15.02.08 Bengaluru

An early morning start with poached eggs and juice at the Orange Boom cafe because the German Bakehouse was still closed. Organise for the gusthouse owners son to take us in the family car to Goa airport abot 50km away for 750R which seemed reasonable. We were off by 11am and Paul and Julia had decided to come as far as Panaji which was their next stop off so we dropped them there on the way. It was a sad farewell and I'll miss them both very much after 5 incredible weeks together in what from my perspective couldn't have gone more smoothly.

Th flight from Goa to Bengaluru was uneventful except for a minor altercation with the armed airport security guard for taking photos....whoops. The service on this 1 hour Kingfisher Air flight was exceptional with great food and service. The view approaching Bengaluru (6m +) was of a vast green, parked, city with some serious buildings. I caught a tuk tuk straight to my hotel which I had already booked knowing how difficult it was to get accommodation here. I wandered into the area known as MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Rd) and found my bearings. The traffic was crazy and very congested but there was a semblance of order. There were alot of wide open spaces more cars and lots of international upmarket shopping...reputedly the best in India. I headed back to the hotel at dusk and ate in its restaurant much to the amusementb of the locals and 13 or so waiting staff.

Bengaluru was the British base for lots of their admin in the 19th century and lots of remnants of the Brits remain, like the officers clubs, very english schools and the park like setting. It was the first city in India to have electric street lights in 1905 but it has since established itself as the IT capital not just of India but heading globally now. It also is the base for India's aeronautical and space programmes. But it is its IT business which has provided so much wealth to this area. It's biggest success story is Infosys which has 66,000 employees on one 32 hectare site in the city, where staff do everything but sleep.

In the morning I headed to an address to get a city tour bus but after much searching the info office told me the business no longer operated and then found I'd missed the only other tour operator. So I eventually grabbed a tuk tuk to take me to the markets and some of the other areas of interest. The traffic wa sdeadlocked and we were going nowhere fast. I had to check out at 4pm so decided to head back to the hotel and just took photos on the way from the autorickshaw. He got me back with a minute to spare so I checked out and had my packs put in storage while I wandered into the other older shopping area for a squiz. A tuk tuk driver tried to pick me up and struck up a conversation ..asked where I was from and then showed me a silver fern cap!.. I walked away saying I didn't want a lift and he called after me saying in his broken English please just let me take you for Richard Hadlee's sake?

After a quick dinner with 13 waiting staff watching my every move along with a table of black clad muslim women I took a tuk tuk to theairport (about 9km) but it took 45mins. A last argument with the driver over his fees, resulting in my getting dropped off 100m short, I headed to the departure lounge but found I wasnt allowed in until 3hrs before my flight so I had a 2 hour wait on the footpath with lots of other disgruntled passengers. I eventually checked through, with just the maximum allowance and 16R left to my name and flew off to Singapore leaving this wonderful land behind.