Moving on to Bengaluru
Bart in Indiareis 2018 2018-05-09 07:46, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00
This blogpost was written by Bart Steeman & Stefan Horst
Followers of this blog might have noticed that we've had a pretty full program these last few weeks. In this regard today was remarkable, since we really didn't have to do anything except cross half of India. Lucky for us humanity has discovered the power of flight and this turned out to be quite the easy feat. Destination: Bengaluru (Wait isn't it called Bangalore? No. Not anymore, you uncultured swine.) We had to leave our beautiful rooms at hotel East West at the ungodly hour of 6:00 in the morning. After saying our emotional goodbyes to a certain staff member (who shall remain nameless) we went for the calmest and least life threatening car ride yet. Even though Kolkata has more than 10 million citizens the roads are still (relatively) empty at this hour. After Steeman guided us through the baggage check-in at the airport like a total pro we had time for a nice breakfast and a big cup of coffee, as we were more than an hour early. Some of us enjoyed the still early morning by strolling through the book shop. It turns out that comics are also popular in India, although the topics cover Indian mythology and the lives of numerous gods and godesses of the Hindu religion. We also encountered a book written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, designed to help children through their exams with tips for studying and yoga exercises. Then finally it was time to take our seats and fly away to new adventure.
The flight took us a comfortable two and a half hours. We came prepared for a barely edible Jet Airways meal and a turbulent descent and were not disappointed. Instantly we noticed the more moderate climate of Bengaluru when driving in the taxis on our way to the Palladium hotel. The first impression of Bengaluru was quite pleasant, with less honking on the streats and sidewalks that could be crossed without soaking your shoes in some kind of slush of plastic, rotting fruit and curry leftovers from March. This could only be trumped by our hotel, of which the luxurious rooms made us feel like the gods and godesses in the comics of the Kolkata Airport bookshop. Arriving at about 14:00 we had three free hours for relaxing at the hotel and exploring the city, before meeting again at 17:00 for dinner with the group as a whole.
Some of us went to explore our surroundings and have a bite to eat. All the cities we visit have their own distinct cultures, and of course there is no better way to experience those than by eating all their food. After a short stop at a local alternative for a shopping mall (in a small, narrow basement) we got directions to a little fastfood place were they would have local specialties. It turned out to be a self service restaurant, and in order to place our orders we had to wrestle ourselves to the cash register, only to then turn around and wrestle ourselves to the kitchen to hand over our receipts. Proper queuing is clearly not part of any of the culture. But it was all worth it, because the food was indeed great, especially the Masala Dosa.
In the evening everyone gathered to have our second dinner with the entire group. We took the metro to god-knows-where in the city and arrived at Brewpub Toit, a suprisingly non-Indian, very western restaurant. The menu did not have a single curry on it, but instead there were burgers, pastas and pizzas. Not unimportantly they had some very good selfbrews on tap, and beer has not been easy to come by here. It was also the first place where i've heard european/american music here. We had a good time, and Steeman even took a very rare selfie. After that most of us went back to the hotel for a good nights rest, with the knowledge that we could finally sleep in tomorrow.
Greetjes home,
Stefan & Bart