IX – Lalbagh

Lalbagh is a big park and botanical garden in Bangalore. The place where I am staying right now (Jayanagar) is really close to this park, so Lex and me decided to take a trip there.

Before you enter the park you have to pay an entrance fee of 10 Rupees per person, which is about 12 cents. Super cheap for us and many middle class Indians but too much for all the lower class people. I am pretty sure that the entrance fee is not only intended to keep the garden nice, but also to keep the poor people out. Unsurprisingly, the garden is really nice, very well maintained, pretty clean, and full of middle to upper class people showing off their nicest clothes.

The upper class showing off their pretty daughters and dresses.

Recycling Indian style: Metal spikes are not enough, these walls are armed with glass shards. 

Something that did in fact surprise me was the curiosity of a lot of people. The park was not very crowded, not very many people were there but Lex and me were still asked multiple times to have our picture taken with our new acquaintances. It was very surprising to see the joy in the people’s faces when we agreed to having our picture taken and it felt good to be welcomed that way. I just wish it was not for our hair and skin color.

Although Lalbagh is one of the cleanest places in Bangalore that I have seen so far, you can still find garbage lying around among the beautiful trees, bushes and plants, on plain rocks, and sadly, in the park lake. But I did not let this fact distract me from enjoying a little bit of silence and peace, diving into the atmosphere of an Indian jungle and trying to imagine what the city must look like if there were places like Lalbagh, more respect for nature and less respect for capitalist growth and building blocks.

Lex trying to win the trust of one of the many groups of dogs at Lalbagh.

Lots of beautiful trees at Lalbagh!

Real wild pelicans!

Entrance to the nursery

Inside the nursery: One 30 centimeter coconut palm for about 3 Euros (200 Rupees)

This former greenhouse is now a showroom for special occasions.

The above mentioned Silk Cotton Tree :) Just look at how tiny the people look next to it.



Do not urinate - ever, again!

VIII – Trekking weekend

My first time actually trekking in India! It felt so good just getting out of the noisy, dusty, busy city into the fresh, moist, quiet Indian wild. It felt so good to just reconnect with nature and seeing only very few persons after being constantly surrounded by people. It was even worth getting up at 4.30 in the morning.

My favorite part of this trip and the reason I came was that it just took two hours to get to the location, one hour to KR market, from where we caught another bus for another hour. I got picked up at KR market, which was really helpful, the bus drivers screaming in Kannada were a little intimidating, even more so at 6 am.

The location of the camp was secret in order to prevent people from simply going there on their own without taking any precautions to conserve the environment and support the local community. Next to a lot of fun activities we also cleaned up some garbage, made sure to get all of our additional food and water from the local store in the village nearby and to be respectful of the local farmers and herders.

After arriving at our camping spot we set the tent together, had sandwiches for breakfast, which made me extremely happy, and started setting up a little “kitchen” with a stove, a sink, and benches, as well as a “bathroom”, which basically consisted of a hole in the ground. The “sink” was one of my favorite parts: We first dug a hole in the ground that was designated for only waste water from washing our hands or rinsing the dishes. Then we built a table construction out of sticks over the hole. It took us quite a while to finish building our little house but after everything was ready we quickly made a great meal out of the vegetables that we brought and the fresh fish that we bought from the local fishermen.

The "sink" we built out of sticks over a hole in the ground.

 

Fresh fish...

 

... and yummy vegetables is all it takes to make me happy after a long day of hiking and trekking.

At night came the mandatory part of every trekking and camping trip: a campfire. Although I already knew quite a bit about making and sustaining a fire I could learn a few more things, such as the importance of setting aside lots and lots of dry firewood in the right size. It is pretty impressive how quickly the wood burns down and how fast the fire devours meters and kilos of wood.

Camp leaders Karan and Lex the campfire.

 

I really felt like this trek was not only developing my own skills and supporting my mental health, but it also contributed toward the health of the local ecosystem and community. And I also had the chance to take lots of pictures J Enjoy!

 

This caterpillar built a cocoon out of sticks.

 

Trek leader Lex with our gear.

 

 

 

 

Another insect that built its house out of wood pieces.

 

 

There were lots of dragonflies at camp. Beautiful!

 

Among millions of dragonflies  I found this particular beauty: it has black wings that almost look like velvet.

 

 

Fearless leaders: Karan and Lex

 

 

A spider nest or house

 

 

One of the butterflies was particularly interested in the tea bag from our green tea. 

 

 

 

 

Two predatory birds watching out for fish.

 

 

 

 

The obligatory panorama picture :)

 

 

 

VII – Taking the bus in Bangalore

As I live about 5km away from the place I work at I usually take the bus there and back. When you take the bus in Bangalore you have three options: A/C, non-A/C and private. As you can probably imagine, the A/C bus is the most expensive. It costs about twice as much as the non-A/C bus. What you get is air conditioning, which is especially nice on hot days. And due to their price the A/C buses are much less crowded. Considering that it takes the bus an entire hour to make the five kilometers I take the A/C bus every day. You might call me a spoiled, wimpy western girl but I am telling you: It’s worth it not having to stand crammed into a bus with far too many people, not being able to see anything, much less move.

Also, strangely, there are many more A/C buses running than non-A/C buses, although a lot of people cannot afford paying extra for the bus. I guess you could call this capitalism at its finest…

As for the private buses: They are not run by an official entity, they are colorful, they do not have air conditioning and their whole business is centered around cramming as many people as possible into their old vehicles, offering them a fare that is cheaper by about 5 Euro-cents per ride. I have taken a private bus once and decided that my safety is well worth ten cents per day. 

Two private buses parked at a bus stand. The left one is a “Rolls Royce” ;)

The private buses are very colorful, nicely decorated, there is cheerful Bollywood music playing and sometimes they even show movies. The drivers are crazy, there are no safety precautions. 

VI – Being sick in India

Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later… I got sick. Real sick. Not just a common cold or the flu, the worst thing is that I do not even really know what got me. Or how, or when I got it. There are approximately a bazillion opportunities where I could have caught it.  

Sorry for the drama, guys but I never ever get sick. I have travelled through Europe and USA, eaten street food in Moldova, even fell down a manhole there but I have never ever been as sick as here in India. Even when I fell down a 15 meter cliff in Germany was I not as scared for my life as I was for the last week.

I really do not want to whine to you guys or explain all of the uninteresting and unpleasant details but I do want to let you know some of my insights into what to do and what to avoid when you are sick in India.

First of all, everyone is going to give you advice. Serious, heart-felt advice from people that care about you. It might me that I am just a spoiled wimpy western girl when it comes to being sick. But I am entirely sure that it will not lower a fever if you just get up and go about your day as if everything was fine or drink the juice of green papaya leaves. Luckily, there are also real doctors in India.

And here is my second piece of advice if you ever have to see a doctor in India: Take someone with you who can stand up for you or at least make careful notes on a piece of paper, so that you do not forget to ask anything. Because you literally do not get any time at the doctor for careful consideration of your options. After being briefly asked for symptoms, there were no further questions about symptoms or my medical history. The physical examination consisted of a very quick blood pressure and body temperature measurement, as well as a 30 second manual scanning of my belly.

One minute later I had a prescription for 4 different pills, my mind, which had already been in a desolate state, whirling, the nurse rushing me out of the room and the next patient in. The fact that he, too came back out after three minutes made me a feel a little better. At least I did not get an extra short special foreigner treatment. So, here is a note to myself: Next time you have to go to the doctor in India and are unable to think, get yourself a friend or a paper that can do the thinking for you.

Oh, and another thing. Indian doctors are not necessarily cheap. Just for registration and one consultation I had to pay about 10€, which is about half the price for a consultation at a German doctor. It is, of course, entirely possible, that I went to one of the more expensive doctors. But at least I paid the regular price, not a rip-off price for foreigners.

Luckily, the place was pretty busy, so I think I avoided paying a big foreigner premium.

On the bright side: Medication is really cheap here. I got 15 pills of paracetamol for about 70 cents, the more fancy and more specific medication was only slightly more expensive.

After this really rough week I hope to be able to share some more positive news next time :)