Saturday Evening

Well our time in Bangalore is coming to a close. We are ready to go, and make our way back home. We miss all of you guys and especially Ethan and Katie-Rae a lot. We can't wait for Macy to meet all of you. As I walked in the hotel lobby just now I heard the Muslim call to prayer being played over a loud speaker from a distance away. What an ere and sad sound. India is home to a large and growing number of Muslims. Of course, Hinduism is the primary religion here (or way of life as I have been told.) We took a LONG drive today and saw so many Buddhist temples. They are all over this city, as well as the cows they consider to be sacred roaming the streets and eating the trash. I sure could use a big steak right now Sally :)

Today has been great with Macy. She is so fun and such a joy. We started her on an antibiotic that we took with us for her congestion. Please pray that her chest will clear up. She has a really deep cough and you can tell it hurts. When she is sleeping she is often awakened by the cough. She is sleeping right now as I type. Thankfully Jeni has packed everything she could possibly need. If our bags get checked we may get in trouble for trafficking drugs :)

Today we decided to get out of our room for a little while this afternoon and go to a national park here that has a zoo and some other attractions. Big Mistake. The travel book said the park was only 22km away (13 miles or so...I'm learning my metric system) but it took over an hour to get there. The traffic here is insane! I thought we were never going to get there. Jeni wasn't in the best of moods because she was worried about how Macy was doing. We didn't have the A/C on and so it was HOT and polluted. I'm told there are 100,000 rickshaws (imagine a supped-up golf cart) in this city alone and they have done a number on the air quality. Not to mention all the trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles.

We parked in this field and had no idea where to go or even what to do when we arrived. We saw these two giant elephants giving people rides, but other than that we were in this big open field without a clue. We found some people who spoke good English (most people here speak a little English) We found out that the zoo trip was another ride on a safari and Jeni didn't want to put Macy thru more traveling and heat. I wanted to see some tigers, but Jeni trumped my ambition. I did get to see a camel in the street pulling a cart, and Jeni saw some monkeys playing on the side of the road, so the trip wasn't a total loss. So after an hour plus ride, we walked around for a minute at the park (if you want to call it that) and went back to our taxi. He thought we were crazy I'm sure, but we told him to take us back to our hotel.

On the way back I did ask about the air conditioner and he told me it was an extra 100 rupees. After initially declining, I told him to turn it on. I should have got him down to 50 but didn't. Oh well, his expensive air cost him his tip :) By the time we got back to the hotel we were sick of India traffic and driving. It was just too much today. All the honking, starting, stopping, speed bumps, pollution, near collisions, and heat were too much (especially with a baby). We had a great stay in Bangalore, but are looking forward to finishing up this part of our trip and heading to Delhi tomorrow. We got what we came for :)!!

We do have a small problem though tonight. We looked at Macy's plane ticket to Delhi tomorrow and it is wrong. Our travel agent had her on the flight from Delhil to Bangalore, not vice versa. I don't think it's a big deal, she just sits on our lap anyway, but it is something we have to fix either tonight or in the morning. The problem of course is that it is Saturday there and our travel agent probably is not working. Oh well, we will figure it out. We aint leaving here without here!

Next update will probably be from Delhi. Root on the Cats for me! I heard about Atlanta. Two games shouldn't be a problem with all their depth ;)