Sunday, October 14, 2007

Day 1

















I stumbled across this internet cafe so I thought i'd let everyone know how I'm doin.


The flight was long... The flight from Brisbane to Adelaide was the worst.... We were about to take off when the pilot (or co-pilot) announced that there was an engine error, so we waited about 45 mins or so for them to fix/check that all out so we were a little delayed
The horrible part is that I was on a 3 hour flight with no mp3 player. Unfortunately my mp3 player died last night while I was charging and adding tunes to it for the big journey. It was working fine until I unplugged it from the pooter, now it doesn't turn on at all. Grr... I got it as a birthday present THIS YEAR so it is still relatively brand new, so you can imagine my disappointment.



Not only that but I was in the very back row, amonst all the kids that didn't have any supervising parents, so after an hour or so in the plane (remembering that we were grounded for the first 45 mins) they were making my life a living hell....


So anyway, made it to Adelaide, had a look in (small) duty free store... no bargains worth worrying about.. made a few phone calls and boarded on the flight to Singapore!



I really enjoyed the flight, the time didn't drag on too long thanks to the Video On Demand. I watched 2 episodes of The Office (UK), 2 eps of The Office (US), 3 episodes of Extra, half of an episode of The Simpsons (it was all from the new season so I got bored of that), one episode of Kath & Kim. I started watching a bit of Young Frankenstein but ran out of time.





SO that kept me pretty busy on the flight
Landed in Singapore right on time, I had 2 hours to kill, unfortunately that 2 hours was spent running up & down the airport looking for "TRANSFER E". I finally found it and by then I only had 5 mins to board the flight to Bangalore.....



Singapore airport was huge, and I was impressed by how organised everything was (once I found the transfer desk I needed, but that was my fault... I thought I was flying India Air but I was actually flying Singapore Airlines)
Anyway, the flight from Singapore to Bangalore was the best by far... The food was awesome, I had some Indian curry with 3 FREE JIM BEAM BLACKS! now that is good service!
Singapore Airlines also have an on-board duty free shopping service, and I found myself unable to resist buying a 1L bottle of Jack Daniels for about $25 AUD... bargain!
Anyway on the flight I watched 2 movies.. The first - Licensed to Wed and Hairspray. Licensed to Wed was really good. I didn't see all of Hairspray cos the plane boarded before the movie finished, but I got the jist within the first few minutes...



So I felt like I was in a different world as soon as we touched down in bangalore... not sure what it was, perhaps not seeing anything out of the window due to the lack of lights (its not like they have much of a city-skyline or anything) or maybe I was just nervous because I knew what to expect as soon as I got off....





So made my way into the terminal... went through a brief security check of my hand luggage... although the security guard seemed to be distracted by something else... I offered to take out things of my pockets but the security guard told me there was no need. I was impressed by the lack of security in this airport!
Finally got my luggage... and went straight out he exit! no customs! nothing! wow! I was impressed! because I"d been reading about how customs officers target foreigners... I must have arrived on a good night.



The bangalore airport is very very small, no air conditioning, just fans and opened windows. They had a few very tiny duty free shops (you'd be lucky to fit 3 customers in the room at a time) I didn't have time to check them out unfortunately. (I had a driver waiting to pick me up)
So I exit the arrival lounge with my luggage and, (to tell you truth, I hadn't realised I 'd even been through customs yet) this nice indian man walks straight up to me and takes my suitcase... I think to myself, Great... this is a customs officer about to pick on and perhaps bribe me in regards to the contents of my luggage... but no, turns out this guy was a taxi driver and wanted to drive me to my hotel. I kindly advised the taxi driver that I had already had a driver organised... and he said no problem and still held onto my luggage. I finally got my suitcase off him and told him I'll be fine... so he followed me through to the exit (or did I follow him?) and thank God my driver was there with a sign. He was my saviour! So he saved the day, but the taxi driver still insisted that I give him a tip because he had helped me with my lugguage. I refused and walked (very quickly) away....




The drive to the hotel was a rush.... I was gobsmacked at how great this driver is, dodging people, cars and stray dogs. I heard that its really easy to get a license in India... I don't think even I'd pass the test!
Thankfully I'd been reading so much material and travel blogs on Bangalore that I wasn't shocked by the cutural differences at all. In fact, I was expecting the air pollution to be worse! Don't get me wrong, the air isn't as clear as in Brisbane, but it's not that bad...........

So had a bit of a relax in the hotel room, flipped through about 80 channels of crap on TV and went to bed at about 12.30 am Bangalore time. SO that means I was officially awake for 24 hours (I didn't sleep on the plane).

Got up this morning at 6am. Felt great! got to see a bit of the hotel in daylight (and the view). I won't describe the hotel room room too much at this stage, because I've video-taped it. But All I will say is that it is nice, and very small. I'll upload the video from work because its not working from this internet cafe....

Now with my apartment, I believe the customer service is too good. Last night when I arrived this man showed me to my room (I wish I could remember his name) he was very helpful and showed me where everything is. So I get up this morning and have a shower, open the door to my room (which opens out to this communal lounge area which serves just 2 apartmnets) and there he was! ready to wait on me! He advised me that breakfast starts at 7am so I said i'd go for a walk around. I went for a walk up and down "Hayes Road" (where the hotel is) Everything was pretty quiet, there were a few people around and the morning was nice and cool. Headed back to the hotel bang on 7 am to have brekky... and my friendly man was there yet again to ensure I was looked after.

Breakfast was awesome, I was the only one at the restaurant and I was surrounded by 3 chefs asking what I'd like (there is no menu, you just request whatever you want and apparantly they can do it. I said to them to just give me a traditional Indian breakfast! So they brought out the most delicious ommelette I've ever tasted. It was filled with all these amazing spices. The spices here aren't like thes ones at home that just set your mouth on fire, these ones actualy taste good! They are still hot, but a different kind of hot.

So again with the "too good" customer service, the chefs and my new friend who is always there, watched me eat and made sure that I was enjoying it.

Now one more thing on this "too good" customer service. It striked me odd when I asked for 3 work shirts to be ironed (costing about a buck AUD). He took it away and I just hung around in my room watching a bit of TV. About 20 mins later I figured that my shirts would be returned sometime later on and I was pretty keen to go out for the day. I open the door, and THERE HE IS! with my 3 shirts neatly pressed. I wonder how long he was standing there for ????

So I left the hotel room at about 7.30 local time. Went to all the major roads and not much was happening because all of the shops open at 11.30am (and close at 11pm I believe)
So after walking around for about 2 hours and got a feel for the area, I went back to the hotel room to have a cat-nap so I'm all ready for the shops opening at 11.

Now I have been feeling pretty safe here, and I haven't had any issues with anyone whatsoever. But one group of people who are really getting on my nerves are auto-rickshaw drivers! Every so often they come up to me offering this amazing deal drive me to all of the best shops in Bangalore! all for just 10 rupees! Now I've read about this scam, what they do is drive you to all of the expensive tourist trap stores and won't stop driving you around until you buy something - the drivers then get a cut of the profits.

I am a bit of an idiot and stumbled into one of these shops on my own accord. I thought it would be good to have a look at some "arts and crafts" the shopkeeper ASSURED me that they were the cheapest shop in Bangalore! Even though everything he showed me was at LEAST $40 AUD. I was finally going to settle on buying the cheapest thing I could find just to shut him up (it was some wooden hand made thing for about $20 AUD, it was nice, but I knew it was a rip off) but when he tried to sell me more and more and more I just ended up walking out....

Since then I"ve stumbled across more of these "art & craft" shops trying to do the exact same thing, so I've learnt my lesson and will just by my "art & craft" from street vendors.......... or from shops that actually have customers in them.........

OK well this is getting to be a very lenghty post, and I'm only up to about 11am!

So I got lost on my way back into the main part of the city. I walked for miles and miles and eventually found myself on familiar ground. By then it was about 12pm (yeah I was walking around aimlessly for an hour) and I was absolutely starving, and even more thirsty. I hadn't had any water since I was at the hotel room.

I found this nice pizza place, the value is amazing, I had a medium pizza (which I thought would be a good size for 1 person, but it would hav eprobably fed 3) and a "Conizza" which is a pizza in a cone! it looks just like an ice cream and tastes delicious. The cone is made out of pizza dough obviously.
with that I had a bottle of water and a coke. The total was about $8 AUD! You can't even buy the materials for that!!

Yeah I know what you're thinking. I come all the way to India, I even love Indian food and have pizza. To be honest I was ashamed of myself too, but at least the toppings were "fused" with Indian meals, and had all of the delicious herbs and spices i'd mentioned previously. My topping was Punjabi Chicken Masala or something. Mmmm..

So after lunch I hit the shops. Good value! My first stop was "Planet M" which is "The biggest music store in India". It was pretty big... I guess... They had many bargains for me to lust over! I got the new Korn album for $10 AUD that new Beatles album i'd always been meaning to get but couldn't afford it ($10 AUD) and also got some cheap movies (Spaceballs and Child Play on VCD for about $2 AUD for the both of them) and I got "Almost Famous" on DVD for like $5 bucks AUD or something.

I then found another music store across the road. I got some horror movie for 38 rupees which is about $1 Australian. I figure these movies will keep me company over the next few days as my hotel has a DVD player.

Did some clothes shopping! All of the shirts I got were about $10 AUD. Not as cheap as I was expecting... but I'm sure i'll find cheaper once I get the hang of this....

I then stumbled across a street vendor selling pirated DVDs. I got 18 movies for just under $10 AUD. I dont know what the quality of them is like, and because they're obviously bootlegged I probably won't take them back to Australia - but if I watch them in the hotel room then it is cheaper than renting them from a video store....

Well I walked and walked and walked. I met this nice man named William. He was about 50 years old and told me all about his wife and 2 kids. Are you married? he asks. I told him I'll be married in May next year. He was very happy to hear that - he was a very family oriented guy. I thought he just wanted to talk to me because he was genuinely interested to be talking to an Australian. He was telling me that he is best friends with Adam Gilchrist (year right) and every time the Australian cricket team are in Australia, they visit his church....
Uh oh - there's that word.... Yep, he's apparantly a priest
So he tries to get me to visit his church, it was only 3 minutes from here he insisted! I told him thanks anyway but I needed to get back to my hotel room. He then advised that he will drive me straight back after I visit the church! And then I saw it! His auto-rickshaw! Damn them!! So I walked away and felt a little disappointed that yet again the only person that talked to me was wanting my money...

Thats the annoying thing here, again there are no issues with the people here - but the only ones who are nice to you want something............ but I guess that's understandable considering I'm the only white person in this whole city. I have actually only seen 1 other white person.. that's it! so I guess I can see why everyone is so surprised to see me (at time of writing this some indians were just staring at me through the window to the internet cafe - I'm getting used to it)

Well I've pretty much mastered the art of crossing the road in Bangalore. You see traffic lights here are OPTIONAL. Nobody stops! and there are lots of pedestrian crossings but like the traffic lights, stoppping at pedestrian crossings look to be optional at all. I've watched how the locals do it and I am now a pro at dodging traffic. Don't worry - they drive really slow here.... so I can outrun them

Well that's just about it. Before I found this internet cafe I went to a nice local pub. It was very nice actually - and the prices were great - they dont sell Jim Beam here though!!! But they do sell Jack Daniels. Seeing as though I've got a litre of JD in my apartment I thought i'd try something different. I was happy to be relaxing by myself with my $5 AUD cocktail when this strange guy from Thailand came up and sat next to me. There was something strange about him, so I decided to finish the drink and get the hell out of there. Not sure what he wanted, but I wasn't getting the best vibes.

Tonight for dinner I went to an all-veg restaurant called Konark. It was great, I can't recall the name of the dish but it was sooooooooo good! it was just your usual curry, with naan bread, all vegetarian. Delicious!

So that's about it... That is my first day. There are lots of other little things I could say about the whole experience, but I think I've wasted enough of your time.



Its nearly 9pm here local time, so I'm feeling pretty buggered. But before I go, here are some photos:











This is just one stray dog. This one seems to be always hanging out in front of the apartment. He's harmless - he's more scared of me than I am of him... not sure why, He can do more damage than me - I'm sure he could infest me with all softs of nasty diseases if he really wanted to - but all of the stray dogs are pretty well behaved. I haven't even heard one bark!!








This is a view from the pizza restaraunt I had luch at - to give you an idea of what the main shopping district looks like








Bangalore is known as the "Pub City" there are lots of pubs. Surprisingly they sell Fosters here, and it is pretty well advertised. The only other beer they advertise is Kingfisher which is their local beer - brewed locally. I may or may not try it - me not being a beer drinker will probably not like it anyway.




I have heaps more photos, I should be able to upload them on Tuesday from work.




Tomorrow I am hoping to visit Mysore. Although I'm not 100% sure how I'm getting there yet. Let's see how I go. Mysore is an old city just outside of Bangalore, it is a major tourist attraction so I'm expecting to get hassled by many auto rickshaw drivers! woohoo!!




So what have you been up to ?

No comments: