Bangalore Vol II

Wednesday, Nov 4th

I can’t believe I’ve already been in Bengalore for 2 days! Time goes by so fast in a big city like this! Telling of what I’ve seen so far I really like it here. The city is superbusy, loud and polluted, but still has its very own charm. At some places there is now way you’d think you were in India, if there weren’t so many Indians on the street. It could as well be any other big city in the world. Ok, maybe I’m just very spoiled, cause I’m being shown around by a local ☺ Thank you Adrian!!! I really liked one sentence in the lonely planet that said “You don’t come top Bengalore for its sights; you come here to eat (and drink and shop).” That’s exactly how it is, and it feels great!

Today I finally got to see and taste the promised 20-layer-chocolate cake. It really had 20 layers, I counted! It was tremendously yummy, but even sharing a slice, Adrian and I couldn’t finish it. Except for that we didn’t really do much, I bought a new Mp3 Player, since my old one (even though it wasn’t old at all) broke down completely. At night I was invited for dinner at Adrian’s parents, which was awesome. It was the first time I was actually in a private home in India and it didn’t really differ from any home in Germany at all. Now I’m back in the hotel and I’m going to sleep now!

Good night!


Thursday, Nov 5th

What a morning! I don’t know why, but for some reason I slept pretty bad last night and woke up at 7:30h. But since I had planned to change hotels anyways, I didn’t really mind. Cause yesterday there was an incident that made me doubt the common sense of India. Ok, so Adrian and I just wanted to stop at my hotel to get something from my room. I got my keys from the reception and we were gonna go upstairs when the owner told Adrian that he wasn’t allowed in my room and to wait in the lobby “for safety reasons”. Adrian offered to show his passport, but the man didn’t even want to see it and he still had to wait downstairs. This is in the late afternoon, not at night! The owner actually said to him “Well, if you were white, I wouldn’t mind you going upstairs, but since you’re Indian, you can’t.” HELLO???!!! I mean this is the 21st century! How racist is that??? I’d have had no problem, if no boys were been allowed in my room in general, but this was like: Sorry, you can’t go, your skin’s dark. Hell, I got so f***ing mad. There was no way, I was gonna stay at that place any longer.
Now I’m actually staying in a really central and decent place that’s only 20 INR more per night. Just had breakfast here. Very Indian, had the choice between Marsala Dosa (lentil pancake stuffed with spicy chutney and potatoes) or Idly (fermented rice patties). It was very yummy! I might actually nap a little while now, to catch up some of the missing sleep from last night. Plus, tonight we’re gonna head out, so I need to be fit!

Hugs!!!


Monday, Nov 9th

Tonight I’m leaving Bangalore. Originally, I was gonna leave last Thursday, but I had so much fun here with Adrian and his friends that I just decided to stay longer. I can’t even say that Bangalore’s a city that has lots of sights or things to do, but if you know people here, it’s totally different. Pretty much all we did was eating, drinking, partying and sleeping: not very healthy, but so much fun. Oh, I forgot: There is also awesome shopping and we went playing pool twice - all the workout had during the last week ☺ Hell, I’ve been lazy. And I’ve had so much awesome food here.

Speaking of which: The first impression I gave you on Indian food, wasn’t the most representative one, since by that time, I mostly had Ashram food. When Amy and I left the Ashram, we pretty much ordered random thing, without really knowing what we were gonna get. Amy had a slight advantage, though, being from England, where you’ll find Indian restaurants everywhere. Two general advices, just in case you come here, one day: Don’t come here, when you’re diabetic, or else, you’re gonna get killed by the enormous amounts of sugar, Indians put into the most random things. I kinda got used to ordering EVERYTHING without sugar, just in case ☺ Secondly, don’t come here, if you don’t like deep fried stuff or spiciness. If you like sweets, oily things and chilly, you’re gonna love the food. I do, anyways. Last night, Adrain and I shared a DBC - guess what that stands for: Death by Chocolate - it was soooo yummy!!!!

What’s Bangalore like? It’s generally very western and modern. You can get any kinda food, any kinda brand name clothing, any kinda music when you wanna go out. But then stuff happens like at that hotel (it actually happened at the second hotel, too, so sadly it seems to be common to practice racism against locals, here) which reminds you, you’re still in India. Also, again on some streets or places you’ll only find Indian men. I mean, I’m pretty much used to being stared at by now, feeling like a Flamingo at pretty much every place I’m at, but sometimes it’d weird. There are definitely advantages to being a flamingo, but sometimes, I’d very much like to be able to fade in as everyone else does. Here, it wasn’t a problem, cause I was always with a group of locals, but some places, I really wouldn’t have entered by myself.

I’m sad to leave and at the same time I know I have to, cause there is so much left that I wanna see and quite honestly, I can’t afford this kinda lifestyle that much longer. I’m going to a place called Ernakulum from here, which is in Kerala at the coast. I’m very excited to be back at the beach gain, soon. Right now I’m not too sure if I’m gonna do the silent meditation here or in Australia itself. I really want to do it here, but on the other hand I can do the same thing 60 km outside of Melbourne and that would give me 11 more days to travel. I think depending on the people I’m about to meet in Kerala, it’s gonna be a spontaneous decision. The train tonight takes a little more than 12 hours to get to . Pretty much a set time to get anywhere. Getting around in India’s cheap, but takes forever and a day. For example the bus from Kochi to Munnar, where I’m heading in a couple of days takes five hours for 130 km.

Wow, I’ve written quite a lot for today…More, when I’m in Kerala!

Hugs

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