Our stay in Bangalore was short and sweet. Never one for big cities, we though we would breeze in and out using the convenient overnight transport to save wasted travelling days and a bit of cash on hostels. We didn't account for the horrific journeys they might turn out to be however.

We arrived into Bangalore at 6am, everyone's favourite time of day, and the best time of day to be getting off a train into an Indian city and being hassled into taxis and rickshaws. Knowing how far our hostel was, and the amount that should cost, the prices we were quoted were, to put it mildly, ludicrous. We haggled one guy down to about half his original quote, which was still wildly off the mark but just wanting to get in and nap we agreed and were swiftly bundled off. Arriving outside the hostel with relief, mixed with a slight reluctance at the sight of the place, which slowly mounted as we were led to our room, I am pretty certain the words 'It can't be as bad as Delhi' casually slipped out of our mouths. How wrong we were.

Citizen Lodge in Bangalore is just that, for citizens. I.e. not for anyone with dignity or concerns for their health. The bed was grimy and slightly stained, and the bathroom was little more than a hole in the ground, and the shower was just a pipe emerging from the wall about 5ft off the floor. And the floor itself was something else. Exhausted we agreed to the cheap price and tried to nap.

Once rested and after a gripping half episode of 'Criminal Minds' (box set to be purchased in SK) we ventured out to the streets of Bangalore. Fairly easy to navigate we went in search of food, good internet for our impending interviews and a Cafe Coffee Day, even if just to use the more hygienic toilet.

Over the two days we managed to purchase Sean some clean t-shirts, arranged our buses out (after much to-ing and fro-ing between the bus and train stations); ate well at the western restaurants - KFC and Nandos: classic - spent some time at 3 CCDs, pure heaven and spent several hours feeling nervous and researching South Korea.

Interviews over, we spent some more time around the city, and found a decent sports bar for Sean to catch some football. Bangalore is supposed to be the silicon valley of India, and to an extent it is a modernised city, but really no different from any other we have visited. In the end they all become amalgamations of each other, busy, noisy, always something going on, all with roads named after Mahatma Ghandi, which does get confusing. There is a nice park which we walked through, but was full of Indian men, either on their lunch break or just on a permanent break, we are not sure which. Found the post office which is a HASSLE. So like much of Indian cities then. Spent a good hour here trying to post one item, queue to queue and then a ticket to queue.

Found a nice South Indian restaurant for our final meal and tried to kill some time there. The food was very good, we had to insist on 'very spicy' - the heat tolerance just keeps increasing. Played a few hands of Uno before time to head off to the bus to Ooty, overnight so a pleasant night's sleep to be had we're sure...