On the Road Again

So, long time no post.  I meant to do another post about by last week in India but I after I landed in London it just never happened.  So I'll run though what I ended up doing quickly now.

I went from Hampi to Mysore, which for a long time was the capital of it's own independent state.  The palace the rulers lived in and ruled from is an awesome building combining tradition Indian architecture (both Muslim and Hindu) while mixing in the British colonial style.  The city is also famous for it's markets and the oils and incenses they sell there.  Here's pictures of the palace, a stall in the markets where I bought some things, and a boy working behind a stall making an incense stick:

The coloured powder is even brighter in person and the Indians use it in weddings and also for the Holi festival.

From there I took a train to Bangalore and then a 24 hour train to Mumbai, totaling 36 hours of travel.  Mumbai was a totally different experience to Mysore.  Mysore is a lot smaller than Mumbai and there isn't nearly as much of a problem with overcrowding.  In Mumbai you can't help but bump into people on the street it's so packed.  The traffic is so bad it took an hour to go from the train station to the hostel I was staying in even though it was only 14 kilometers.  The first day I took the local train to Mumbai's downtown I couldn't move my arms from next to my body because the crowd was so dense.  But then once I was in the nice part of the city I could've been somewhere in Europe.  There were old colonial buildings everywhere, the roads were relatively quiet, and there were tons of nice restaurants and bars.  Even more than the rest of India, Mumbai is a place of extremes.  Here are some photos:

India was by far the most intense country I visited, but also the most rewarding.  Climbing in Hampi and traveling the South was an awesome experience.

Now I'm on the road again.  This time with my car in the US.  I'm in Austin right now staying with some friends at the University of Texas, before on Monday I drive to Hueco Tanks, a state park and climbing area outside of El Paso.  I'll be there for a month doing a lot of rock climbing and probably some hiking too.  I'll post again when I'm there.

Thanks for reading!