Welcome to Bangalore!

  Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Monday, April 6, 2009

SO, we are about 36 hours into Bangalore and are now settled and stable enough to comment on our experiences thus far.

After my meeting in London (which was nice and successful), the holiday began. We sat in the park - Lincoln's Inn Fields - had some beers and dinner at La Tasca with a tasty 50% off food voucher, then made our way, uneventfully, to Heathrow on the tube.

Mike on the underground

There was much hilarity when we asked for the best route to walk out of Heathrow to get to our hotel in nearby when the guy solemnly informed us 'No-one walks out of Heathrow' (insert comedy Monty-Pythonesque 'ALLLLIIIIVEEE' here). So we got the Heathrow free bus (huzzah) and finally found our way to The Unit. Easyhotel Heathrow is very clean and very spartan. If you don't pay 5 quid (no pound key here!) for the remote, then you don't get no TV. So, to escape the deafening silence and slightly claustrophobic one foot of spare space around the bed we went to a local hostelry for 'a quick one'. As ever, we stayed for decidedly more than one and were made very welcome by the locals for a lock in!

And thus, after crawling home to The Unit at about two am, we roused and took a leisurely journey, via a full English, back to Heathrow to the new Terminal 5. It was an airport and slightly boring. The flight was also uneventful, some slight turbulence over the Dubai area perhaps but nothing interesting except feeding Mike full enough of paracetomol to counter his hangover.

We arrived in Bangalore International Airport at about 5.30am - an hour late due to delays in taking off - and I was immediately able to navigate to the BIAL buses into Kempagowda Bus Station for the reasonable price of 250 rupees I think for the two of us. This one the none A/C version which was cool cos it was so early in the morning, but also even in the midday heat non-A/C is fine.

Arriving at Kempagowda was as bewildering as we were expecting. I had a map of the area, but no concept of how that map related to the world we were seeing. Immediately we came across the unrivalled joy that is crossing an Indian road - everyone has right of way - just stride confidently and trust no one will hit you. They won't, they are masters of the swerve and the creation of a new lane out of a solid lane of cars. We wandered around for a couple of hours trying to get accustomed to the constant traffic noise, the press of the people, the random cows and the constant bemused stares of locals wondering why two white people with backpacks are wandering apparently aimlessly around Cottonpet at 6.30am. After a while I navigated in on the hotel I had booked and we went to have a look at the room. It was still totally crowded in this area and noisy and a bit overwhelming so even though the room was nice we decided we should probably get out of the immediate area of Bangalore central.

We were taken on board by a local auto driver who found us (because he had a deal with them!) a hotel in a slightly quieter area and it was here at the Luciya that we were finally able to lay our weary heads.

Hotel Luciya

We had a couple of hours nap in the afternoon, then ventured out onto the local street for fresh juice (8 rupees), a sample of the set dosa (20 rupees, not what we were expecting, more like the ethiopian sourdough flat bread than the crispy dosa of legend, which we later found out is the masala dosa) and some fags (happily 40 rupees for 10).

Hotel Luciya

After this exertion and feeling full after minimal food (well, there was an ice cream for me and a milkshake for Mike) we retired to the hotel to chill, have a beer (65 rupees each) and watch some TV before falling into a much needed 12 hour sleep.

This morning, much refreshed, we determined to check the local internet cafe for hostels, deciding that it was perhaps prudent to find some people who wanted to give us local information and perhaps see where the backpackers hang out. We were also gonna go the Government Museum, but that didn't happen. Maybe another day.

We found the information we needed and had an enjoyable breakfast of coffee, tea, boiled eggs and toast (65 rupees for the two of us) and embarked on the local non A/C bus (see sharp intake of breath once again at the idea of Westerners getting a non-A/C bus) to JP Nagar to seek out a well reviewed hostel. We took a short auto ride at the end of the bus route and found our way to the blissfully quiet, tree shaded streets of JP Nagar, Phase 3, to the welcoming arms of the Mass Residency.

Mass Residency

Here we were welcomed by smiling faces and fresh coffees, good conversation and clean sizeable rooms.

Mass Residency - they have loo roll!

After unpacking we chatted again downstairs and found out about some local botanical gardens to visit. We looked around the local area, had a delicious tardka dal, parantha, naan and jeera rice (275 rupees - this was the classiest joint by far we have visited) and drew bewildered looks by having a beer in a local bar. After this relaxing afternoon session, enjoying the relative bliss of spacious, uncrowded streets dappled in the sunshine we returned to the hostel (or home as it now feels!) and began chatting to our hosts. 6 or 7 hours later we're still here and I am writing this travel blog whilst still chatting. We've finally had a proper masala dosa (delicious) and we're enjoying a beer whilst talking about politics, religion, India and England. We feel thoroughly at home although we are promising we will get out and about tomorrow, probably Bannarghatta National Park so I can see the big kitties and hopefully ride a heffalump!

India - wicked. Mass Residency - just like being at home, great place in feeling so comfortable, relaxed and welcome.