Back to Bangalore
We leave Hyderabad behind and go back to Bangalore, we board a low slung prop air airplane, 30 mins late. I have to mention India’s security policies and a little bit about the beaurcracy that is still present. They xray and seal your bags before you check-in, not after like the US, which makes more sense. When you go throught door to board the bus that takes you to the airline, you show your ticket to the airline agent and then r feet later you show it to a government official who checks the same thing.
We landed in Bangalore and were greeted by the next victim, I mean vendor. We were wisked thru traffic (yeah right, its horrible) abd arrived at Cognizants development center. Blah blah blah, the day was done and we agreed to go to dinner.
Now “agreeing” to go to dinner means that they asked and we have to say yes, its business you really don’t have a choice unless you can come up with a really great excuse, like apendisituts.
They said we were going to a traditional Indian restaurant that was just outside of town. This turned into an expedition, the place we were going turned out to be on the middle of nowhere and difficult to locate. We drove around neighborhoods in pitch black darkness utterly confused about where they were taking us, why we had agreed to go in the first place and if we’d every get back to Bangalore. It was comical, we had a caravan of 4 cars all with drivers who individually throughout the journey instited that they knew exactly where this place was located, and kept leapfrogging each other to take the lead.
We finally had to call the restaurant and have them send a car to lead us in, there are no street lights or good roads in the middle of nowhere.
The thudding, thumping and rythmic drumming greets us as we enter the restaurant. A group of 12 half naked men beat violently on half-barrel sized wood drums, strapped around their waist which suggest at any moment that they might tip over. They yell and scream at sporadic moments and finally surround us and escort us into the restaurant. The local Dennys or Red Lobster puts on this show and every early-bird with a pace maker is going to keel over, but this is a cultural center and its all part of the experience.
After the drumming has commenced, we watched some traditional Indian dancing and had some traditional, which no matter how wonderful was just regualr Indian food served on a banana leaf. I feel asleep on the way back home.
We played golf the next day and them flew to Chennai. When we played golf we had caddies, who had 3 or 4 handicaps, its sooo much better playing experience with your own personal coach.
http://www.reals.net/photos. click on India2005.