Bangalore!

Just a short post to do some catching up, while we are waiting to take our train to Fort Cochin tonight. Joseph and i had our first experience on the train last night as we took a 10 hour train ride to Bangalore and now have to wait until 5pm to catch yet another 12 hour train ride to the southern tip of India.

So we have some time to spare here in Bangalore, with nothing much to do but catch up, look around, re-stock on a few items that we can only find in larger cities and eat some delicious food.

Bangalore has become the hub of the high tech industry in India and is quite developed. From the little time I have spent here, I can say I prefer it to Mumbai. Perhaps it is because it is cooler here, and not so freaking chaotic. Many foreigners live and work in the high tech industry here. I also hear English spoken more often than Hindu or Karnata language (as this is the Karnataka state).

Just a quick update on how our dinner went with Ramesh. He picked Joseph and I up in his rickshaw and took us to his modest home he built himself and finished only 4 more months ago. Kiran met us later as he had to take care of some things at the restaurant.
When we arrived, we entered a cement home that was brightly coloured on the inside, with red, blue, and orange. It sounds loud, but it works. There was a small kitchen, an attached bathroom, and alarge living area where we sat on the floor. Ramesh is now saving more money to furnish the place. But Joseph and i were immediately comfortable and humbled to be there.
Ramesh did have a great stereo, and he had the new Justin Timberlake CD that a girl from England had sent him that he had never listened to, so I told him, that I would bring some of my culture to him and show him how to dance Canadian style to some good ol' "Sexy Back" So that's just what I did. I was wearing an Indian Salwar Kameez, a bright pink top with 3/4 length sleeves, that went down to about mid-thigh, and white cotton pants. I finished off the outfit with large silver earrings and a chunky silver bracelet I bought in Goa. I got so many compliments about the way I was dressed, and I felt so exotic.
Anyway, Kiran had arrived and I proceeded to dance around Ramesh's house and making Ramesh's little neices laugh (who were there visiting).

For dinner, Ramesh's sister, Geeta cooked an amazing chicken curry (spicy) with chapati and rice. Chicken is expensive in India and it was a big deal for them to serve us meat. So we ate on the floor with metal plates, and it was the first time I ate rice with my hands. We mixed the hot curry with some spiced curd to cool it off and used our hands to bunch the rice together and push it into our mouths trying not to let the food touch your Palm and using you thumb to move the rice forward into your mouth. It's very difficult, but I managed. In India they believe that food should not only be tasted but felt as well, and it part of their culinary experience. I didn't leave a scrape of food on my plate, even though I was so full. Ramesh works so hard to provide for himself and his sisters that I would have felt rude to leave even a speck of food on my plate.

All in all it was an amazing experience, and I am so honoured to have been able to experience it. Many people I met were so jealous that we had been invited because it is truly a cultural experience.
I rode back on the back of Kiran's motorcycle while Ramesh drove Joseph back in the rickshaw. Don't worry Mom and Dad, the motorcycle does not go very fast and there is not much traffic!
The mornings and nights were cool in Hampi, and I usually had to wear a long sleeve top. It is so refreshing after the disgusting heat in Mumbai and the dry heat in Goa. The climate is perfect. Although the Indians find it very cold and you see many of them wearing tuque's. It's funny actually.

Anyway, now I am going to do some shopping in Bangalore. I am glad I get to see the city, but don't think it's a place I'd want to spend much more time in. The cities are places I don't care to miss.

Fort Cochin in Kerela will be nice experience, once we get off the train we have to take a ferry to our destination, and hope to do a backwaters tour (where we see the villages along the water) and to see some traditional Kerelan dance performances. I should be in Cochin until Thursday.

Now, I have to go and dodge traffic and do some bartering for jewellery!!