'I can finally tell you now' begins Edd. This sounds ominous, we are sitting in a very smart Rajasthani vegetarian restaurant, in a designer mall in Bangalore.
'Tell me what?' I ask.
'Well you know you thought you saw a rat on the first overnight train to Badami. Well you definitely did, as when I folded my bed down for the night it was there waiting. After it ran off, I stuffed some of my blanket down the hole it ran into and hoped it didn't reemerge. I thought I ought to wait until we finished the train parts of the holiday before I told you...'
We arrived from Hosapete into Bangalore City junction at 6 am. Fortunately on this overnight train neither of us saw any rodents. We set out to explore the city reasonably early, and found the city market in full swing. Miles of jasmine garlands had already been spun, and sat in piles the size of tractor tyres in the centre of the market. It also had an amazing selection of multicoloured flashing Hindu shrines, which Edd was very tempted by.
The next stop was the city fort, which the English had successfully destroyed most of in the eighteenth century. Then on through the backstreets (as Bangalore is digging up a lot of its main streets for a new metro system) to Tipu Sultan's palace. I'm not sure Tipu would have appreciated our visit. His favourite toy was a French built life sized mechanical organ of a tiger mauling an English soldier- complete with sound effects. Ironically this is now in the V&A, but we did see a small model of it.
Meena gave us some excellent recommendations for restaurants in Bangalore and it is fair to say that we spent most of the rest of the day eating with a bit of shopping in between. The Rajasthani restaurant was a great adventure. The waiters seemed a little surprised that we wanted to eat Indian thali and weren't opting for the Italian opposite. However once we had persuaded them of our enthusiasm for the menu and ( despite me managing to spill a bottle of Pepsi everywhere) we were shown to a lovely table with golden thali dishes and mugs. Each course was a little bit of surprise for us- but we could mostly guess what each dish was. We waddled out into the designer mall about an hour and a half later, for an afternoon of shopping in the rain.
Our last meal in India was at a very cool Parsi restaurant. It was the first restaurant in two weeks which served alcohol, and I tried some Indian Wine ( Sulla )which was surprisingly good. The Parsi community were originally immigrants from Iran, and are famous for their cafes in Mumbai. The food was really good- especially the chocolate brownie, which was necessary acclimatisation ahead of the return to the UK tomorrow. With the exception of some homemade chocolate in Coorg, we have not had any chocolate this holiday. This has been very tricky for Edd, who is already planning a chocolate binge the moment we land.
We had a slightly adrenalin fuelled trip back to the hotel from a tuk tuk driver who seemed to be trusting totally in Gods will when it came to steering.
We went back to pack ready for a 3.45am start to the airport the next day.
'Tell me what?' I ask.
'Well you know you thought you saw a rat on the first overnight train to Badami. Well you definitely did, as when I folded my bed down for the night it was there waiting. After it ran off, I stuffed some of my blanket down the hole it ran into and hoped it didn't reemerge. I thought I ought to wait until we finished the train parts of the holiday before I told you...'
We arrived from Hosapete into Bangalore City junction at 6 am. Fortunately on this overnight train neither of us saw any rodents. We set out to explore the city reasonably early, and found the city market in full swing. Miles of jasmine garlands had already been spun, and sat in piles the size of tractor tyres in the centre of the market. It also had an amazing selection of multicoloured flashing Hindu shrines, which Edd was very tempted by.
The next stop was the city fort, which the English had successfully destroyed most of in the eighteenth century. Then on through the backstreets (as Bangalore is digging up a lot of its main streets for a new metro system) to Tipu Sultan's palace. I'm not sure Tipu would have appreciated our visit. His favourite toy was a French built life sized mechanical organ of a tiger mauling an English soldier- complete with sound effects. Ironically this is now in the V&A, but we did see a small model of it.
Meena gave us some excellent recommendations for restaurants in Bangalore and it is fair to say that we spent most of the rest of the day eating with a bit of shopping in between. The Rajasthani restaurant was a great adventure. The waiters seemed a little surprised that we wanted to eat Indian thali and weren't opting for the Italian opposite. However once we had persuaded them of our enthusiasm for the menu and ( despite me managing to spill a bottle of Pepsi everywhere) we were shown to a lovely table with golden thali dishes and mugs. Each course was a little bit of surprise for us- but we could mostly guess what each dish was. We waddled out into the designer mall about an hour and a half later, for an afternoon of shopping in the rain.
Our last meal in India was at a very cool Parsi restaurant. It was the first restaurant in two weeks which served alcohol, and I tried some Indian Wine ( Sulla )which was surprisingly good. The Parsi community were originally immigrants from Iran, and are famous for their cafes in Mumbai. The food was really good- especially the chocolate brownie, which was necessary acclimatisation ahead of the return to the UK tomorrow. With the exception of some homemade chocolate in Coorg, we have not had any chocolate this holiday. This has been very tricky for Edd, who is already planning a chocolate binge the moment we land.
We had a slightly adrenalin fuelled trip back to the hotel from a tuk tuk driver who seemed to be trusting totally in Gods will when it came to steering.
We went back to pack ready for a 3.45am start to the airport the next day.
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