Friends in Bangalore

It is nice to meet up with friends while traveling. A little slice of normalcy and a familiar face are always welcomed and this was our reason to head to the city of Bangalore.

We left the houseboat behind and headed out of Kerala on our 3rd overnight train in the past 10 days. Our travels by train have mostly been in the 3AC train compartments. Basically an 8 person configuration of bunkbed style beds and seating in an aircon carriage. Comfortable compared to Africa travels but definitely nothing to envy!

Bangalore is known to most Americans as the epicenter of the Indian IT boom of the past two decades. In fact our connection to the city was IT related. Chad spent 10 months in 2006/07 leading a software team in Vancouver that consisted of a handful of members from the Bangalore office. Over the 10 month stint the team became close and Chad vowed to see them next on their side of the ocean during future travels. That time had now arrived and we were sure to follow through with the promise!

Our hosts during our stay in Bangalore were Kumaran, Subhash and Bala, all former co-workers of Chad. Kumaran and Subhash had kept in regular contact after the end of the project and helped to coordinate our stay. Bala graciously offered up a bedroom in his apartment and his wife's wonderful cooking (thank you so much!) as well as his children's endless entertainment. We spent much of the time wandering the urban IT sprawl of the outskirts of Bangalore. Just a handful of years prior the land was farmland but had now been converted into condos and office buildings that would not have looked out of place in San Francisco. The Accenture building (Chad's former employer) was situated in a massive business development flanked on one side by Intel and by AOL on the other. It definitely looked similar to the sights seen while driving down highway 101 through San Jose. Our hosts treated us to meals in their home and at restaurants, took us to historical sights, and showered us with gifts. We really cannot thank them enough in any way and our hope is that they will make it to the USA in the future so that we can show them the same hospitality that they bestowed on us. We are grateful, thank you so much!

From Bangalore we decided it was time to head north. Hours of waiting at the station and another overnight train took us north to the 500+ year old ruins of the town of Hampi. We stepped off the train to find the usual array of rickshaw drivers who really wanted to take us to our destination. Endless rounds of bargaining had us heading the 30 minutes out to Hampi. 500 meters outside the town and around a sharp hill(so we couldn't see the town) 2 men jumped out of the bushes and handed us a ticket for a "tourist vehicle fee". Sure, hand the white people a tourist ticket for a rickshaw. It was only for 10 rupees (25 cents), but come on. We have been traveling long enough to know it was crap. I handed the ticket back to the guy and we grabbed our bags and told them we would walk. Our driver was in disbelief as he was also in on the scam and now knew he wouldn't be able to try to get commission off of whatever guesthouse we chose to stay at. "Very far", the men kept saying, "2 kilometers". "Very strong" we told them, "we will walk." And so we did. Just up the short hill around the corner was the town. And so our stay in India continues on the this path. There is a constant pestering to buy things, take a rickshaw, see a different guest house, pay double what the locals pay, etc. It is exhausting, but adds to the unique travel experience of this dynamic country. (as we write this post we are sitting in a non-aircon hotel next to the Taj Mahal and it is 111 degrees outside. whoo!)