On November 12th we went to Hampi.  It took about 6 hours to get there from Bangalore.  We went to a small Hanuman temple when we got there.  Then we walked a little farther and saw a Vishnu temple but we did not go down the hill to it.  After that we went and got tea at a place looking over the river.  There were lots of mosquitoes.  Then we wandered around town for a little bit.  We saw more haoles that day than the rest of our time in India!  When it was getting dark we went to some other old temples.  Then we went home. 

The next day we went walking early in the morning.  We walked along the river to see if we could see any birds.  We saw some birds but farther up the river we saw some old temples that we wanted to explore.  We walked over there and there were three old buildings.  Two of them were temples, the other we thought was a place for pilgrims to sleep in.  After we got back to our hotel we got taken around in an auto to lots of different temples.  One of the temples was a temple to Shiva that had been flooded with water.  There was so much water you couldn't get through the front door but there was a path around the back on the temple and at the back of the temple we found a hole in the wall.  We climbed through the hole and got in the temple.  But there was only a small bit of dry floor and the rest was flooded with water also.  After that we went to some more temples. 

And then we went in a coracle across the river to get to a Hanuman temple.  To get to the Hanuman temple there were 500 steps.  The Hanuman temple had a very nice view of the river and all of the land near the hill.  After we got home from the Hanuman temple we ate at a fancier restaurant called The Mango Tree.  At Mango Tree they were lighting rockets and firecrackers and other fireworks that would be illegal in the US. 

On Monday 29 October we went to Prabanjana's (one of my class mates) birthday party.

The first thing we did was to go play cricket.  My team tied with the other team because we had to come back to the house and couldn't finish the game.

When we got to the house we got to play Wii.  Most of us played baseball.  Those who didn't play baseball on the Wii played tennis.

After Wii we ate CAKE!!!  It was chocolate with whipped cream.  YUMMY!!!!

We had lunch.  Lunch was bisibele bath (not bath like you clean yourself).  Bisibele bath is made from lentils, rice, tomato, coconut, and onion.  It is soupy because most of the lentils were ground and mixed with water. 

Then we opened presents.  I got Prabajana a leather cricket ball adn a Horrible Histories book.

Then we played a little more and went home on a bus.

These pictures are  Dasara.  We went to Mysore to see the big Dasara parade.  In the parade there were lots of different floats, animals and people doing acts.  First people came with really tall flags and flag poles.  The flag poles were made of bronze.  Two people were holding the poles with ropes and one person was holding the pole.  Then came a marching band, swordsmen (dressed up traditionally), then 7 (I think) elephants.

A little after the elephants passed, a float came with drummers following it.  About 40 floats passed.  Every one separated by an average of about 3 groups of people drumming, dancing, doing acrobatics or acting.

During the parade a reporter for Newz 24 interviewed the adults.  He asked them all sorts of questions they had a hard time answering.

At the end of the parade a group of horsemen came around.  They all had spears, except their leader who had a saber.  I think there was two groups of horsemen like the one I described.  Then after the two groups of horsemen a big elephant came carrying a solid gold litter with a solid gold statue inside (the newspaper said it weighed 750 kg).  One of the men leading the elephant lifted us over the fence to touch the elephant's tusk.