November 21st: Halebid

Bye bye Bangalore, maybe if I come back to India I'll visit your night life.

Off on a bus to Hassan, which is a huge Jain (Religion) city. On the way, we stop at Halebid where there is a large temple with a billion steps. No exaggeration. A BILLION.

Come at me stairs under scorching Indian sun.

Dascha and Franzi

Kelsey, Anais and Sabrina

This is a large Jain Deity of sorts...

Dat view.

I haven't gone on about me so much, just where I've been, but today I was pushed to my limits a bit.

I've told you all about the invasive stares that make me feel so uncomfortable. It's different and worse when I'm around white people. White skin is admired, desired and shocking to many Indians. The entire tour, people have stopped and gawked at my friends. (Not me, because I look "normal" to them.) Not only are these people, my friends are have fair skin different and admired, the girls are hypersexualized. I mean - in India, showing above your knees means you're "asking for it", and in Canada girls wear shorts that are shorter than their underwear. I can see where Indians are coming from.

ANYWAY. Staring is the minimum. Other things include, following, comments in Hindi/Tamil/Telugu that we can't understand, being approached, and the one the annoys me, and hurts me so much is the pictures. People will whip out their cell phones and take a picture of my friends (And I). Are my friends animals? "Look guys! I saw a white person today!" I imagine them saying. Does the colour of their skin really matter that much?

Today a group of seven guys followed us a little bit and - you guessed it- took pictures. I told them off, and was only made fun of. I'm a sensitive soul and it stung. It's a small incident, but that sense of helplessness stays with me for some time.

...I feel bad going on about my feelings. Here's a picture as a symbol of my apology.

Taking a break on the steps

Anais, Kelsey, Me, Sebastian, Jordan, Chris, Brii, Nikolas