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Published: February 26th 2010
Bangalore! For vandana's wedding! After 4 days here finally have some internet!
When we first landed i was confused before even going through immigration. There was a bin on the toilet seat?! They didnt check my bags for the chocolate i brought but rather held up bhawan coz he looks like a famous cricketer lol!
Outside, from all those stories, i expected to be "hit by the smell", but bangalore airport is new & about half an hour or so from the city. So it was pretty much just like landing in brisbane airport!
A friend of mine from delhi was always going on about "taking calculated risks" when crossing the roads in sydney. But when i saw a man walking casually down the right hand lane of the highway i immediately thought he was full of rubbish if this is normal in india! But after a few days i realise that they all do exactly that, just to the standard & rules here! That guy was fine to be walking there coz it was the middle of the night & relatively little traffic 😊 its true that it first seems like driving mayhem. We spent the entire first day driving from sari shop to sari shop, to standup fast foods & sugar cane juice stalls. Van was suprised at how calm we were about the fact that no lanes were adhered to, not even always keeping left, & many other typical road rules we hav in australia. Pretty much i realise that although it seems like there's no rules, there are, and i just dont know them! I've seen no accidents the entire time :-) so obviously for this many people & cars this system works.
We hav a driver named Srinivas & he's so good!! Today he's taking us on a tour/adventure of bangalore! He's promised me he'll show me lots of animals coz i'm going crazy at the goats, cows, birds, rabbits, cats, & SQUIRRELS!!!
There are more dogs than anything else. But my first view of bangalore was at midnight when all thats on the streets (ok still a few people) but literally hundreds of large mangy dogs & more rubbish than i'd seen in my life. Shannon told me i'd miss recycling trucks, but this was crazy. At first bhawan was worried about me coz i went so quiet the first few days .abit of culture shock, & anyone that knows me knows i'm petrified of dogs. PETRIFIED!
After a few days you learn to ignore them. The apartment we're staying in is 3 bedroom in a secure block in a quite wealthy area with the whole of the brides family. We call her mum & dad amma & appa 😊 its funny coz that confuses shop keepers!
Our doorbell(along wit auto's reverse beeps & horns) has a different tacky jingle every time it gets pressed. My fave is one that foghorn leghorn used to sing, but i only heard it once!
For the only foreigners in the area, we've only been ripped off once, where bhawan &i went to get some groceries for amma & appa in an auto & instead of paying 20rps we paid 200rps! And then reasoned amongst ourselves that say $5 australian would be wat we'd pay for a cab ride that far in sydney lol! So vandu, the massage girls & padma chitti had a good laugh at us. It'll never happen again :-)
Dinner in indian standard time is 10pm.
Leah & karina's time to decide on a correct bridal item for vandu is about 3 seconds. When the whole family is there its about 45mins, coz all the options have to be viewed & reviewed etc etc.
Bhawan is extremely patient. Spent 4 hours strait in bhavani's jewelery store yesterday with 0 complaints 😊
Found facebook & got massages on wednesday so we were pretty much in heaven.
Speaking of heaven... Chai! Waited 2 whole days before i got some. Oh gosh! Had like 4 since :-)
Also addicted to badam milk(almond) & fresh sugar cane juice!
Shoe shopping also worth a mention. We had pretty much every young handsome attendant helping us out :-) about 3 for each pair of shoes we tried 😊
No internet cafe yet (oh i'm on wireless on my phone woohoo!) so photos later 😊
Thinking everyone should come here at least once in their life. Its amazing!
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Scott
non-member comment
LEAH!!!!
Hey, sounds awesome! And lol your fear of dogs, i remember when i took you to see jack :P Hope everything goes well, ill keep in touch!