Thursday, May 31, 2007
Lemon day - Day 13/21
Today was abit late for work but then again ppl keep arriving even after 10 am to work. Ran to get my Barista coffee which is a must before I begin my work. Only wish we had starbucks in our office keke. Had porridge like meal today since my stomach is still sensitive to spicy food. For tea had some sort of mash potatoes like food which actually is a chunk of rice paste which was mixed with some vegetables and tasted real sweet. It is served for breakfast and tea and widely famous in Bangalore. Headed back to the hotel somehow my smart alec driver took a short cut to avoid the potential jam on the main road but ended up in another worst jam which took 2 hours to arrive to the hotel. That really worked up some appetite being stuck in ter for hours. Ordering dinner now. Such a lovely day this is and almost 2 weeks here. Starting to miss some of the routine life I am so used to ere.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Real indian food \ stomach ache - Day 12/21
First thing got into work, went straight to Barista coffee at the food court, India's answer to Starbucks, was heavenly, had to hide from my counterpart ere as he vehemently wants me to try everything local, my stomach will burst open with that diesel coffee they served in the office.
Was happy that I had lasted this long unaffected by local diet. But my lucky streak ended today when I had to follow my counterpart to a restaurant outside campus. If you have a weak stomach or a lil queasy when it comes to somewhat rundown food outlet, this place would not be the best place for you. It looked clean enough if you are not that particular about absolute cleanliness. We had mixed rice with 7 types of gravies and chicken. It was slightly hot but was trying to act like a local so I sniffed in silence throughout lunch. Had their local yogurt which was pure, thus had to mix it with 2 tablespoon of sugar in order to take it all in, that's how you cure spiciness :s . Finally he had to make me try this delicacy call "pan", its bitternut wrapped in some kind of leaf on a stick, he asked me to put the whole thing in my mouth, nearly puked coz it was so bitter and I had to puke silently in my mouth to act like I am one of them locals. Aw god I miss my hotel food :(
It was during training session that I felt some eruption down under. Then it hit me that I have to hit the can asap, feels like I was going to give birth to a baby lizard through my ass. Had to stay calm and compose coz I don't like to do it in the office as their toilet reeks and horrible looking. So made the worst decision of my life, told myself to hold until Hotel, the 53 mins ride was pure hell, I know coz I was counting every minute of it. Lesson of the day, sometimes it is fine to look like a tourists than to pretend to be a local and suffer in silence. Some pictures to alleviate the mood :)
My fav mini bananas in my room, can you find it :p
Found my car with same model and color ere :))
Was happy that I had lasted this long unaffected by local diet. But my lucky streak ended today when I had to follow my counterpart to a restaurant outside campus. If you have a weak stomach or a lil queasy when it comes to somewhat rundown food outlet, this place would not be the best place for you. It looked clean enough if you are not that particular about absolute cleanliness. We had mixed rice with 7 types of gravies and chicken. It was slightly hot but was trying to act like a local so I sniffed in silence throughout lunch. Had their local yogurt which was pure, thus had to mix it with 2 tablespoon of sugar in order to take it all in, that's how you cure spiciness :s . Finally he had to make me try this delicacy call "pan", its bitternut wrapped in some kind of leaf on a stick, he asked me to put the whole thing in my mouth, nearly puked coz it was so bitter and I had to puke silently in my mouth to act like I am one of them locals. Aw god I miss my hotel food :(
It was during training session that I felt some eruption down under. Then it hit me that I have to hit the can asap, feels like I was going to give birth to a baby lizard through my ass. Had to stay calm and compose coz I don't like to do it in the office as their toilet reeks and horrible looking. So made the worst decision of my life, told myself to hold until Hotel, the 53 mins ride was pure hell, I know coz I was counting every minute of it. Lesson of the day, sometimes it is fine to look like a tourists than to pretend to be a local and suffer in silence. Some pictures to alleviate the mood :)
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Real shopping - Day 11/21
After work went to Forum, their premier shopping mall ala KLCC but more like Mid Valley maybe half of it with seven floors. Top floor was the cinemas, then we have the usual fast food outlets, clothing shops, arcade center, book shops, toy shops, coffe shops, you get the picture. Their coffee chain are mostly dominated by this Chain of Coffee outlet call Coffee Day and their Famous Amos cookie outlet is call Cookie Man, yea for real it is called Cookie Man and their cookies are twice the size of Famous Amos cookies and minimum amount you can purchase is 250 grams :s Thats like twice the amount you get back home for the price of 200 Rupees (RM16). Electronic goods ere are more expensive, clothing are the same, they have Tommy Hilffiger and Benetton, but what is really cheap are their books, they cost almost half of what you would get at home. They don't wrap their books ere but the selection is good enough and cost much less. So I bought 2 books with 2 action figures, cost me RM100. Unbelievable.
Forum Shopping Mall
Cinema in Forum
Monday, May 28, 2007
Typical day in Bangalore - Day 10/21
My second Monday today, it has been that quick, the next time I blink it would be time to say goodbye, but not yet :p Let me describe to you a typical day in Bangalore. Woke up at 6ish, sometimes hit the gym before breakfast (tat only happened once last week :p) and got down to the restaurant for a buffet breakfast, showered and meet my car at 8am. The ride to work takes about 45 minutes or so, the ride is rough with my driver zig-zagging between cars inches apart with maddening honking which I am so used to by now. Once reached Wipro office, from the main gate to Shell Tower 15 takes about a 5 minute walk. Got to my desk, checked emails, engaged with some of the team members for work update, then they all will go for coffee, the coffee served in the office is so strong that you can only fill the cup 1/3 of the way if not you will not be able to take the bitterness of it, thats how strong it is, that one cup kept me overactive the whole day.
Conducted training session until lunch time. Again for lunch we walk, we walk alot here, alot. We headed to the food court area which is built like a small in door stadium with 2 floors for different variety of food. Normally we visit other parts of the campus area for different food court. Today we walked abit further to try something slightly different. Drinks are free so paid like 16 rupees (that's like RM1.30) for my 2 Parata rotis with curry and yogurt. That itself was enough for me but my colleagues ordered additional rice so had tat too. This is normally how I would feel after each meal here, the feeling of bloatedness and if anyone were to press my stomach I would hurl.
Conducted more training after lunch, sometime later they go for tea break, this time we walked to the nearest food court to have Mango juice, only 10 rupees (RM 0.80) which was very concentrated and sweet, was very good. The work culture ere is that people take a lot of breaks, you can come and go without any issues, the food courts will always be filled with customers no matter what time we visit. Not to say these guys do not work at all but they always need a break for quick meal or coffee constantly, no such thing as eating while working here. You have to choose either one :p Headed back to the office to do some work and check emails, then packup and went down to my car about 5:30pm, any later I would be stuck in traffic for hours. Today the weather was kind, no rain, reached hotel an hour later, usually do some reading or watch dvd on laptop while in the car.
Showered and gone down for dinner. Come back up and check emails and prepare some work for tomorrow while watching dvd on the plasma tv. That in a nutshell is how life is ere like for me unless I go out at night. That needs to be planned as traffic is unpredictable, it gets from bad to worst most of the time. So if you have a date after work then you better plan it as a supper date :p
Conducted training session until lunch time. Again for lunch we walk, we walk alot here, alot. We headed to the food court area which is built like a small in door stadium with 2 floors for different variety of food. Normally we visit other parts of the campus area for different food court. Today we walked abit further to try something slightly different. Drinks are free so paid like 16 rupees (that's like RM1.30) for my 2 Parata rotis with curry and yogurt. That itself was enough for me but my colleagues ordered additional rice so had tat too. This is normally how I would feel after each meal here, the feeling of bloatedness and if anyone were to press my stomach I would hurl.
Conducted more training after lunch, sometime later they go for tea break, this time we walked to the nearest food court to have Mango juice, only 10 rupees (RM 0.80) which was very concentrated and sweet, was very good. The work culture ere is that people take a lot of breaks, you can come and go without any issues, the food courts will always be filled with customers no matter what time we visit. Not to say these guys do not work at all but they always need a break for quick meal or coffee constantly, no such thing as eating while working here. You have to choose either one :p Headed back to the office to do some work and check emails, then packup and went down to my car about 5:30pm, any later I would be stuck in traffic for hours. Today the weather was kind, no rain, reached hotel an hour later, usually do some reading or watch dvd on laptop while in the car.
Showered and gone down for dinner. Come back up and check emails and prepare some work for tomorrow while watching dvd on the plasma tv. That in a nutshell is how life is ere like for me unless I go out at night. That needs to be planned as traffic is unpredictable, it gets from bad to worst most of the time. So if you have a date after work then you better plan it as a supper date :p
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sticking out like a sore thumb - Day 9/21
Woke up late and missed breakfast again :-s Oh well, had a very good sleep from the trip yesterday. Today mostly spent in the hotel, had to prepare some work material this week. Decided to have lunch at the French cuisine restaurant. The food is served in small tiny portion on a spoon like bowl for every food items, these are buffet style but mind you, there are no rice, or any oriental dishes around nor any Indians, these are all well manicured beautiful food of art served in tiny servings for lunch. So I had to go around about 5 times to really feel full. You can actually stand there and pick up one of these tiny bowls and eat them in one gulp.
After awhile I realized that I was seated right in the middle of this poshy establishment, I was the only one alone, no company for lunch and the youngest looking one as always :p Most of them I can tell could be an ambassador of some country, CEO or top management corporate leaders, very refined and if this was back home they would be some Tan Sris or Datuks and Datins prancing around with their garrish jewellery and fancy talk, hugging kissing each other like the last time they meet each other was 10 years ago :p. Most were French for obvious reasons, they were some Koreans, half Japanese-French kids with a few local Indians, from the well to do families. Somehow I don't see these ppl that often out of the enclave and safety of the hotel :) Wonder why can't they be more adventurous and try some local food and mix around abit instead of sticking close together to their own kind of people and food especially in a foreign country, like our students going abroad, who mostly comes back with broken english or all running to the nearest Chinatown in every country they visit and waste all these chances to meet and learn new things in a place far from home. Sigh...
After awhile I realized that I was seated right in the middle of this poshy establishment, I was the only one alone, no company for lunch and the youngest looking one as always :p Most of them I can tell could be an ambassador of some country, CEO or top management corporate leaders, very refined and if this was back home they would be some Tan Sris or Datuks and Datins prancing around with their garrish jewellery and fancy talk, hugging kissing each other like the last time they meet each other was 10 years ago :p. Most were French for obvious reasons, they were some Koreans, half Japanese-French kids with a few local Indians, from the well to do families. Somehow I don't see these ppl that often out of the enclave and safety of the hotel :) Wonder why can't they be more adventurous and try some local food and mix around abit instead of sticking close together to their own kind of people and food especially in a foreign country, like our students going abroad, who mostly comes back with broken english or all running to the nearest Chinatown in every country they visit and waste all these chances to meet and learn new things in a place far from home. Sigh...
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Out of town trip - Day 8/21
It has been a week since I am here. Today I have invited 3 of my Wipro colleagues to join me for a trip to Mysore, the state's ancient capital city. The state I am in is known as Karnataka. The trip by car took 3 hours, about 130km away from Bangalore, on the way we had breakfast at their local coffee chain, Coffee Day outlet.
Breakfast at Coffee Day
Our first stop was Srirangapattana, where we visited the summer palace of Tipu Sultan, his place of death battling the British and his tomb. Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in the 18th century and was renown for his bravery in war with the British Empire. Somehow the tomb which looks like a mini Taj Mahal looks grander than his palace.
Tipu Sultan's Tomb
Right about lunch time we arrived at the highlight of this trip, the Mysore Palace. The palace was built after Tipu Sultan's death in the 19th century. The palace is save to say bigger than the Buckingham palace or our King's palace back home.
Mysore Grand Palace
It's compound is lush and scenic with 8 temples surrounding the palace perimeters. We hired a guide for RM30 and one of the amazing fact that we would have missed without the guide was the hidden secret of the wall murals that is painted with vegetarian paint which for more than 200 years still looks new but the amazing bit is that these paintings be it a potrait of the maharaja or an army of soldiers is, they all look different if viewed from the left or right of them. Certain items in the paintings like the eyes of the Maharaja, the ring on his fingers, the placement of his feet, all these seems to be facing you whether you are standing on the left or right side of it. It was unbelievable, yes maybe the eyes does follow you wherever you are in the room but the other objects like the direction the army is facing moves as you moved from side to side of the painting quite subtly. None of my collegues who had been here more times they can remember knew about this amazing fact. Only cost me RM30 for a one time visit to pry this ancient secret. They were amazed :p Sorry no cameras allowed in the palace you just have to take my word for it.
Palace ground - Me and my pet tiger
We headed to one of the 5 star hotel for lunch and spent them all as a good gesture for accompanying me today. Food was good but again the food portion here for one person is good for 2 person back home. I ordered chinese oyster souse chicken for them to try out and I had for dessert this sweet ball of dough soaked overnite in sugary water. Was bloody good. The diet here is always to end your meal with something sweet, the sweeter the better, wonder what is the diabetes cases here is like :p
We then headed to one the the Kingdom's ancient temple, the temple of the Goddess Chamundeshwari, on top of a hill called Chamundi Hills. The scenery on the top was breathtaking, was able to see the entire city and made out the places visited earlier.
Temple of the Goddess Chamundeshwari
We then headed to the oldest church built about 200 years back during Tipu Sultan's reign known as St. Philomena's Church, looked like something which belongs in Europe rather than here. Beautiful.
St. Philomena's Church
Before heading back, we visisted their emporium malls to purchase some sandal wood souvenirs as Mysore is known for their sandalwood, ivory and silk products and craft. Was a little pricey as compared to normal wood products that is because Sandalwood is the fragrant wood of trees and is used as fragrance in perfume, incense and for woodworking. You can tell by sniffing the product to tell it apart from the normal wood products. We headed back home but not too late for another last round of coffee for the day at Coffee Day which we learnt opens 24 hrs. It was a saturday night so was abit jam gotten into town. Got back into the hotel ordered dinner and collapsed on the bed. Good trip it was!! :)
One of the palaces converted into a Hotel in Mysore
Our first stop was Srirangapattana, where we visited the summer palace of Tipu Sultan, his place of death battling the British and his tomb. Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in the 18th century and was renown for his bravery in war with the British Empire. Somehow the tomb which looks like a mini Taj Mahal looks grander than his palace.
Right about lunch time we arrived at the highlight of this trip, the Mysore Palace. The palace was built after Tipu Sultan's death in the 19th century. The palace is save to say bigger than the Buckingham palace or our King's palace back home.
It's compound is lush and scenic with 8 temples surrounding the palace perimeters. We hired a guide for RM30 and one of the amazing fact that we would have missed without the guide was the hidden secret of the wall murals that is painted with vegetarian paint which for more than 200 years still looks new but the amazing bit is that these paintings be it a potrait of the maharaja or an army of soldiers is, they all look different if viewed from the left or right of them. Certain items in the paintings like the eyes of the Maharaja, the ring on his fingers, the placement of his feet, all these seems to be facing you whether you are standing on the left or right side of it. It was unbelievable, yes maybe the eyes does follow you wherever you are in the room but the other objects like the direction the army is facing moves as you moved from side to side of the painting quite subtly. None of my collegues who had been here more times they can remember knew about this amazing fact. Only cost me RM30 for a one time visit to pry this ancient secret. They were amazed :p Sorry no cameras allowed in the palace you just have to take my word for it.
We headed to one of the 5 star hotel for lunch and spent them all as a good gesture for accompanying me today. Food was good but again the food portion here for one person is good for 2 person back home. I ordered chinese oyster souse chicken for them to try out and I had for dessert this sweet ball of dough soaked overnite in sugary water. Was bloody good. The diet here is always to end your meal with something sweet, the sweeter the better, wonder what is the diabetes cases here is like :p
We then headed to one the the Kingdom's ancient temple, the temple of the Goddess Chamundeshwari, on top of a hill called Chamundi Hills. The scenery on the top was breathtaking, was able to see the entire city and made out the places visited earlier.
We then headed to the oldest church built about 200 years back during Tipu Sultan's reign known as St. Philomena's Church, looked like something which belongs in Europe rather than here. Beautiful.
Before heading back, we visisted their emporium malls to purchase some sandal wood souvenirs as Mysore is known for their sandalwood, ivory and silk products and craft. Was a little pricey as compared to normal wood products that is because Sandalwood is the fragrant wood of trees and is used as fragrance in perfume, incense and for woodworking. You can tell by sniffing the product to tell it apart from the normal wood products. We headed back home but not too late for another last round of coffee for the day at Coffee Day which we learnt opens 24 hrs. It was a saturday night so was abit jam gotten into town. Got back into the hotel ordered dinner and collapsed on the bed. Good trip it was!! :)
Friday, May 25, 2007
Fri nite jam - Day 7/21
Left office abit later than usual, 6:20pm and reached Hotel at 8:40pm :( The reason being, it was raining, some parts of the road was flooded and was a Friday. This is the real deal, was stucked at one of the interjunction 2km away from my Hotel for 30 mins. Even I was not driving but I could feel the frustration, the tensions gripping me, the honking from every car was deafening and I wanted to jump in front and honk away, was so stressful. It got to everybody even my driver when he wind down his window and gesturing and yelling away at other motorists. It is difficult in Bangalore to go out at night as you will always be late for your dates or appointments unless you leave very very early from work which normally never ever happens. This is one of the reason the goverment is spreading the IT boom to other cities e.g Mysore which I am visiting tomorrow as Blore is way over congested, can't imagine living here for good, would go deaf with the honking before I go mad.
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