Its just after 6pm, and I'm sitting down here on one of the two public computers in the hotel's foyer. Immediately behind me on the left is the 
inner door to the hotel's attached restaurant - from which I can hear the laughter of the staff. In front of me is the large wooden statue of Ganesh that occupies the centre of the foyer - beyond Ganesh is the security guard standing at a rostrum (guarding access to the stairs and lift?; there's another guard out the front of the hotel) and then the reception desk. I'm down hre because the laptop's hard-drive has begun to fail and its next to impossibleto do anything on it. The net effect is that its unlikely I'll be able to add any further pictures till we're back in oz.
Anyway. This morning Maria was still not over the gastro, though (perhaps) somewhat better than yesterday. So we puttered around the room for a fair chunk of the morning, which included Maria taking the stronger Azimythrocin (almost certainly spelled wrong as I don't have any resources here with me). We decided to do something fairly simple and not too demanding. Visit one of the 2 famous parks here in Bangalore, then go to one of the best malls in Bangalore. The later having several advantages such as proximity to decent dunnies, decent (safe) food, etc.
Cubbon park is the name of the park we visited - quite centrally located (e.g., one edge of the
park abuts the state parliament). The park is large and crisscrossed with roads (at unusual angles) making it hard to navigate. One thing was clear - that Bangalore is a tropical city - great big elephant ear plants, giant trees, etc. - it reminded us of Brisbane in terms of its vegitation.
Getting some directions we found our way to the Karnataka State Museuam and attached art gallery. Price of entry - the princely sum of 4 Rupees (about 13 cents) each. Now, the museum is really quite rundown and poorly maintained, but it does have some wonderful temple bas reliefs and statues from temples.
Let me give a little anecdote that I believe is so illustrative of our experiences here in India. Entering the hall in which the statues were found Maria was ahead of me and said g'day (hi) to the young security guard sitting nearby. He smiled back in a friendly way and then said that it was Ok if we took photos. Now, it was a condition of entry that there was to be no photography or videos taken. OK, what a nice guy we thought. We wandered the hall (containing maybe 20-30 odd statues and temple carvings) for sometime. Meanwhile he exchanged his role with someone else. When we subsequently moved over to the art gallery (a bit too glorified a name really) we were happily surprised to find the guard in the chamber on the 1st floor. Well, at first. He started talking to us about coffee and 20 rupees. Huh?, was our first reaction. Turned out he was asking us for 20 rupees because, he claimed, he had taken a coffee break to allow us to take photographs of the statues. "No thanks", Maria said, "we didn't take any photos." So there's an example of a guard's entrepeunuerial [sp??] skills, and the type of cultural misunderstanding that tendsto occur to us several times each day. I'm sure (with hindsight) that he must have thought it was bleeding obvious that he expected a tip from us for the photos and based upon the friendly way we were acting towards one I'm sure he expected it. On the other hand we had no clue and, taken in the context of so many people seeming to want money from us, were affronted with his persistence (he followed us along one wall of the chamber as we deliberately ignored him and spoke to one another) in asking for money.
Let me mention one thing more about the art gallery. It was "infested" (too strong a word, but when you're covering yourself in rid and aeroguard each morning, as well as taking anti-malaria tablets each day, any mosquito is an unwelcome sight) with mozzies. There was a big pool of still water outside in which the mozzies must have been breeding. To my surprise (Maria had gone off to find the gallery's dunny - turned out to be pit/trench type) the ground floor art chamber had dozens of mozzies in it...and they were persistent...following me around despitethe industrial strength repellent I had on {On the subject of mosquitoes, Maria and I have each found a few bites on our bodies - probably occuring later at night and/or in our hotel rooms when the repellent has lost strength}.
After a very quick run through of the art gallery we decided to head to "Garuda Mall". This is a well known "up-market" mall in the MG Road (up market) area of Bangalore. We found the ubiquitous metal detectors and security guards on the mall doors and a lot of very prosperous Indians. In many aspects the mall was very similar to ones in oz, the US, etc. Many international franchises like Baskins Robbins or Marks & Spencers were there. We did a small amount of shopping (where ohh where are we going to carry/fit all this stuff??) and were able to find a couple of nice things as well as lunch in the large food court (I had Subways - still wondering if that was wise given the heavy use of salads and "danger" due to the ingredients having been washed in water, while Maria had a simple vegitarian rice dish).
We also replenished our supply of medicines - in particular electrolyte replacements (basically a powder you mix with water) and Gastro-stop/Imodium - a medicine for stopping the runs. Now buying medicine in India is very interesting. What you need to know is the primary/active ingredient in your medicine of choice and its concentration (e.g., 2mg, 500mg, whatever). Asking for a brand name will generally not work. So you ask for the particular chemical and the chemist rips off a foil tab of 10 tablets or so, lets you check that the chemical ingredients are the same, then just gives you that foil to purchase. "Are there any instructions?", Maria asked. The chemist paused for a second or so - just long enough for us not to believe whatever he said, "Take one morning and night", was his reply. Fortunately, our aussie version of the same medicine had had very explicit instructions.
By that time it was getting late and we decided to get an auto rickshaw (as we have been doing each day, usually multiple times per day) back to our hotel - a ride of maybe 20 minutes or so. {BTW, I tell this story not because its unusual, in fact its quite typical - so it conveys our daily experience}. There were a lot of auto rickshaw drivers out the front (why not - a mall frequented by wealthy Indians and foreigners) and they swooped as we came down the stairs: "Where do you want to go?" said the leader. "LG Road, Hotel Bangalore gate" we replied. Aftre one or two repetitions they nodded their head and indicated an auto rickshaw - "Come". Now is the time you say "How Much?". "150 rupees" he replied. I laughed and counter offered 50. "No, it is all the way on the other side of town" he indicated. "100". "No, 50 I said". "OK, I do it for 80" he offered. No, we both said. "How much you pay then?" 60 I said. No, no, 80 they said. So we walked away...and within 3 seconds were called back and told we would be taken for the 60 rupees. Often Maria does this bargaining and I suspect she is considerably better than me. Sometimes, such bargaining can be fun (when you're feeling "up"), and Sameer says he enjoys it because you get to know people (although if you watched you'd often think Sameer was about to have a fight with the driver he is bargaining with). However often it seems like a big drain - the drivers always start from some "outragious" price (sometimes you forget that even 150 rupees ain't many ozzie dollars) and are always trying to fleece you.
Well, time for me to return to the room for some rest. At 8:15 we'll meet up with Sameer for a last meal together. The intention is to go to MG Road and the Hard Rock Cafe there at Sameer's suggestion/request - we owe him and his family so much for making our holiday enjoyable as well as all the hard work and effort he put in for AeroIndia.
inner door to the hotel's attached restaurant - from which I can hear the laughter of the staff. In front of me is the large wooden statue of Ganesh that occupies the centre of the foyer - beyond Ganesh is the security guard standing at a rostrum (guarding access to the stairs and lift?; there's another guard out the front of the hotel) and then the reception desk. I'm down hre because the laptop's hard-drive has begun to fail and its next to impossibleto do anything on it. The net effect is that its unlikely I'll be able to add any further pictures till we're back in oz.Anyway. This morning Maria was still not over the gastro, though (perhaps) somewhat better than yesterday. So we puttered around the room for a fair chunk of the morning, which included Maria taking the stronger Azimythrocin (almost certainly spelled wrong as I don't have any resources here with me). We decided to do something fairly simple and not too demanding. Visit one of the 2 famous parks here in Bangalore, then go to one of the best malls in Bangalore. The later having several advantages such as proximity to decent dunnies, decent (safe) food, etc.
Cubbon park is the name of the park we visited - quite centrally located (e.g., one edge of the
park abuts the state parliament). The park is large and crisscrossed with roads (at unusual angles) making it hard to navigate. One thing was clear - that Bangalore is a tropical city - great big elephant ear plants, giant trees, etc. - it reminded us of Brisbane in terms of its vegitation.Getting some directions we found our way to the Karnataka State Museuam and attached art gallery. Price of entry - the princely sum of 4 Rupees (about 13 cents) each. Now, the museum is really quite rundown and poorly maintained, but it does have some wonderful temple bas reliefs and statues from temples.
Let me give a little anecdote that I believe is so illustrative of our experiences here in India. Entering the hall in which the statues were found Maria was ahead of me and said g'day (hi) to the young security guard sitting nearby. He smiled back in a friendly way and then said that it was Ok if we took photos. Now, it was a condition of entry that there was to be no photography or videos taken. OK, what a nice guy we thought. We wandered the hall (containing maybe 20-30 odd statues and temple carvings) for sometime. Meanwhile he exchanged his role with someone else. When we subsequently moved over to the art gallery (a bit too glorified a name really) we were happily surprised to find the guard in the chamber on the 1st floor. Well, at first. He started talking to us about coffee and 20 rupees. Huh?, was our first reaction. Turned out he was asking us for 20 rupees because, he claimed, he had taken a coffee break to allow us to take photographs of the statues. "No thanks", Maria said, "we didn't take any photos." So there's an example of a guard's entrepeunuerial [sp??] skills, and the type of cultural misunderstanding that tendsto occur to us several times each day. I'm sure (with hindsight) that he must have thought it was bleeding obvious that he expected a tip from us for the photos and based upon the friendly way we were acting towards one I'm sure he expected it. On the other hand we had no clue and, taken in the context of so many people seeming to want money from us, were affronted with his persistence (he followed us along one wall of the chamber as we deliberately ignored him and spoke to one another) in asking for money.
Let me mention one thing more about the art gallery. It was "infested" (too strong a word, but when you're covering yourself in rid and aeroguard each morning, as well as taking anti-malaria tablets each day, any mosquito is an unwelcome sight) with mozzies. There was a big pool of still water outside in which the mozzies must have been breeding. To my surprise (Maria had gone off to find the gallery's dunny - turned out to be pit/trench type) the ground floor art chamber had dozens of mozzies in it...and they were persistent...following me around despitethe industrial strength repellent I had on {On the subject of mosquitoes, Maria and I have each found a few bites on our bodies - probably occuring later at night and/or in our hotel rooms when the repellent has lost strength}.
After a very quick run through of the art gallery we decided to head to "Garuda Mall". This is a well known "up-market" mall in the MG Road (up market) area of Bangalore. We found the ubiquitous metal detectors and security guards on the mall doors and a lot of very prosperous Indians. In many aspects the mall was very similar to ones in oz, the US, etc. Many international franchises like Baskins Robbins or Marks & Spencers were there. We did a small amount of shopping (where ohh where are we going to carry/fit all this stuff??) and were able to find a couple of nice things as well as lunch in the large food court (I had Subways - still wondering if that was wise given the heavy use of salads and "danger" due to the ingredients having been washed in water, while Maria had a simple vegitarian rice dish).
We also replenished our supply of medicines - in particular electrolyte replacements (basically a powder you mix with water) and Gastro-stop/Imodium - a medicine for stopping the runs. Now buying medicine in India is very interesting. What you need to know is the primary/active ingredient in your medicine of choice and its concentration (e.g., 2mg, 500mg, whatever). Asking for a brand name will generally not work. So you ask for the particular chemical and the chemist rips off a foil tab of 10 tablets or so, lets you check that the chemical ingredients are the same, then just gives you that foil to purchase. "Are there any instructions?", Maria asked. The chemist paused for a second or so - just long enough for us not to believe whatever he said, "Take one morning and night", was his reply. Fortunately, our aussie version of the same medicine had had very explicit instructions.
By that time it was getting late and we decided to get an auto rickshaw (as we have been doing each day, usually multiple times per day) back to our hotel - a ride of maybe 20 minutes or so. {BTW, I tell this story not because its unusual, in fact its quite typical - so it conveys our daily experience}. There were a lot of auto rickshaw drivers out the front (why not - a mall frequented by wealthy Indians and foreigners) and they swooped as we came down the stairs: "Where do you want to go?" said the leader. "LG Road, Hotel Bangalore gate" we replied. Aftre one or two repetitions they nodded their head and indicated an auto rickshaw - "Come". Now is the time you say "How Much?". "150 rupees" he replied. I laughed and counter offered 50. "No, it is all the way on the other side of town" he indicated. "100". "No, 50 I said". "OK, I do it for 80" he offered. No, we both said. "How much you pay then?" 60 I said. No, no, 80 they said. So we walked away...and within 3 seconds were called back and told we would be taken for the 60 rupees. Often Maria does this bargaining and I suspect she is considerably better than me. Sometimes, such bargaining can be fun (when you're feeling "up"), and Sameer says he enjoys it because you get to know people (although if you watched you'd often think Sameer was about to have a fight with the driver he is bargaining with). However often it seems like a big drain - the drivers always start from some "outragious" price (sometimes you forget that even 150 rupees ain't many ozzie dollars) and are always trying to fleece you.
Well, time for me to return to the room for some rest. At 8:15 we'll meet up with Sameer for a last meal together. The intention is to go to MG Road and the Hard Rock Cafe there at Sameer's suggestion/request - we owe him and his family so much for making our holiday enjoyable as well as all the hard work and effort he put in for AeroIndia.
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