This part of Karnataka has a high population of Jains, which means there are a lot of Jain temples and Shrines in the area. And giant statues of Jain saints, or at least there’s one. This statue and the temple in the other picture are set on two different hills so that you can see the one from the other.
These all come from a Hindu (I think? I’m mostly certain anyway.) temple in the area. The giant monkey is Hanuman and the lady on the tiger is Durga.
Soans Farm also grows a lot of different types of bamboo. In particular, they have a grove of giant bamboo of the sort that grows a couple meters a day. The best part? The grove is laid out along the floor plan of a cathedral.
Soans Farm is primarily a fruit farm and their main crops seem to be pineapple, betel nuts, and bananas, but there are a lot of other things to see there too. I saw several peacocks, though none with their tails fanned, and there is a lotus pond out front. The white lotus, I will admit, caused me a short moment of glee, even if it was an actual flower and not a game tile. The plant with the purple flowers is touch-me-not. It folds in on itself when touched so that it won’t get eaten by creatures like buffalo.
This is the family I stayed with in Karnataka. The two in the middle are Livy and Benita Soans, the man on the right is their son, the woman on the left is their daughter, the two little girls are her daughters, and I am rather awful at names. Apologies.
The Last Two Weeks
So I’ve been back in the US for just under a week now. I also spent my last two weeks in India doing things and taking all sorts of pictures. Which means I probably should have posted them by now. Oh well. It will happen over the course of the next day or so. Specifically, I spent a little over a week visiting Soans Farm near Moodabidri, Karnataka (the owner knew my grandparents). I also went to a wedding the on the 1st of December. Both of these were quite wonderful and I will post pictures over the next day or so.
