The trip to Halebid and Belur were an eye-opener. Not so much for the beautiful temples (and they were!)… but for the amazingly terrible road conditions. This woke me up to the fact that if India had decent infrastructure (we already know electrical load is an issue – but roads weren’t so much in my visibility) that the global footprint of business in India would be exponentially increased.
Much of the time was on the road with Michelle (my energy-ball friend from work), her fiance’ Deepak (not Chopra), and her cousin’s wife (but could be a sister) Shalini. We stopped a few times before the temples – Café Coffee (one of only two places in the world good enough for tea for Michelle), a stop for breakfast break @ Maurya Hotel (complete with celebrity sighting), another stop for a “proper lunch” in Hassan (OMG – I paid. Lunch for four - bigggggg lunch: 150RMB = $3USD.) And I knew I loved this town -- middle of the town square is a statue commemorating a cow.
Once reached, the temples were truly amazing. Halebid (Hale=Old; Bid=Ruins; Halebid = "Old Ruins”) was built in 1117AD. The temple took 103 years to build and was designed in honor of the god named Vishnu. Vishnu took many forms, but only once took the form of a female – to slay a demon. The temple is named “Chenna Keshwara” – or ‘Beautiful Vishnu.’ There are 10,000 carvings around this temple – of which 92 were stolen or destroyed when the temple was attacked by Muslims. (When will these guys ever learn just to let people follow their own way?)
The second temple (Belur) was older and a little more worse-for-wear, as would be expected. Now, I’m not complaining – these temples were built prior to 1200 A.D. Last time I looked, nothing in my home country that still stands was built until at least five centuries after that!
Much of the time was on the road with Michelle (my energy-ball friend from work), her fiance’ Deepak (not Chopra), and her cousin’s wife (but could be a sister) Shalini. We stopped a few times before the temples – Café Coffee (one of only two places in the world good enough for tea for Michelle), a stop for breakfast break @ Maurya Hotel (complete with celebrity sighting), another stop for a “proper lunch” in Hassan (OMG – I paid. Lunch for four - bigggggg lunch: 150RMB = $3USD.) And I knew I loved this town -- middle of the town square is a statue commemorating a cow.
Once reached, the temples were truly amazing. Halebid (Hale=Old; Bid=Ruins; Halebid = "Old Ruins”) was built in 1117AD. The temple took 103 years to build and was designed in honor of the god named Vishnu. Vishnu took many forms, but only once took the form of a female – to slay a demon. The temple is named “Chenna Keshwara” – or ‘Beautiful Vishnu.’ There are 10,000 carvings around this temple – of which 92 were stolen or destroyed when the temple was attacked by Muslims. (When will these guys ever learn just to let people follow their own way?) 
The second temple (Belur) was older and a little more worse-for-wear, as would be expected. Now, I’m not complaining – these temples were built prior to 1200 A.D. Last time I looked, nothing in my home country that still stands was built until at least five centuries after that!
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