Bangalore Friday

Yesterday afternoon sat and drunk mango juice on a terrace restaurant overlooking the temple and chatted to the owner and his Dad whilst they played Grieg's piano concerto on their stero. They guy was really into his classical! Was really relaxing. Then I walked along the river and saw all the locals washing their clothes. Mostly men with all the saris and dhotis. then SHiv drove me to Hospet to catch the train He found a comfortable place on the wall for me in the station, which was packed out and left me. After he'd gone I wandered to find the 1st class waiting room.(Didn't want him to know I was going first class) Masive and empty and not much character with a huge plasma TV screen which had no signal. Train pulled in on time but our names were not on the carriage which is normal for assigning seats. so on I got onto the first class carriage without knowing my seat number. Luckily an Indian guy who I'd met at the ruins was with me and he'd seen my ticket so knew I was class 1A but the guard when he saw me went mad and tried to kick me off into 2nd class, even showing my eticket didn't help/. Luckily the old Indian came to my rescue giving him abuse and I eventually got taken to the poshest end of the carriage. Later the Indian told me that coz I had a back pack I didn't look right for such expensive travel luxuries. Oh well all good and clean and comfortable and I was in a cabin with an Indian business man and a Japanese rural development officier. But no one really spoke and I just read my book. Infact in one respect 2nd class far more interesting .
Arrived in Bangalore at 6am and got a bit of a seedy place tonight near the station but it's got HOT water. Oh my God and the bathroom is massive....what wonderful bucketshower water fights could be had in there!! Oh well, just have to dream! My room is near the cleaners quarters and when I left later this morning there were about 10 men all sleeping on the floor around my bedroom door. I had to climb over them. Weird.
Love Bangalore though. Traffic is bad and rickshaws are allowed here, unlike Bombay, so I've had some pretty mental traffic weaving experiences. Had the most amazing food. The best yet was near to the hotel and was SOuthern Indian Thali. Loads of dishes with rice and chapatis and puffed up bread and everytime I finished a dish they quickly gave me another one. Such amazing service. It was like fat girl and feeders! All vegetarian and all to die for. Thai food is great, turkish too and fish and chips and baked beans but OH MY GOD indian cuisine beats them all. I could have died a happy woman after that meal (well, maybe not) Plus the best juice and mangos with icecream for dessert. The whole experince took hours. Want to do it all again tomorrow but I'm off to Mysore and the grand palace there. BUt I'm sure I'll come back to Bangalore. It's a full on western city here with so much good shopping. Lots of book shops and amazing kids books which aren't for sale in the UK any more. Old copies of Mr Men books and ancient enid blyton. It sends shivers of excitement right through me. Could have spent hours in the book shops but I have to carry everything and I'm not going through another post office experience again YET> Right it's 10pm and I'm being kicked off, night.

Right let's finish off Bangalore. Here is a picture of my rickshaw driver who fancied himself as a bit of a bollywood star. When I was taking photos of vehicles, more about them later he was adament that I took one of him so he promptly turned round WHILST DRIVING THROUGH MENTAL TRAFFIC. Busses, rickshaws and trucks just easily swerved round us. Indians have a 6th sense of servival. Well the massive JESUS on the front of the bus might have been religious coz it seems that the Christian community here go into advertising the Lord on public and private transport. Here's a great rear view of a rickshaw in Bangalore. (Sorry pictures have gone to top of page and I can't seem to move them or delete them!)