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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