Travelling in style in Bengga-loray?! (cute Italian accent)

This weekend my mom, Adam, and I decided to spend Sunday morning at Lalbagh, which is the most well known botanical garden in Bangalore. They have a huge lake that you can walk around and see tons of birds, animals, flowers, and trees. We saw a variety of birds catching fish,some beautiful trees that were completely in bloom, and more (BTW, February is when most of the trees are supposed to be in full-bloom so be prepared for a new post in about a month). On the way back, we decided to stop by the nursery that pretty much sells all varieties of plants that you might ever want for your garden. Since my parents recently moved to an apartment, we thought it would be nice to get a few plants. However, if you have walked through this nursery, you know that temptation lies every way you look. We bought four bougainvilleas which are flowering plants and of colors that ranged from fuchsia to sunset orange. Other additions included two varieties of jasmine, a beetle leaf creeper, herbs, and a special variety of night-flowering jasmine locally called parijatha. This is also a flowering plant with the white petals on a bright orange stem, and it smells just as amazing as it looks! We also bought some empty pots, and we finally planted an herb garden in our balcony! Hopefully we’ll be eating a bunch of fresh homemade pesto soon ;)

Okay back to the story....being so enamoured with our selection, we failed to think about how we would even take them back given that we had taken an auto-rickshaw to get there. My mom is ever the optimist and was sure we’d find a way. Luckily for us, the local women who worked in the nursery were extremely enterprising and figured out all the logistics. Not only did they replant all our selections, they also helped us find a tempo (which is sorta like a cargo auto) to take the plants home. This was all arranged within half an hour and it was definitely well worth the tip! Adam and I decided that instead of travelling back in a regular auto while my mom went along with the plants and the driver, we would ride in the back of our rented open-air auto with all the plants. Now this sorta ride is typical for day labourers or people who live in villages whose only mode of transportation is to pile onto a cargo-auto like sardines in a box, but definitely not the norm for people that “look” like us. Needless to say it was very amusing to watch people’s reactions of us sitting in the back as we cruised through the city. We got many stares, smiles and waves...and a good back massage especially over the speed bumps. It felt like we were sitting on a massage chair where everything just vibrates in a not-so-comfortable way. Adam took the chance at attempting to sing some Hindustani music which needs lots of note elongations...like Gopa-la-ah-ah-aha-aha-aha :). All in all it was a great experience, and here are some pictures of our Sunday randomness.