So I'm not entirely used to blogspot and it's organizing of photos so you'll have to bear with me on how randomly it places photos. So my driver, Mohan, came at 10am. His English was a little hard to understand at first and I'm sure my English was the same to him. He's a very nice man and was very helpful. During the hour long drive into Bangalore downtown (which is only 15 kilometers, I don't know the miles equivalent so you can see that traffic is really slow. Sometimes it can take two hours). Along the way it was amazing to see all the contrasting images. Modern buildings mixed with stucco type old hut like houses. The traffic was amazing and still is to me. Its this organic flow of motorbikes, cars, three wheel cars, bikes, and people. Somehow it all works. But it can feel pretty scary at first. Everyone honks to warn that they are near. Its not a loud obnoxious horn but a little hey I'm hear kinda honk.
So I visited a small little temple with a large statue of I believe Shiva. My driver recommended we leave our shoes in the car, so we walked bare footed from parking lot through this long maze of hallways through little puddles, cobblestones, etc. It was neat to see though. After, I went to Lal Bagh Park. This was great and the park is huge. It was refreshing to have so much green amongst such a dense city. I took a little golf cart tour. A man from Japan sat next to me, it was his first week in India also. We all toured around for 45 minutes. The park was very nice. At the end there was a high rock area with a shrine like structure. From here it was great to see the city spread around me. I went to see some of there government buildings in downtown too. They are called Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha (please forgive the quick Photoshop job on this picture). Afterward I went to the Bangalore Palace. This is a Tudor reconstruction that was just outstanding. Inside is where the King of this region lived (if I remember correctly). It was a long lineage of 26 generations. The last king is only a title, and he is a fashion designer. During the very beginning of my tour I experienced what happens often here, a brown out. We lost power for about 5 minutes. Some of the guys in Office were telling me it happened to them a lot in there places. So far my hotel is free of that, fingers crossed that continues. Unfortunately Mohan misinformed me when I exited the castle. He said I could take photos outside but not inside. I snapped one photo when a guard came running over to me saying no photos. I walked back to car and asked Mohan again and he said from here you can take photo outside the gate. So once again I snapped a photo, and a guard came running. Mohan then said time to go. Lesson learned, snap and go. He dropped my off for lunch at this nearby hotel and told me that it had vegetarian and non-veg, along with different cuisines. I went inside and found out it was only indian vegetarian food. It was good and fine but I wasn't sure exactly I ate. Next we were off to the local markets and shops. Here I quickly found out that the stores really expect Americans to buy lots of stuff. The salesman kept showing me more and more pieces, and wouldn't take my "I'm just looking" response. I am not a shopper in the first place and this quickly wore thin. I wanted to see the different items but not with the guy trying to make me a deal on everything. The next shop he took me too was exactly the same thing. I ended up looking at about 20 different types of jewelry until I had to force him to let me look at some of the other floors of stuff. Even then he was which two do you really like, I will give you a great deal. After this I lost most of my energy for shopping. Mohan took me to the Brigade and Commercial roads which have tons and tons of shops. I quickly told Mohan thanks for showing me but I would not be getting out and it was time to head back to hotel for me.
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