04/04/2010

Mahatma Gandhi Road (or simply M. G. Road, as it’s known) is supposed to be a rather famous shopping street here in Bangalore. Really, having talked to several people here at the hotel and asking them the same questions: “What is there to DO in Bangalore? What should I SEE while I’m here?” I seemed to inevitably get the same answers…


• “Errr… nothing, actually”

• “Mysore! However it’s a 3 hour drive to get there and you’ll be disappointed…”

• “Hang out by the pool!”

And the like. Apparently, Bangalore has no real temples to speak of, or history (per se) to explore, or cultural tidbits worth investigating. Not really sure how a city manages to stick around so long and remain so uninspired, but then again, there is the whole poverty thing, I suppose. I’m told Bangalore is just where businesses are popping up… it’s Delhi and Mumbai and those types of places that one wants to go to really SEE India.

M. G. road, however, was at least something to do that didn’t consist of sitting around the hotel. So, off Annie and I went. Having taken one of the 3 wheeled taxis herself the day before and become fond of one of the taxi drivers, we decided to use him again. Apparently they are quite cheap (they’ll tell you it costs about 20 rupee per hour- about 45- cents, although, of course, you pay him more).

So off we went around Bangalore in a mechanical, 3 wheeled, rickshaw! It was quite the adventure, actually, although (yet again, much like London) you quickly realize why most vehicles in America are NOT diesel… ack! Breathing becomes so difficult so quickly! And of course, in that tiny little contraption that felt a bit more like a child’s toy car rather than an actual means of transportation, the way people drove in India was enough to take your breath away regardless at times.

Ah well. It was certainly fun!

In the shops, an annoyance of a different sort took over. Your eyes couldn’t rest on anything for long without a shop attendant immediately picking that object up and handing it to you, telling you about it in detail and wanting to haggle the price out with you. I absolutely abhor that type of thing, as (of course) it never gives me a chance to think. So I ended up buying only 1 thing (these cool puppets). Annoying, really, as I would like to buy some things for people, but the haggling and the shopping quickly became too much.

The fun thing, however, was that we found out (regardless of whether we actually bought anything or not) if we went to 3 stores, our taxi driver got a free shirt. If we went to 6, he got a free shirt AND a free pair of pants. So, as he were becoming fond of him, off we went to 6 shops. Woot!

He then took us on to Bangalore Palace, at his suggestion, which was nice. Here, you were supposed to pay one fee to enter, and another, rather exorbitant price to take pictures. Thinking that was ridiculous, I only paid the price to enter. This turned out to be the wise choice, as our guide (as soon as we were pass the evil looking ticket man), told me to take as many photos as I wished and even offered to take photos of me several times. Wise man as this ensured a good tip for him at the end =).

The Palace itself was nice, although not well preserved, so it and everything within could be seen to deteriorate right before your eyes. Many things were made of elephant (stools and wall art), and these things were in extremely poor condition as it was obvious no effort had been made to keep the leather of the skin supple.

C’est la vie. It was interesting…

Afterwards, we drove by the Bangalore Parliament building, an impressive building all its own (though, of course, nothing compared to the Budapest Parliament) and decided, finally, to make a day of it.

Amazing, really, how just a few hours out in the heat can exhaust you so. I came back to the hotel and crashed hard for 3 hours. I woke up to find we had dinner plans with the ladies again here at the hotel. Quite festive, we laughed and drank wine… I discovered Anki was a fan of Jonna Lee (Woot!)… the hotel kept playing what I swore was an Indian version of the theme to Charlie’s Angels (I swear! I SOOOO wish my phone had been working so I could have Shazamed it! Damn India and it’s lack of connectivity!) and, finally, I went off to bed…

Only to get very, very sick…