India Awaits: Lalbagh Botanic Gardens

This week was the Lalbagh Flower Show at the Botanic gardens here in Bangalore. This show is held each year at or around Republic Day. India's republic day is on Sunday - the same as Australia Day and there are lots of festivities planned around town. A group of ladies and I ventured in to town yesterday to check out the flower show and play with our cameras a bit more. Any excuse for a fun day out with friends and lunch at a nice restaurant.

It's a fairly long drive in and we encountered a serious bus crash on the way, making our trip even longer (close to an hour and half). One major issue I have with our touristy adventures in India, is the lack of public conveniences - it is really difficult to find a toilet, let alone a decent one when you are visiting places like gardens, temples etc. So, our first stop on arrival was a dash to the nearest toilet - or should I say, hole in the ground. Unfortunately, we went on the second last day of the show and I felt the flowers were passed their prime. However, the colours and variety of flowers was beautiful. They even had a horticulture section and the beautiful lettuce and other vegetables had the 5 white ladies salivating. Oh to have decent veggies on a consistent basis…… a dream far from reality here in Bangalore.

There were many schools visiting so it was definitely not a peaceful experience to walk around. There were also a large number of security guards (see below) with their whistles and long sticks keeping things in order. As you can imagine, the crowd at a flower show are likely to get VERY out of control and cause trouble - NOT !! Within 5 minutes of entering the glasshouse where the main displays were, I had been told or heard the following:

1. Move along madam, hurry up madam - of course all people visiting a flower show are in a hurry to rush through ?? I was not allowed to take my time - I was on her clock !!
2. Don't get close to the flowers madam - I was trying to take a photo of a bee on a flower and, yes, I did get quite close but I don't think the flowers were scared of me or damaged in any way ……
3. No photos - are you kidding me ???
4. There was constant whistling and their sticks were used to move the children along - one of them even touched me once, I spun around and glared at her and it didn't happen again - how strange is that ??!!
5. And my personal favourite of the day - Do not smell the flowers !! of course you wouldn't want to smell flowers at a flower show - argh ! Sometimes this country is just too bizarre !

Even with the above, we had a lovely morning and got to take some lovely photos. These are the days when I am very grateful for all the new friends I have made and the fun adventures we go on. Without these ladies I don't think I would be doing so well here - in fact, I know I wouldn't.