In the complete absence of anything to do whatsoever I thought I may as well kill a bit of time writing a blog entry.

I'm currently in Bangalore, the famed IT captial of India, waiting for a flight to Mumbai and then onwards to Heathrow tomorrow. Leaving Kathamndu on Monday I flew down to Mumbai from where I had an internal flight booked on to Bangalore on the Tuesday morning. On arrival at Mumbai my airport pick up and associated reserved hotel room faileds to materialise so with it being midnight, I had to trust one of the waiting dodgy geezers outside the terminal to sort me out. Luckily the dubious bloke I chose did indeed deliver me to a hotel and I was only mildly fleeced price wise. This being told, with a largely dirt and rodent free hotel room, I was fairly pleased.

With the benefit of hindsight I didn't need 5 days here in Bangalore. Upon arrival and closer inspection of the guide book, I'd be doing pretty well occupying a half day with the tourist sights on offer. I decided to dabble in the often dicy business of a autrickshaw 'city tour'. The 20 rupees an hour price I was quoted immediately aroused suspicions as this was very cheap even by Indian standards. I was adament with the driver that I wanted to do no shopping but it was pretty ineffective as within 15 minutes he was depositing me outside a carpet shop 'please sir just 5 minutes looking, then I get pens and bags for the children'. What on earth do kids need bags for?!? When I reappeared wihin 15 seconds to be taken on to the next 'city sight' he wasn't at all happy and after a heated exchange,I agreed to one more shop in exchange for a free drop back at my hotel! The joys of Indian sightseeing.

What Bangalore isn't short of is coffee shops and restaurants but even I've had my work cut out spending 4 full days in them. I did however get spend one day at the IBM office here which was interesting and good to meet some of the Procurement guys that work there. It was perhaps most suprising to see the extent to which the Indians in the office go with their Xmas decorations. For a Hindu and Muslim dominated society it was a little strange to be confronted with a sea of tinsel and Xmas trees, a mock up of a crib on each floor, and plans for the office carol singing!

The traffic here in Bangalore could not be more insane so I'd better head off now to sort out a taxi to get me to the airport in time. The joys of 'Hotel Evergreen' in Mumbai await again this evening......

Happy Xmas and Merry New Year