We flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany, and after a short layover, we flew on to Bangalore. Each leg of the journey is a good 10 hour flight. That's a lot of time cramped in a tiny seat, even though I was fortunate enough to be able to sleep a fair amount on all the flights. We left San Francisco at 2:00 PM local time on a Friday, and eventually arrived in India at 1:00 AM local time on Sunday morning. Bangalore is, incidentally, 12 1/2 hours ahead of California. Don't ask me where the 1/2 hour comes from...
Now before I left, I read a couple of books about India. Not your typical travel book, which only tells you what to see, etc.. I wanted to understand the culture, local customs and how I, as an obvious foreigner, might be accepted and treated by Indian people. I did not wish to insult anyone unknowingly, nor give them a negative impression of Americans. Even so prepared for the many differences that I would find in a country so different, and so much older than my own, I was still a little surprised at some of the things I encountered. But, let me say first off, that I very thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I had no bad experiences, and have absolutely no complaints about any part of the trip.
Ok, back to the trip itself. Apparently, the Indian government has regulations limiting all non-Indian Airlines international flights into and out of the country. We flew Lufthansa Airlines, and they only have a very few flights each week into and out of Bangalore, which is why we landed at such a seemingly odd time of day (or night, to be precise). The city of Bangalore has seen a tremendous growth in the high technology sector, both domestic as well as foreign companies over the past 5 years. It is said that Bangalore today has more technology related jobs than our very own Silicon Valley (or, as I lovingly refer to it, Silly Putty Valley). The hotel where we stayed, the Leela Palace, just happens to be directly across the street from our facility there, so our morning commute was quite short.
Here are some pictures I took from my 5th floor hotel balcony of the city.
Walking across the street is always an adventure. There seems to be road or building construction everywhere, not unlike the U.S.... Having been under British rule for some time, you drive on the "wrong" side of the road in India. The roads have lane markings, stop signs, lights, etc., just like in the U.S., but because of the extreme amount of traffic, no one even tries to drive within a lane, you just weave about between vehicles to get where you are trying to go. If you stayed in your lane, you would never get anywhere. Vehicles can be classed into 3 main categories: motorbikes, auto rickshaws, and personal cars. There are a few larger trucks and mass transportation busses, but they are in the great minority. The motorbikes are all much smaller than what you usually see in the U.S., all being 1 cylinder and usually no more than 100 cc of engine displacement. I didn't pay attention to what gasoline costs in Bangalore, but I have heard it is on the order of about $3 US per gallon, which translated to the relative cost of living in northern California, would likely be something like $10 a gallon.
Here are a couple pictures I took on the one afternoon that we were able to go out and see the town. This shows what the traffic is like. This was at about 3:00 PM.
Here are a couple pictures of the auto rickshaws I mentioned earlier. They are a 3 wheeled, scotter type vehicle with covered riding areas for driver and passengers. You can get 3 passengers in the back seat if you squeeze.
Here we are, parked in the shopping district. See the lines of motorbikes?
Here are a couple more rows of parked cars.
And of course here I am, doing my part to stimulate the Bangalore economy.
Our last full night in India, I went to a local night club with several of my Indian co-workers. It was a rock and roll place called Purple Haze. Inside were hanging, as one would expect from the name, pictures of various musicians, such as Janis Joplin, Steve Vai, Guns and Roses... There was a video screen and the songs played on the speakers were matched to the videos. I don't know why I was so surprised by this, but apparently heavy metal bands are extremely popular in Bangalore. Every time a Metallica song/video was played, every Indian in the club went crazy, sang along with the song and yelled and screamed, just like we were actually at a concert. This was definitely my kind of club!
It is a law, at least in the province of Karnataka (where Bangalore is located) that all alcohol establishments must close at either 11:00 or 11:30 PM, so we didn't end up staying out too late on a school night...
Another interesting thing about our trip. On Tuesday, it was election day. There is a law prohibiting the sale of any alcohol for 48 hours prior to elections, so we couldn't get a beer from 5:00 PM Sunday evening through 5:00 PM Tuesday evening.
Our hotel served complimentary breakfast, so we ate there every morning. But for lunch, we always went out to a local restaurant. I have eaten at some Indian restaurants near where I work in Folsom, and I have found that I love Indian food. Not just because it can be spicy, which of course I love, but the flavors and textures of the Indian food I have eaten has been very good. I was looking forward to eating at a real live Indian restaurant, and I was not disappointed. We ate at different places every day, and if you ask what we ate, I couldn't begin to tell you the names of any of the dishes, but some were chicken, at least once we had mutton, and some vegetarian dishes as well. All extremely good. At least to me they were. One thing my American cohort and I both liked a lot was a desert dish made with carrots ground very finely. It tasted nothing at all like carrots, but like a honey flavored mush of some sort. We never would have known it was carrot based if one of our Indian co-workers hadn't told us. I even managed to find one dish that had lots of chile peppers in it, which I scooped up and ate as many as I could find.
In two of the restaurants, you do not get cutlery. You eat with your fingers. On giant banana leaves instead of plates. Very different than what I am used to, but as the saying goes: "When in Rome, do as the Romans." I certainly wanted to experience everything I could while on the trip, so this didn't bother me in the least. Heck, I ate with my fingers when I was a kid, didn't you?
And here is a picture of Darrin and I, eating with our fingers. It was taken by one of our Indian co-workers using his cell phone camera.
Bangalore reminds me of many mid to large sized U.S. cities in several ways. On one side of the street you may see 4 or 5 story office buildings or shops in the shopping district, and right across the street you may see a vacant lot or what in America might be called "run down" buildings where you can find someone who fixes flat tires, or has a small cigarette or soft drink store, or sells sandals.
Due to the recent growth of foreign businesses in the Bangalore area I have already mentioned, it is probably not as uncommon today as it may have been 5 years ago to see caucasisn people walking around, but we still drew a few stares. But everyone we met was very polite and hospitable. A very warm people, everywhere I had the chance to go.
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Last modified: Sat May 01 21:06 PDT 2004