Bheemili

Monday we went on a trip to Bheemili. The first thing that we went to see was the 2000-year-old ruins of a Buddhist monastery.


I thought the ruins were kind of boring until we went behind the ruined buildings over the rise in the hill. Now I know what those Buddhist monks were doing when they were up here pretending to reach nirvana.


Swimming!


Yup, three ancient Buddhist swimming pools were hidden behind the normal boring ruins.


Why Buddhist monks would spend their free time carving more swimming pools out of the giant rock behind their cells, I don't know.


Somebody obviously liked to swim in private, so he made his own.


After we'd finished with the monastery, we went to see a Dutch cemetery. The gate was unexpectedly locked, so we sat around for a while waiting for the key. Becky and I were sitting on a bench overlooking the beach when a cow wandered by and took a liking to me. He looked at me, decided I was okay, and began to rub his head against me over and over. Um, thanks, Cow. Incidentally, I'd heard vaguely about cows wandering around the streets in India before I came, and I seem to have always heard that in connection with Indians worshiping cows; i.e. they don't kill them so they just wander around freely. That's not exactly the way it goes. All of the cows and buffaloes are owned by someone, they're just let out to pasture in the city. They go home when they need to be milked. K.P. told me that a cow can earn a poor family enough to survive on. Anyway, back to the cow with me, that was about the time Krishnayya decided to give up and just look over the fence at the cemetery, so we did.


We actually went in later that day and got to see it. Many of the graves are nearly three hundred years old, and some are within the past few years. One of them is open and empty.

After that we went to a Hindu temple. At least we all went up the hundreds of stairs to get there, but I don't think many of us actually went in. We all went past it on the stairs that go up beyond the temple and end on a look out point. There was a pretty good view up there.


There was also a crazy ancient staircase not attached to anything at the bottom and not leading to anything at the top.


Some of us climbed it.


Not me, though. I stuck with the safe stairs. Aren't you proud of me, Mom?