Bangalore day 6
August 7th 2009
Today I was lucky enough to have the day off. In the morning I headed off early to explore the city by myself. First stop was Commercial Street which I heard was pretty good. It may have been good but other than finding some overly priced t-shirts I didn’t have much interest in the place.
After that I decided MG road was the place to be. Along the way the auto convinced me that shops there didn’t open till 11.30am and insisted on bringing me to ‘his friends shop’ this is a process whereby the auto drops you at a shop and even if you do not buy he gets a free tank of petrol and you get the auto for free/at a reduced price.
So I visited the shop and looked at horribly expensive and ugly pashminas. Then I saw a bag for 850rps but refused to pay that much. In the end I left with the bag, 2 x packets of incense and 3 little boxes for 300rps.
Of course just my luck the auto was gone when I got out and I had to get another who wanted me to bring him to ‘his friends place” here I was shown the same stuff and told my friends were there the day before. Yes they were but how he knew they were my friends is still a mystery.
Next stop MG road which was not very successful either. Then finally I wanted to go to Garuda mall. The auto insisted on dropping me to “his friends place” where I bought nothing. He then insisted on dropping me to his other friend’s place which was the same place I visited first. When he dropped me to a third friends place I just got out of the auto and got a different one home to tippasandra.
Back there I walked the streets before showering and packing for Kerala. We all left for the bus at 4pm. The bus left at 630pm.
Boarding the bus was a pleasant surprise with warm fleece blankets and complimentary water. Unfortunately though our seats were in the back so our chairs could not recline and the movie of the night – Jurassic park 3 in Indian was blasted in our ears followed by some Bollywood music which made sleeping next to impossible.
We finally arrived in Kerala just after 730am