Diwali lamps for sale
Diwali is one of the most important holidays here in India. Like most holidays it seems to celebrate multiple things depending on where and who you are, but in general, it is the start of the Hindu new year and known as the Festival of Lights. Lights are sold everywhere, from little clay dishes for lighting homemade oil lamps to rice paper lanterns to twinkly lights on a strand to the bright pop of fireworks; everywhere. It's also a festival of giving and (although no where near the consumer insanity of Christmas in the US) it's a big shopping time.
Mantri Greens lights as seen from our lanai
We chose to spend the first day of the 3 main Diwali days here in Bangalore then took advantage of the time the boys had off school to travel north to some historical sites that Tim has been wanting to see ever since we arrived. And then we took the long way home along the Karnataka coast so that we could all get a much-needed ocean fix before returning to the city. It was very cool to see more of this state. Most of our travels (either for pleasure (e.g., Glen's visit) or for my work) have taken us south towards Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Much of Karnataka is north of Bangalore and it was great to get to see the differences between that part of the state and the south. I would have liked to have been able to travel to the far-north cities of Bijapur and Bidar but we'll need a longer vacation for those!
For our vacation we went
From Bangalore | To Hampi |
From Hampi to Badami | And from Badami to Om Beach and back to Bangalore |