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Published: July 29th 2013
On Sunday morning, I had to wake up at 4 am to finish packing and take a shower and checkout. This time, since I was just flying to Bangalore to meet the group, I packed a bunch of extra stuff that was previously in my carry on into my larger bag. I was nervous it would be too heavy. My driver was early which was a relief! It was still dark out and the drive was quite peaceful. There were no other cars on the road. An occasional truck here and there, but nothing else on the road - very different to see. The driver made good time to the airport. Upon arrival, I had to check in through ‘foreign’ lines. It was sort of nice b/c there weren’t many foreigners. I was then able to get my Boarding pass and according to the airline’s scale my bag was still underweight! Again, at security checkpoint, I was put through to the foreigner lane. I found my gate right away and went to get coffee. When I returned to the gate, they started boarding early.
The flight was pretty empty. I was seated in the emergency exit row which was nice
because I was able to stretch out more. A man from a few rows back moved up and sat on the aisle seat – leaving the middle seat open. We talked and I found out that he was an architect. He is the lead architect who works for Bacardi – designed all the Bacardi lounges located in international airports. The breakfast on the flight was one of the best I had on this trip to date. After breakfast, I took a nap and when I woke up I was in Bangalore.
My first impression of Bangalore was that the airport was one of the nicest I have ever been in. The baggage was sent to the claim right away. I walked out the door and found my driver right away. I had two people – a driver and a navigator. The first thing I noticed was my driver had an extra thumb; I did my best not to stare. Both of the guys were fairly young, early 20’s, but they were very helpful and talkative. The car had some jasmine in it and it is absolutely fragrant. Lots of jasmine garlands and what hot. I noticed a lot of
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Jasmine in the marketplace
Catholic influences. And it turned out the owner of their company was Catholic.
As we were driving into the city they were telling me all about it. About how Bangalore used to be so lovely with lots of gardens, but urban sprawl has set in. Another thing we discussed were weddings, given mine is just around the corner. The navigator’s sister recently got married and because of their class and caste it was a four day event with around 1200 people. They also talked about the jasmine can be found everywhere. Jasmine is very fragrant flower and Indians will twine it into garland. At the beginning of a marriage, a husband will often bring jasmine for his wife to wear in her hair. Some other things they showed me were where the gardens used to be and some of the good places to shop – not that I would get there, but it was nice of them. Finally, we arrived at the hotel. The traffic was heavy and congested by American standards, but was fairly light compared to New Delhi.
When I arrived at the hotel, I had to go through security, and checked in. The
service was really impressive – they didn’t let me lift a finger. My room was 305 and I was rooming with the other female in the program. In order to get to our room, we had to put our room key in the reader on the lift - which would only let me go to the third floor. My roommate had arrived with the rest of the group around 2 am in in the morning, so she was already in the room. We were all getting ready to meet our driver and guide and to explore the city. We had our lunch at the hotel before we left.
When it was time to go, we all shuffled on to the coach bus which had been provided to us as a part of our program in India. We met our guide – Pradeep, our driver – Edward, and then we also had a navigator. Pradeep had a colorful personality and was full of historical knowledge, linguistic knowledge, religious knowledge, etc. Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens, which were originally set up by the British. It was nice having the guide because then all the beggars left us alone. The
walk through the gardens was delightful. We saw a lot of different vegetation and beautiful flowers.
We got on the bus, and drove to another part of the city. There we walked through a little marketplace with lots of colors from the fruit stands and the flower stands. Everything was very bright and colorful.
We came to another park and then were led to a Bull Temple. It was very interesting to see, but even though the guide explained the significance of it, I still didn’t understand much of the significance. After we left the temple, we stumbled upon some street vendors. Some of the people were brave enough to try to drink the coconut milk. I decided to get some earrings and a little souvenir for a friend. Our next stop was at the remains of a palace that stood in the city. We did some more sightseeing from the bus – definitely could see all the massive amounts of humanity 😉 ! After a few hours we were headed back to our hotel. Our dinner was just down the road from our hotel. It was a traditional style Indian restaurant. LOTS of good food and good
wine. It was a nice kick start to our residency. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for the week. It was nice to have a shower.
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