Wendy had found out how much the cost is for the extra baggage. Probir had agreed to check in one of my bags as his own, since he only had one to check in. But Wendy was able to negotiate with the airlines to let us check in as a group so that those of us have excess or overweight baggage can use the extra allowance of those who had fewer or underweight baggage.
Bangalore is huge. No skyscrapers, but houses stretched out as far as the eye can see. We later learned from our guide that Bangalore is the fifth largest city in the world. I can believe that.
The floral clock at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. more pics
Because our flight was delayed a couple of hours, we didn't have much time left for our sightseeing. Besides, it seems there really isn't much to see in Bangalore. We went to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, which our guide knew very well because his degree is in botany. He knew about the species of every tree and he gave us incredible information about species of trees we saw in the garden. Unfortunately, his audience was too tired and too disinterested.
We also went to the Bull Temple, which was really just a small structure that housed a large black granite sculpture of a bull. After going around the bull, a priest smudged a red paste on our foreheads, if we donated.
In the Bull Temple. more pics
Our guide said something that explained so many things - India is only one-third the size of US, but has three times the population.
We finally got to our hotel and it is so much nicer than our Delhi hotel. However, there is a certain scent in the air, and it's not pleasant.
I decided to order room service for dinner. I got Thai chicken curry which is nice, and mango ice cream. Well,... I grew up with mangoes, mangoes are my favorite fruit, and my mom grew up in the province known for its mangoes. I know what mango tastes like, and this ain’t mango. It was more like a floral taste. But it was good, nonetheless, so I finished it up anyway.
I also asked the front desk for a power adapter. It didn’t arrive until almost three hours later – my first real experience of India’s sense of time.
The doorman of the Royal Orchid. more pics
Something strange happened in the evening. A man with a British accent called asking for Christina. He gave her full name but he called her “Christine”. When I said she was still out, he said to have her call her husband. I went to bed at 10pm, and he woke me up and asked for Christina again at 11:30pm, somewhat impatiently. When Christina arrived around midnight, I gave her the message, and she frantically called her husband, but it turned out that he didn’t call at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment