Our arrival in the Bangalore airport (
http://www.bengaluruairport.com/) was well researched by me. I asked my friend, Katie, to talk me through getting off of the plane all the way to getting into the car – immigration, duty free shop, luggage, foreign exchange, customs, go outside. Once I got my 115 pounds of luggage onto a cart, I was ready to head out of the airport and into Bangalore. When the doors open, there are hundreds of people (and it is 6 am) waiting some of whom have signs. After locating the sign with my name (the first time this has ever happened to me), the hotel representative helped us to the car.
We drove to our hotel, Mercure (
http://www.mercurehomestead.com), as the sun was rising. Let me try describing the traffic. On the road are buses, trucks, cars, mopeds, rickshaws (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw), bicycles, and pedestrians. There are lanes on the larger roads, but drivers do not have to abide by them. As many vehicles as possible arrive at an intersection, and unless there is a traffic light (which is rare), everyone goes. The biggest vehicle wins. This hour of the morning was not too overwhelming.
Once arriving at the hotel, I was fighting hard to keep moving and stay awake, so I unpacked my things. At this point, there were five coaches in town. Here is the first list of “characters” on the trip:
· Sherri – Sherri is a director whom I work for from Raleigh, North Carolina.
· Chris – Mr. Stephens is my good friend from Nashville. He and his wife, Jill, both worked with me in Indianapolis before their big move to Tennessee.
· Ross – Ross is a director from San Jose, California whom I teach many courses with. Ross spent about one year in Bangalore in 2002, so he is well versed in the city and what to do.
· Natalie – Natalie is a manager from Cincinnati.
After breakfast, we were off to adventure with Ross. While there are many drivers in town, Ross’s primary mode of transportation is preferably rickshaw. In India, you will see any number of people in a rickshaw. However, we thought it best to put two people in each one. To start off, Natalie went with Ross, and I traveled with Chris. We told our drivers to take us to Commercial Street and off we were. I was a little too overwhelmed to take pictures, but Chris was taking them along the way. Chris learned very quickly to keep his head in the car. With no traffic rules, you could get smacked by a scooter or car if you aren’t careful. Many times, we only had inches between our rickshaw and the other vehicles. In addition to the vehicles on the road, it is not uncommon to see cows, dogs, and goats.
Once we arrived at our destination, we paid (or shall I say overpaid) our driver. As soon as we were out of the rickshaw, people immediately wanted to talk to us. Natalie had her picture taken with some children on the street who then ran up and wanted to shake our hands. This startled me a bit, so I jumped the first time someone grabbed my hand. Chris was very popular with the street vendors, but he was refusing purchases up to three at a time. We also quickly learned that we should not stop outside to make our destination plans, and that all of those decisions should be made inside shops.
Commercial Street is a street that in some ways looks like Times Square with all of the signage. Stores and street booths line the main street as well as every side street and alley. Natalie did purchase a couple of scarves, but I spent time taking it all in and window shopping. I quickly learned the conversion rate (1 rupee equals about 2 cents). After Commercial Street, we had a rickshaw race. Ross said, “Ready, set, go.” and I jumped in the rickshaw with him. (This was a no-brainer since he lived in the city.) Our destination was the Leela Palace (
http://www.theleela.com/hotel-bangalore.html). The Leela is a beautiful hotel with restaurants, shops, and a pool. We went out to the patio and had our first lunch in India. Chris and Natalie had Indian cuisine, and I stuck to pizza. Little did I know, pizza would become a theme for me this trip (at least in the first week).
After finishing our meal at the Leela, it was time to head back to Mercure (our hotel). As we were leaving the hotel, Ross was recognized by a man who is the greeter at the Leela and also coordinates all of the drivers. When Ross was in India in 2002, he lived at the Leela. This was very fun, and of course we took Ross’s picture with his old friend.
This rickshaw trip was a little more frightening. Our drivers were lost, and there were more close calls in traffic than we had in either of the prior trips. I am pretty certain that I jumped out of my seat more than once.
After arriving back at the hotel, I napped for about an hour, but I know I could have slept all night if I didn’t have Sherri wake me. I went down for dinner, and I spent the whole time forcing myself to stay awake. The journey had officially caught up with me, and I had no trouble sleeping that night.
