Bang-Bang-Bangalore!

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Hello Avid Readers of Nikki and Gail's JOINT blog (for those of you who thought this was Gail's first novel; we are writing this together).

Last time we left off, we were about to embark on our second Death Bus but luckily a pleasant, safe vehicle arrived to take us to Bangalore overnight in luxury. Obviously, 'luxury' means peeing by the side of the road at 4am being eaten on the ass by mosquitoes whilst watched by a load of people on other coaches. Classy.

We arrived confident in our first city and thought we'd leave the rickshaws behind and (stupidly) attempted to navigate our way through the streets to our hotel. Yes, hotel! Confidence is a must in these situations and we sauntered up to the four-star hotel looking like shit demanding to see the tariff. Gail then got a 'little' annoyed when she discovered it was 4000rupees a night not the 1500 advertised on the Internet. Not to be put off, Gail continued to raise her voice, quote hotels.com and demand a discount. Meanwhile, Nikki in hushed tones was whispering, 'Gail, we're in the wrong hotel...". Needless to say, we scuttled out and got in a rickshaw. Turned out we were just around the corner anyway, but you wouldn't know this as none of the three maps actually match the bloody streets.

After a snooze in our clean, bug free room we decided to do a reckie of Bangalore, foolishly on foot with crap map in hand. Nikki lead the way (badly) and when realised she'd got us absolutely lost managed to sulk like a three year old child or 'got a monk on' as they say in York. We eventually found Cubbon Park, which was really just a lot of dead grass and couples dating. Managed to wander to the famous MG Road - the hub of Bangalore - and literally walked round in circle, blaming the map. Basically, the day was not going well and the heat, smell and noise of the city was starting to make Gail frown too so we sought sanctuary in Amoeba, BOWLING! Yes, tourist activities are super fun. Nikki won.
Ended up home early with our first TV and ordered a bit of room service. Living the dream...

Day Two
We hired Noor-Rick-Shaw man to be our guide for the day and take us around all the major sights and landmarks such as Botanical Gardens, Maharaja's Palace, Tipu's Palace and markets. The real learning curve came when he drove us through the inner-city of Bangalore and we stopped for a cup of chai. This was a shock to the system and highlighted the huge contrast between the rich and poor. There was actually a whole family living on a traffic island and it is very humbling to realise there really isn't anything you can do.

On the flip-side, it's also hard when you start to understand how the industry works. Noor has many deals with various businesses and shops for petrol, money and things for his children. This knowledge makes it all the more difficult refusing to go in the shops. Throughout the day we visited seven shops and feigned interest in the same crappy little elephants and silk scarves... Nikki was pretty much nil-by-mouth and refusing to play the 'So where are you from, Madam?' obligatory conversations whilst Gail fully embraced the opportunity to pretend she was French, Scottish or Irish. Got into a bit of hot water when one Indian man knew a little more French than she did. Oops.

To finish the day, we ended up venturing into The Hard Rock Cafe out of exhaustion and frustration at trying to find somewhere to eat. (More on this in future blogs)Quite interesting to see how the other half live. There were actually women out without men and minus sarees. The difference between these Westenised women and those in the tows and villages is unbelievable. It's been really strange not seeing any women around, except from the market and 'women only' section on the bus. Every place, shop, bar, beach is packed with men, men, men. It makes you realise the freedom we have back home but it's difficult because we can't pass comment on a whole society as we don't know enough about it. All we do know is that it's very apparent that women are just not visible. Anyway, we enjoyed a massive beef burger and pint - good job as it cost nearly a week's budget!

Overall, Bangalore was quite a contrast to the India we have seen so far and there were tears at some of the sights and frustration. It's made us realise that we are probably ion for a shock when we head up north.

On to Mysore....

x x x

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Photos

Golf Buggy Tour
Botanical Gardens

New Henna
Done by Shrewdest Business Woman, Hampi

Comments

[Doggins]

Bangalore
I've subscribed to this blog and am keen to hear about the rest of your adventure..!! I love Bangalore, it is one of my favorite Indian cities, not that there is really that much to see... Bangalore is a good practice run before going to Delhi thats for sure, although the rickshaw drivers are a lot harder to deal with in Delhi than they are in Bangalore. I'm glad you got to do the bowling though, as I dont know of any other places in India where you can go bowling!