Thursday, 30 December 2010
BENGULURU
Bangalore to you, this name has changed less than most - but hey I'm ahead of myself for the last time this trip since we have not even left home. This is just a preliminary to record a few parameters from last year to provide a yardstick.
Notes from South India 2010
The exchange rate by ATM varied from just over 74 to 69.8rupees at the end. Since the pound was dropping it would be as well to expect no more than 70 rp this time, we also changed travellers cheques on a couple of occasions when the ATM was empty. Changing TC was very easy (no bank) and virtually the same exchange rate.
Accommodation varied from 500 (Mysore) to 3250 (Chennai Internet hotel) rupees per night, typically we had very good accommodation with two breakfasts for 2000 rupees, usually plus 12.5% tax.
Many dinners for two cost less than 500 rupee often freshly caught fish or vegetarian by choice and usually without any alcohol - the norm in India but drinking could increase the cost significantly.
Adding the two together means everything else transport, snacks, tours, entrance including museums and music/dance events was around 1000rp per day bringing the total to around 3500rp or £50/day for two.
Hiring a car with driver for a day varied between 1650 and 3000 (Munnar to Otty) for a very long 8+ hour drive). We used train only three times using a/c sleeper class cost for instance 530 rp for Madurai to Trivandrum an 8 hour journey. Local bus was dirt cheap but it was very crowded and non too comfortable, it was best to join the rush onto an empty bus just before the start, choose seats rapidly and stow luggage under the seat. Good fun. Long distance coaches seemed to be unavailable in Tamil Nadu or Kerala, but we did take a not very plush one from Kannur to Mysore our most northerly transfer from the north of Kerala to the part-modernised Karnataka state, the IT capital of India.
Benguluru where we will start this time is the most southerly city in east Karnataka and we will initially head west to the coast and then north towards Goa and Mumbai but will have to go inland again to Hampi or maybe that will be on the route back. As last year we have booked into the Arora Hotel Heathrow, which is served frequently by free (don't know why) normal local buses U3, 76, 75 from the Central Bus Station and 432 to Terminal 5 the next morning. I booked by Internet the Casa Picola Cottage for 5th and 6th of January 2011 even though we will be arriving 0440 on 6th Jan to insure we have immediate access to a room. Alternately we could loop counter-clockwise north via Hampi in central India across to Mumbai and back via the coast making it more logical to pay a return visit to some of last years haunts in Kerala. Big decisions lie ahead!
9 Jan Hello first posting from Hassan India
We have just arrived in Hassan by air con bus from Bengaluru, 532rp for 4.5 hours sometimes on new dual carriageway or 'double road' as they called one in the big city.
Finding Casa Piccola which we had pre-booked by Internet
To recap and try to record that facing the new arrivee at 4am without the advantage of a transfer booked or organised by a tour party to the hotel. Almost shades of Beijing, we had booked by Internet but how to find the hotel? In some ways it was even worse for the question was whereabouts in town was the hotel and how to deal with the dark and no-one on the streets? Luckily I asked at the reception desk in the airport for a fixed price taxi, the norm I thought, and was told they didn't have them but that the airport taxis ran on the meter at 15rp per km, according to the guide book only motor rickshaws doubled in cost at night. A personable young man approached us at the exit and offered a taxi, I said I was looking for an ATM and he pointed to one right beside me. I got the cash and walked further towards the exit again he approached but only Joan recognised him. I gave him my case to tow, always a bad move, and he took us to his car and put the case in the boot, Joan followed just behind with hers, but before getting into the car I noticed it was not in fact an official taxi, he was free lance. He left the airport and soon pulled into an unmade road heading towards a new multi-storey hotel, No! we protested thinking Bengaluru was 9 km away and we already had a booking there. Being concerned at the possible price I made sure he was operating at 15rp per km, that being OK there was a difference in distance he said the new International Airport we had arrived at was 40 km from Bengaluru. Waking up rapidly I remembered it had mentioned in the guide book that such was opening soon and on checking found it was 35 km from the city. Panic over we together noted the mileage clock and I mentally allowed another 10 km for that already passed. We arrived in the city but where to go ? (I had assumed the name of the hotel and the area of town would be sufficient). All I knew was to follow two major streets, MG Road (Mahatma Ghandi) and then right at the intersection onto Brigade Road. I mentioned the area was Richmond so he turned off Brigade Road along Richmond Street. We were in the correct area but where to turn, left being the only other thing I could decern form the LP map. We stopped several times to ask the few people around at 6am but with only vague directions. Had I their phone number? No. Crazily I had been far to blasé about preparation this time and not taken obvious precautions at home! Eventually Casa Piccola Cottage rang a bell to someone, it was near a post office and so we eventually found Clapham Road (about 100m long), but where was the hotel? A night watchman at the other end of the street didn't know so we walked the full length without it finding it until a neighbour pointed to the large sliding gate behind us. We had arrived at last.
As for money 40 km agreed with the mileage clock and so I offered 600rp, he asked for 1000rp and showed us a fare upgrade of 1.5 at night time, which I thought was wrong since the Guide said that of rickshaws but not taxis. We soon agreed 800rp and both were happy we were pleased that he had been willing to work so long and hard at locating our small hotel on a narrow street between two long main roads.
My friend Ramnath, the manager at Vallera Hotel (see later) said 'don't think we are all crooks'. That driver was the pleasant young man he seemed, but as Ramnath (the manager of our second hotel) said 'we were lucky' telling us of the visitor who was charged 500rp for a rickshaw from the station, a trip which should have been 50rp. Ramath like me was an old man, face very lined by constant exposure to the bright sun, completely bald on top, perhaps 60, or 70, maybe more or less, but bright as a button and with a wonderful command of English, including our humour. We struck up a wonderful rapport with him in the following three days and greatly expanded our appreciation of the local culture.
Casa Piccola
But I get ahead of myself again, at 6.30am that morning we checked in at Casa Cottage (chosen as often from tripadvisor.com) and made it to our small but nicely fitted cottage for a few hours kip until breakfast which ended at 11am. Breakfast of fruit salad, mango juice, marasala omlette (not at all spicey) and tea in a pleasant quiet small garden totally divorced from the noise of the horrendous Bangalore traffic with an ambience totally European, mostly French - not surprising as the French owner a Mrs Oberoi had bought the original 1915 house and large garden some 30 years previously. She and indeed all the personnel were very friendly, but though I suspect she started as a backpacker who now travels personally by car or on a motorbike mainly in Goa and Kerala) but was clearly in the business of organising people's holiday trip's here and a farm stay there etc., which is not my style. I like to follow my own nose, make my mistakes and learn (about the same way as I try to learn and teach computers). First day was therefore for relaxing and walking about to find our bearings and first we set out to find the Crossword bookshop she had recommended to buy a map (another task better done at home!). Not as easy as it seemed, confusing enough to find Richmond Road - no wonder it was difficult the night before and never did find the post office, next difficulty to realise there were no street names, at least not in English anyway, or even numbers in order along a road, and all with the life threatening process of crossing the road.
Hotel Vellara
Realising the Vellara Hotel recommended in the guide was close by we went there and on being offered a clean room with two beds, shower and hot water for 1059rp including taxes, compared with the 4000rp we had paid via Expedia for the Cottage, which she offered to reduce to 3600rp for further nights, the only downsides were the quiet and breakfast - we would have to for Indian food earlier than we imagined. It was at the Vellara that we met Ramnath who explained they did not run their hotel on commercial lines and had not increased the price for 5 or 6 years but as a service for clientele who unsurprisingly returned frequently.
For the very first afternoon on Ramnath's advice we took a rickshaw, charged by meter, to the Lal Bagh Gardens one of the largest in India and with a glass pavilion copied from Kew Gardens.
Beautiful large trees, one planted by Kruschev in 1950's, but not a great deal of colourful flowers and no Lotus flowers in the pond, now being cleared of the clogging Water Hiacynths, but many fine birds including kites, according to Joan, and cormorants catching fish which looked too big to swallow - though they have their methods; waterhens, herons and egrets.
But the best followed when passing three young men selling mineral water ice cream and Mango juice. The one who spoke English shouted out to buy Mango juice, which we did but Kondo turned out to be Japanese, a tourist like us, who had been sitting and helping these people he described as 'street people' make a living and in so doing had seen how supportive they had been of each other and how they had looked out after a destitute street girl who was passing. That idyllic scene ended in uproar as the park keepers drove up in their jeep brandishing sticks but the jay sellers had fled with their case of mineral water and their cold box of ice cream. We saw one of them again like us walking casually to the nearby main exit cold box on his shoulders. Kondo asked if he could accompany us to eat at the MTR and we readily agreed, that in itself was an eye opener.
MTR serves Tiffin, in effect substantial snacks, it existed on two levels each with three large rooms the outer of which is simply used for those waiting for table space, and at peak times this can be a crowd such is the reputation they have for quality food, the exception is lunch time when they serve 12 course (presumably set) lunches for which the book says you will not get a table. The tables by the way are simply benches. Kondo ordered Marsala Dosa and we followed suit, wisely so for it was by far and away the best dosa we have eaten, a little thicker than most very crispy and dark brown with lightly curried vegetables inside and a small side dish of very spiced sauce (mint), and a small dish of ghee (clarified butter) to pour over the dosa. No menu, no English, but a variety of single dishes being eaten. Worth a second visit. Kondo paid for all three and would not accept a contribution.
Kondo was just about to retire at 65 and this was his second attempt at travelling our style (but his wife preferred to stay behind), the first being Vietnam. This time he had been to the southern tip of India and made his way north by many of the places we were at last year. He had spent his life in the Japanese car manufacturing industry and was qualified as a Mechanical and Chemical engineer a combination rarely if ever seen in the UK, though I can see there might be value in having a good insight into materials science in such an industry. He now worked for Honda but in the past had worked at the Nissan plant in UK and also in the USA. He was taking advantage to visit a small Indian sub-contractor (transmission parts and fasteners) in which he held shares. He said he felt the earlier success of the Japanese industry was based on extremely hard work and he had worked 16 hour days on a regular basis, which he felt was necessary to achieve the sort of technological breakthroughs made by Japan and Germany after the war. He believed the last decade or so of recession in Japan in part reflected that the young Japanese were no longer willing to work that way, I guess they have handed that mantle on to China. The same loss in dedication/free overtime by professional engineers happened in the British engineering manufacturing industry in the 60's and was followed by the virtual elimination of our once dominant position. Returning as I did from Canada in 1961 I was amazed at the 'I'm all right Jack' attitude then prevailing in a country which felt the world owed them a living and were still top dogs in engineering manufacturing (blatantly untrue).
After eating we parted, he walked back to his hotel The Empire, 26 Church road which provided double rooms with breakfast for 1850rp, and was situated very close to MG Road a convenient but quiet location with plenty of eating and shopping options.
Our mission for the following day was to purchase an advance ticket for our trip onward to Hassan (pronounced abruptly 'aSAN'). Ramnath having set us on our way to the park the previous day with a demand to insist on the rickshaw drivers using their meter, which they usually agreed to do, but not to ask for or accept fares over 35rp for the park, in fact it was only 25rp on the meter. He now sent us in search of the ShantiNagar bus station on the double road out of Richmond town. But the small reservation centre there told us to go to the big Majestic Bus-station in the centre of town. The woman at the desk suggested 360 or 171 buses and after a little struggle in this big station with five platforms and tens of buses continually going through we found a 360 which was A/C with comfortable seats for 15rp (3rp was the going rate for the cheapest buses in Chennai and I thought I was being ripped off last year when once asked for 7rp - remember). There are buses and buses in the city, elsewhere there are state buses and private buses with the latter being considerably cheaper.
Anyway we eventually found the reservation counter at the Majestic, and just like train stations here had to fill in a form giving details of the bus we wanted. We eventually settled for white A/C Mercedes Benz bus, which alone being white certainly helped us identify it on the day, useful since it most certainly did not leave from platform 5, as stated on the ticket, but from centre ground for common use, so did all the other buses to Hassan!
The next day we got Ramnath (following his advice again) to instruct a car driver on the route to his selection of sites around Bengaluru, saying it would be more comfortable than a rickshaw whose drivers would try continually to cheat us if we tried to get around by a sequence of rides from place to place. He has a very low opinion of rickshaw drivers who he uses them every day for his 10 km journeys from and two his home and invariably checks the exact point at which the meter changes from the fixed start 17rp to begin increasing and frequently finds the clocks wrong both in the place and the rate at which they augment. So he informs the driver he has noticed their transgression and hands them the correct fare 73rp in the morning and 80rp at night, the difference being caused by one way streets and a little sympathy on the route out of town because they will find it difficult to find a return fare into the city at night.
He set us off with a few notes on a piece of paper, the car registration number, its mileage (km) clock, the drivers name and mobile telephone number and explained we were to phone him when we wished to be picked up at each site, since in many cases he would not be able to park nearby. On being told we did not have a mobile he kindly lent me his with a quick lesson on how to use it. On return to the hotel we asked him to clarify how he had calculated the price we should pay our driver. There was a regular agreement he had made for 4 hours and 40 km for 450 rpm, we had gone 2 km more at 8rp/km and for an extra hour at 80rp/hour making 546rp for the trip (note the rate for extras was at twice the rates he had agreed for the base). He had a second agreement for 8 hours and 80km at 900rp.
More of this posting to be added later, indeed this will be true for this whole blog, frequent additions to and frequent modification of that already written for each posting usually built up on several sittings at a computer terminal. I need to go back to Joan to disturb her reading on our rest day and to take a walk together around this fantastic hick town!
Hassan 11 Jan Not quite so bad we went into a small restaurant GRR for coffee and by the time I came back withe the drinks two 17 year old girl school students had moved along the bench seat to invite us to sit and talk. Their English was perfect, but then their parents spoke it to them since they were small. They were both going to University in Bangalore to study Electronic Engineering and Computing, they expected the class to be about 50:50 male and female but their present school was only for girls. They said the popular subjects for both sexes were Engineering and Medicine, as we had observed from the number of such stand alone colleges just south of Chennai. One was eating lunch (savoury) Curd rice with lemon pickle for one and the other Biryani. It was a pleasant encounter.
After that we found the large Maharaja Park just north of the bus station, almost entirely shaded by a variety of large trees. At one end was a small Government museum well kept full of stone carvings such as we saw at Halebeed plus some splendid wooden carving which came from one of cars in the temples. On reaching the exit we also noted that everywhere sitting on the floor there were sellers of bundles of leaves with small pods which I expect contained peas or beans, anyway they were for eating were and even small boys were buying a bundle for a snack in the park. There were benches everywhere but almost all were occupied by people enjoying the hot dry weather.
Benguluru again
I digressed again so to return to Bangalore and our tour by car. We reached the famous Bull temple easily enough and saw the giant stone Bull in its temple, the story being that the bull grew and grew in size until someone drove a trident in its head and killed it. Shiva and his lingum (the phallic symbol which forms the altar) one of the three oldest and most important gods (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) is usually accompanied by a bull (nandi) at the entrance to the temple. There were two temples in the same complex one to Ganesh the monkey god and purely by chance there we were able to watch the ceremony being conducted by a priest for a party of men in black on a pilgrimage around religious sites. The outstanding feature of this was that they were blessed in turn by the opportunity to walk around with what was obviously a very heavy weight, maybe a decorated stone on their head - a sort of penance? We had delayed sufficiently to see the arrival of two fully garlanded bulls who in turn were lead into this Ganesh temple - a photo opportunity not to be missed. A quick telephone call driver and Manjunath arrived to block the street traffic whilst we boarded.
The Metro or Sky Train
The next site was reached after about an hour in the traffic jam - which is Bangalore. The drivers explanation is that it was it was all the result of the works on the Metro which is going to solve their traffic problems at a single stroke. It is in effect it will be a sky train on pillars above the road similar to the ones constructed in Bangkok, or the earlier generation ones in New York city. They are currently building 18km west-east of which 8 km is said to be complete, though not yet I think in service, but a train carriage was open for inspection to encourage business was sited at ground level at one end of MG Road. A second north-south 24km section will be long. Nearly 9 km will be underground in the area occupied at ground level by the train and Majestic bus stations.
ISKON Temple
Anyway our destination was eventually reached the brand new temple ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) including conference and kitchen. Our driver said we were not allowed to use cameras and in any case to take great care of them - all became clear when we noticed the continual notices warning visitors to be aware of pilfering. As for the Krisha part we had to join the queue which was snaking its way back and forwards between steel barriers on a series of a hundred or so stepping stones and on each one you had to repeat this refrain aloud
'Krishna Hare Krisha Hare
Krisha Krishna Hare Hare
Rama Rama Krishna Krishna
Rama Hare Rama Hare'
How's that for conciousness! Eventually you reached a long queue for the large wonderful centrepiece, a masterpiece of gold to almost rival the Golden Temple in Amritsar in its opulence and colour. Those of us who had had to pay for entrance 200rp each were then syphoned off given a plastic bag of sweet meats and rerouted around the back of the monument and after being accosted, seated and grilled I gave unsatisfactory1000rp note (half of what I was carrying at that moment) for their work in feeding more than 2 million children in Government schools across India. That was not what was wanted they were trying for regular pledges backed by credit card. I have no doubt they were genuinely engaged in the work they claimed. A large part of the temple complex was kitchens in which they cooked and delivered tens of thousands of meals per day to Bangalore. They had many more kitchens across the country delivering a similar service. Joan was rightly concerned to ask what they were doing for the even poorer 50% of children who never make it to even the most basic Government Schools. Then was the problem of getting out, snaking ones way through thousands of stalls trying to extract money from all visitors for books, or nick nacks, or clothes, or food, or ornaments, or Krishna knows what. It took another 30 minutes just to get out.
Then we had to find our shoes. To join the snake cost us entrance fee as described and entrance to the universal queue who all had to pass the security check. I got through OK even though I had the camera - which I had no intention of using - but Joan who was carrying a small rucksack was taken inside searched extensively and asked if she had a camera continually, as they obviously didn`t believe her answer, but finding both our shoes in the sack she was made to go back to an official shoe deposit, so waiting anxiously for fully 20 mins I thought she was being subjected to the nth degree.
Back at the car at last we rejoined the traffic jam the old and new government buidings which were side by side. A few seconds viewing was all I got of the Vidhana Souda built from 1951 by the then Chief Minister of Mysore State, Mysore is now part of the much larger Karnataka State where we will spend much of this trip. Next door was the equally impressive Vikasa Souda built for a cost of 150 crores (15,000,000 rp) for the new state. Incidentally Kevin Peterson has just signed for I think the Deccan Warriors (this area) in the IPL T20 cricket tournament. The top signing went for 10 crore and a total of 50 crore was payed by all the teams in the league.
We never did get to see the Town Hall as advised in Swansea by 'thenickybrown' but will try on our return To Bengaluru, nor did we have any time to visit the various museums especially the Science Museum which had been planned by Ramnath. He knew exactly what he was doing when he sent us to Iskcon and approved of the work they were doing. It was he who explained what a crore meant and also the Lakh at 100,000. Millionaire means nothing here unless its for USD.
Just one last thing is worth saying about Bangalore. We ate one evening meal at Koshy's on St Marks Road just by the Empire Hotel. It is again a landmark and was very full of tables where people were having afternoon snacks or a beer, mostly Indian but with a sprinkling of westerners who I think were working in Bangalore rather than tourists. Still out of kilter we went in early just after 6pm for our evening meal and settled for one of the two dishes available in the afternoon Seer fish curry and it was good quality for 200rp, then at 7pm the restaurant set for dinner with tablecloths opened at the far end and it started to fill up rapidly.
A couple of days later we asked Ramnath where to eat and he suggested the restaurant of the nearby Toms Hotel but only because it was a sister hotel - not we understood a recommendation. However it was excellent and for 300rp for two we had an excellent meal again of fish curry but also Palak Paneer (cheese and spinach), fruit juices and a roti and a Kerala parota their equivalent of a roti but much fattier puff pastry which I like a lot when well made.
The last couple of days at Vellara we had an English newspaper pushed under the door in the earlymorning. IPL auctions occupied the front page together with the newly retired Chief Justice of the Country who was being investigated for corruption with suspicion about the far too low price realised by the Government for the 2G licences and that by firms who apparently had not stood by their obligations to market facilities but preferred just to make a handsome profit by selling on to some firm who was really interested. Vodaphone was also mentioned perhaps as a firm who had benefitted directly from the low prices. The Chief Justice had risen from Dalit (untouchable) to be one of the richest men in the state and was thought of as a model of what could be achieved by hard work and ability. The other big scandal in the news is the corrupt granting of mining licenses in this state by the Reddy brothers both members of parliament.
Also a long comment article about who is the real martyr in the killing of the Pakistani politician Salman Taseer by his bodyguard Quadri, obviously not in his opinion the Muslim jihadist, reminding the reader too that The Muslim League headed by Al Jinnar at partition believed 'Pakistan would be a state in which Christians and Hindu's would be free to worship unmolested in their churches and temples'. What a far cry to today.
Here endeth the posting on Bengaluru - I think.
PS after dinner at Hassan
(Kadai Vegetable Curry moderately spicey
Paneer Buttered Marsala
Riga Dosa with just onion and a little chilli as filling
as reluctantly recommended by the waiter who would prefer not to be involved in our choice.)
Bengaluru haircut
I came to India in dire need of a trim to say the least. Joan pointed to a barber shop on Brigade Road as we walked by after dinner one night. They waved me in, I had little choice but could at least blame the big pre-Christmas freeze up for ruining my plans! There were five male barbers the very last one was first to finish and waved me over. On showing only that I brushed it straight back he divided my hair with a central parting and proceeded to cut, then he trimmed my eyebrows (normal enough) the cut a few white hairs from my nose, then some from my ears and finally trimmed inside my nose. Then he asked me if I wanted it oiled and I said 'Yes' thinking it might be good for the dry lifeless hair of an old man. Having poured on the oil he started to massage my scalp vigorously and continued as such for a full 5 minutes. I expressed my thoughts that it must have been hard work so he massaged my shoulders, finally he got out a huge vibrator that no woman would recognise and ran it over my back down to my trouser waste line, I held my breath wondering what it would do to my spine!
Finished I stood up and asked how much I owed him, he replied 'up to you', I asked again frightened of suggesting too little he whispered 100, so I gave him 120rp and on the way to the hotel a came to the conclusion it should have been 200rp. The next day I asked my guru Ramnath what I should have paid for a haircut, on Brigade Road he said 50 rp, so I described the full works and he concurred he had tried hard for his 100 asking price. I felt better. But I never regret tipping foreigners I deal with directly even when no Indian would, at least I know my pounds go to people who actually work and live in India and hotels which are owned by Indians and not to international firms who will transfer the profits from my money to tour or hotel firms in the developed world.
