Bye Bengaluru

Bengaluru has been a visit of contrasts. A nice hotel with plenty of space for the 3 of us to chill, have our own space and reunite. This is our refuge from the Real Bengaluru. Outside, in the Real World, it's a very different story and I'm pleased to say that we did brave it out there with the locals, the wild dogs, the oh-so-persistent street vendors and the very crazy traffic. It was definitely an experience to be had. Did I enjoy it? Honestly...no, not all of it, but I'm glad I sampled it. We've now experienced a Bengaluru shopping mall complete with grocery shopping experience, several rickshaw rides, bought some local crafts, been followed the whole length of one major street by a street vendor desperate to sell us a wooden snake. "No thanks" doesn't appear to work here. Even less so than in Kowloon. White faces are very few and far between too which can definitely make you feel very conspicuous. A bit of a target. Not that we succombed to the pressure but I confess to feelings of extreme annoyance at being followed and hassled for what must have been a good 30 minutes. One of the most intense moments yesterday and a memory that will still for a while, is that usually simple task of road crossing. Oh my....Quite The Experience here! It must have taken me at least 15 minutes to cross one road. To be fair there were about 4 lanes of traffic in each direction and due to the fact that nobody abides by lines in the roads, it can be more than that. In the end I developed a strategy that worked. I found some locals, who themselves seem to prefer to cross in groups. Safety in numbers and all that. I found a friendly-looking group and tagged on. As they gradually shuffled across, one lane at a time, I did the same, sticking as close to them as my personal boundaries would allow... We did it..one lane at a time which was exhilarating. Imagine standing in the middle of a 4 lane highway with traffic flying past you on both sides! Oh My....and then once I got to the middle, I had to do it all again with traffic approaching from the other direction. Anyway, we made it, to squeals of delight and jubilation! The locals we'd "used" seemed quite amused by our delight in making it across the road in once piece!