karnataka

Hey! This week we have been touring the state of Karnataka which is a bit North of Tamil Nadu where Madurai is located. We started off tour in Mysore after a long night train. In Mysore we visited the royal palace, the bazaar and after a two hour van ride to the largest monolithic statue in India which was atop a hill 600 steps up! The vsiew was just as amazing as the much larger than life statue. Our next stop was Hopset where we are now. Were staying in the city which is about 30 minutes outside of Hampi. Hampi is a vert interesting place but also conjures up a lot of personal questions and dillemas for me. First I'd like to tell you about the city itself. hampi is an old ancient city which is mostly in ruins now. It is beautiful to go see the ruins, and magnificant as well. But what bothers me is the type of tourist it attracks. Most tourists we saw were "dirty hippies" aka European tourists with dreds who clearly did not try to understand the culttural norms of India, especially in dress. Most wore extremely revealing clothing at least by Indian terms. But I loved the environment of the city and I thought that the attractions were amazing to see. I just don't want to be seen as that kinda tourist, although pur group certainly was not because we dressed the proper Indian way. Just makes me wonder about post program travel. Today I am just resting because I don't feel 100% and we have a night train tonight, I'd like to recover before I'm on the train for a long time. I can't wait to post some pics when I get back to Madurai!