Well I never got to writing about Bangalore the first time I went, so I decided to write about it now that I have gone again.

Bangalore is about 2 hours 45 minutes by train from Mysore and about 3 hours by taxi.  It is a metropolis compared to the “tiny” town of Mysore.  It is funny that Indians refer to Mysore as a town although it has over a million people living here, but when you compare it to a city like Bangalore which has 6,158,677 people (5th largest city) you can see why they might say that.  Mysore, however, isn’t even in the top 20 most populated cities in India.

Bangalore, as you would expect, has many more things to do compared to Mysore.  It is like any other metropolis in the United States except that the streets are filled with many more beggers and homeless people than any city I have seen in the major U.S. cities (Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, D.C. to name a few).

The first time I was there we went to a place called The Forum.  This is the equivalent of a U.S. mall.  However, since it is in the middle of a big city with little room to build horizontally, they have built skyward.  The mall is six stories tall, about three taller than any other mall I have been to in the midwest, and about a block and a half in size.  Inside the mall are many stores that we would know in the U.S. and many others that are similar in nature to stores in the U.S.  As far as food in the mall goes there is KFC, Subway, and McDonalds.  Each differing in some way from that of the respective U.S. restaurants.  McDonalds, for instance, doesn’t have any kind of beef, no surprise, nor do they have simple things like chicken McNuggets.  The french fries, or what the Indians call “finger chips”, are good but don’t taste the same at all.

As far as shopping outside of the mall is concerned there are a few streets that are great for shopping.  There is Brigade Rd., MG (Mahatma Ghandi) Road, and Commercial Street.  These streets are full of shops for as far as the eye can see.  Some of the shops are very westernized whereas some are just ma and pa type shops we would have in the U.S.

One of the stores that I visited was Lacoste.  If you don’t know the brand name it is the company that has the little green alligator as its logo.  I found out from my friends that a simple polo shirt from Lacoste in the U.S. would run a person anywhere from $70-$95.  However, at this official outlet a Lacoste shirt runs around $25-$35.  So I picked one up for myself on the first trip and picked up another one this weekend along with one for Jeni for a birthday present.

Another store I visited this weekend was a computer/game store, image that right.  I asked if they sold xbox games, as I was looking for Cricket 2005, and the clerk’s first question was if I had a mod chip.  That is when I knew these games would be cheap.  Needless to say I bought 8 games for Rs. 1600.  That is roughly $35 for 8 games total.  Sadly they didn’t have Cricket 2005 but I found it today at another store for a cheap price as well.

The first time I was there we managed to make it to a club called Fuga.  I found this to be very similar to what the U.S. clubs are like, from what I hear anyway.  They played decent music and it seemed that the dance floor was overcrowded.  I chose not to partake in that and went to the upstairs portion and chilled on some couches with other Infoscions.  We ended up having only a few drinks as the club closed at 11:15 pm as does everything else in Bangalore.  They are very strict about their curfews here.

Both of my trips have been fun and exciting.  I have seen some more things that I am glad to have experienced.  On the train ride I saw many rice fields (patties) and it is exactly like what I’ve seen on TV.  Fields that are flooded and workers walking calf deep in the muck.  I have experienced what real pollution is.  In West Lafayette we complain about the foul smell of the air, but that air is like that of a meadow compared to the air in Bangalore.  I ended up with a sore throat just from a day and a half in that city.  There are people everywhere wearing handkerchiefs over their faces due to the density of the pollution.  It is so bad that you can actually see it lingering in the air.

Regardless of some of the few problems with the city, pollution, overcrowdedness, litter, and the homeless it is a very nice place to visit.  I’m glad that I’ve made the trip and now know where to go to have some fun and get those hard to find goods that I can’t find in Mysore.

I’m sure it is a place I will be frequenting much more in the future.