We woke early enough and I planned on heading off to the gym (a 30-minute walk) while Annie took off for her yoga class. Rather than going down to the main drag, taking a right turn and walking about 5-10 minutes … then taking another right turn and walking 15-20 minutes…. I thought I’d go diagonally and experience some streets I didn’t know yet. It wasn’t long before I was totally lost.
I kept passing lots of packs of wild dogs (they only get aggressive around dogs who aren’t part of their packs so I was okay) and cows. Some of these blocks are for upscaled middle class… some are for workers. The further I walked from the yoga center, the more downscaled the homes. If the roads were parallel and perpendicular I’d have been fine, but they seem to wind around. I needed to go south and west…. but if I went too far south before going west…. or too far west before going south I’d miss my mark. I wish I had a map of the area. I missed it.
Every once in a while I’d pass a rickshaw driver…. however the fare would be about 30 rubees (50 cents) and the only bills I had on me were 500’s…. The rickshaw drivers seem to get upset when I offer them a 100 bill…. a 500 wouldn’t work. I kept walking.
Some guy on a motor cycle stopped and smiled, saying he saw me doing balloons yesterday. I made him a balloon and asked if he could point me in the direction of the Gold’s Gym…. no… I thought of other shops around the gym – how about the Subway Sandwich shop (just like in the States)… still the answer was
“no”… the “BM” Shopping Mall…. no …. the P. Jois Yoga Shala …. no.
Stupid me… I didn’t even remember the name of the subdivision suburb of Mysore the Yoga was in. I kept walking. Finally I saw a little shop. If I’d buy something for less than 200-250 rupees they might not give me change for a 500… so I bought some tooth paste and other stuff … mostly to get some smaller change. Then I asked a rickshaw driver to take me to the Subway Sandwich shop. 30 rubees and 3 minutes later we were there. I still don’t have a clue where I was … but I was so close.
It had been over 2 hours of walking… I decided I didn’t need to go to the gym so turned around to go back. First I asked a rickshaw driver how much the trip back to the Yoga Shala would be. He said 50! I said 30! He repeated 50! (the difference is so little I probably should have just hopped in…. but my ego got in the way and I laughed and began walking. About a half hour later I made it back to the yoga area… I just had to hear the local rickshaw drivers there to know I was “home”… they were all asking me for balloon hats.
The little boy (12 years old) who pushes a wheeled fruit stand around saw me and asked for another balloon hat. Since I wouldn’t accept his 10 rupee bill yesterday (I just made him the balloon), he gave me a small pine apple today. I built a little house on his cart this time.
I met Annie later when she was almost done with her Ayurveda massage treatment and we walked back to the apartment… passing the boy with the cart again. His balloons had broken (it’s summery warm here) so I made him a balloon outfit and we took off.
Tomorrow I’ll go to the gym the way I know…I won’t take any short cuts.
