Nandi Hills

Bangalore, 2 April, 2007.

Things aren't going according to plan. I wasn't able to get a ticket on the direct train to the Nepalese border; instead I've got one on a train going to Calcutta. I'll have to try to get to Patna or Gorakhpur from there and then cross the border.

I'm also stuck in Bangalore for three days. This morning I went to the city centre where there are lots of parks and shops. But I enoyed more an excursion to the Nandi Hills yesterday, on a local bus.

The locals call it the "Ooty of Karnataka". I haven't been to Ooty so I don't know how accurate the description is. But it was nice at the top of the hills where a superb view of the somewhat parched countryside awaits you. There was also a vertical drop of more than 500 metres on one side, which I thought was rather dramatic.

I was squeezed into the bus on the way back, but hey when you go to a country of 1 billion people and use their public transport, you have to bear these sort of inconveniences!

I'm not enoying being stuck in Bangalore, never having been much of a city man, however hi-tech the city in question may be.

I should add I had trouble finding a cyber cafe where I'm staying---near the railway station---in India's "Silicon Valley".

But I've never seen so many pubs in any other city I've been to in India!