bangalore!

i thought my mumbai trip in august was my last trip to india for a while.. turns out one of the managers needed someone with a valid visa to go to india last sept and asked if i can go. normally i might have declined but then i was in the middle of completing 3 audits so i wasn't that busy on that week and so i agreed. it is much harder to pretend you have work and stare at the laptop all day doing nothing than go on a trip and be busy and useful to someone else. besides it's a plus for me if i can work on something different and get to know other team members. and so off i went to bangalore.

after my bad encounter with thai airways, i decided to go via hong kong instead and take CX (Manila-HK) then DragonAir (HK-BLR). While the dragonair plane looked a bit old, i still enjoyed the business class section because I was able to sleep comfortably (the seats can go flat and i didn't have a seatmate).

When i reached Bangalore... wow... i fell in love with the weather!! sure it was almost 11.30at night. but damn! the wind was so cool it was amazing! i felt like i was in the province (well bangalore is a semi-province). My office mate later told me that Bangalore used to be like the vacation place of the rich Indian families because of the cool weather. The weather stays cool the whole year around except for a few weeks during summer.

On my first day, i booked a room at Taj Vivanta, which turns out was quite far from the office -- at least 1 hour due to the heavy traffic. seems like everyone is going to the city center at the same time. I met up with my colleague in front of the lobby. I was wearing my favorite dress and my new 3 inch high heels and carrying a laptop on one shoulder and my big Longchamp bag on the other. You see, the roads and side streets in India are made of cobblestone -- which makes it harder to walk esp when wearing high heels.. yup you guessed it.. i tripped!! my colleague was walking too fast for me (aside from being taller than i am, he was wearing flats while i was lugging two big bags and cautiously stepping on the cobblestone).. despite my careful efforts, i still slipped, my left knee banged against the rocky-edged cobblestone (hugh ouchie!!!). i tried hard to stand up and i felt wobbly for a few seconds and i was trying hard not to wince at the pain. luckily my colleague had his back turned so he didn't see me fall down, though he did turn and asked if i was okay when he saw my bloodies left knee (sob sob). he then took my laptop bag and carried it for me. (he's such a nice guy). i didn't care that all the male tambays saw me fall down and probably saw more than what they're supposed to (luckily i had worn black undies!) but i didnt care - dont know them and will never see them again and i dont understand what they're saying anyways.

the rest of the day went by uneventful. by night time, colleague T and i decided to have dinner in the only mall in the city called Forum mall -- the restaurant name is called Sahib Sindh Sultan (http://sahibsindhsultan.com/). it was traffic going to the mall, we ended up spending 1hr and 20mins to get to the place. but it was worth it -- the interiors were designed like old trains -- really nice. the place was packed! seats were like in trains and even the waiters and the order takers had old train guard uniforms. i tried to take pics but it was too dark and blurry. Food was also great -- my colleague was vegetarian so we ate vegetarian food -- which i find are practically the same types of veggies but cooked different ways -- like the aloo (potato), veggie curry, etc.. of course i always make sure to eat roti :) we finished almost around 11pm and good thing traffic was lighter and we were able to reach the hotel in 30 mins.

the next day, we decided to move to Crowne Plaza Hotel which is exactly infront of the Blr office -- made sense since my client only comes in at 6pm so i had to stay longer in the office - at least i get go back and forth to the hotel anytime i felt like it. Downside is that there were only 2 places to eat in the hotel -- the breakfast lounge and the Italian restaurant. the breakfast lounge served started breakfast buffet but the food was unexciting - i dont eat Indian food in the morning coz im afraid my stomach may not take too much spice in the morning so i ended up eating light for breakfast. on some days, i skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. the italian restaurant wasn't so bad at least the meal was familiar. for dinner, all of us will be so hungry and didn't want to wait for our order so we would just grab the dinner buffet at the lobby lounge.

luckily, i was able to finish my job on time. unfortunately i wasn't able to go out of Electronic City again and do some sightseeing (though there's nothing really there). but still i enjoyed my time there (mainly because of the weather). maybe if they ask me to come back there i will.. thought i hope next time i can go to Jaipur!!