Over dirt roads we made it to our hotel…. The local guy who built it a few years back wrote that he wanted to keep the flavor of the lives these simple folk live rather than just build a generic 5-star hotel. It has a lot of charm.
In Mysore, every home had a chalk drawing drawn in front every week by the woman of the house…. Here (at least at the hotel) they seem to do it with flowers.
A guide met us and gave us a walking tour thru the small town. The streets are clean, with little traffic, and lots of shops – Annie was in heaven…. The one “thorn” was that the ATM machines were broken (all three of them) and no one accepted credit cards,
First we saw the one temple here… 1000 years old (no photography permitted). Then the Holy Lake…… People from all over make their pilgrimages here to visit, bathe, and pray from healthy and long lives for their families. and then it was time for retail therapy! No time to waste (pictures on Annie’s blog).
There were quite a lot of weapon shops…. not for Annie.
Towards the end Annie saw a wooden snake we liked. The salesman asked 800 $12.50) Rubees. We said 200… he played his game and we walked away… he followed us down the street. Annie kept stopping in more clothing shops and he kept pestering me to raise my price. Finally I said, “250 and balloons for your kids.” This puzzled him as much as it sent a fear in me… what if he had 20 kids?
I quickly asked, “How many kids do you have?” He said “3”.. So I took out some balloons and began figuring on the worst case I’d make him 3 balloons and then leave…. The best case, he’d accept my offer after getting the balloons for his kids. Suddenly kids were popping over (some locals, some tourists) from all over and he gestured me to take care of them first. This was becoming a wonderful chaotic madhouse for more than half an hour. I didn’t even notice that Annie took a break from her retail therapy and took pictures. Finally the salesman pulled me away from the crowd and assisted us back to the road for our driver. He smiled and said to just make him the balloon for his kids and he gave me the snake. When I finished the balloons for him he gave me a look and held out his hand…. Sometimes after negotiating the salesman has said to us “take it for free”…. Then after we take it, the salesman asks to be paid. It happened again this time… but he accepted my “final price”.
As we were getting to our car we saw a dozen camels giving rides. One of the things this town is known for is that they have a camel show once a year… 1000’s of camels come to dance, compete for prizes, and be bought and sold.
WIFI’s slow and only in the hotel lobby, so these postings today go out tomorrow.