Back To The Source

           Family Portrait: Shiva, Parvati, Ganesh

Yes, we made it.
Air France is not British Airways. By that, I mean our trip was less trauma-filled than ever. Tom arrived on time to pick us up, and we were mostly ready. Our half hour delayed first flight daunted us not. It is true that our connecting flight departed two hours after arrival, but I found myself in a state of TravelZen. I was unhurried through the lines, un-stressed during the security gates, and unfazed when they pulled me aside to re-search and x-ray my backpack item by item. Oh, yeah. I had packed my electronic looper, sound processor, microphone, and 35 feet of coiled instrument & mic cables, as well as the supporting power supplies. THAT must have looked fun in the X-rays.
The flight was on par with BA service-wise. The male flight attendants were perkier here. They really wanted you to think they were there for you. And they were! And when they weren't, one could get up and self-serve their own dang drink at the back of the plane. BA didn't offer that. They also didn't try to drown me with wine & champagne like the French. Obligatory with every meal was the mini baguette, even if it was Indian Veg. That beat the BA beans for breakfast... 
My point was not to slam British Airways, only to say that my perspective was different. Clearly the French DON'T know everything about Arts and Entertainments, because their in-flight video selection was sub-par and hard to navigate. Die Hard and Rainman? OK, you need a little retro action/adventure/disaster movie and the feel-good Tom Cruise moment at times, but not 39,000 feet above Istanbul. That's all I'm saying.

             Roof-top solar heaters seen from our bedroom.

Shiva is awesome. I called him 3 days prior to set up a ride and a place to stay. Our 4:30am Mysore arrival coincided with the arrival of another party waiting for their second carload, and our drivers sorted it out for us outside the Ganesh Temple. We were taken to a house, unloaded our stuff for the night, then loaded back up and moved to another house. The parties got mixed-up. It didn't matter as this was just a one-night stay that cost us $12. Our other option was the Green Hotel @ $120 or so. In the morning were connected to our new landlord and top-floor pad in a quieter part of upper Gokulam. Fortunately, I was still in a state of TravelZen when began our multi-day quest to retrieve our trunks of supplies left at our last residence, register at the shala, and begin the next phase of our lives. 

aeryk