My God , my family and my travels: Bangalore , Karnataka , India

Yes it is our first visit to India and we are all excited and at the same time confused because of all the negativity that some people put in our minds about the hygiene and cleanliness of India. But guess what David and I as usual are going with a very open mind to embrace whatever Mother India has to offer us.We boarded the Air Asia flight AK 211 from LCCT and all we noticed was that we were surrounded by 'one race' Indians and this was not even Indian soil yet! The flight was good.

And as we first flew over the vast land of India...David became a bit emotional as both his parents came from this land to ours. We landed in Bengaluru International Airport at about 6.00pm ( Indian Time ) which is 2.5 hours before our time. It was an impressive looking airport with all the modern facilities. And as we stepped out to the arrival area we had to look for the 'right' taxi to take into the city which was 40 km from the airport. We were approached by a man who offered us a ride for 600 rupees. The price was right and we were on our way to the city of Bangalore. And the first thing that David noticed as the driver drove out to the main road was men stopping to take a leak by the roadside...and I thought to myself...Welcome to India!

The drive was long and must have been tedious for the driver who chatted away to David in the little English he knew. The jam was horrific and the driver explained to us that it was also the Christians starting the 9 day Novena to Mother Mary for her feast day on the 8th of September , the Hindus were getting ready for Ganesha Chaturthi on the 1st of September while the Muslims were preparing for Eid Ul Fitr on the 31st of August. So it was a warm welcome for us with these festivities. We arrived at the Justa The Residence Hotel on MG Road which is the main road in Bangalore. The staff were very welcoming and we were also met by David's friend Srini who was waiting for us to arrive. The room they gave was big and beautiful so we laid our things and went the restaurant for dinner with Srini. We had a vegetarian dinner and it was superb and we were served by a very nice waiter , Manoj who was so pleasant an polite. We chatted and I noticed that the locals could speak Kannada the language for Karnataka State as well as Hindi and some even spoke Tamil. We bid Srini bye and we went back into our hotel room to rest for the night...and the TV had so many channels......that finally put us to bed.

On the 30th of August saw us rising early to have breakfast at the restaurant where Manoj served us with hot prathas and sambar and a whole lot of other food. We then took an auto rickshaw to Shivaji Nagar to visit The St Mary;s Basilica Church. The church was so beautiful but located in a very poor location but it was all adorned for the feast day and was filled with people. we offered up some masses...said a prayer while a mass was going on and we sat awhile to pay homage to Mother Mary. The we took a walk into some dirty narrow streets into Commercial Road where they had 2 rows of shops and within that some awesome saree shops. When you see the dirty streets you would not believe that they have such beautiful shops to sell their sarees. It was irresistible...so I was one very happy person to go into these shops and browse around and I bought a couple of designer sarees. David was quite happy just looking into the other small shops. we had a lunch of hot thosai and after walking a bit we went back to the hotel to relax and we had dinner there later.

St Mary's Basilica , Shivaji Nagar

Commercial Road , Bangalore

On the 31st of August it was Eid Ul Fitr or Hari Raya Aidil Fitri as it is known in Malaysia. We had breakfast served by Manoj our favourite waiter and we took an auto rickshaw to Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens. This gardens covers 200 acres of land and housed all kinds of plants and trees. They call Bangalore The Garden City so the visit here was really very fruitful. After which we took the rickshaw to Brigade Road to just potter around and we had lunch at Subway's after which we came back to MG Road where we were met by an auto rickshaw driver , Rajkumar , who offered to take David to a Royal Enfield motorbike shop. David was thrilled that he was finally getting to see British bikes that are built in India. It was a small shop but worth the visit. After a few photos , the driver took us to Chickpet where we were treated to a sight that we have never seen before...how sarees are made...it was awesome how spools of thread are woven into beautiful silk sarees. Then of course we went to the saree factory outlets where I practically went crazy seeing the most beautifully designed sarees...I could not resist the temptation and bought a few. After which we went back to the hotel to have dinner and relax in front of the TV with the multitude of channels. It was our last night in Bangalore and the next morning we took a Meru Taxi and went to the Bengaluru Airport to board our flight to Hyderabad.