bangalore

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so we wanted to try to avoid shopping malls today, with varying degrees of success....

we first walked to a big park, which also has some of the museums, we had a bit of fun in the science museum playing with the exhibits meant for kids.

then we took an autorickshaw to 'electronic city' home of all the big IT companies, india's scilicon valley. i am sure it was all very impressive but there was so much security we couldn't see into any of the fancy corporate campuses! i suppose it would've been a bit like stockley park if we could've got in! we then walked around the botanical gardens, which are very big and have some very interesting trees.

as we left the gardens and were debating whether to walk or get a rickshaw somewhere else, the skies started to darken and big black clouds rolled over. it had rained a bit last night, and that was only the second rain the whole time in india so far. it rained once a little bit in the night at apk, and then last night. but we could tell it was coming again, big time.

i have to say, i don't want to be horrible, but so far banaglore has the least friendly rickshaw drivers. as they could see it was gonna rain, they all instantly tripled their prices. normally, we haggle and negotiate a price before getting into a rickshaw, but in bangalore, it is actually illegal for them to do this and they have to use the meter. the driver insisted he wanted 150 rupees for a trip we knew should only be about 20rupees on the meter. we understand we will often pay more then indians, but it was ridiculous, and then all the other drivers stuck up for this one miserable one by refusing to take us! it was fine, as we simply walked round the corner and found another who took us for 30rupees, but that is the first time we have any problems, normally it is a friendly negotiation.

anyway, the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down! there was thunder and lightening which is still going on actually. we found a really cheap restuarant populated only by indians (always a good sign) and had a lovely meal (puris) for 50 rupees each. then we were stuck. the road outside was literally a river, people were taking off thier shoes and wading through to cross the road.

we stood around under the shelter of the restaurant for a while and there was quite a sense of camaraderie with everyone else who was not willing to brave the rapids. it was showing no signs at all of abating so we gave in, hailed a rickshaw, and went to the mall..... :-( we really didn't want to, but we didn't want to go back tp the hotel yet and it really was impossible to move around. we then treated ourselves to a coffee in the fancy coffee shop which cost about 100 rupees each, double the cost of lunch! crazy.

anyway, it's only just stopped chucking it down as i write, but there is still some impressive thunder and lightening. the power is constantly on and off in the hotel room but the interent place must have a generator as it is okay so far (fingers crossed).

tomorrow we are off to mysore. it's only a couple of hours on the train so no big mission. not sure how long we will be staying there, after that we plan on Ooty (yes really, it is real place) and then onto Kerala, eventually.....

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