Bangalore

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Having had a very disjointed night’s sleep on the train courtesy of our cabin mate the Indian lumber jack, I looked out the window, and surprise surprise saw more rubbish littering the line of the tracks. It was 6.30am and soon we would arrive in Bangalore City Junction station. It was time to mentally prepare myself for all the pleasures of the typical Indian city, the tour agents, hagglers, rickshaw drivers, all in sundry after a piece of my currency. By now I feel I have mastered the ability to be courteous and entertaining to them, yet stay firm and numb to their obvious poverty. I will never treat any person like a dog, yet I’m no Mother Teresa.
Storm and I ventured off in hunt of a internet cafe, but being so early on a Saturday morning it became a rather prolonged task. Arriving at our first internet cafe, we were informed it would open at 8.30, so we sat and waited to then to find out they were going to open at 10am instead. So off we walked, no map, no idea, but we found a sweet shop after some walking to rest our packs and eat. After finding another four closed cafes, we found our cafe. At that point we decided we didn’t need any more than 1 night here. Consulting the online lonely planet, we located nearby accommodation and after enjoying my south Indian special meal (4 course lunch) for 80RS we dropped our gear in the room with a plan to make use of the day. Off we set for a walk to see Krishnarajendra Market and the Lalbagh Botanical gardens. We returned 4 hours later not talking to each other and having seen neither of the sights we set out to see. The people, the vehicles, and the filth had taken its toll. But once back in the safety of our room and a shower, we both returned to our senses and relaxed before going out for a meal. I discovered Rava Dosa Masala, a very tasty snack, and Storm had the Paper Dosa Masala, which intrigued me from an architectural perspective.
The final of the Cricket World Cup was on this evening and India’s captain Mahendra Dhoni secured their win over Sri Lanka with a huge six down the ground. The city erupted with cheers and fireworks, large hordes of youths roamed the streets with victory chants and lit fireworks down alleyways which amplified the noise through our hotel window. For an hour I stood outside the hotel watching the revelry.

This morning we lazily woke up and went down to the ground floor restaurant for breakfast at 10am and my favoured Rava Masala Dosa. After checking out at midday we walked our packs down to the interstate bus station and placed them in left luggage. After haggling with the tuk-tuk drivers we were off to start our sight-seeing at Cubbon Park. Due to were the driver dropped us off we decided to pop into Subway and share a vege patty foot long before heading down M.G. Road. Saw my first McDonalds in india. This area was surprisingly in better condition to where we were staying, people were well dressed, high street shops and chain eateries lined the streets. We perused the local bookshops and picked up a few gems. After doing a bit of a circle around we returned to Cubbon park. Walking through it seemed a dodgey by we found a nice spot in the middle of the park where we sat and read. Lots of crows, parakeets, and squirrels bustled in the trees, and stray dogs rested everywhere. It has to be said that we’ve seen many stray dogs here, and none have growled or shown intent to be dangerous, they are very well natured and respond to attention with a wagging tail, but can show the timid signs that they have received beatings from not so friendly company. Of course we don’t touch them, probably carry all sorts of diseases.
After a brief read in the park, we started walking back to our restaurant, which had served as our focal point in Bangers. The walk took us past a dirt area where hundreds of kids were playing cricket with the same intent shown by the national team the night before in the world cup. A chissled stone acted as stumps and there was imaginery pitches running parallel every 10m along the park, and they were top and tailing too! Needless to say it was difficult to say who was playing in what game and tennis balls were flying everywhere.
We managed to kill the next few hours in the internet cafe and OUR restaurant, before collecting our packs from the station and heading off to the pickup point for our overnight bus at Anand Rao Circle, near the Ganesh Temple as it said on the ticket. In true Indian style, the bus was an hour late.

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