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East Meets West in Bangalore while Mysore Stays Firmly in the Eastern Camp
5 February 2007
Mysore, Karnataka, India

This morning, we watched the Chicago Bears lose to the Indianapolis Colts in Superbowl XLI. Watching the game in a Bangalore hotel room was an experience that verged on surreal. Instead of the usual over-hyped commercials between plays, there were commercials for Indian life-insurance plans and other such things. Besides, it was strange to think that while everyone back home would be probably drinking beer and eating brats, drinking Indian coffee (it was pretty good coffee though!) was the only option available for us at 6:00 a.m.

Shortly before the Bears' loss was solidified, we learned the hard way what ‘24-hour checkout’ means. We had assumed that this little phrase simply meant that one could check out at any hour of the day or night. Not so! In fact, 24-hour checkout means that you check out 24 hours after you check in! For example, if you checked in at, say, 7:25 a.m., you have to check out at 7:25 am on your day of departure. Which is exactly what happened to us! At 7:55 a.m., Andy called the reception desk to ask what time we needed to check out by. Imagine our surprise when he told us that check-out had been a half-hour earlier! We would be given a grace period of 10 minutes, the desk clerk said, or we'd have to pay for another day. Well, we weren't about to shell out another 795 rupees for another hour in this room, so Andy marched right down to reception, leaving the Bears in their fourth-quarter misery, intent on working something out. After quite a discussion, the manager agreed to let us get our stuff together and leave without paying the penalty. So, we rushed around, showered, jammed our belongings into our packs and headed straight to the train station. After countless futile attempts at figuring out the workings of India Railways, we managed to secure two tickets to Mysore. It had been a rather hectic morning.

Before we move on, we want to at least touch on the subject of Bangalore. Initially, we're tempted to say that in Bangalore we did nothing and enjoyed every minute of it. Really, most of our time in Bangalore involved lying around and watching movies on HBO. Travel in India is tiring, so the chance to bask in the glow of Hollywood and Bollywood away from the chaos of the street is very welcome.

However, we really did experience a bit of Bangalore. We walked around the modern shopping malls and observed the ongoing fusion of East and West that is Bangalore. Home to the huge Call Centers, where customer service for the U.S. and Europe is carried out, Bangalore is a city on the move. It's cleaner than many Indian cities, and obviously quite a bit more prosperous. It's also a city that makes the ‘Westerner’ feel more at home, as it was landscaped by the British in the era of the Raj. With many trendy bars and lounges, Bangalore was the perfect place to chill out and we were even able to get such basic necessities as good wine! In fact, many Americans feel so at home in Bangalore, they've decided to follow their outsourced jobs right over to India. In many ways, Bangalore is a place where one can witness the trends that are so often discussed in American and European discussion of economics.

[…]

We ended up spending a few days in Mysore, a city famous for its production of sandalwood products. Mysore was highly recommended by our guide book, however, we weren't so impressed. Yes, there is a beautiful palace and we really enjoyed visiting it. However, the city itself, while described as laidback and relatively hassle-free, was quite dirty and intimidating. We met a girl from New Zealand who was assaulted and constantly followed around the city by a creepy guy. The poor girl was truly frightened, and she asked if she could tag along with us to not be alone. While we weren't hassled to the extent she was, our Mysore experience was rather stressful, but we managed to make it up by enjoying the amazing colorful market Mysore vendors put up to sell flowers, spices, bangles, fake essential oils and basically anything you could dream about buying in India!

Bangalore Photos•Mysore Photos

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