Today was spent visiting 5 star hotels in Bangalore. We started off at the Sheraton for lunch, went to a work Diwali party at the Taj West End, and ended up at the F-Bar in the Meridian hotel at the end of the night.

After lunch, we headed to the Bull Temple. Linda and I have noticed that street vendors will chase us around – refusing to accept ‘no’ or ‘not interested’ as an answer from either of us. Anand appears to most Indians as a local due to his colouring, so he is often left alone. Bill can turn them away with a single shake of his head…but Linda and I are slowly learning that in India men aren’t used to hearing women say the word no.

As we exited the Bull temple, we heard a loud racket and looked up into the trees. What appeared to be monkeys at first glace turned out to be giant bats fighting over a spot on a tree branch! Who knew bats were so active in the daytime? Jokes abound regarding the bats internal clocks being set to Eastern time rather than Indian Standard time.

Manish arranged for us to view the Government buildings and Law Courts and we are quickly whisked off to the Russel Market after snapping a few shots and purchasing some Bangalore postcards from a street vendor.

Russel Market is something else. For the last few weeks, we’ve seen a very shiny and progressive side of Bangalore. While we know there are millions of people living in this city, aside from myself, no one has been out in the crowds and noise that comprises an Indian commercial area. Russel Market is an older brick and stone building with row upon row of fresh fruit and vegetables. Manish assures us that most of the food will be purchased and eaten long before it spoils and that most citizens buy their groceries in this general area or a market very similar to it. The streets are packed with people, garbage and noise. Pedestrians wander through auto, car, motorcycle, moped and bicycle traffic as if there was no one else on the street. Linda learned that trick is to walk straight across the street and let the vehicles maneuver around you and was soon walking across masses of traffic as if they weren’t there at all. We slid off into a side street and immediately noticed the change in noise levels and smell – both were markedly improved!

After our jaunt to the market, we were all exhausted and happy to be heading back to the hotel to shower and change. A few hours later, we met up in the lobby to head for the Diwali party at the Taj. En route, our car was pulled over by the traffic police for excessive use of headlights. The street was a no headlight zone and our driver had been attempting to signal to the bus in front of us to pull forward so we could slip by. After explaining to the officer that he was a ‘taxi’ and that he had Americans in the car, we were waved on our way.

The Diwali party was supposed to take place by the pool, but a late evening shower played havoc with those plans and we quickly moved inside. Rajesh made us all welcome and somehow we managed to convince Linda to come out to the F- bar (which is affiliated with Fashion TV) before heading home for the night.

As we left the Taj, Bill informed me that I have until Monday to post my side of the dog story before his web site is launched. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have a suitable defense. I attempted to bribe him by offering to ‘forget’ to mention his attempts to bribe Anand into kissing a girl in the F-Bar in my journal, but he was unfazed. Apparently, no one will be shocked to learn of it (his offer of 5 Rupees was raised to 100 by Linda, and then I added 500 Rupees to the total amount). Poor Anand. Everyone in India and back home is teasing him that he won’t be returning to Canada without a wife and we’ve been searching for a suitable candidate for him all week.

Occasionally, we mutter about returning to the store to look at the Kashmir rugs one last time. Now that most of the things I wanted to purchase have been safely packed in my suitcase, I’ve been considering picking up a slightly larger Kashmir rug. Of course, I’ll only be buying one if the price we’re offered is comparable to the one received on Tuesday.

After returning to the hotel at 3am, we arranged for 6am wake up calls and agreed to meet for breakfast before heading off to Mysore.

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