Luckily the trip over to Bangalore was largely uneventful. The usual delays in departures, but luckily enough overlap between flights to avoid missing any of them. One weird thing British Airways does is sprays an insecticide throughout the cabin leaving London. Not sure what they're worried about taking from London into Bangalore but seemed strange.
Out for a walk this morning I bumped into a Pug dog out for a walk at the complex. There have been a ton of dogs around that are strays, funny the first 'pet' dog I see is a Pug. I have a hunch that I'm going to be paying for a first class ticket for Tilly to soak in the Indian sites.
Today is Gandhi's birthday, not a national holiday but it does mean that it's dry and you can't purchase any alcohol. It also meant that when my driver dropped me off and I mentioned I wouldn't need him for the rest of the day, I had no way of checking out the sites other than rickshaw.
Traffic is crazy, there are no blindspots in India, you simply follow the horns that are honking behind you to guide you ... Jedi like driving reflexes.
I've learned a few valuable lessons today:
- everything is negotiable, everyone wants as much money as possible for the service they're providing
- force rickshaw drivers to use the meter + tip versus some magical amount they come to for getting you to a place
- when a street vendor wants to sell you something don't make eye contact or speak to them
- it may sound rude, but acknowledging and politely saying No, you will be followed for several blocks with a never ending sales pitch.
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