Day 9 - Jolada Rotti oota = me like very much

The great thing about this place is that you never know what is going to happen.

I went back to my apartment at about 1pm. I had a few ideas of what to do for the afternoon, eg check out the botanical gardens, Vidhana Soudha and have a look at Commercial Street before going for dinner somewhere

The bottle of Jack Daniels I bought on the plane caught my eye and I came to the realisation that I wasn't going to get through even half of the bottle by the time I'm going home, so I thought I'd indulge in a couple.

I watched a bit of TV (I found a great channel called Star World, it was playing The Office, The Simpsons and My Wife & Kids which is all quality programming) and my phone rang, it was Satish from Brisbane! I work with Satish and he is originally from Bangalore. He asked if i'd like to do some shopping with his brother-in-law. I quickly obliged and we arranged the details from there.

At 2.30pm I met Narayna outside my apartment. I wasn't expecting to be picked up on a motorcycle! I haven't been on a motorbike since I was a kid (and in saying that I've NEVER been on a motorcycle after a few JD's!!)
I got the hang of hanging on pretty quickly, and it was a really fun way to get around the streets of Bangalore. Don't worry - the driver was wearing a helmet

First stop was lunch (or I guess dinner for me) It was the most amazing food I've ever had. Known as Jolada Rotti oota it is served on a banana leaf and you eat it with your hands.
I read somewhere that you should only use your right hand as the left is used for other things (after the meal is digested)

The waiter would come back and top up whatever you like, including some rice (which you also eat with your hands). For desert I had some chocolate ice cream... mmmm... Best dinner ever!!!


After that Naranya showed me around the shops at National Market, got a few decent priced shirts and some shorts (the shorts aren't that stylish but I guess they'll do) All up I spent about 30 aussie bucks and I got quite a bit of stuff.

After that he drove me to the Vidhana Soudha which is close-by


Unfortunately then it started raining pretty heavily, so that was it. I got back home just after 5 and spent the rest of the night kicking back watching more quality TV. Later on I went to the Sweet Chariot Cafe near work and had one of their cakes I'd heard great things about. Not too bad for only 17 rupees !! (about 50 cents)