My blogs: A quick tour

I thought I would give Bangalore a chance, more like India another chance, in terms of regular up-keeping of its tourist/public areas like park and buildings and roads. And the ever so ripping tourist industry. Right. NOT!!!! As least in Bangalore so far my impression of the tourist rip-off was not as "severe" as in New Delhi. Still it was there. The driver kept asking if we need to shop for silk products. Right in one of the world renowned IT call centre and outsourcing cities. What? Virtually silk products? Of course, we kept saying no. He tried.

First stop after our quick Brunch (that was a nice experience, will report later) was Cubban park. Of course, it was listed as one of the must see in Bangalore and as recommended by a 2003 published Lonely Planet. My impression. Anywhere in China is 2,000 times better than this park! Totally un-manicure. Overgrown grass, paths were dirt paths like one would expect from a mountain hiking trail. This was a big contrast from last night's experience of the modernize and clean airport and the highway coming out that was like any the one from San Jose back to Oakland.

In the park, we walked into the central library. It was an old building with wooden floor and all. Doomed wooden ceilings. We browsed thru books; they were all old and in needed of repair. And they were of old publications. Some covers were so old that it was covered over and book title was written over by a thick black pen in block letters. One thing we noticed, everything was in English.

(Side note: the driver parked in a parking lot to wait for us. We had to pay the parking fee out of our pocket. He said R20.00; right. What did I know? Maybe it was only R5.00 and he pocketed the rest. I pretended to be a "moron" tourist. I considered this as contribution to the local economy. Let it be another lesson for those who want to hire a driver and car - give the driver R50.00-100.00 for parking for the day.)

After the park, we were driven to view the parliament. What a grandiose building. Totally new, two buildings actually because the old one that span two building blocks was not enough; need a new one. Maybe the gov't should use some of those money to clean the park up or some of the road work really needed. I can see why this place is one of the worst between rich and poor.

From this parliament building we were driven to see the King's palace. Yes, all broken down. And the place was in disarrayed. However, the king and queen still live there on the ground floor. Park of it. Not all. Tourist trap you see. R200.00 (exchange rate: USD1.00=R49.3) per person. What a crap place! You basically walk thru to see broken things and crap. Need I say more? Crap! Then at the end of this tour, the guide asked for money. Only foreigners but not the two locals that was in "our group". I gave R20. He wanted R150, I gave him another R50. For his service, I should ask him for some money back. But, you never want to argue with the locals. Just hand over your money. After my many experience, I have small change in one pocket and another for bigger bills. I just pull out the one with small bills and just enough to cover about R80-100 at the most. So if someone asked for more, "sorry". This is pretty much legalized robbery.

Iron-wife, from her research with the Lonely Planet book wanted to bump around M.G. Road and the City Market. Right. My gut told me they were just "crap". OK have to think of a different word to describe. Maybe "bleak", "3rd world", "filth", "broken". We drove down M.G. Road, it was totally crowded. Shops were selling electronics, Western sport brands, local clothiers, and occasionally the Cafe franchise coffee shop. Then, the section repeating itself. So we kept on driving. Next the City Market. The driver was kinda against going there. He said it was rough, crowded and dirty. We, from China, no problem. Haha. Then as we entered the area, iron-wife was shocked. We kept on driving. This pretty much was the grand central of everything buses, shops and people all crisscrossing wherever each way. Streets were broken. No way to park as well. We drove on. While we were in the car thru M.G. Road and the City Market, I didn't want to take pictures using my Nokia phone fearing that someone might stir up an attack or demand of money. And I don't think any foreigners want to go to the City Market. M.G. Road, sure.

And 2 hours later, we were back at the oasis. Tipped the driver and went to the room. Below are some pictures from Cubban Park.

Road going into Cuban Park: