June 14-16, 2012
Stupid puns aside, we were excited to get to Bangalore to visit with Sandesh, a co-worker and friend of Skip's, to make new friends, eat more delicious food, play Ultimate (!), and get some advice about what to do with the rest of our 2 weeks in India. We had no idea to what extent these things, and more, would materialize.
Sandesh Kadur is an accomplished wildlife documentary maker and author and Selah met him while filming a documentary about sea turtles in Mexico (and has since worked with him in India on a film about King Cobras). His female friend Priya (a wildlife biologist) and his sister Sangeetha (a wildlife artist) showed us an awesome time. They housed us, fed us, and kept us entertained with stories of man eating leopards and other unbelievable Indian wildlife adventures and facts. We had a great 3 days, despite having the black lung, and with their help devised an awesome travel plan for our last two weeks.
The first night we stayed up until 2:00 a.m. talking, eating, and drinking Kingfisher. The second night, we hit the town to one of Sandesh's haunts, the legendary local watering hole Koshy's. We kept ordering 3 beers, but our waiter kept bringing us 4 and a plate of smiley's. We had no idea what was going on, until 5 plates of smiley's later we realized there was a "Buy 3 Kingfishers, get one free, plus a plate of smileys" promotion!
Selah, Sandesh, and me at Koshy's. I had to alternate Kingfisher with tea since I was still fighting tuberculosis. Being melodramatic, but this cough was pretty nasty.
An awesome coincidence: Sandesh's sister Sangheetha plays Ultimate (the scene has blown up in the past few years)! Skip had met her on a previous trip to Bangalore, so she hooked us up with a local pick up game. They played at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday because that was the only time they could get the field when the cricket players weren't on it. Hard core!
Sangheetha is awesome. She's an artist, Ultimate player, and climber. She took us to a climbing competition/exhibit that was happening inside an outdoor store that her friend just opened up, called Feet Off Ground. It was fun meeting some like minded outdoorsy people, since we hadn't experienced much of that scene yet.
Sangheetha then took us to the Bangalore Museum of Modern Art for the opening of an exhibit by an Indian artist named Ramkinkar Baij. Known especially for his sculptures, I really dug his watercolors. Before hand, there was an incredible performance, both inspirational and haunting, by the woman above. She played a one string instrument with her right hand, beat a drum around her waist with her left hand, and sang (and at times screamed) these painfully soulful Bengali folk tunes and stories.
Skip had to leave a couple days later, so we decided to try and go out with a bang and head to a local national park and safari resort recommended by Sandesh and friends to try and catch some wildlife...to Kabini Lake!
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