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.
