This past weekend, Leave UR Mark went on an excursion outside of the city. Volunteers travel and explore areas outside of Bangalore in order to experience everything India has to offer. They took a day trip to Indian temples dating back to the 12th century. We rented a taxi for the day and set out for a 4 hour ride to explore architecture, ruins, and temples. We also were ready to take a break from the city and explore India’s vast cultural heritage. Our first stop was in Belur that was the early capital of the Hoysala empire. The interns gasped when we stopped at the Chennakeshava temple which has incredibly intricate carvings. On one of the temples, there are 200 elephants carved into stone–and no two elephants are alike! The pure dedication and art forms were enough to make several interns exclaim that they had never seen a temple so beautiful before.
Volunteers on the hill of one of the Jain temples
To get to the top of the hill, we had to climb our way up the hill with beautiful sweeping views of the Indian countryside.
We took a few rest breaks along the way.
The interns got into a dancing/yoga mood after seeing the dancers carved into the temples. Here they are attempting their versions of Indian dance and yoga!
Volunteers dancing!
We ate at a family style restaurant in the kitchen of a wonderful and caring family. We returned around 11 PM at night and felt refreshed after breathing in fresh air on the hills, seeing amazing history, and making beautiful memories with other international volunteers and interns.
To learn more about how volunteers travel and what you can do while on a volunteer abroad program in India with Leave UR Mark, contact us at info@leaveurmark.com
I am working in India as a volunteer and it is a country with a diverse culture and one of the oldest histories in the world, India has a lot to offer to voluntourists. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that India can have a life changing impact on its visitors.