Final Days In Bangalore
February 15, 2004 4:09 pm General
Had a pretty quiet weekend, all in all. Went out to a place called 1912 with Bala, Hema and her husband, Venky. It was a pretty exclusive place, with some sister of a famous woman singing a retro/jazz set. It was a nice place, very moody, sitting beneath the bangalore skies. All the food and drink was free, after an initial entrance fee..and we made good use of that. I’m not sure if I thought the same the morning after – the hangover was pretty bad. Excellent night, and I think I remember most of it.
I had arranged with Ram to take me to MG road for some shopping, and decided that I should probably try and do a little bit more. We headed off to the Botanic Gardens [Lal Bagh], which proved to be a good ‘clearing the head’ style of walk, by way of Cubbon Park. Afterwards we finally headed to the mobs of MG and Brigade road, by way of a temple with a large bull in it. I didn’t do much shopping, apart from trying to answer the requests of my housemates. Today we headed off to the wildlife reserve up in Bannerghatta and also managed to find myself at the ISKCON temple. For a place apparently so spiritual, it had an amazing number of neon signs, donation boxes, restaurants, book shops and people hassling you. I respect someone’s religion and spirituality, but I have to say I was glad to see the ‘exit’ signs around the place.
The wildlife reserve, by contrast, was wonderful although a little sad to see some of the animals in the zoo part being so enclosed. Interestingly enough they have a ‘tourist’ entrance fee which is about 4 or 5 times the normal fee. As it turns out, I didn’t mind paying this because I got to jump the 50+ person queue and got to sit in the front seat of the bus [and the best camera view] as we went through the various lion and tiger country.
Getting back to the hotel was nice, and the swimming pool was too inviting to refuse. I think I’ll miss this place a little, but glad to get home.
