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Published: July 29th 2006
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The Only Place
Me and the guys having lunch at The Only Place. This weekend was a fun one. On Saturday I got up and went shopping on Commercial Street and MG Road with a bunch of expats. We had a driver take us to Commercial Street but we took auto rickshaws the rest of the day. We squeezed 3 people in a rickshaw to go from Commercial to MG road. The beggars were out in full force. On the streets of Brigade road a woman with a baby kept approaching us and asking for money by putting her hand out and gesturing towards her mouth. We also had to fight off street vendors that were trying to sell us wooden snakes and miniature chess sets. My buddy Marc really cracked me up by shrieking like he was scared every time a vendor put a wooden snake in his face. Brian was also funny, while negotiating a discount on an electrical appliance he asked the salesman to give him a discount if he could make Gandhi stand on his head. He spent about a minute manipulating a 100 RS note only to basically turn it upside down. The salesman was so amused at the presentation that he gave him the discount.
We ended up at The Only Place for lunch. This is a restaurant that caters to Westerners and they are the "only place" in town that sells beef burgers. I don't eat beef (or pork) so I opted for the fish and chips. It was not as good as Hand in Hand in ATL but I enjoyed it. On the way back to the apartment I was introduced to pre-paid auto rickshaws. In busy areas there is a stand with a police officer. You tell him where you want to go and he writes down the auto fare that you will pay the rickshaw driver. This is a great concept because you won't be subject to tampered meters or crooked drivers. Bill and I rode in a pre-paid auto rickshaw back to the Forum. It was quite an experience - it was the longest that I had ridden on an auto rickshaw at this point. You really get a good view of life on the streets from the auto. But you also get exposed to all the elements of the streets. There is a lot of pollution, dust, and debris. I felt filthy by the time the ride was over and my contacts were in horrible shape despite the fact that I was wearing sunglasses the entire time. I am sure glad that we have drivers and real cars to take us around most of the time!
On Saturday night Nadine and I went to a party at another expat's apartment in our same building. The party was being thrown by John and Jennifer. Josh works for the company and Jennifer is his spouse. They live in the apartment with their two little girls. It is wild because Jennifer and I grew up in the same hometown and are the same age. It is hard to believe that we lived just a couple of miles away from each other for over 10 years and we did not meet until now 9000+ miles away. What a small world! Jennifer told me that she had Lasik surgery for $700 here in Bangalore. I am giving it some serious thought - I would love to be able to see without glasses or contacts!
On Sunday around noon I took Nadine to the Forum mall and MG Road. She, just like me, was unable to get her flat iron to work here. So we went out in search of a flat iron. We stopped at Pizza Hut at the Forum mall for lunch. It was surprisingly good. They had this green spice on the table and we tried it on our pizza - it was awesome. I do not know why they do not have this stuff in the states. Overall we were really impressed with the quality of the pizza and since neither one of us eat pork we did not miss pepperoni like a lot of other expats do.
From there we walked outside to explore some of the shops behind the mall. This was Nadine's first experience with the beggars. There were several children trying to sell us cotton swabs. There is a woman lying on the side of the street with her baby. This is all very sad and upsetting but we still do not give them money. From here I took Nadine on her first auto rickshaw ride to MG road. We stayed just long enough to buy a couple of CDs and a flat iron.
I am beginning to notice how rare it is to be a Westerner in Bangalore. There is a large expat community here but the percentage of foreigners in the city is very small. The US is a melting pot and an Indian person would generally not get a second glance in an urban setting. When I visited the Forum last week I saw hundreds if not thousands of Indians and I only saw one non-Indian person. Probably the main reason why I get attention is my height - at 5'10". I am a giantess over here. I believe that my fair skin also gets a lot of attention - it is what prevents me from traveling incognito. I hear that blondes the most stares so I am glad that I let my hair color go natural about a year ago.
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