I took a day trip to a temple in a small village called Lepakshi, which is about 2.5 hours north of Bangalore. This place has a large Nandi statue, the largest in India made from a single rock, and a small Hindu temple. The main attraction is the Nandi statue, but the Hindu temple is also quite impressive, with its simple yet intricate decorations and the paintings on the ceiling.

Because this is more of a living temple than a historical site, there were a fair number of tourists, but it was a good short trip that allowed me to experience the local, rustic atmosphere.


In terms of scale, it's definitely not comparable to world heritage sites like Hampi, Madurai, or Thanjavur, but it's a good distance from Bangalore, and it's enjoyable and convenient.

I asked the driver to come to my house at 8 am, and we headed north on National Highway 7. After passing the airport, the number of cars decreased significantly, and we steadily approached the ruins. National Highway 7 is considered a highway here, but the quality is like a toll road in Japan. People cross the road, and cows are grazed in the grassy areas in the middle of the road. And as planned, we arrived in about 2.5 hours. We spent about an hour sightseeing, and after sightseeing, we returned to near Bangalore and had a late lunch at a restaurant along National Highway 7, just before the airport. I ate chicken curry with a few pieces of bread (um, not paratha... not chapati... what was it?). It was a little spicy, but the taste was okay. Then, we stopped at a mall on the way, and I thought about getting a foot massage at a chain called YLG that I saw online recently... but they said it was for women only. Oh well. So, I went straight home.

When I got home, it turned out that today was the first day of the Tour de France, so I added a plan to watch one more sports channel and enjoyed the first day's time trial.

Even though I didn't drive much, and I was just sitting in the back, I was surprisingly tired. You might think that it's about the same level of fatigue as when I drive on a trip in Japan. It's not clear, but maybe it's because I was using my nerves due to the honking of horns around me and sudden moments of tension. There were times when we almost hit a dog, and sometimes the lanes suddenly narrowed, causing cars to brake suddenly. Even though the driver is a professional, I felt a little tired and a decrease in judgment ability towards the end, so I realized that it's better not to push them too hard. This trip was a trial run to see how it would be, but I think I need to pay more attention to the schedule and other things when I go on a longer trip.