Detailed review by koshkha
koshkha
Northampton, United Kingdom95%
If you had asked me what there was to see in Bangalore before we actually went there, then I would have struggled to tell you the main attractions with the exception of the Lal Bagh gardens and its famous greenhouse. Based on my very very basic knowledge of Hindi, I think Lal Bagh means 'red gardens' but I could well be wrong. What I did know was that it ranked near the top of the city's 'must see' list.
Sunday afternoon was a good time to go since it seemed that the whole of the city was out in force to take a stroll in the city's biggest park. Unlike many attractions, this is one where being a tourist doesn't come at a high price and entrance was just 10 rupees. Lal Bagh is a massive public park that covers 240 acres. There's no way you could see it all without spending at least half a day there, possibly more. Unfortunately we arrived late in the afternoon and knew we wouldn't have time to do more than scratch the surface.
The park was set up in 1740 by local heroes Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan and together they gathered tropical and sub-tropical plants. Their collection was supplemented in the 1870s by the British Garden's Superintendent, John Cameron, who imported plants all the way from Kew Gardens. Cameron also commissioned the building of the famous glass house which wouldn't look out of place in Kew itself and was based on the Crystal Palace in London. In a real spirit of British gentility he planned that it should be used for horticultural shows and these continue to this day.
We weren't too sure whether the gardens would be a bit too kitsch when the thing we came across after entering was a rather poor flower clock that reminded me of seaside visits to Weston-Super-Mare, one of England's kitschest towns. It wasn't particularly well done and the presence of all seven of Snow White's dwarves (we couldn't see the lady herself but she must have been there) was an unexplained addition. We giggled rather too much.
Other things that will make you do a double-take and question whether this is Bangalore or Basingstoke are the Rose Gardens and a pretty little bandstand that wouldn't look out of place in any traditional English municipal park. We passed this on the way to the greenhouse and on our return at the end of our visit, a local folk band were setting up to play in the early evening.
The greenhouse exceeded all my expectations and was bigger, fancier and more all-round awesome than I could ever have imagined. It's a truly magnificent construction all the more remarkable for being so totally unnecessary in the tropical climate of India. To avoid everything getting totally over-heated, the glass only starts at about a height of 10 feet so that fresh air is almost sucked through the building. I'd love to be there for the flower show since I've seen photographs and it looks absolutely incredible.
Lal Bagh is also home to one of the oldest specimen rock formations in the world the Peninsular Gneiss which dates back roughly 3 billion years yes, billion, not million. As a geologist by education, I had to have a good look at that and like all the other tourist we clambered across this National Geological Monument like a bunch of over-excited ants. In the middle of the outcrop we found one of the so-called Kempe Gowda towers which were set out in the 16th Century to mark the boundaries of what the city's founder Kempe Gowda imagined to be the likely greatest extent of the city. He couldn't possibly have imagined that his ambition for the city covered only a tiny proportion of 21st century Bangalore.
Passing rose gardens, cactus gardens and a lotus pond we became aware that the light was fading so we rushed towards to lake to watch the sunset. It was a bit of a crazy thing to do because we'd left out hotel many hours before with a plan to just stroll around some shops and now found ourselves at twilight with no mosquito repellent hanging out by a lake it wasn't clever and we were likely to get eaten a live so we had to take care not to stay too long. After grabbing a few photographs and swatting away lots of bugs, we headed back through the park to return to our driver and head back to the B&B with a long and busy day behind us.
Lalbagh Garden9
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