Bangalore, or is that Bangalot??

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of spending a few weeks in Bangalore working, cannot tell you what we did or who for or we would have to kill you, but it was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun at the same time.

Ran into some really nice and crazy people, not just from our own organisation but also from others. Some other Aussies, some locals, some Brits, Canadians and dare I say it, even some pleasant Yanks, oh I did say it.

Anyway the locals were great. We got invited to someone else's birthday party at a local restaurant, which wasnt too bad as there were more than 100 other people there as well, and then just managed to have a great time. We got kicked out around 11.30ish as the local police chief has the view that he can prevent drug abuse by closing all the nightlife down before midnight. Some people just dont get it. And it seems a lot of people go to the cinema at midnight until some ungodly hour of the morning and others seem to prefer my hotel room, until later in the morning. Now what did happen to that bottle of bourbon??

Turns out the locals were very friendly and great fun, lots of laughing and many coffees and so on over the few weeks we were there. Very hospitable and very interesting people.

Bangalore itself has little to offer a tourist, or even a business traveler. The hotels are a challenge. Everything is hard to do, hard to get, hard to keep, including your room. I was asked to vacate my room one night as the hotel had overbooked and needed my room, of course they had no plans to find me another one and seemed very put out that I was not prepared to be put out, even for some alleged VIP. I said I was happy to vacate as long as they put me up at the Oberoi or the Leila Palace, but alas they were also overbooked. Dont really know what happened to the VIP and could care less. My relationship with the front desk staff deteriorated somewhat after my refusal.

Traffic in Bangalore is as bad as anything I have seen in Jakarta, Bangkok or Manila. A 10 klm journey can take up to 3 hours, I kid you not. Most days it was only 1 hour, but 3, thats beyond friendship. The city seems to have grown and grown and grown but the roads are still the same. And getting around the cows without an incident is some form of magic.