It's been a couple of weeks and I've been slack about posting new pics. I left India for a week, but now I'm back. Before I left for the US, I took a trip to a nearby city called Mysore. Mysore was the former capital of the state called Karnataka where I am now located in the city of Bangalore. We traveled to Mysore to visit a large palace where one of the former kings lived. However, on the way to Mysore, we also visited several small dam/waterfalls on the Cauvery River. Here's a picture of me at one of the dams (**remember that you can click on the pictures for a larger view):
This dam/waterfall is one of several on the Cauvery River. We had to take an off-road trip beside the river for about a mile or two to get to this falls. It was a popular site since several families had come to visit the falls and play in the water.
We also visited another falls that was at a small park with picnic tables and a few small businesses that cooked and served fish from the river. Here's a picture of the other falls:
There were many Indians there swimming and playing in the river and the falls. There were also several guys there taking people on rides in home made wooden boats. These round wooden boats had been tarred on the bottom so that the water would not leak in. Here's a look at a few of them moored up along the side of the river:
My friends Naveen and Lokesh convinced me to take a ride in one of the boats. I was reluctant at first, but I'm glad they talked me into it. It was a great ride. Here's a pic that the driver took of us in the boat out in the middle of the river:
The driver's name was Swami. He could handle that boat very well and he could paddle at a very fast pace. He even said that he could take us on a ride over the falls with the boat if we wanted. He said he could even do it without getting us wet (the falls were only about a 6-8 foot drop). However, I was afraid to try that with my camera on board. Here's a picture of Swami paddling the boat:
Swami took us right to the edge of the falls, but he kept the boat from going over. As you can see in the following picture, there were many people swimming in the river and playing on the falls:
