Well, we had a chance to take in a little of Bangalore the other day. We arranged for a car through the hotel reception and found ourselves being driven to a state sanctioned emporium. Hmmm….seems the receptionist talked us into accepting a “free” ride into town but didn’t let us in on the fact that it was first taking us into a high end gift shop. I don’t think I’ll fall for that one again as these schemes always results in high pressure sales and overpriced souvenir items. I will say that the emporium did have some fabulous looking stuff. If you’re curious, no we didn’t but anything. It was fairly easy to say no to $200-300 pashminas. Yep, that was USD.
Before leaving for India, I had always envisioned the Silicon Valley of India to be a thoroughly modern city. Of course, I’m comparing this to the SF Peninsula/South Bay. My idea of a visually modern city includes an assortment of businesses (retail, commercial), well paved streets, orderly traffic (signal lights, etc.), little to no rubbish from periodic street cleanings or a good drainage system. Of those criteria, I’ve only seen Bangalore to contain an inordinate amount of businesses and malls. You can certainly tell that Bangalore is growing considering the amount of construction and traffic going on everywhere.
For a little background on Bangalore, before its immense expansion, it was and still is considered the “Garden City of India” for its numerous parks. That may certainly be so but the increasing level of pollution is creeping up on that title due to industry and traffic. The local government did not plan for Bangalore to grow to its current 6 million or so inhabitants. But due to the many local and multi-national companies opening offices there, it has grown from a sleepy town to India’s fastest growing high density metropolis. Looking to modernize its transportation system, Bangalore is currently building a metro system to alleviate their traffic congestion. I’ve been told that during peak hours, driving a car 10-15 miles can take an hour or more. Ouch!
Marie and I have had a positive experience thus far. Meeting her coworkers has been an absolute delight and I look forward to spending more time with them. I’m sure I haven’t seen all that Bangalore has to offer, but I plan on exploring Bangalore some more when I return from my two week journey through South India. Now I have to concentrate on getting better before my journey tomorrow.
Oh, and besides the many cows that roam the streets of Bangalore, there are numerous stray dogs as well. Hmmm…didn’t get my rabies shot…I’ll need to pay particular attention to those dogs.
Don't stick your arms out of those auto rickshaws! The only thing I regret about not doing more on the Keralan backwaters was eating more of those jumbo prawns.. get those houseboat guys to fry you up a few extra when you see them.
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