So its day 3 of our India trip,and we have done so much today!! For some reason we woke up at 4:30 to the sound of screaming cats and couldn’t get back to sleep! We had an amazing breakfast, which consisted of loads of fresh fruit, orange juice, tea and toast with butter!
We then got our stuff packed for the day in Mysore, and got onto the minibus, making our way to the NIE (National Institute of Engineering) Crest project, which was a university specializing in sustainable development and technology. We learnt all about how we can find the most eco-friendly way to use daily products, e.g Georgina tried the bicycle that when you pedaled it sprayed water all over the plants which was pretty cool! It made us think about all the ways we could be more sustainable back home.
Sustainable water pump at NIE Crest
We then jumped back onto the minibus and went to a vegetarian restaurant where we were served some North Indian Thali, which is a HUGE dish full of a variety of dips and food that we could dip our naan bread into. Everyone gave it a try! Then for desert we had a little bowl of ice cream and little bits of fruit at the bottom which topped the whole meal off.
Once we had finished we walked to the markets… what an experience that was! It was FULL of people trying to sell you all sorts of things, like fruits, bracelets and flowers. We literally had to fight our way through the crowds, it was an experience that I think no one would forget in a hurry. It all became a bit overwhelming so we left the market place and began to walk along the streets. There were people selling things on the street left, right and centre, but nowhere as busy as the markets.
We came across our first Sari shop. It was probably the smallest shop in the world piled high with all these beautifulyl coloured saris. The shop wasn’t big enough to fit us all in so we decided to take to the streets again. We found a bigger sari shop. It had even more saris than the one before! There were so many different colours to choose from, in the end we each chose a beautiful sari, Annie got a burgundy one, Jemma a coral coloured one (orange), Cecilia got a purple sari, and so did Georgina, and I got a blue one.
We took to the streets once again, walking past all the people selling a variety of amazing things and got back on to the mini bus to travel to the Palace. It was so big and beautiful, I don’t think I have ever seen such a thing! Sadly we weren’t allowed to take any photos inside the Palace, but I can tell you that it was something magical. Each pillar was skilfully painted with bright colours of gold, blue, green, yellow and red. A real royal palace!
After a trip to the big bazaar we got into the minibus for the last time for today and drove back to field base. We had a bit of time to relax and then headed to a cultural talk delivered by Theja (Raleigh’s volunteer coordinator) who told us all about life in India.
Overall we have had a jam packed day, full of new experiences that we will never forget! We may not be able to post anything tomorrow, because we are going to a rural village and we doubt it will have connection!
We will post another blog as soon as we can!
