Day 1 - We made it!
Ricky Bellinger, 12 August 2013, 23:30
Our charter bus arrived at the hotel around 6 a.m., and most of us headed back to bed for a few hours to try and get acclimated to the Indian time zone. We did not meet as a group for lunch until 12:30, So we all took the opportunity to work out, swim in the pool, and check out the amazing hotel. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to walk around outside the hotel because a large political protest with over 100,000 participants was taking place in the streets.
After having a delicious Indian buffet we loaded back up on the bus and headed to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Next to the temple was an enormous “temple pool”. People bathe in the pool to cleanse their body, before they enter the temple to cleanse their minds. The temple was seven stories tall because the number seven was designated the lucky number for temples by the royal families in ancient times. The temple was intricately covered with sculptures of Hindu gods. The Hindu religion values everything from earth, wind, water and fire to exotic animals, flowers, and starts, adding to an estimated 330 million gods.
After we left the temple we walked through a nearby park into the market place. The market was packed with shops selling jewelry, handbags, shoes, car
and scooter parts, and vendors selling fresh fruit. Jewelry stores are common in India because gold is extremely popular due to its stability in relation to their currency, the Rupee, which is declining in value to the US Dollar, causing economic stress. A man selling drums took a real affinity to Mark and followed him around for the majority of the time in the market. Needless to say, he didn’t listen when Mark told him to “beat it”.
We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant called Villa Maya. The building was a conserved infrastructure from over 150 years ago. The outdoor portion of the restaurant was composed of what looked like large stone stepping stones surrounded by water. Even the bathrooms were located on the water with nothing but slabs of rock as the floor to keep you dry. This added a whole new element to keeping your clothes dry in the restroom. We had a delicious buffet style dinner filled of fish, chicken, and all kinds of curries, but Chris was not a fan of the dessert—I think he would still prefer brownies.
After dinner we loaded the bus to head back to the hotel. Everyone was fading fast, but when we drove by a dance performance on the side of the road, we took the opportunity to go watch the show. Finally, we made it back to the hotel around 9:00pm and had a quick wrap up meeting then headed for bed.
Tomorrow we will be meeting with Asian School of Business (ASB) and Sree Chitra. With all the excitement it may be difficult to sleep, but we have the jet lag to help us fix that.
Until tomorrow,
The SELF Class of 2014
