Weeks 3 and 4

Okay, so I didn’t update lastweekend – I was too busy not being in the house and didn’t have any free time!

Last week, I spent a lot of time at work. I had some training courses (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) so for a couple of days it was full training. The courses here give you homework and exams, but it was really interesting and worthwhile. Work is getting a lot more interesting now and there’s a lot planned for the next couple of months, so I’m looking forward to getting heavily involved.

Didn’t really do much else until Thursday night when Fergal arranged a leaving party for the current grads who are out here until the end of this week. Fergal is leaving on Wednesday and Rob and Zara are leaving on Friday. Matt is also leaving Friday, but he is only going on Holiday and will be returning for another month- upon his return, Matt will be staying in Palm Meadows because this place will be full to the brim of 2007 grads! The 2007 grads are arriving next Wednesday, so they seem to be excited about coming out and asking us lots of questions that we are more than happy to answer – it looks like my wish of Celebrations and Heroes will be answered shortly!!

Thursday was good, we went out to Bangalore and started with TFI’s where we pre-loaded with buy-one-get-one-free cocktails. I think we spent a fortune in there, but by UK prices it was extremely cheap – I’m now thinking in rupees rather than pounds. When pounds are mentioned, I have to convert it to rupees to relate!! After TFI’s we headed over to mainland China and ate ourselves stupid! It was very nice Chinese food though and I think we ended up with a table of approx 16 – you can see the picture below. Chris also announced his engagement to his girlfriend, Kelly – she was here for a week and was unfortunately ill for about 4 days of that!

Chris and Kelly left early on Friday morning and I took his room when I got back from work – his room has the huge balcony and is the largest bedroom in this house although the bathroom is smaller than the last room I was in, but I think I can live with that. I spent the entire evening cleaning the room then moving my stuff through. I finished at about midnight then Tom and I drank beer and played poker (unfortunately with Monopoly money) until approx 3am (we were also watching Jurassic Park 2 on TV). I lost at the start, but made money back until we were approx equal again and we decided to end the game with an ‘all in’. Tom had a pair of two’s and I had nothing and needed a 3 on the river to win – the last river card was a 3, so I now own Tom and all his bases.

Here's a few pictures of my new room, which I love! The balcony is fantastic with amazing views.

You probably can't read the sign here, but right outside my room is this little building, the sign reads "Sewage Treatment Plant". Of course, the door is always left open, so now and then you catch a whiff. Great choice of location for a sweage treatment plant!

There was a drivers strike last weekend – it was something about the government vehicles being forced to fit a tachygraph which would record their speeds, distances and also limit their speeds to 60kph. It was mainly relating to the lorries, but all the drivers seem happy to show their support and strike alongside their co-workers. Regardless of the strike, Matt and I headed into Bangalore and caught a Tuk – it cost us INR 150 to get to MG Road. Our driver was the perviest Tuk driver in India – every time we went past a girl (either on foot, on a bike, motorcycle or in a car) his head would crane around the side of the tuk – I think we narrowly avoided having a headless tuk driver several times because the whole ‘road lanes’ philosophy has not quite reached Bangalore yet.

On the way into Bangalore, we saw an elephant on the side of the road, but I never had my camera ready, so I missed getting a picture – on hindsight, I should have got the tuk driver to go back so we could see the elephant. Next time I’ll definitely go back if I see anything worth taking a closer look at – even the tuk driver seemed quite impressed because he said “Elephant” and pointed.

Our tuk driver wasnt happy with something at one point so he just stopped, more or less in the middle of the road to fiddle with something.

I managed to get a shot of a family of 4 on one motorbike! Still waiting to beat 4 though.

After reaching Bangalore, we tried to spend some of our money, and bought a couple of things, ate some food and ended up in a Chinese restaurant eating food and drinking fosters lager. I picked up a pair of the most comfy shoes in the world! I’ll be going back to buy a couple of pairs before I return to the UK for sure! We also caught a tuk to Commercial Street to take a look, and this tuk driver had definitely pimped his tuk because it was the fastest one I’d ever been in and the way the guy drove, he must have thought he was Lewis Hamilton.

We met up with Sonia and Shaokat, who were at the Hard Rock Café, and got a lift back with them – with a slight detour to someone’s flat. It was a really nice flat though with a fantastic balcony.

Sunday was a trip into Bangalore again, this time with Tom. I really enjoyed Saturday and wanted to do a few more things on Sunday. I bought a couple of wall hangings for the room and we went to Ruby Tuesdays on Market Street – Market Street is the main place for finding nice places to eat near MG Road. After we finished our meal, Tom was given one of those customer feedback card, so we marked it down and put the food as ‘average’ because that’s what it was. The guy took offence to that and decided to question Tom on his marking technique and the reasoning behind it for about 5 minutes before we just walked out. It was quite funny. We then went over to the NASA bar, which is basically a 1980’s nightclub (with lots of UV strip lights) crammed into a tiny space with Indian waiters dressed like Tom Cruise in Top Gun – not quite NASA, but worth a look. We also went to the 13th Floor, which is a bar on the top floor of a building (see photo below). We were sat right at the edge, akin to a bar, with barstools and a ‘bar’ type area for drinks, for safety there was a bit of plexiglass about four or five inches high! Health and safety must have been in and told them to make it safe. It was pretty good though – will certainly be going back there again! We forgot to pay the bill on our way out and the guy had to follow us out the door to remind us to pay! We then went to a rock club next to the Bose shop (I could easily spend all my wages in the Bose shop), but the rock club was so loud nobody could actually talk in there, but it was still worth a look.

Monday was a case of heading out to get a haircut, which cost me 200 rupees – the guy was not gentle with the razors and nicked my ear a couple of times, but the haircut was ok. At the end he asked me something, of course, I had no idea what he asked me and I just nodded then he started giving me a head massage. I didn’t like it whatsoever, so I made him stop and then left left. I went into the Coffee Day next door and was confronted by the biggest mosquito’s I’d ever seen. I left there pretty quickly and walked home – it wasn’t too far, but it was pitch black though. The pavements are terrible so I ended up walking on the road instead. It was much safer than risking falling down a pothole. When I got back, I grabbed a driver and took Tom out on a beer hunt – it was a bit easier than planned because Vello knew exactly where to go (not sure if that’s a good thing – drivers and alcohol…?) but he even went in to buy it for us. I felt like a 13 year old kid again, getting someone big brother to buy us some beer. Vello also came out with a little 180ml bottle of vodka which cost about 60 rupees (approx 75p)!! The beer was 800 rupees (£10) for 12 bottles, so beer isn’t that cheap, although they are 650ml bottles. Tom and I celebrated scoring some beer with a bottle of beer each.

Tuesday was a trip out to the Savannah hotel to grab a buffet with Tom and Matt. Tom seemed quite impressed so no doubt we will be making regular trips out to there – Savannah is so close that a decent meal is just down the road and it’s great if you fancy some good food without spending an evening stuck in traffic getting into Bangalore. Tuesday was Fergal’s departure, he left at about 1am and he was quite excited about going back home. I hope he had a good flight back.

On Wednesday, I went off to Cosmos (a nearby mall) to hunt down a pair of trainers – I went to the Big Bazar the day before, but the only pair I liked, they didn’t have in my size. Cosmos has some shoe shops and a sports shop, but I found a pair I liked in the first shop I went into and they were very comfy. In Cosmos, I got a little veg Samosa and it was great! I also bought an ice-cream cone which was also great, but it was about 80 rupees – the ones in ITPL are 20! Dinner was a trip out to Palm Meadows with Sonia, Matt, Tom, Rob and Zara. Food was good, as usual, and I used the shoe shine machine in the toilets – it is motion activated and comes on when you put your shoe into it – fantastic!

I was planning on going to the gym on Thursday, but I stayed a little later at work instead and just felt like coming home – will try and get to the gym tomorrow (I’ve been saying that all week!). Tom pulled a late one at the gym and when he got back, we headed over to ITPL to eat at Civet. We both forgot our ID cards, so I pulled out my Mensa card and Tom pulled out a Tesco Clubcard. Of course, we both got in! Prizes will be awarded to the grad who can get into ITPL with the most ridiculous ID card.

At Civet, it was just Tom and I because the other 3 guys were leaving at 1:15am so they didn’t come out with us.

We have been having quite a few power cuts recently. Last night (Friday) just as it got dark, the electricity kept going off for a few minutes, coming back on for a second, then going off. It kept doing this for about half an hour. I was sat downstairs the first time it happened, and it went pitch black - my torch, of course, was upstairs so as I was deciding whether or not to risk going up the stairs the electricity came back on long enough for me to run up and get a torch. Torches are definitely a good thing out here!

Until Wednesday, it’s just Tom and I, so we have a driver each! We were going to race each other into Bangalore, but I think we will leave that for the gokart track instead! A trip into Bangalore is planned for today and the Leela palace hotel for lunch tomorrow. The Leela is supposed to be incredible, so I’m looking forward to that. I’m also looking forward to the guys coming out this week. It’s strange to think that I’m now the longest serving grad out here – it seems like I’ve just arrived! The time is going past so quickly that I’m starting planning my trip to the Taj Mahal now because otherwise I’m afraid I’ll run out of time! Also need to start looking into flights to Australia to see my sister, my bro in law and my two little nephews.

Just to finish off, here's a few random photos. This one is the pool outside the other apartment, we also have a pool near our apartment, I'll probably never use it though because it's not quite long or deep enough to do lengths, but it's probably quite good as a plunge pool.

This picture is from the top balcony looking down over our back yard. The washing machine is outside and there's loads of gekkos around this area.

Just a random shot of the stairwell taken right outside my room, the bannisters are great for drying sheets on (as is clearly evident).

Just to finish off, a shot of the top floor toilet - a proper hole in the floor job. I doubt we will ever use this one.

Week 2

I'm still happy in India!

This week has mostly been about settling down in work and getting everything sorted out that I need to get sorted. Work is good though, the offices are (thankfully!) air conditioned and because they are quite new, they are very nice. The grounds really are amazing, a hot country has so many benefits that you just would not consider, such as palm trees and water fountains everywhere. The outdoor canteen is fantastic and they serve good food and drink at an amazingly low price in comparison to what we would pay in the UK.

We went out earlier in the week to the Savannah Hotel for something to eat – they had a buffet which is basically eat as much as you can for 300 rupees (about £4) and the food is top quality. The hotel is pretty outstanding with marble everywhere and it is very high class and finished to a top standard. Most of the hotels out here are very nice because they attract the Western customers who like to be pampered! I’m quite happy to go anywhere and get stuck into the ‘real’ India rather than go to the very western places, but it is good to mix it up now and then. You could so easily live the 5-star life here because a UK wage converts to a lot of spending money.

We had some heavy rain earlier this week and the road outside our apartment got into a right state. The road is basically a dirt track, so with the rain, it turned to mud and a few cars got stuck. Trying to keep clean shoes almost becomes an impossible task!

I wonder if someone got stuck here and had to dig their vehicle out?!

Tom came out this week, so we have been showing him some of the sights and places to go. It’s good to have new people coming out every so often. The guys out here will be gone in a few weeks and the rest of our guys will be coming out, so it will be good to have everyone together again.

Wednesday was my day for FRRO registration – if you stay in India for over 6 months, you need to register as a Foreigner in the country. It’s really just to let the Government know you are here working and that you are not an illegal immigrant. I left work at 2:30, met with some guy who was my ‘guide’ (so to speak) to make sure I was fast-tracked through the system and told me I was being taken to the local police station. After over an hour’s drive, I got to the ‘local’ police station, the guide met with another ‘guide’ I had already met with (I met this one the day before to fill in some form for the FRRO), talked to a few officials, signed a couple of forms, walked around to see some different people and made me sign one form. It took about 20 minutes, but my guide told me that it would have taken over 3-4 hours if he was not with me because they would make me wait for no particular reason. So, I am fully registered, but if I don’t leave within a year, I will be arrested and face up to 5 years in prison! After another long drive through Bangalore, I got back to the office at about 4:50pm. To pass the time, I took a few pics in the back of the car. The first one below is one of the stalls selling coconuts with a stray dog wandering around. Bangalore has a LOT of stray dogs wandering about.

This next pic shows one of the massive trees that seems to be all around Bangalore. Not sure what kind of tree it is, but there are so many of them.

This has to be one of my favourites - the wooden scaffolding holding up two floors of a building, right next to a high-tech mobile phone shop. The contrasts in technology and engineering are massive! Not everywhere uses wooden scaffolding, metal scaffolding can be seen when the larger IT buildings and large apartment blocks are being built, but for smaller projects, like the one below, wooden scaffolding is very common.

I was also happy to get a shot of a cow crossing the road!

Straight after work at 5pm, we left to go go-karting at a place called ‘Grips’ (on Matt and Robs recommendation) and we had to drive through the city at peak time, so it took us approx 2.5 hours to get there. When we arrived, it was closed so we were not best pleased! Matt reckons the guys at Grips told him they were open until 10pm – it turns out they shut at 6:30pm. Instead, we ended up going to ‘Sunnys’ which is a very nice restaurant serving mainly western food with an Asian influence. I have to admit, it was once of the nicest meals I ever had so I think a couple more trips back there will happen in the next 6 months! They also had the nicest Fosters lager I’ve ever tasted – not sure if that was a result of being stuck in the back of a car for most of the afternoon/early evening or if it was just really good. We planned to go back to Grips on the weekend for some full-on karting action.

On Thursday, we went back to the Golkunda Chimney with Tom to show him some good Indian food, he seemed to like it and I’m certainly a fan! I must be getting into the Indian spirit because I just had my curry with a naan bread – in the UK I would always have rice. I’m quite enjoying experimenting with all the different foods, although I think I ate something that didn’t quite agree with me because last week my tongue swelled up a little bit and made me speak funny – I couldn’t pronounce S’s, ch’s, th’s and a few other sounds. Today, I remembered I ate that green chilli pepper last week which was like putting molten lava into my mouth! It was definitely the hottest thing I have ever had in my life so perhaps my tongue was not too happy with it and reacted badly. I’ve been eating less spicy foods for the moment and my tongue seems to be getting better – I very nearly went to the hospital, but another drive through Bangalore did not appeal!

On Friday night, we went back to the sports bar in the Cosmos mall. I had some spaghetti before going into the bar; it was OK, but definitely not as good as the Indian or Chinese food. I also had a bright pink strawberry milkshake and a luminous yellow ice-cream which was called ‘after nine’ – I think it was supposed to be ‘after eight’ but that must be a result of the time difference between here and the UK! In the sports bar there is a cricket cage with a tennis machine which ‘bowls’ tennis balls at you. I’ve never played cricket before, so I had to have a go. Strangely enough I managed to get the highest score out of Tom, Matt and me – must be a result of playing a lot of hockey! It was pretty good fun, so I’ll definitely go back. We had 3 turns each with 3 over’s (18 balls in total) per turn – nothing like a few beers on top of a building, some fireworks in the distance and playing cricket. They also have a pool table, but it seems to be near impossible to get a game – I’m determined to get a game at some point though!

I took a walk over to ITPL yesterday to get some credit for my phone and something to eat before going go-karting. The ‘pavement’ is interesting (see photo below) which has an open culvert next to it containing everything from water to rubbish to raw sewage, but it was nice to walk around for a change instead of being driven everywhere. I might walk around a bit more in future because I’m getting used to the area now. I caught a little tuk-tuk on the way back because it was getting hot (it was about 45 degrees outside) and after a bit of haggling, I was still overcharged but at least I got a go in a tuk-tuk! They’re great!

Go-karting was quite good – I’m not much good, but I was happy to blame the kart rather than my (lack of) karting skills. The guy at the karting track didn’t seem to like us very much! He tried to charge Matt extra for using the same kart he used earlier! While the guy was arguing with Matt about the kart he was using, I handed him my ticket. He then came back to me and started arguing that I never gave him my ticket!! I was already sat in the kart, so when I turned round to explain that I had already handed him my ticket, my arm (just below my elbow) brushed against the kart engine and got a little bit burnt because the engines get incredibly hot. Another guy got it even worse then me, because he came into the pits, stopped his kart (the karts have no handbrake) got out, his mate stopped next to him and they were standing in front of the karts chatting. Another guy then came into the pits with a huge grin on his face and didn’t bother stopping his kart, instead he just rammed the karts in front of him. Of course, no handbrake means that the kart went straight into the guys who were chatting. One of them put his hand out to stop to karts moving; his hand went onto the engine and he stopped the kart from ramming into him. He took his hand off the engine and I was about 10 meters away and I could see the blisters on his hand already! I think he was taken away to hospital.

After spending a few hours karting, it started getting busy so we headed into Bangalore on the hunt for some food. I saw some great sights, including 4 people in a motorbike (my record so far). I couldnt get a picture of 4 on a bike, so you will have to settle for 3 (the women in Sari's ride side saddle, I have no idea how they stay on!). The hospitals in Bangalore seem to be some of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. The hospital below was built by a very rich spiritual leader and it offers free treatment for the locals, which is a very good thing. There's usually a large queue for treatment though, but it is better than nothing!
We went to the Oberi for something to eat – yet another five star hotel with a great menu. It was comparable to UK prices (which for India are very expensive) but it was quite nice. The setting was great; we were in the gardens with waterfalls going into a pond with Koi Carp. The gardens are on the opposite side of the building to where the main road is, so it was very quiet. The guy in the uniform is from Oberi and he opens and closes the door for you, he is a really nice guy and was happy to pose for a photo!

Some of the architecture in Bangalore is amazing. I have no idea what this pink arch was built for, but it looked really cool.

On Sunday, Matt and I headed off to Civet for our usual Sunday 6 course lunch. We caught a tuk-tuk over and walked back. From our apartment, the road forks into two roads leading onto the main road, the shorter of the two roads has the racist stray dogs (there are stray dogs everywhere in Bangalore) who usually bark at anyone with white skin, even if we are in a vehicle! Thankfully, they weren’t there today, so our walk back was quite uneventful. Nearly everyone is off playing golf today, but I felt like just chilling out and watching some movies instead. I got a little bit sunburnt yesterday so I’m just going to stay in for a while. I’m considering purchasing a bicycle to keep fit because being driven around everywhere and eating lots of food means I’m putting a bit of weight on and need to do something about it. I may go cycle shopping on the weekend and see what I can get – I’m here for a while yet, so it will be a good investment and also make me a little bit more mobile so I don’t need to rely on the drivers all the time.

Just to finish off, here's a few more pics of where I am staying. The first is the road that our villa is on - this is the path I walk down everyday after leaving the villa (you can just see the corner of ourvilla on the right hand side of the picture). The next two pictures are of the living room/dining room. We use the dining room as a drying room and turn the fan on above the clothes. There is a drying room upstairs, but it's up 40 stairs, so we don't bother using that room very often! Next to the upstairs room is a proper hole in the floor toilet. I'll get around to taking some more pictures inside the villa later on.

That's it for now, will get around to writing more later on. I hope to be moving rooms soon because Chris is leaving at the end of this week, so I'll be getting the room with the massive balcony - no excuse not to get a tan now! It's pay day on Friday, so a shopping trip into Bangalore sounds like a good plan.

First week in India

I am in India!!

When I left my apartment in Hertford (at 4:20am on Friday 1st Feb) I was collected in a nice Mercedes with blacked-out windows and taken to Heathrow.

Initially, I was to have 2 flights, one from Heathrow to Frankfurt (at 7:55) and the next from Frankfurt to Bangalore. The Franfurt flight was cancelled, so I ended up having to wait in the airport until 2:25pm! Thankfully, I had my iPod with me! I did check out the business/first class lounge, but it was just people reading the Financial Times, so I took a wander round the airport and watched the planes take off and land.

The flight was a British Airways flight and I was put into the upper floor of a 747. The business class was very nice, with each of us having our own cubicle with a flat reclining chair, a leg rest drop-down thing and our own small TV with movies, tv shows, radio, games etc. I could easily get used to business class!!

When I arrived in Bangalore, the fun really began! My case and bag took quite a while to be offloaded from the plane (approx 1 hour wait at the carousel). My case and bag was marked with a chalk X; of course, I had no idea what that meant, so I ignored it. When I went through to leave the airport, I soon found out what the chalk X meant! My case and bag were taken from me, so I was a bit shocked at this as no explanation was given. When I enquired as to what was happening, it transpired that a chalk X meant that the bags had to be re-scanned for safety. This was when they discovered I had 2 laptops! Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but a sign was pointed out to me which said one 1 laptop per person. They wanted me to pay import tax on the second laptop; I was happy to pay the import tax and I also explained that it was a work laptop and I would be returning to the UK with both laptops. I showed the customs officer my return ticket and he made a note on it that I had two laptops. Then, he wanted me to pay him some money, he said something like: lets say 1000 rupees. I explained I had no money and I was escorted to the cash machine by someone in uniform. After taking the money out, the uniformed guy wanted to take the money from me. There was no way I was just going to hand over money, so I went back to the customs desk and asked for a receipt before handing over my money. This seemed to cause a big problem and after lots of “you keep half, I keep half” from the customs officer, I held my ground and explained that I need a receipt several times. He started to write a receipt and paused, thought for a while, then handed me back all my money and my passport! So, always ask for a receipt and you may never have to pay for anything here!!

When I got outside, the place was mobbed with people, considering it was approx 6am, I was quite surprised at how busy it was. I found my driver (he had a big sign with my name on it) and he took my case and bag from me, then lots of people suddenly flocked around me and took my case and bag from the driver, moved it about a foot and then asked for money. Again, I explained I had no money and got into the vehicle. The door was held open by someone else, again asking for money, I had to again explain I had none and eventually, the door was closed for me. We were on our way.

The driver was asking me if I wanted to go sightseeing tomorrow (Sunday) so I said that I didn't as I would need to get some sleep. He then said he would pick me up on Monday to go to work. I asked if he was one of our regular drivers (we have two regular drivers to take us to and from work) and he said he was. So I asked if he was picking up one of the guys later on today (he was going shopping in Bangalore later on Saturday) the driver said that the other driver would be taking him. However, it turned out that this driver was NOT one of our regular drivers and on Saturday I emailed the drivers company to state I did not need his serevices on Monday – nevertheless, he turned up anyway on Monday morning wanting me to sign something. I declined to sign anything and he went away. He was very pushy and actually tried to push past and get into the house when the door was opened.

Anyway, on Saturday, I slept for a while and when my welcoming part of one returned, we talked for a while. I ordered pizza from Dominoes and stayed up nearly all night – got about 2 hours sleep then we went out to Bangalore on Sunday for most of the day. It was pretty good – there's so many shops and a huge western influence. There are lots of people trying to sell you things on the street and lots of people asking for money. When the cars stop at the traffic lights, young girls (about 8 or so) do some things with a metal hoop (they twist themselves through the hoop, do backflips and variations on this) then they come around knocking on the window asking for money. They seem to target anyone who is non-Indian. I picked up a DVD player for the apartment because there was not one in there. I brought to many DVDs with me that I felt I needed one. It was a decent player with DivX capability and in the shop they made it region free. When I got the player back home, it was not region free, so I found the code online and made it region free myself.

Yes, the traffic is crazy but you soon get used to it. There are rarely any road markings, so traffic just seems to go wherever it wants to. There does not seem to be any right of way, but there is no road rage at all. The horn is used constantly just to say to other drivers 'I'm here'. I saw a crash as I was coming from the airport and they closed the road off with a line of coconuts! The crashes seem to be infrequent, but often fatal.

We went to a grocery store and I bought a few things to eat for the next few days so I can try things out. There are a few things on sale from the UK, but they are very expensive because they have to be imported – they are possibly more expensive that they would be in the UK. Cheese's, in particular, are very expensive as they are the UK branded cheese. Thankfully, vegetarianism is the main way of life here, so it is very easy to be vegetarian here. Unfortunately, I was served chicken at ITPL (a large IT park with a kind of underground mall where we often go for lunch) even though I asked for a veg meal. There is no queueing system here either - the person with the longest arms generally gets served first, which suits me fine!

The villa we are staying in is nice, even though it is quite new (built sometime within the last 10 years) it reminds me of a hotel that hasn't been updated since the 1970s! It is very spacious though and it has everything I will need for the next 6 months.

There is a small gym here and a couple of pools, so I plan to make use of the gym while I have the chance to. There's not much to do in the evenings in the villa, so the guys tend to go out a lot to different restaurants and other places. There's an awful lot to do in the evenings here and the drivers are so knowledgeable that they will just take you to wherever you want to go.

I've seen some great sights here. The wooden scaffolding and the name of my road just chalked onto a wall. Three people on a motorbike is pretty common, and some of the guys have seen 5! I've seen little gekko lizards running about the house, grasshoppers seem to be everywhere and mosquitos like to get hold of me too. There are huge contrasts everywhere; opposite a multi-million dollar IT building will be people living in tents on the side of the road. Everyone wants to sell you things and the little tuk-tuks always stop and ask if you want to go somewhere. The people here are the nicest people I have ever met - everyone is so happy and contents and completely non-agressive. The place is very very relaxed and chilled out. I really like it here and would be happy to stay.

The people I am sharing with are all very nice and easy to get along with. They are keen to tell me all their experiences and take me out to places of interest. I'm happy to try everything possible. We were out last night to a party with the Indian couple who live in the same complex. The guy works in IT (most people in Bangalore work in IT) and his wife is a model who is often seen in the papers and on billboards around the city. She also has a degree in IT and worked in IT for a while. Apparently, if we give her some photos, she will pass them to her modelling agency who are crying out for westerns to appear in adverts. One of the guys from last year ended up in a Bollywood movie!! Might give it a go...

Work is good too. The setting is amazing and the food is so cheap! For a good meal it is about 20-40 rupees (about 25p - 50p). The people at work are great and helping me with all the things I need to be doing while I am here.

So, I love India. It is one of the countries that I never considered visiting, but I am loving every single minute of it.