Bangalore Sights... Part One

Well, I am happy to report I made it on the sightseeing trip of Bangalore. I managed to get up at a truly unfortunate hour of the morning. I walked down to the tour company and waited for my bus. I did get to use my very first Indian Payphone when I had to call the company to see why the bus late. I was expecting a nice big deluxe coach but what arrived was a smallish un-air conditioned mini bus. Undeterred I board the bus for my 12 hour tour... (think Gilligan's Island and sing in an ominous voice... ) 12 HOUR tour.

One of the convenient things I liked about this tour when I bought my ticket was that it picked me up right where the tour company was. What I didn't stop to think was that it picked EVERYONE up at the tour company they bought their ticket at. Thus the first 2 hours of my tour were the "Pick up" stage where we drove around the city. As a matter fact we often came right back to the same spot so I saw this view at least 3-4 times. It might have been better sleeping in and getting a cab to this spot.
Anyway, we finally started the tour at 9 am or so the driver said. I don't know because I don't have a watch with me in India. I also don't have a cell phone either. A cell phone would be nice because the driver took down every one's number and would call them if they weren't getting to the bus on time. One thing that would be useful that I did not opt to do was rent a cell phone with a local number. You wouldn't believe how useful that could prove. India is definitely part of the cell phone revolution.

Well I don't have time to talk about all the sights I saw while in Bangalore and it will take some time to upload all the photos so I will have to do this in sections. Right now let's just talk about the overall tour, huh? Well to start off, I was the only non-Indian on the tour. As a matter of fact, I was one of the few non-Indians I saw all day. Usually when you to on tours you see some people from other countries but I saw fewer than 10 non-Indians all day.

Being the only American on board the tour made it a little strange because I couldn't understand the majority of the announcements. Oh the guide would try to remember to tell me in English what he just said but honestly it's wasn't much of an improvement over the Hindi(I am assuming it was Hindi. He could have been speaking Kannada) version. Listening to the Hindi I would hear... blah blah blah... then he would translate for me and I got blah blah Football Stadium blah blah. I will say the poor boy tried. He seemed most determined not to lose me... I think losing the foreign tourist might be bad for business.

Of course the worst part of the tour was that the bus not air conditioned and yes it is quite hot this time of year in India. You get dumped off the bus at a stop where you need to move a brisk pace to see everything so you are already sweating when you get back to the hot bus. Oh the windows were open and once we were on the road again enough air would be blowing into the bus to dry your sweat just in time for the next stop.

Of course India is a dusty country (dusty being a euphemism) and it seemed like every I went there was something burning. Either Incense, or some stall grilling corn over a very smoky pit or just trash burning so by the end of the tour I felt dirty: nasty, been camping in the woods for a week with bears, dirty. I had all that sweat and dirt and smoke dried on my face and in my hair. I was really rather glad to find the tour was over and get on the road back to the city.

Of course, now we get to reverse the pick procedures from the morning. Wouldn't you know I was the first picked up? Guess what... first on... last off. Their system of dropping people off made me nuts because it seems liked we were getting so close to the area where I needed to be dropped off then we would go in the opposite direction for 20 minutes to drop someone off. I was reaching that tired/dirty/wanna go home psycho point. I think we have all felt it right? Where you just want to get back home and take a shower and anything that gets in your way is toast? I had seriously just about given up on the idea they might actually take me back where I started and was about to have a psycho ninja female fit on them when.... suddenly... out of the blue there was the street I was picked up on.

Well I was so excited to finally get to go home I practiacally RAN back to the apartment. Completely forgetting the fine construction of Indian sidewalks (complete sarcasm if you can't tell). There was a pipe right across the sidewalk that I didn't see. I tripped on that and did one of those cool turning, twisting tricks skateboarders do(a back spinning 360 with Indy grab dude. It was TOTALLY WICKED)... only without the skateboard... and wiped out on the pavement. I am fine. I just scraped my knee and my hand. That didn't deter me from continuing my breakneck pace back to civilization. I should have learned something because I almost went right into the OPEN pit on the corner of 100 Ft Road and 12th Main.

Needless to say... after I got into the apartment, I took the most heavenly bath... and used 1/2 container of bath wash. Ahhhhhh... I felt human again almost immediately... Tomorrow. We will talk about the actual sights I saw.