Tiny Tea and Funny Drinks

Not a whole lot going on but work this week. So here is a very lame post...

Everything here seems to be 1/4 to1/3 of the size of things back home. The portions are smaller, which includes tiny tea cups. Lets just say that Jenny B would go through Starbucks venti Tea withdrawl here.

My co-worker Nick's blog cameo.

Really tiny cups

This is just silly, the drink is called wtf

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And the forecast is smoke!

Sunday evening I barely made it to my Indigo flight from Bangalore to New Delhi. Upon arrival my coworker showed me the weather report of his phone and said, "what do you think smoke means?"

Seeing smoke on a weather forecast is a bit unsettling, especially when you've never seen it before. When we got off the plane it became very apparent that there was something in the air, and it definitely smelled a lot like smoke. It turns out its really thick smog, created from heavy pollution and the dense fog that the winter months bring. I was told that in the December/January timeframe the smog gets so bad that the visibility is about 10 meters. This causes mass cancellations of flights and I assume makes it even harder to drive around here.

Here's the morning "sunshine out of my hotel room this morning:

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The Delicious Dosa

Dosa's are delicious southern Indian breakfast food, though I think you can find them all day long. The crepe like vessel ( or the tepee in the photo below) is made from rice batter and black lentils. Normally, the crepe is served folded over, but they made this one into a cone shape.

Underneath the cone was a delicious mixture of potato, chili leaf, mustard seed, coriander and onion. It's served with a variety of condiments, mine included coconut, tomato and coriander. I don't remember what that soup was, but earlier they gave me a rice cake which could be dipped into it.

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Sky Bar and UB City

King Fisher is a company in India known for their beer, but also owns a airline and is big in the IT space here. They have built an area in Bangalore called UB City, named after the UB Group (United Brewery). This bar was recommended as it has the best view in the city... And that it did.

Enjoying a King Fisher Ultra, their lightest beer :)

Trendy bar decor

Bangalore skyline

The main UB building, off to the left you can see the very impressive Parliament Building

The stunning sunset (which took all of 10 minutes to set)

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Shopping in Bangalore

On Saturday our driver took us to Commercial street for some proper local shopping. I bought a Churidaar Kurta which is a traditional Indian Outfit made up of a tunic and leggings (I'll include a photo when I have one).

Luckily for us tourists, there was a Muslim holiday yesterday which made the streets about 1/3 as crowded as what they are normally supposed to be on a Saturday. Above is a picture of one of the streets at the end of the shopping area (I was so distracted by the saris, pashminas, carved goods and clothing that I didn't take many photos).

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Amazing Hotels & Service

The hotel we checked into this weekend is unbelievable. It's called the ITC Gardenia and it is absolutely stunning. You get a butler with your room who will cater to all requests.

The view from my balcony of UB City

Panoramic Room Photo

The pavilion, notice the "green" roof

Even the metal detectors are fancy

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Sacred Cows

One of the unusual sightings I've experienced here has been cows wandering around the crowded streets. Cows are sacred in the Hindu religion and I was told that majority of this cows are kept for their milk.

These cows were actually tied up, but it seems that the majority of the cows are allowed to roam as they please, even into a crowded road of traffic.

 

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Hotel Security

One thing that took a few days to get used to was the hotel security. Every time we come back from work theft search the car, X-ray our bags and have us walk through metal detectors.

Photo of the security at the TAJ hotel.

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Humbling experiences

Today at work we were inviting to a "community service" meeting. This was not your typical painting, working at the food pantry community service but more of a display of appreciation for the housekeeping staff at the office. The team had collected thousands of rupees to buy "prizes" for the housekeeping staff.

The event started with a senior leader explaining how important the housekeeping jobs are and how they are the face of the company. They proceeded to play a "game". This consisted of a bucket and a tennis ball, the housekeeping team then lined up and had three chances to get the ball into the bucket while we all watched. The 5 people who got the highest scores received extra gifts. The gift was a small bag of basmati rice. We were then told by our team that this rice was so far out of the housekeeping team's budget that this was a very special present. The business teams hold events like this for the housekeeping team every 2-3 months. It was very special and humbling to be included in this event.

Here's a photo from the beginning of the event where the senior leader is addressing the staff:

 

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Barbeque Nation

Tonight we went to dinner at a restaurant called Barbeque Nation. Now, I am not talking Tex Mex when I say BBQ in India. We're talking Indian BBQ.

Here is the outside of the restaurant. It is covered in lights for Dusherra, a festival which took place today.

This restaurant was kind of like a mixture between a Brazilian barbecue, a buffet and an Indian restaurant. They had a grill which was brought out to cook most of the starters on, then there was a buffet which had all sorts of delicious foods and desserts. Overall, an amazing Meal in India

To kick it all off, this man was the one man entertainment for the night. I swear that he sounded EXACTLY like Lionel Ritchie, and did a pretty amazing Bob Marley rendition to top it off.

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Dusshera

Dusshera is a Hindu festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil. It's a religious holiday (but the company made the Hindu team come into the office, we were literally the ONLY people on the entire campus).

I read that on this holiday people may exchange gifts and sweets. One of the Bangalore team members brought us in homemade sweets today (Gulab Jamun... SO delicious), now I come to realize which was a part of their celebration. It was a heart warming and very generous gesture on his part.

Also, most of the cars, bikes, busses and mopeds were decorated with ornate floral pieces.

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Cricket

It turns out that we were not the only ones who traveled in this week to Bangalore. The teams from Noida and Chennai also flew in so everyone could be together. The surprising thing for me was that it was the first time that most of these people had ever met, even though the majority of them had worked for the company for the past 5 years. They had a few team building activities going on throughout the week that they generously extended to us, one included a city cricket match. The only downside was that I decided to wear heels that day and couldn't participate.

A panoramic shot from the Bangalore v Noida match.

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Pancakes in India!

I know you're thinking,"Kimiko, you're in India...How could you eat pancakes?" But after traveling for 25 hours I wanted some comfort food in my tummy. After leafing through the 20 page menu, I found pancakes.... And they were DELICIOUS! (Don't worry too much, I ate butter chicken for dinner 😉).

Here is a quick shot of the hotel's main restaurant

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Bangalore Whitefield Hotel

Cool view of the hotel

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Checked In

 

Apparently they thought Kimiko was a male name before I showed up...

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Layover in Dubai

After flying for 12.5 hours from JFK, I only had a short layover in Dubai. The airport there is like a shopping mall, it's huge, a little overwhelming, and full of American chains like Burger King and Cosi.

The interesting part of the Dubai airport was the boarding process. You check in when the plane is about to board, only to sit in another airport waiting area. Then when it's time to go, they call First/Business class - but it's basically a free for all. Luckily, got on the plane safe and sound and landed in Bangalore at about 3:30 AM on Tuesday.

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Welcome

Starting a blog to capture some of the details of my upcoming travels... Wish me luck!

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