Back from Bangalore
I returned from Bangalore on Monday. The trip was great, truly one of those experiences you never forget. I’ve added some extra photos from Friday and Saturday to the photo set.
Friday we left work early go visit Bannerghatta, a national park just outside of Bangalore. They have a mini safari where you can see tigers and lions. You ride in a small bus out to the fenced in area. Once there, the driver got us as close as possible to the wildlife so we could get plenty of pictures. At times he even took my camera so he could snap some pictures for me on his side of the bus (I was sitting on the other side). At times the animals were so close that I’d pull my hand back inside the window, not exactly wanting to leave behind a souvenir for them to chew on a while. There’s also a zoo that we started checking out until the rain started. The zoo is much larger than I had originally thought. I wish we had more time to look around.
Saturday we traveled to Mysore. It was a couple hours drive outside of Bangalore. While it was a long ride, I finally got to see some of the country. The highways are much different in India. There are speedbumps and occasional barricades set up to slow/stop traffic. This is because there are still many areas where pedestrians cross the roads. There’s a lot of livestock moving about as well, so you really have to be careful. The ride back seemed particularly perilous because it was night time. It was very dark out, there are no street lights and people walk on the side of the road without any sort of reflectors to stand out against the blackness.
Our first stop was at the Tipu Sultan’s summer palace. It’s a large plot of land with a decent sized palace in the center. We walked the grounds a little bit before going inside the palace. Photography is forbidden inside the palaces, so I didn’t get any pictures. It’s interesting, though, that the palace is very wide open. Unlike homes/buildings here in the US, the palace is completely open to the elements. I’m guessing this has a lot to do with the weather. I don’t think this part of India ever gets terribly cold and the open floorplan probably helps to cool the palace with a breeze when things get humid.
Afterwards, we went on to a local bird sanctuary. We actually weren’t expecting to stop at a bird sanctuary, so we didn’t stick around long. We actually saw more monkeys than birds, which I definitely wasn’t upset about (I have a thing for monkeys, I’m not sure why).
After the bird sancturary, we drove on to Mysore Palace. This is a very large palace, many tourists flock to it. We walked up and found someone willing to be our tour guide through the palace. After depositing our shoes (they’re not allowed inside the palace), our tour guide showed us around the interior of the palace. It’s amazingly beautiful, very ornate.
When we finished seeing the Mysore Palace, we were getting hungry for lunch. So we headed over to Lalita Mahal, a local palace that has been converted to a well known hotel. Lunch was pretty good, we had a buffet. There was actually a lasagna with a different kind of sauce. It wasn’t a marinara sauce, more of a local Indian sauce, which I thought was a nice change. We also had ice cream for dessert, which was wonderful. I’m not certain it was great ice cream, I just think it had been a really long time since I had something sweet to eat. We did a little shopping in Mysore. We tried finding a local government run shop, but instead went to an independent shop. I like the government shops better because you’re not hassled as much. I understand that people are just trying to make a living, but by American standards the people in the stores can be a bit aggressive. The drive back to Bangalore was painful. It took us a little over two hours to get to Mysore, it took more like 3-4 to get back. Traffic in Bangalore is awful. The roads are packed.
Sunday we did a ton of shopping. I picked up a lot of stuff to bring back, but not nearly as much as one of the women I was traveling with. She’s insane. There isn’t a store in India that she didn’t visit (or so it seemed). I tried to be a good sport, but after 7 hours of shopping I couldn’t take anymore.
I stayed up all night Sunday before my flight back Monday morning. My plan was to sleep the whole way from Bangalore to London, that way I’d be awake from London to San Francisco and arrive back in California already adjusted to the time. Well, the flight left Bangalore an hour late. The plane coming in was late, so that held us up. We arrived in London with not a lot of time to catch our connecting flight. Fortunately British Airways was on the ball. They met us at the plane with a van and moved us quickly to our terminal and then put us in the fast track security lane. We made it to our plane with about 15 minutes to spare before boarding. I definitely give British Air a thumbs up for that. After boarding, we had to sit a little longer. Evidently they swapped out one of the tires on our 747 but then couldn’t get the jack to go back down. I had a mental image of AAA showing up to fix a flat on a 747. We finally got off the ground in the rain and made the last leg of the flight. We got into San Francisco about 45 minutes late, which is more than I can say for my baggage. The shortened layover meant that the luggage couldn’t make the trip from terminal 4 to terminal 1 in time. They eventually got my bag to me, but it was a little annoying not to have my bag when I left the airport.
Overall, the trip was great. I’m glad for the experience, but happy to be home. The timing of my return was good, just in time for Thanksgiving. So I’ve already had one good American feast since getting back. I’ve definitely missed the variety of food available here in California.
