Rabies, maybes, and monkey babies. Or everything rhymes in India.

We all know there are lots of animals on my campus, but lately they've gotten way more intense. I've nearly run into five different species of animals on my cycle within the last 24 hours.

These are close encounters with death, friends.

Or one of them was. Imagine a hoard of monkeys filling the entire road. When I began trying to stop and dodge the monkeys, I was upon them, swaggering my way through the crowd. Then, one monkey with a bright red butt and thirsty eyes barred its fangs and jumped straight at me.

Luckily, my earlier experience with dog attacks on cycles taught me a thing or two. So I screamed and zoomed away. Seriously, that's what you're supposed to do.

That was the most exciting one, although I did swerve through a herd of cows; good thing they move slowly. Other bicycle sightings include a sidewinder, birds, and cats. I haven't even seen cats on campus, but sure enough I swerved one with my cycle.

So, don't trust the monkeys.

Today's Meal: Riiiiiice.

Today's Deal: Getting to yoga is more and more dangerous.

Today's Reel: They'll getcha.

Some Remover of Obstacles

Recently India has become more intense in every way. Yoga has us attempting headstands; weekend trips are a given; some of my professors actually expect real school work; festivals take up every conceivable moment; and unfortunately large parts of Andhra Pradesh (and Karnataka) have flooded.

So, I've been some places. I've been to Warangal, Hampi, Ajinta, Ellora, and Arangabad.

Warangal is neat for a small town. It has a temple called the 1000 pillar temple which was carved from a single rock. The architecture is beautiful and the people there (who all thought we were Italian) blessed us for the Ganesha pooja. We also saw a fort a ways away which had an underground tunnel leading to the temple. Here's a picture of the 1000 pillar temple:


Hampi was abnormally beautiful. It seemed like everything there was carved from giant rock boulders that expanded across the entire landscape. We crossed the river by boat and spent time across from Hampi, bouldering mainly. It seems the rule of southern India is that the higher you climb a mountain, the more priests living in caves. Just an observation. One priest invited us in and explained our chakras in Hindi. Here he is:

Also, Hampi is very beautiful, like the people in this photo:

At night we were put up in some resort with a fake Rajistani village. This means four things: thali, fire dancing, mehindi, and camel rides. This also means that we had crazy-had-to-be-Japanese-because-they're-so-complex showers. It's rare to say I've been sprayed from six places at once.

Finally, Ajinta, Ellora, and Arangabad proved to be some of the most impressive, oldest places I've been. They're old caves which were hollowed out and used by Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus. Some of the caves were as old as 200 BC. They were forgotten until a British man stumbled upon them one day. Now they're part of the world heritage project. Here is a picture of my favorite:


Anyway...

Today's Meal: Thali. Lots of Thali.

Today's Deal: I have fabulous travel companions.

Today's Reel: Buffalo in front of Hampi's most famous temple.