Counts and palaces

Fieldbase is homey; we know fieldbase inside and out. Why? – Because we counted and listed every single thing visible. It’s inventory time! Especially our Logs guys Reggie and Rhys and our Medics Cate and Izi can be found buried under mountains of high-visibility vests, tents, wound dressings, and pills. All equipment to go with the projects needs to be prepared and these guys make sure, that there will be enough well-working and up-to-date stuff available for everyone.
 

However, it’s not all work and no play. Grocery shopping, re-stocking, and meetings with pharmacists and print specialists also gave us the chance to spend some time in Mysore. The town of 983,000 inhabitants is only a half an hour drive away from our fieldbase. Strolling through streets and lively markets, zipping Chai and coconut water, we had the chance to stock up on all the necessary and very very unnecessary things we forgot at home, such as flutes, scents, and multicoloured face paints. Some of us even received “surprise-blessings” by accidentally walking into a temple. Important lessons learnt: The art of refusing offers and crossing lively streets like a boss.

Mysore is home to Amba Vilas Palace, one of India’s most famous monuments, which is surrounded by a large garden. The palace complex also includes twelve Hindu temples, dating from the 14th century until 1953. In the evening, we had the chance to witness the spectacular illumination ceremony (we are talking about ca. 100000 light bulbs here...), accompanied by surprisingly Viennese-style music.

And food of course! FOOD! Mysore has a range of great restaurants and we are not only becoming experts in Indian cuisine, but also increasingly aware of the fact that eating needs some counterbalancing. And that’s why we put trekking and swimming on our menu for today. We’ll be back with stories and photos about us sporting it up.

Count this!

And count that!

Probably the most colourful country in the world.

Mysore Palace by night with Izi, Petr, Rhys, Simon, Reggie, Christiane, Sam, Cate and Joseph

And here one of the rare pictures that show our photographer Bob.

 
True story: Mysore was rated the second cleanest city in India in 2010 and the cleanest in Karnataka State.