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Anfernee C's Travel Journal
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eRRaTiK's travels
Last Update: 26-04-2006 Views: 2331
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Monday 22nd May - Home Sweet Home
I’m finally back from a month in India. Here’s a quick wrap up:
[ Pics ]
There’s a whole lot of photos (would you expect anything less from me?), so here we go…
Click here to view pics.
Note: if you wish to save the images, you will need to sign up for a free account and login.
Otherwise:
1. Click on "view photos without signing in"
2. First slideshow will be Singapore (end of the trip), so if you want to jump to the Bangalore images click on "browse all albums (6)" at the bottom of the slideshow and select the album that you wish to jump to.
[ Nightlife ]
1. Blue Bar @ Taj West End – nothing like a little hookar to get the party going. Choice cocktails here too. It’s outdoor so put on your mosquito repellent. House music all the way. We heard a little Aussie rock the first night we were there too. Cover charge includes drinks.
2. 13th Floor – Lavish, stylish interior and Rick Ashley. Good food. Cover charge includes drinks.
3. Athenas @ Leela – absolutely jam packed around 10.30pm. Access to the VIP area for our own lounges would have been nice but the vibe in there on a Sat night was buzzing. Mix of commercial rnb, house and (surprisingly) classic trance to end the night.
4. Ice – we mistakenly ended up here when the took-took dude took us to the wrong “Taj” hotel. It wasn’t all bad because the party was jumping. Drinks were flowing, scantily clad locals were about (so were the dirty old men trying to look cool) and there’s a wasabi martini (try drinking all that in one hit!). DJ can’t mix to save his life but it was fun nonetheless.
[ Music ]
Well we listened to all sorts of music but the following tracks will always remind me of this trip:
Clubs/Bars (Ice, Athenas, Blue Bar)
1. Bob Sinclair - World Hold On
2. Shakira - Hips dont lie feat Wyclef Jean
3. Three Drives - Greece 2000 (played at Athenas with the bartenders flame-throwing) followed by Michael Gray - The Weekend to close off the night.
4. Black Eyed Peas - Let's Get it Started
Retro Car (thanks to Miss M!)
5. Bangles - Manic Monday (I wish it was Sunday!)
6. Banarama - I heard a rumour
7. Human League - Together in Electric Dreams
8. Village People – YMCA (hilarious when we were doing the hand motions in the car and trying to get people on the street to join in)
Soppy Car
9. Michael Buble - Home (missing home)
10. James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover
On Channel [V]
11. Dil Vich - Chup Chup Ke
12. Krish - Dil Na Diya
[ TV ]
Top Shows in the hotel room
- North Shore on Star World TV (now why don’t we have this show in Oz then?)
- NBA Playoffs on ESPN
- Volleyball World Championships
Top Movie
- Saving Silverman aka. Evil Woman
[ Food ]
For breakfast I can’t go past the Masala Dosa. Whenever I could make it to the buffet breakfast in the hotel, I’d never miss it.
For breakfast at the caf at work, it’d have to be the Poori. For 11 rupees per serving it was the best!
For lunch – there weren’t too many choices so it came down to Domino’s pizza (it cost less than one Aus dollar for four individual pizzas!) or the curry puffs.
For buffet lunch – the Sheraton’s buffet on Sunday is unbeatable. 1500 rupees with all drinks included. It’s the bees knees.
For dinner – now that’s a difficult one. Toss up between the Windsor Sheraton restaurants (Dum Pukth Jolly Nabobs for North Indian. Shanghai Club for Chinese. Royal Afghan for the best lamb in Bangalore), Bay Leaf (Indian – gotta love that fish and the best value in town), Citrus for the Palace Burger, pizzas, and seafood night on Wednesdays!
[ Happy Hour ]
6-8pm daily @ TGIF for the biggest cocktails in town.
7-8.30pm @ the Atrium (guests only) at the Sheraton Towers. Free drinks and trolley boy comes around with samples from four of the restaurants inside the Windsor Sheraton. Absolutely rocks!
[ Shopping ]
Had to add this one for the ladies.
Malls - try Garuda and it's smaller friend the Forum.
Bargaining & Local goods - Commercial Street. Dodgy DVDs for 90 rupees each yay!
Fake Diesel - just off MG road. Take a turn down the road that Cavery (souvenir shop) is on, and it's in the mall opposite of the Bangalore Opera House (you gotta see it to believe it).
Annoying - those darn Emporiums and various overpriced shops that the drivers continually attempt to drag you to.
So there we have it. Despite working 12 (sometimes 14) hour days, and sleeping at 9pm in order to wake up at 2.50 am it was certainly an experience, made even more enjoyable by the presence of other members of my project team who were just as looney. When the fatigue hit around 3 or 4pm every day at work it was just looney tunes from there on out, all the way back to the hotel and in to happy hour with trolley boy! Big salute to the team in India too 
Saturday 22nd April
I headed to Mysore for a day trip. Mysore is about 3hrs drive outside of Bangalore. Words cannot describe the drive there. It's an overloading of the senses, and I was struggling to absorb every little detail as things/people/sights flashed by and I was seated in the front passenger seat of the little car. I was squashed (and you know how tall I am) the whole way so it wasn't exactly a comfortable ride (two other work colleagues sat in the back, and the guy behind me is taller than me so I don't know how he managed!). Tip for anybody planning on heading to Bangalore in the not so distant future - leave for Mysore before 7am. You basically beat the rush hour crowd as they stop for their coffees and snacks along the way
Once we arrived in Mysore (which is a district in Southern India) our driver took us to Daria Daulat Bagh aka. Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace. Built in 1784 it is now a museum and tells eloquently of Tipu's valor and his losing battle against the British. Paintings and artifacts are housed inside the museum. There's also a fort there but we didn't get a chance to see it unfortunately.
Next place our driver took us to was to an Emporium (dodgy souvenir shops that exist all over the place where cab and rickshaw drivers try to drag you in the off chance that you purchase something so they get some cut from the retailer - dodgy I tell you!) near St. Philomena's Church. Needless to say we didn't stay long. St. Philomena's Church is a beautiful Cathedral, reminiscent of medieval architectural style, and it's reportedly one of the largest churches in the country. Built in the gothic style, the Church is an imposing structure with stained glass windows and lofty towers.
Our next stop was Chamundi Hills. On the top of the hill stands the temple dedicated to the Goddess Chamundeshwari, the royal family's patron deity. There were beggers and sales people galore - each trying to cash in on the tourist dollar. Fortunately for me, the other gentleman I was with (Gary) is a looming white person so he seemed to draw all their atttention away from myself and Mary (the other colleague travelling with us). We joked about it all day to Gary - laughing at his expense is always fun. Gary's response was always "what do I look like? a sucker?!"
Once we past the myriad of stalls lined up alongside the path leading to the temple we debated whether or not it would be worth actually going inside. For one thing, shoes aren't allowed inside the temple so we were a bit weary of leaving our shoes with strangers (you can't trust anyone around here!). We eventually threw caution to the wind and handed our shoes over, and paid 10 rupee per person to enter the temple via the supposed express lane. What we discovered was that the "express lane" was only an express lane to get into the first door. There was still a massive queue inside to actually get inside the prayer room! We decided to skip the prayer room and go around it.
We were able to take a peek inside from the side of the building. The temple itself is remarkable in terms of architecture and there were monkies to be seen jumping from trees to the slanting roof on one side of the temple.
On exiting the temple we were approached by some teenagers wanting payment for some prayer offerings that they had handed us before we entered the temple (flowers and a little token plstic statue). Fortunately we had prepared for such an event so all of us had the offerings still in our hands ready to hand back to them. No dodgy tricks here fellas!
Our final stop during the day trip was also the best. Mysore Palace is a treasure house of exquisite carvings and works of art from all over the world. Intricately carved doors open on to luxuriously furnished rooms, it was as if we were royalty walking from room to room complete with palatial walls and ceilings. For those who have been to the Sistine Chapel, the Palace interior is similarly rich and the frescos on the ceiling are equally amazing. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed (though I managed to sneak mine past security even when the metal detector went off) so I didn't take any pictures (you can probably google them).
It was a long day and the drive back to Bangalore was the longest. The aircon in the hire car worked sporadically and about an hour out of Bangalore it broke down completely. What made things worse was our driver pretending to be some kind of DYI mechanic, stopping by the side of the road (traffic was in full effect by this time) and attempting to fix the problem himself. We deducted points off a potential tip that we had planned for him. We'd been doing this all day and by the time we arrived at the hotel we were in the negative, so no tip unfortunately.
It was great to be back at the hotel. The day trip had highlighted how much there was to see and do, but also how much we missed the creature comforts of being inside the hotel. We hit the pool within thirty minutes of arriving - nothing like a swim outside in balmy weather followed by a Kingfisher beer and peanuts by the side of the pool after a long day of adventure
Anyways, back to work. Started at 4am today because we're working on Sydney time.
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