) I'll take monkeys over monuments any day.


Consider yourself warned.


Monkeys!!


"I love you, Monkey!"

On the way to Bagalkot tonight, we stopped off at this little farm which was way off the beaten path. We turned down this desolate road into a place which turned out to be the herbal garden of a holistic medicine man. The sun had already gone down so it was pretty dark and we couldn't see too much, but this skinny guy in an orange turban took us all around his yard, naming the herbs and trees, and telling us what each one was used for.



I asked him if they had something that cures cancer and he said practicing yoga and eating a raw diet will heal the body of just about everything - including cancer. I found that interesting and wonder how difficult it is to eat a raw diet.


Possible cure for gout?

I also wonder if I will be able to continue being vegetarian when I get home. I suppose I will miss chicken, turkey and fish to an extent. It's definitely easier to be veg here because they make such a great variety of food and you never even miss meat. Maybe I can learn how to cook some Indian food while I'm here. I've definitely felt better - cleaner - since I've been eating veg. I think I'll fold and put away my wet laundry... which hopefully is dry now.