Bangalore / Bengaluru
I knew, by the time we arrived to the last station before I went to bed last evening, that we were running about two hours behind schedule. I finally got a compartment-mate at that station -- if only for a few minutes. He disappeared just after saying hello (in very good English) and dropping off his bags, then a while later the conductor apologizes to me (!) for having placed someone else in the compartment and assured me he'd been moved to another compartment. I tried saying that I really did not mind sharing the compartment (indeed, would have been glad for the company), but by then it was too late.
I mean, it was a lovely train ride, but 34 hours in a compartment on your own feels distinctly antisocial.
We did not make any time up overnight. The crew clearly weren't provisioned for an extra breakfast, so I had to settle for a morning coffee (about an hour later than I had it yesterday morning) and wait for breakfast till I reached Bangalore City Station.
The attendants came for tips last evening -- 100 rupees felt a bit cheap, so I gave them a 500 note (the only other note I had besides a 1000-rupee note) -- then came again for tips this morning. :-) They had (with the exception of the very late coffee this morning) provided very good service, so I gave them the 100-rupee note, but still felt a bit odd for tipping twice. They looked a bit askance at the 100-rupee note (I think), but I wasn't prepared to hand over a 1000. ;') (On the other hand, given the exchange rate to SEK, it's not like I couldn't have.)
I was going to take lots of pictures around Bangalore City Station to make up for my lack of photos around the station in Delhi, but Bangalore City Station is remarkably nondescript. I settled for a quick photo of a train sitting on platform one, then went to find breakfast, which proved quite easy: two dosas from the shop in the main hall.
Kaush had suggested my taking a bus out to his place, but when I messaged him this morning, he suggested taking a taxi instead, and directed me to an app to install on my mobile phone -- which took care of arranging the taxi, told me the taxi's license number and the name of the driver, and informed me (incorrectly!) that the taxi would arrive in three minutes. (It took fifteen.) I quick threw my things back together to be outside within the three minutes; the driver called me, but I couldn't understand a single word he said, as I kept repeating to him; so I simply texted him my precise location and waited.
The taxi (a very nice, modern car) was cheap, especially after substracting the 100-rupee discount I received for being a first-time customer of this taxi service. Apparently this is a serious issue locally, as it is putting pressure on the auto-rickshaw drivers, who are used to charging higher rates. :-) Other neat things: the metering was done entirely by a GPS-aware app that the driver had on his mobile phone, and as soon as we'd arrived and the driver was paid, I received a receipt on my mobile.
Dropped off my bags at Kaush's very nice "hostel" accommodation (really, a short-term rental one-room apartment with toilet) and took a shower, then got a tour of his office (ten minutes walk) and lunch in the building's cafeteria. Came back to his place for a while; he went back to his office for his laptop; then we took another of the mobile-phone-app taxis downtown to one of the main upscale shopping streets: very Western-oriented, with brands like Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, etc. We wandered fairly aimlessly, then a very persistent auto-rickshaw driver (looking to be of mixed Indian/African ancestry) sold Kaush on a quick tour. This involved a pass by the (extremely impressive) state legislature building (I took a couple photos through the high iron fence), high court, and post office -- plus a visit to three high-end tourist shops, where we weren't obligated to buy anything (and didn't), but the auto-rickshaw driver received coupons of some description for bringing us there. (At least, it worked for him at the first shop. The second shop didn't give him any, apparently because we didn't stay long enough; and I don't think that the third gave him any, either.) Oh, he's the auto-rickshaw driver who was telling us all about the pressure being brought to bear by Ola Cabs and its mobile phone app.
Most impressive thing about Bangalore, besides the somewhat slower pace than Delhi :-), is the temperature: about 20C all day. I had an email from someone in Sweden saying that it must be much hotter here but, nope, it's actually much hotter in southern Sweden at the moment. :-) From what Kaush says, the temperatures stay pretty much like this all year round, a consequence in part of the relative elevation. Some people don't care for it though, "because we tend to think that, if you're sweating a lot, you sweat out all the bad things you might pick up". Hmm, I don't think it works like that. ;')
Heard from Pastor Singha in Uluberia this evening, having been nervous at not hearing from him all day. (I'd written him this morning as soon as my waiting-list ticket had been upgraded to confirmed -- as he'd asked me to do.) He's suggesting that, since he needs to be away from Uluberia on Sunday (baptizing converts in a neighbouring district, if I understood him rightly from a previous email), he meet me in Kolkata on Monday morning and bring me by train to Uluberia. (He had previously talked about meeting me at the station on Saturday when I get in, if he was able to.) That doesn't work so well for me, both because my whole purpose in going to Kolkata is to visit Uluberia, and because I need to be off in quite good time on Monday if I'm to have a chance to stop at all in Agra. So I wrote back to suggest that I make my own way to Uluberia on Saturday (presuming the train is on time), stay locally (there appear to be a number of local hotels), attend church in the morning (in Bengali) -- presuming I'm welcome to -- and meet up with him at the mission on Monday morning. Since that's more the sort of thing I'd been trying to suggest all along, I'm a bit nervous why the suggestion for this alternate arrangement. So I'm back to waiting to hear again.
I'd known all along that getting to Uluberia was important to me, of course, because of my father's visit there long ago, but I hadn't realized quite how important it was to me till this evening, or how nervous I am that thinks might not come off okay. Hopefully it will all work out.
I mean, it was a lovely train ride, but 34 hours in a compartment on your own feels distinctly antisocial.
We did not make any time up overnight. The crew clearly weren't provisioned for an extra breakfast, so I had to settle for a morning coffee (about an hour later than I had it yesterday morning) and wait for breakfast till I reached Bangalore City Station.
The attendants came for tips last evening -- 100 rupees felt a bit cheap, so I gave them a 500 note (the only other note I had besides a 1000-rupee note) -- then came again for tips this morning. :-) They had (with the exception of the very late coffee this morning) provided very good service, so I gave them the 100-rupee note, but still felt a bit odd for tipping twice. They looked a bit askance at the 100-rupee note (I think), but I wasn't prepared to hand over a 1000. ;') (On the other hand, given the exchange rate to SEK, it's not like I couldn't have.)
I was going to take lots of pictures around Bangalore City Station to make up for my lack of photos around the station in Delhi, but Bangalore City Station is remarkably nondescript. I settled for a quick photo of a train sitting on platform one, then went to find breakfast, which proved quite easy: two dosas from the shop in the main hall.
Kaush had suggested my taking a bus out to his place, but when I messaged him this morning, he suggested taking a taxi instead, and directed me to an app to install on my mobile phone -- which took care of arranging the taxi, told me the taxi's license number and the name of the driver, and informed me (incorrectly!) that the taxi would arrive in three minutes. (It took fifteen.) I quick threw my things back together to be outside within the three minutes; the driver called me, but I couldn't understand a single word he said, as I kept repeating to him; so I simply texted him my precise location and waited.
The taxi (a very nice, modern car) was cheap, especially after substracting the 100-rupee discount I received for being a first-time customer of this taxi service. Apparently this is a serious issue locally, as it is putting pressure on the auto-rickshaw drivers, who are used to charging higher rates. :-) Other neat things: the metering was done entirely by a GPS-aware app that the driver had on his mobile phone, and as soon as we'd arrived and the driver was paid, I received a receipt on my mobile.
Dropped off my bags at Kaush's very nice "hostel" accommodation (really, a short-term rental one-room apartment with toilet) and took a shower, then got a tour of his office (ten minutes walk) and lunch in the building's cafeteria. Came back to his place for a while; he went back to his office for his laptop; then we took another of the mobile-phone-app taxis downtown to one of the main upscale shopping streets: very Western-oriented, with brands like Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, etc. We wandered fairly aimlessly, then a very persistent auto-rickshaw driver (looking to be of mixed Indian/African ancestry) sold Kaush on a quick tour. This involved a pass by the (extremely impressive) state legislature building (I took a couple photos through the high iron fence), high court, and post office -- plus a visit to three high-end tourist shops, where we weren't obligated to buy anything (and didn't), but the auto-rickshaw driver received coupons of some description for bringing us there. (At least, it worked for him at the first shop. The second shop didn't give him any, apparently because we didn't stay long enough; and I don't think that the third gave him any, either.) Oh, he's the auto-rickshaw driver who was telling us all about the pressure being brought to bear by Ola Cabs and its mobile phone app.
Most impressive thing about Bangalore, besides the somewhat slower pace than Delhi :-), is the temperature: about 20C all day. I had an email from someone in Sweden saying that it must be much hotter here but, nope, it's actually much hotter in southern Sweden at the moment. :-) From what Kaush says, the temperatures stay pretty much like this all year round, a consequence in part of the relative elevation. Some people don't care for it though, "because we tend to think that, if you're sweating a lot, you sweat out all the bad things you might pick up". Hmm, I don't think it works like that. ;')
Heard from Pastor Singha in Uluberia this evening, having been nervous at not hearing from him all day. (I'd written him this morning as soon as my waiting-list ticket had been upgraded to confirmed -- as he'd asked me to do.) He's suggesting that, since he needs to be away from Uluberia on Sunday (baptizing converts in a neighbouring district, if I understood him rightly from a previous email), he meet me in Kolkata on Monday morning and bring me by train to Uluberia. (He had previously talked about meeting me at the station on Saturday when I get in, if he was able to.) That doesn't work so well for me, both because my whole purpose in going to Kolkata is to visit Uluberia, and because I need to be off in quite good time on Monday if I'm to have a chance to stop at all in Agra. So I wrote back to suggest that I make my own way to Uluberia on Saturday (presuming the train is on time), stay locally (there appear to be a number of local hotels), attend church in the morning (in Bengali) -- presuming I'm welcome to -- and meet up with him at the mission on Monday morning. Since that's more the sort of thing I'd been trying to suggest all along, I'm a bit nervous why the suggestion for this alternate arrangement. So I'm back to waiting to hear again.
I'd known all along that getting to Uluberia was important to me, of course, because of my father's visit there long ago, but I hadn't realized quite how important it was to me till this evening, or how nervous I am that thinks might not come off okay. Hopefully it will all work out.