The remaining adventures in Bengaluru
So, I realise I start a lot of sentences with “so” and probably should train myself out of that habit. My bad…
I feel like my posts are all over the place. I have updated you all on my whereabouts (which is Timbaktu not Timbuktu, and yes both are real places), and posted about my happy place in Bengaluru. I think I’m missing information from Sunday until Saturday when I wrote the update about Timbaktu but to make things easier for me I’ll do one about the remaining time in Bengaluru and then make another one about the adventures since leaving.
Placement officially started on the 16th but we had a few unofficial chats with Augustine on Saturday and Sunday, which continued into the week. Most days we’d spend the morning listening to Augustine explain Indian political history, Ghandi, the caste system, the emergence of community development and many other things. And when I say morning I mean he would say he’d see us in the morning and then show up anywhere between 09.00 or 11.30. After a few hours of talking we would then go out for lunch and then would usually have the afternoons free. The food ranged from a microwaved “chicken” burger (we bailed on our normal place around the corner because of a sewerage truck parked next to it and instead went to a place further down the street that advertised “western” food), mediocre biryani (wait that was not a lunch – that was dinner on Sunday night when everything else was closed), to absolutely amazing tandoori chicken, butter chicken, palak paneer, and a thali banquet served on a banana leaf (I am considering growing a banana tree just so I can use the leaves to serve food and never have to wash up again).
(Side note: I heard something outside my window and just went to check what it was (I am still waiting to see the monkeys that apparently hang out here). It was not a monkey or a squirrel… its just a cow. A cow just wandering around eating the trees…)
We would then often just explore the area around where Augustine had taken us to lunch for a while and then return to the guest house. On Monday (microwaved burger day) Augustine had booked us in for massages at a place specialising in treatments from Kerala (a state on the west coast – and where Augustine is from). I hadn’t really followed most of the conversations about the massage, in my head it was “oooh massage. That sounds nice”. I should have been more aware of what I’d agreed to do because just before we went to leave for lunch and then the massage Augustine comments that we need to fully undress and they give us a loin cloth to wear. I found out the next day that it wasn’t even a massage for relaxation – it was for “treatment”. I am unsure about what it was treating but it was probably one of the most awkward situations of my life so far. It was an oil massage and there was so much oil that even after showering I still felt like I was covered in the stuff. Oh we also had an almost adventure on the way there because Alex and I were in one tuk tuk and Debbie went with Augustine in another. Our tuk tuk driver was not exactly sure where the place was so was told to follow the other tuk tuk (as far as vehicles go for a chase scene in a movie I would not recommend a tuk tuk). That was all well and good until we lost them probably ½ way there. Our driver then proceeded to drive extremely slow and kept yelling out at other drivers and pedestrians to find out which way he should go at intersections. At one point he just pulled over and was asking someone a bunch of questions. When he eventually kept driving it turned out we’d stopped 100m up the road from our final destination. It was a little stressful because between Alex and I we had no means of contacting Augustine and there was a time constraint because we’d been told that if we arrived any later than 10 minutes before the appointments we would lose them (if only I knew that I would have rather lost the appointment :P)
After the massage we had been told to explore the area we were now in but by general consensus, after observing the western feel of the location, decided to head back to our own part of town and explore one of the more traditional Indian areas and get passport photos for the other 2 (something to do with a police form that required a photo and I was the only one who had spare passport photos). From getting dropped off at our regular eatery just around the corner from our place we walked for hours and hours (or so it felt like).
Tuesday after lunch we went to Ulsor Lake which was apparently nearby. It was once a swimming spot for rich people but became badly polluted. It was picturesque enough but there was only a small part that we could see because the rest of the surrounding park was fenced off and locked. Then we went to M.G Road (Mahatma Ghandi road for those not in the know) in search of a book shop where we had very pushy street sellers (no random guy, I do not want to buy a toy tuk tuk and I really don’t care if it actually drives) and very pushy tuk tuk drivers (who tried to convince us it was too far to walk the less than 1km back to Commercial Street (where we were going to say goodbye to Baba, Mudasir and co)). We did find a book store and I got excited about Asterix comics (J – I want my family’s collection back please) and strangely enough was tempted to buy a novel by Salmaan Rushdie (because I’m in India I automatically assume that I will love an author I struggled to read in the past). I did however walk out of the book store empty handed (go me!). Then it was off to Commercial street on foot where Alex and I parted ways with Debby at the start (she was off to do some clothes shopping) and I parted ways with Alex when he decided to look at vests. We all had Baba’s shop as our meeting spot and we enjoyed our final visit for our first stay in Bengaluru with them with milk tea and more kahwa. At some point I actually had a conversation about cricket in which I was the most knowledgeable Australian in the room… what happened to me? Why can I now participate in conversations about cricket???
Wednesday Augustine had a friend Dominic coming to talk to us about social work in India which was going to be in the afternoon. So we had the morning free and decided to hire a car to take us to Bannerghatta National Park. When I say hire a car I mean we also hired a driver… anyways Bannerghatta National Park is about an hour outside of Bengaluru and has a zoo and a safari and the others had heard about the safari and were keen to go (and I had done absolutely no research about what was around or what I wanted to see so I was happy to tag along again). So we hire a car and head off through a different part of Bengaluru (I finally found part of the “Silicon Valley of India”) and eventually end up at Bannerghatta. We must have arrived quite early because there were about 10 other vehicles in the massive car park and the stalls inside the gate were in the process of being set up. We decided to splurge and book a jeep all to ourselves for the safari and got told we had around 40 minutes to wait. Finally our jeep arrives and we all pile in and set off. The park has different areas for different animals, so our first section we saw lots of deer, an elephant and some crocodiles and I think some water buffalo (cue having “everybody’s got a water buffalo” stuck in my head for days). Another section had bears (sloth bears are quite adorable but apparently can be quite dangerous) and another section had Indian lions. Then there were the white tigers and finally the orange tigers. After that we got returned to the main section where we decided to look at the zoo before heading back to the guest house. There was a giraffe that was not all cutesy and posing for perfect photographs (sure giraffe, just sit down at the back of your enclosure), some other African animals, some big cats, allegedly some emus (never found the emus but we did find ostriches), plenty of monkeys (I so want a baby monkey guys!!!), and some birds (where I was amused by the number of “exotic” Australian birds). The zoo was a little depressing due to the small enclosed environments the animals were in and after a while I stopped taking photos (except of baby monkeys and for irony). Eventually we all decided it was getting to depressing and that we should make a move back and headed out to find our car. It was not where we left it… and there were now lots and lots of cars. We eventually found it parked in the shade at the back of the lot and had a slower trip back to Bangalore because we got stuck in traffic coming through to M.G. Road. Eventually arrived back at the house to find Augustine and Dominic waiting for us and still had to make excuses because we wanted lunch. Then spent the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening talking with Dominic about his experience teaching social work in India and his work since leaving teaching. Augustine ended up ordering food in (which was once again delicious however required washing up afterwards which was not as fun), and then after a late dinner it was finalising packing to leave the next morning.
And thus ends my adventures in Bengaluru: Part 1
P.S. I feel like I should mention that Bengaluru and Bangalore is the same place. Just different names for it – I think Bangalore is the English name.
P.P.S. Photos will come at some point
I feel like my posts are all over the place. I have updated you all on my whereabouts (which is Timbaktu not Timbuktu, and yes both are real places), and posted about my happy place in Bengaluru. I think I’m missing information from Sunday until Saturday when I wrote the update about Timbaktu but to make things easier for me I’ll do one about the remaining time in Bengaluru and then make another one about the adventures since leaving.
Placement officially started on the 16th but we had a few unofficial chats with Augustine on Saturday and Sunday, which continued into the week. Most days we’d spend the morning listening to Augustine explain Indian political history, Ghandi, the caste system, the emergence of community development and many other things. And when I say morning I mean he would say he’d see us in the morning and then show up anywhere between 09.00 or 11.30. After a few hours of talking we would then go out for lunch and then would usually have the afternoons free. The food ranged from a microwaved “chicken” burger (we bailed on our normal place around the corner because of a sewerage truck parked next to it and instead went to a place further down the street that advertised “western” food), mediocre biryani (wait that was not a lunch – that was dinner on Sunday night when everything else was closed), to absolutely amazing tandoori chicken, butter chicken, palak paneer, and a thali banquet served on a banana leaf (I am considering growing a banana tree just so I can use the leaves to serve food and never have to wash up again).
(Side note: I heard something outside my window and just went to check what it was (I am still waiting to see the monkeys that apparently hang out here). It was not a monkey or a squirrel… its just a cow. A cow just wandering around eating the trees…)
We would then often just explore the area around where Augustine had taken us to lunch for a while and then return to the guest house. On Monday (microwaved burger day) Augustine had booked us in for massages at a place specialising in treatments from Kerala (a state on the west coast – and where Augustine is from). I hadn’t really followed most of the conversations about the massage, in my head it was “oooh massage. That sounds nice”. I should have been more aware of what I’d agreed to do because just before we went to leave for lunch and then the massage Augustine comments that we need to fully undress and they give us a loin cloth to wear. I found out the next day that it wasn’t even a massage for relaxation – it was for “treatment”. I am unsure about what it was treating but it was probably one of the most awkward situations of my life so far. It was an oil massage and there was so much oil that even after showering I still felt like I was covered in the stuff. Oh we also had an almost adventure on the way there because Alex and I were in one tuk tuk and Debbie went with Augustine in another. Our tuk tuk driver was not exactly sure where the place was so was told to follow the other tuk tuk (as far as vehicles go for a chase scene in a movie I would not recommend a tuk tuk). That was all well and good until we lost them probably ½ way there. Our driver then proceeded to drive extremely slow and kept yelling out at other drivers and pedestrians to find out which way he should go at intersections. At one point he just pulled over and was asking someone a bunch of questions. When he eventually kept driving it turned out we’d stopped 100m up the road from our final destination. It was a little stressful because between Alex and I we had no means of contacting Augustine and there was a time constraint because we’d been told that if we arrived any later than 10 minutes before the appointments we would lose them (if only I knew that I would have rather lost the appointment :P)
After the massage we had been told to explore the area we were now in but by general consensus, after observing the western feel of the location, decided to head back to our own part of town and explore one of the more traditional Indian areas and get passport photos for the other 2 (something to do with a police form that required a photo and I was the only one who had spare passport photos). From getting dropped off at our regular eatery just around the corner from our place we walked for hours and hours (or so it felt like).
Tuesday after lunch we went to Ulsor Lake which was apparently nearby. It was once a swimming spot for rich people but became badly polluted. It was picturesque enough but there was only a small part that we could see because the rest of the surrounding park was fenced off and locked. Then we went to M.G Road (Mahatma Ghandi road for those not in the know) in search of a book shop where we had very pushy street sellers (no random guy, I do not want to buy a toy tuk tuk and I really don’t care if it actually drives) and very pushy tuk tuk drivers (who tried to convince us it was too far to walk the less than 1km back to Commercial Street (where we were going to say goodbye to Baba, Mudasir and co)). We did find a book store and I got excited about Asterix comics (J – I want my family’s collection back please) and strangely enough was tempted to buy a novel by Salmaan Rushdie (because I’m in India I automatically assume that I will love an author I struggled to read in the past). I did however walk out of the book store empty handed (go me!). Then it was off to Commercial street on foot where Alex and I parted ways with Debby at the start (she was off to do some clothes shopping) and I parted ways with Alex when he decided to look at vests. We all had Baba’s shop as our meeting spot and we enjoyed our final visit for our first stay in Bengaluru with them with milk tea and more kahwa. At some point I actually had a conversation about cricket in which I was the most knowledgeable Australian in the room… what happened to me? Why can I now participate in conversations about cricket???
Wednesday Augustine had a friend Dominic coming to talk to us about social work in India which was going to be in the afternoon. So we had the morning free and decided to hire a car to take us to Bannerghatta National Park. When I say hire a car I mean we also hired a driver… anyways Bannerghatta National Park is about an hour outside of Bengaluru and has a zoo and a safari and the others had heard about the safari and were keen to go (and I had done absolutely no research about what was around or what I wanted to see so I was happy to tag along again). So we hire a car and head off through a different part of Bengaluru (I finally found part of the “Silicon Valley of India”) and eventually end up at Bannerghatta. We must have arrived quite early because there were about 10 other vehicles in the massive car park and the stalls inside the gate were in the process of being set up. We decided to splurge and book a jeep all to ourselves for the safari and got told we had around 40 minutes to wait. Finally our jeep arrives and we all pile in and set off. The park has different areas for different animals, so our first section we saw lots of deer, an elephant and some crocodiles and I think some water buffalo (cue having “everybody’s got a water buffalo” stuck in my head for days). Another section had bears (sloth bears are quite adorable but apparently can be quite dangerous) and another section had Indian lions. Then there were the white tigers and finally the orange tigers. After that we got returned to the main section where we decided to look at the zoo before heading back to the guest house. There was a giraffe that was not all cutesy and posing for perfect photographs (sure giraffe, just sit down at the back of your enclosure), some other African animals, some big cats, allegedly some emus (never found the emus but we did find ostriches), plenty of monkeys (I so want a baby monkey guys!!!), and some birds (where I was amused by the number of “exotic” Australian birds). The zoo was a little depressing due to the small enclosed environments the animals were in and after a while I stopped taking photos (except of baby monkeys and for irony). Eventually we all decided it was getting to depressing and that we should make a move back and headed out to find our car. It was not where we left it… and there were now lots and lots of cars. We eventually found it parked in the shade at the back of the lot and had a slower trip back to Bangalore because we got stuck in traffic coming through to M.G. Road. Eventually arrived back at the house to find Augustine and Dominic waiting for us and still had to make excuses because we wanted lunch. Then spent the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening talking with Dominic about his experience teaching social work in India and his work since leaving teaching. Augustine ended up ordering food in (which was once again delicious however required washing up afterwards which was not as fun), and then after a late dinner it was finalising packing to leave the next morning.
And thus ends my adventures in Bengaluru: Part 1
P.S. I feel like I should mention that Bengaluru and Bangalore is the same place. Just different names for it – I think Bangalore is the English name.
P.P.S. Photos will come at some point
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