Weekend in Bangalore!

This weekend we took a little trip down to Bangalore which is about six hours away by bus. The “Super Luxury” bus leaves at 11 pm and we arrive around 5 am. (Don’t be misled by the term Super Luxury). This is the bounciest road I have experienced here in India so far! At one point, I think Trevor’s head may have hit the ceiling and on the way home I was literally bounced onto the floor. We arrived at 5 am at the bus station and were immediately offered an auto ride to our destination of choice with a small fee of a million dollars because we are rich Americans. We bartered with the guy and got him down to a somewhat reasonable price to take us to Lowry Adventist College where we rented a guest room. At Lowry, we crashed for a few hours and then got up to tackle our first day in this big city! 

Shekarato!

The first place we went was Mahatma Gandhi Road, a touristy area that has food, coffee shops, book stores, and all the shopping we could imagine. Our first stop for food was the Mateo Coffea shop which was like a dream come true! They had delicious pictures of coffees and desserts and scrumptious descriptions of pasta dishes and sandwiches lining the multi-paged menu… This place was just about like heaven. We treated ourselves to “Shekerato’s” (their version of a frappeccino) and espresso and enjoyed the nice atmosphere where everyone wasn’t stopping to get a good look at us. It was great!

Zach and Jeff Gilbert arrived soon after and we spent the rest of the day chatting and catching up with them. It was fun to share our stories that were similar in so many ways…ha! We ate at McDonalds and discovered that they have 12 rupee soft serve cones, which is only about 25 cents so we spoiled ourselves on these! Later that night we even went to Pizza Hut and ate some more American food… That day definitely ended with satisfied bellies.

Day two in Bangalore started with breakfast at the local Indian shop next to Lowry College. Here you can get three dosa (similar to crepes or pancakes), puri (I would call these an elephant ear without the sugar), or chappati for 20 rupees. Much cheaper than the American style food in the area! So with our bellies full, we set out for the Iskon Temple where we may have accidently become Hindu. We were ushered through the tourist section and given a card with lines to repeat outloud as we crossed over 108 stepping squares in our bare feet and up into the ‘worship area.’ The phrase consisted of four lines and went something like this, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.” So after 108 repetitions of this, we made it into the temple and even sat down to try and sneak a photo of the golden statues and incense… They confiscated all cameras before we entered, but Zach luckily was able to sneak his in. He got a good picture of our clan (all in matching blue attire, accident ha!). The security seems very tight, but it really isn’t that thorough when it comes to searching… The rest of the temple was a maze of tourist attractions and shops selling coloring books of the gods and snacks. At the end we were given a free bowl of soupy rice that was really good!

After the Iskon, we piled all five of us into the small back seat of the only auto that would allow it to Mantri Square. The auto charges one rate, so the more people there is to split it between the better. We were surprised when most of the auto drivers wouldn’t allow us to put more than three people in because back in Vempalli, they pile six people inside, a few on the back, and some more on the roof! Mantri Square is a huge 5 story mall with a giant food court up top and a supermarket similar to Walmart downstairs. I’m pretty sure I may have experienced culture shock in that supermarket. Or maybe it was just because I was overwhelmed trying to look at every single item they had for sale to make sure it wasn’t something I needed to buy and take back to school with me. Ha! Probably the most exciting part of this mall was the fact that they had a Taco Bell (although I didn’t have any, the boys tell me the burritos didn’t quite measure up, but it was still a little taste of home!)

Sketchy photo of the Palace

From Mantri Square, we walked about 30 minutes up to the Bangalore Palace and tried to snag a few photos and avoid the guards with their whistles. Then we found an auto who would give us a free ride back to MG road if only he could take us to one shop for 5-10 minutes. This is the scam that many of the auto and taxi drivers try to trick tourists into. If they can get tourists to go to these several different shops with WAY over priced souvenirs, they get a 30% off gas card, or something like that. They are so desperate for these things that they will even drive you somewhere for free just so they can get it! So we got our free ride, all five in one auto once again, back to MG road and spent the rest of our night hanging out there at the shops.

We were pretty tired after that busy day, so Sunday we took it easy. We met a nice western guy at our favorite Mateo Coffea place who was from LA and had only been in India for three days. He is part of the Watson program where you are given a yearly salary and told to go travel anywhere in the world that you have never been and study some topic of your interest for a year. During this year you aren’t supposed to work or go to school, just simply learn! He had previously been in London for 3 months and now he would be spending 3 months in Bangalore, and his next stop was Australia. He was a real interesting guy! He had even heard of Walla Walla University. I love meeting new people that have something small in common with you in an unfamiliar place.

Cubbon Park

Zach and Jeff had to take off for their train back to Nuzvid around noon, so we went to Cubbon Park and relaxed there for a while and did some more exploring and walking around that area. It was nice to just take it easy. Our bus was leaving that night at 10:30 pm. Before we left, we treated ourselves to a great meal (unfortunately mine left me sick as a dog for the whole six hours of bumps back home) and made it to the bus station to experience something else completely new. The bus station was so packed with buses that all seemed to be itching to get out of there and were slowly creeping and honking at one other toward the main exit. There was no organization. There was a platform with a number, but this number really had nothing to do with where your bus was! It was completely random. In Sid’s words, “This must be what it is like to be on the Amazing Race.” Thankfully all the people who work there roam through the buses and each one stopped us to ask which bus we were looking for. After being led around by several different official looking people for 10-15 minutes, we were finally directed toward the correct bus and took off for our bouncy ride home!

Our trip to Bangalore was fun and refreshing! This modern city reminded us of the many things we have at home and it was fun to get out of the normal weekend routine and experience a different part of India. But when it all comes down to it, we were very relieved to be back in our home on Monday morning. Somehow the big, bustling city made the quiet farmlands of Andhra Pradesh seem more inviting, and it was a good feeling to be back!

Auto ride!