Even My Driver Won't Eat from the Stands on the Side of the Road

So today Manu was driving me to the office and I asked him if he would ever eat whatever it is they sell from the side of the road - I'm talking about the cooked stuff - and he said no way and started laughing. Can you even imagine if an Indian won't eat it how disgusting it could possibly be - anyway that made me laugh.

I think I found a place to live

I think I found a place to live. It's close to the Sabre office and it will be a total pain in the ass coming to town to visit customers but here's the plus side - it's behind closed gates -I know I said I would never live in a gated community but believe me here it's a whole different ball game. Anyway it's called Palm Meadows and there is hotel which has a really nice Executive Suite. They've got a separate living room with a GIANT flat screen TV, nice bathroom with separate shower and tub, microwave, gym, pool and two restaurants. You can also walk within the community and there is a supermarket. So here's the deal - Sabre has a negotiated rate with them for $300 per night for the Executive Suite. Today they send me an email and tell me I can have one of those rooms for $340 per night so I call them and say I'm going to be staying at your hotel for 4 months - why would you charge me a higher rate than what is already negotiated - I'm looking for a lower rate. Such is life in India - they'll get back to me tomorrow. I may just have Shirley or Warren from the office call so they can speak in Kanada.

I registered at the Foreign Office today. That was quite an experience. Thank god my company outsource all that paperwork to a company that specializes in this otherwise I'd still be sitting there. First you go in one room where the person has you sign the document and then they stamp it. Then you have to go into a different room where someone verifies and approves what the first person does and then you go to a third room where they officially enter you in the computer. Everything in India is very labor intensive because labor is so cheap.

To illustrate - when you go to the Mall (yes they have a couple of malls in Bangalore) and the driver enters the parking garage there is a machine that dispenses tickets - just like at the Sutter Stockton garage - however UNLIKE the Sutter-Stockton garage the driver does not push the button to get the ticket. There is a person that stands next to the machine and he pushes the button, gets the ticket and hands it to the driver. Don't ask me how much he gets paid for doing that because I don't have a clue.

Anyway, I'm tired so I'm going to pop a movie in the DVD player and chill out.

BTW - did I mention that where I'm staying I have a butler. His name is Krishna - he calls me Miss Annie and every night he comes in with a plate of Indian Sweets and always insists I take a bite and I can't believe I do because I actually find them disgusting - they're all deep fried and trust me the Indian version of a donut is NOT a donut :)
I think they need to open a Dunkin Donuts here.

Roadtrip Pictures from Mysore

Tippu Sutlan summer palace mural depicting one of the battles against the British
Man cutting cane in fields by the Krishna Temple
Krishna TempleKrishna Temple

Sultan Tupu's Mosque
Monkeys on the Grounds of the Summer Palace


Monks browing the store at Mysore Palace


Camel at Mysore Palace

One of the temples at Mysore Palace

I like to think this was elephants at play but i think it was a male trying to dominate the female

They don't even look real the crocs - they all looked like garden statues

Outside the zoo with my friend
Making the sugar drink from the sugar cane
Bird at the zoo

With Naga at his house in Mysore
The Yellow Bull
Cow painted yellow and black

The Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace

The Road to Mysore

So on Saturday two of my colleagues and I went to Mysore with Naga, our driver. Now Naga’s native is Mysore so we all had quite the experience – one that never would have happened if someone else had been driving.

But before I start with the day’s events I must share a very funny story illustrating the six degrees of separation theory. As we were driving along Billie began telling a tale of how she was in the airport several months ago and heard two Western women discussing their experience of being with a driver out on the country roads when all of sudden he hit a goat. Out of nowhere people began swarming the car. Needless to say the women were terrified and had no idea what was going on as the driver and the villagers were talking rapidly in their native tongue. Finally the driver told the women they needed to give the villagers 50 rupees. Alas the women only had 100’s and higher. They gladly gave the driver the 100 rupees and thought they could be on their merry way. But no – there they were sitting in the car still terrified surrounded by some villagers. Finally after some time the villagers came back with change for the 100 rupees and the women and their driver could resume their journey. Well by now I’m sure you have guessed their driver was Naga. As Billie was telling the story Naga chimed in and said yes that was him and the incident took place back in September. We asked to please not hit any goats or other livestock with us in the car.

Mysore is a 3 hour drive from Banaglore so we started the day nice and early – around 7:30am. The first stop was approximately 10 miles outside Mysore at Sriangapatnam – now try and say that even once let alone 10 times. This is where the Sultan Tipu’s Summer Palace is situated. And he really needed that Summer Palace because he defended his territory in FOUR wars against the Brits. Must have been exhausting.

You can’t take pictures of anything inside which is really where all the incredible workmanship is visible. But to me the best part was walking around the grounds and seeing the monkeys. I was so excited and immediately whipped out my camera and started snapping pictures. Two things happened – first I got a little too close to one monkey and he didn’t like it and started coming towards me and it wasn’t to shake my hand. Naga started laughing as I started moving very quickly back towards him. Second, my camera dies – well not my camera exactly just the battery. I was so upset but thank goodness for my colleague Billie who nicely shared her camera with me for the rest of our journey. The pictures will be uploaded on Tuesday.

From the Summer Palace the next stop was at the Sultan’s mosque. There were quite a few of his family buried there as well. Every day they put fresh flowers and beautiful, colorful fabric on the tombs. Needless to say pictures were not allowed there either.

Next stop was a Krishna temple in the middle of a sugar cane field. When I get the pictures uploaded on Tuesday there will be one of a man cutting cane with a machete. Anyway we went to this temple which was beautiful, colorful and very peaceful. And let me tell you after the constant assault on your senses in this most unique country I can understand why one would want to seek sanctuary. I also learned that every temple has an ashram because an ashram is where the servants of God live. Every temple needs at least one person to take care of it so there will always be an ashram at every temple.

We left the Krishna temple and went into the town of Mysore. Naga left us in Mysore and went to visit his grandmother and his brother Ragu took over the driving. He was a very good driver but his English was not as good as Naga’s so half the time we had no idea what he saying.

Mysore Palace was the next stop. The second we got out of the car we had a non-stop stream of people selling crap trying to get us to buy and let me tell you these people don’t take no for an answer. After a certain point you just stop trying to be polite and saying no thank you because they don’t understand the meaning. And then you have to go past stalls of people selling things before you get to the ticket booth to get into the Palace.

The palace was really incredible. It was huge and the woodwork was amazing. It took over 15 years to build this palace. One of the truly remarkable pieces I saw was the gold Royal Elephant throne. Since Billie had already been to the Palace she stayed outside and Sergei, Ragu and I walked through. When the sun goes down they light up the Palace at night with 90,000 lightbulbs that come on simultaneously. I can only imagine what a sight that must be.

Then we stopped for lunch at an Indian restaurant. Needless to say I wouldn’t eat anything. Thank god I had my Pure Protein bars with me.

Our next stop was my favorite. We went to the zoo. And since the zoos in India don’t have the same standards we have in terms of the size of the moats or the height of the walls you had a really good view of the animals. Again, the pictures will be uploaded on Tuesday. I was surprised at how nice the zoo was – it certainly was a lot nicer than the one in San Francisco. They had the usual suspects – giraffes, elephants, bears, tigers, cheetah, lion but they also had an amazing assortment of birds and the biggest python I’ve ever seen. It must have been at least 30-40 yards long and weighed at least 60 pounds.

Finally we were off to a museum – I can’t remember the name –there was some paintings and some furniture but outside the museum were some “antique-y” type stores. Billie and I were browsing around and I came across a painting that I really liked. It was of Hanuman – the monkey faced god. When he was born he was very, very hungry and his mother did not have enough food to satisfy his hunger so he took off for the Sun thinking it was a fruit. But Indra hurled his weapon at Hanuman and struck him in the jaw which he how got his monkey face.

By this time it was after 6pm and I was tired and just wanted to go back to the hotel. Not too mention I had to go to the bathroom and after experiencing the bathroom at the Palace which was a hole in the ground (thank god I thought to bring some toilet paper with me) I really wanted someplace that had a toilet. So anyway, we all wanted to go back and told Ragu we wanted to go back to Bangalore and he essentially said we had to go to the Brindhaven Gardens. Well since he didn’t really speak English we had no idea where he wanted to take us but we said what the heck. So off we went to these gardens. By the time we got there is was dark but there were thousands of people. One person in particular stood out because as it turned out he was the tallest man in Mysore – over 7 feet tall. And Ragu told us the 7 foot tall man was married to the shortest woman. Anyway apparently this spot is very popular because at night they have a big light show. We walked for about five minutes and told him we wanted to leave and go back to Bangalore.

Now Ragu was not going to drive us back. We had to get Naga which meant going to his house. By this time it was pitch dark outside and if Sergei was not with us Billie and I would have been very uncomfortable as women are not out after dark in India. Not too mention we were in the midst of a poor Muslim neighborhood. There were men everywhere – the streets were pretty packed – but no women. Anyway we get to Naga’s (he is Hindi)house and he introduces us to his family and has us sit down in what I presume was the living room. It was totally surreal. I was trying to be social because I did not want to insult his hospitality but we had like 6 people staring at us and didn’t really know what to say. His sister brought out glasses of Sprite and asked us if we wanted anything to eat which we declined. Then they wanted us to spend the night but that wasn’t going to happen. And here I am dying to go to the bathroom and we’ve got a three hour trip ahead of us. His sister asked me if I wanted to get fresh – meaning did I want to wash up – so thinking that Naga has a pretty good business and it looked like what could be construed as a middle class house I said sure. She showed me the bathroom – well I think it was the bathroom – god only knows – washed down the floor – I don’t even want to think about that – and turned on the faucet. Did I mention the faucet came directly out of the wall – it was like something we would attach a hose to. Anyway, I got out of there as quickly as possible. Now Naga has a temple next door to house so we went to the temple. It was pretty nice and he told me that anyone could come to the temple to pray – it wasn’t just for his family. I asked what was the red stuff in this little pot was and I was told that it was what they put on their heads and YES JULIAN they put a dot on my forehead!!!! Finally Naga said it was time to leave and back we came to Bangalore. I didn’t walk into my hotel room until 11:30pm totally exhausted.

Today I spent at the pool and made a decision regarding where I would stay for the next four months. Well it depends on what I can negotiate with the hotel but I like it here. The pool is really peaceful and I don’t want to travel every weekend – it would be exhausting. They have a great gym. I like the Galleria next door. If I can get the price down another $100 per night and have the internet included I’m going to stay here. So tomorrow I negotiate – let’s see how it goes.

Making Some Headway

Well it's been a pretty good day. First off I'm working from the hotel which is great because I have privacy and a phone right here at the desk - totally unlike the office where I have no phone and no privacy :)

Second I joined the Overseas Womens Club of Bangalore. They meet every Thursday here at the hotel from 10am - 12n so I went to check it out. There are a lot of expat "wives" but one of the women who I really liked said it was fine for single people as well she herself being one. She's lived in India for 27 years- she was married to an Indian but he passed away a couple of years ago. She has four dogs so you know I liked her immediately. And she gave me her card and said if I wanted to get together for dinner to give her call.

Anyway this club has a pretty good racket going on. So you pay to join which is cool because all the money goes to charitable organizations and then they have this pretty cool book they sell called In and Out of Bangalore which gives the low-down on everything. Food, shopping, apartments. And the club publishes a newsletter with activities like road trips and days at the races. So what the heck we'll give it a shot.

Then I decided to treat myself to a hot stone massage - 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated bliss. I came back upstairs, refreshed, relaxed and with a really good vibe going on. Had a very productive phone call with one of my work colleagues from another Sabre company and I'll be going to Mumbai on January 30th for the day to show him my product and pick his brain about doing business in India. And then at some point I'll go back and he'll take me around to some of the companies so I can do research about how they handle corporate travel.

And then I thought what the heck let me go to the galleria which is attached to the hotel and see what kind of shopping I can do. Bought a shirt and some silver bangles. The store I bought the shirt in also has all this amazing bedding - the textiles are wonderful and I don't even know anything about textiles - I just know what I like and this was pretty nice and really inexpensive. In the states the shirt I bought for $13.00 would be at least $35.00 and I can't even imagine how much the bedding would be. And the colors are so vibrant. Maybe it's time for me to re-think the whole black thing I have going on - as if!!!!!

Saturday one of my colleagues, who works for a different Sabre company , and I are going to Mysore. It's about a 3 hour drive and there are some temples and a museum of some sort. The driver who will be taking us is from Mysore or as they like to say - Mysore is his native so that should be very good.

Okay that's it for this post. I've got conference calls all night up to 11:30pm which is why today has been a mixture of play and work.

Oh yeah and at some point I'll take pictures of the property as it really is beautiful.

HAPPY SANKRANTI

Hello everyone - today is a holiday here - not one where the office is closed but a national festival. They dress/decorate the cows and sheep - not sure if I'll see any of that on my way back from the office. The good thing is there was no traffic. Manojar got me here in record time :)

Sankranti means to go from one place to another place (to change direction). It also means one meets another. The time when the sun changes direction from one constellation (of the zodiac) to another is known as Sankranti.

Manojar offered to take me to his house to meet some of his family and see the festivities and if I had my camera and didn't have to get back to the hotel I would have taken him up on his offer. I figure after 5 months of him driving me around we'll practically be family anyway. He's very sweet and just a baby - only 23 years old. Julian - get your mind out of the gutter :)

Oh so I forgot to tell you all about my shopping experience. I'm not even sure there are words to describe it. The area was like New York on major steroids. People, motorbikes, cars, auto-rickshaws and continous non-stop honking. Talk about an assault on the senses. And it's like all the stores are the same - I was just looking for some inexpensive tops but it was all too much. I walked around for about an hour and then called Manojar and said get me out of here. I immediately went back to the hotel and headed directly to the pool where I happily sat reading my book for a couple of hours.

When I first joined GetThere and was working with Cisco there was an AX employee working on the account named Daksha. She's still with AX and she is living in Delhi but today she is here in Bangalore so I'm going to meet her for dinner. She's Indian so perhaps she can give me some tips on adjusting to all this insanity. Work has been pretty frustrating for me because I send the local contacts an introductory email (none of them put their phone number on their emails) - they send one back to me- nice to meet you - blah blah blah - and then I send one back trying to set up an appointment and I never hear back again. This is typical Indian behavior so I'm really trying very hard to just go with the flow and I'll give it some more time but I don't see how I'm going to be able to do my job if no one gets back to me. And today I'll just chalk up to the festival. At the very least I'm happy to have a familar face to have dinner with.

That's it for now. Thursday I'm going to work from the hotel. The Overseas Women's Club of Bangalore meets from 10-12 here in the hotel so I'll check it out. I think it's mostly expat wives but hey you never know who you're going to meet.

Just got back from dinner with Daksha - you can't imagine how happy I was to see a familiar face and also to get some good info about this place. She told me how you know it's a real pashmina (very important). Real pashmina fits through a ring. And she also showed me a couple of stores in the galleria attached to the hotel where I can do some shopping and get good quality items for a decent price. She also told me that the service apartment she stays in while she is here is pretty nice so I'm going to take a look at it. She said they have a gym, flat screen TVs, free internet and that's in area not as noisy as this one. The only drawback is it would be about much longer to my office. But then again seeing as it's free internet I would probably spend most of my time working from home rather than the office.

Anyway, signing off for now. I feel much better - was really starting to get down today.

Yesterday I sightseed and today I shop

Snow White's Cottage

The Seven Dwarfs
Stray Dog in Cubban Park
Camels Eating from the Garbage Dump

This is the temple of the elephant faced god - Ganeesh.

Yesterday was a rather interesting experience. I went with a driver - Girish (he would not let me photograph him) who is a native Bangalorean. He took me to all the different areas in the city but since there is no part of this city that is untouched by construction it was still hard for me to figure out how to get from point A to point B. But since I have a driver for the entire time I'm here I'm not going to worry about it.

Because it's not rainy season the park that everyone talks about Cubbon Park and the Botannical Garden do not truly represent how lush and beautiful they are during the rainy season. And honestly although all the guide books say that one can spend a lovely day sitting in Cubbon Park honestly I'd rather sit at the pool here.

So you know I've been seeing lots of stray dogs and cows but yesterday I witnessed something truly unusual and even Girish commented on it. There will be a photo below - I saw two camels eating out of the garbage pile. Now I asked Girish about the garbage and if it was every picked up and he told me there was pick up twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening.

I find that a little difficult to believe.

The first place he took me yesterday was to a Hare Krishna temple. Now before entering any temple in India you must remove your shoes and in this particular temple you were not allowed to take the camera so unfortunately I have no pictures. Let me tell and I realize I'm dating myself here but after growing up in the 70s and seeing all the white suburban kids singing and chanting Hare Krishna it's really quite a different experience when you see all the native Hindu visiting the temple and praying to the god. I was the only white person there and they did quite a bit of staring.

He then took me to another temple where you pray to the elephant face god - Ganeesh. And he told me the story of how Ganeesh got the elephant face. Ganeesh was the son of a god whose name I can't remember and at his mother's request he was guarding the door to the room where she was taking a bath. He would not let his father in because he was respecting his mother's wishes. In a rage his father cut off his son's head. When the mother came out of the bath she was distraught and so the father told the servants to look for the first head they could find and put it on the body of the son. The first head they found was that of an elephant and so you have Ganeesh the elephant face god.

We also went to the botannical garden where you will see by the photographs they have the Snow White Cottage complete with statues of the 7 dwarfs. Needless to say I found this quite amusing.

We were out from 10am to 5pm and when we got back to the hotel I was exhausted. My box of peanut butter, crackers etc. had arrived so I made some crackers, kicked back and relaxed.

Today after breakfast I finally went to the front desk and told them I was not happy with my room so tomorrow they will show me two different rooms and let me choose which I prefer. My peeve with this room is it is on a corner and I can't really see the gardens and my balcony has no privacy. So I figure since I'm here till the end of the month the least they can do is change my room to something I prefer.

Anyway, Manajor just called to confirm he will be here in 20 minutes and he is going to take me to Commercial Street where I can shop for some shawls and silver bangles. I do have a shawl but it is wool and just way too hot for me to be wearing and since most of my shirts are short sleeved I need a shawl so as not to stand out - yeah right as if they can't take one look at me and know I'm not a native.

Oh yes and one last little piece of amusement regarding television. They do get lots of the American shows here. The other day I watched Seinfeld.

Signing off for now.