Bangalore IST

The entire Bangalore IST team on Thursday - everyone wearing traditional outfits :)

Mehendi

During our last Indian dinner night on Wednesday at the hotel, we had mehendi applied on our hands. Mehendi an art form that uses an herbal mixture containing mainly henna, eucalyptus oil and lime (no water) to decorate the body. It is most commonly seen as a decoration on Indian brides. The whole process was very quick - the artist was drawing free-hand, and the mehendi looks a lot like puffy paint when applied. It takes about 10 minutes to dry, and then it starts to flake off to reveal the color underneath.

Goa

I went to Goa last weekend with Karey and Kelli - we had a really good time but the trip was way too short. We flew out of Bangalore really early on Saturday (I mean REALLY early - our flight left at 6 AM). After circling around Goa in the air for almost 2 hours due to the fog, we finally landed. We were picked up at the airport by the Marriott van which was really funny - it looked like it came right out of the 70s (burnt orange, thick curtains, etc.). But, we made it to the hotel and then immediately left to go walk around Panaju. The Marriott is located near the town of Panaji and near Miramar beach. It was so beautiful - all of the buildings were very bright and reminiscent of Mexico. Goa was a Portugese colony until 1961 (which is later than India gained its independence from the British). The architecture and landscape were than anything we have seen while in India. There were also may churches in Goa, as there is a very high Christian population.



We walked around Panaji on Saturday morning and then went to Caldolim Beach in the afternoon. The beach was really nice, and relaxing besides all of the cows and dogs wandering around aimlessly! It was funny to see - the cows on the beach were definitely a first for me! Our driver in Goa was really nice and was pretty much
a tour guide and a driver in one. As we drove to the beach (and to the spice plantation on Sunday), he pointed out everything we were passing along the way. This was so great, because we didn't have too much time in Goa, but were able to learn a lot just from the car rides with him :)

We had a nice seafood dinner on the water at our hotel on Saturday night and then work up early Sunday morning to leave for the Tropical Spice Plantation. We got a tour of the plantation, and got to spend some time with another elephant, which was fun! We then drove to the airport and came back to Bangalore around 2 PM on Sunday. It was a short trip - but definitely worth it!

IBM India

Last Friday, the trainers and I wore traditional Indian clothing to work (due to a request by the women in the class!). We went shopping the weekend before and bought some Indian outfits to wear to work. I bought a kurta tunic, dupatta (scarf) and some pants. The pants were WAY too big, so I had to wear them with jeans to work. The Diamond District office has casual Fridays, so some of the girls in the class aren't dressed up in typical Indian clothing in the picture. We definitely got a lot of attention in the office on Friday!

I attached pictures of us with some of the girls in the class, as well as a picture of our training room at the IBM Diamond District office.

We have A LOT of work to do this week, since we are leaving on Saturday. I can't believe we only have a week left, and still a lot of training to do! I am definitely going to miss Bangalore and all of the people I have met here.

Sensory Overload...

I have heard the phrase sensory overload used to describe India, but would have never imagined it to live up to this description as much as it does. I have been here for almost 4 weeks and continue to be in awe of my surroundings here. There are always a million things to see, smell and hear....it makes for very few dull moments when driving around or exploring! One of my favorite things about this country are all of the bright colors everywhere - from the bright fabrics all of the women wear to bright colored buildings, flowers and fruits everywhere you go. Also - the smells of spices and incense seem to follow your every move. Walking and driving around town back in the US is definitely going to be boring compared to my everyday surroundings here in India.

It is Wednesday night here in Bangalore and I am waiting for one of the hotel restaurants to open for dinner (everyone here eats later, so most of the restaurants don't even open until 7 or 7:30). We had a really fun weekend in Bangalore. It was Republic Day on Monday, so it was a long weekend for us which was nice. We visited the Botanical Gardens for a flower show, had bruch at the Leela Palace, shopped around Commercial Street, went to a wildlife preserve and saw a Hindu temple at night (some of the highlights!). Here are pictures from this weekend: http://public.fotki.com/mdebacco/weekend-activities-/

I am heading to Goa this weekend with 2 colleagues, which will be nice and relaxing (although we will only really be there for a day and 1/2). I can't believe I will be back in DC in less than 2 weeks!

Drive to Subramanya Arcade from the Taj

Since last week was our last week at the Subramanya Arcade (SA) IBM location, I decided to post about the drive to that office! We will be training at the IBM Diamond District office starting tomorrow, which will be a completely different drive with new sights to see! The SA office was about 30 minutes away from our hotel and we passed many things along the way. Our route included passing through the marble/granite district in Bangalore. There are shops lining the Bannerghatta Road, with huge slabs of granite and marble sitting outside near the streets. Bangalore exports a lot of this internationally. On our route to SA, we also passed through one of the many Muslim neighborhoods in Bangalore. I posted some pictures of he granite shops, as well as some other sights we passed on our route to the IBM office. I especially liked the photo of the men on the motorbike carrying the ladder. We saw sights like this every day! It is never a boring ride to work :)

Auto-Ricksaw Ride

Fashion Show at the Taj Residency

Last night (Saturday), there was a fashion show at our hotel - the Taj Residency. I could see them setting up/rehearsing during the afternoon, then went down to check it out last night. It was a lot of fun. There were a TON of people there, all surrounding the pool, and the show lasted for awhile. It was hosted by this guy that apparently promotes all of these parties/events in Bangalore. We met and talked to a lot of interesting people and had a great time! Here are some pictures.....

Taj Mahal - Saturday, January 17th

After waking up at 3 AM, leaving Bangalore at 6:30 AM, a 2 1/2 hour flight to Delhi and a 4 hour car ride to Agra....we finally made it to the Taj Mahal on Saturday afternoon! We met our tour guide at the hotel and he took us to the Taj and showed us around. We had to park the car a little ways away from the Taj, and we rode on a camel cart to the entrance gate :)


Before we got in the cart, we were able to jump up on the camel for a picture opportunity. The camel I got on was not happy at all, and started snorting (I think?) and moving around frantically. Luckily, I didn't get spit on or thrown off! After the short camel ride, we arrived at the Taj Mahal and it was absolutely beautiful. It was about 3:30 PM and the sun was at a perfect angle. As we walked closer and close to the Taj Mahal, and as the sun started to go down, it really did start to change a different color. Because it is completely made of marble, the sunlight and moonlight illuminate it in different ways. Our tour guide told us a lot about the different stones used in the inlay marble, and he also told us all about the history of the Taj Mahal. It was built by over 20,000 workers over the span of 22 years. And all in memory of an Emporer's wife. It really was incredible to see, and definitely worth the long trip from Bangalore.

Agra Fort - Sunday, January 18th

Kelli, Karey and I visited the Agra Fort on Sunday while we were in Agra. We didn't really know anything about it beforehand and were very impressed by the Fort! It was beautiful - much different than we expected a Fort to look like. Part of the fort was built by the same Emporer who built the Taj Mahal. We went early in the morning and it was really foggy when we first arrived, but then started to clear up as we were leaving. When we first walked through the main entrance of the Fort, there were tons of monkey's everywhere! Part of the Fort red was sandstone and part was marble. Our tour guide, Daniel, had a lot of interesting information and stories to share, and he was also patient with us while we took a lot of pictures! We weren't there for too long, because we needed to head back to Delihi. But, here are some pictures from our morning on Sunday at the Agra Fort.

Drive Through Uttar Pradesh

When we booked our weekend trip to Agra, we decided to fly into Delhi and book a car to drive us to Agra from Delhi. We decided to do this, because it ended up being about 1/2 the price that it would cost to fly directly into Agra. The drive took us about 4 1/2 hours each way, and at first we thought we had made the wrong decision (since the travel time for the weekend took A LOT longer than the actual time we spent int Agra). However, at the end of the weekend, I realized that the drive was a lot more interesting than the flight would have been. We saw a lot of things that we have not been able to experience yet in Bangalore. So, looking back, I'm glad that we decided to do the drive from Delhi! The drive was.....interesting (for lack of a better word).

Our driver was not what we expected. I think we have been spoiled with our car and driver in Bangalore, so we were expecting similar service with the car in Delhi. For starters, the guy had a terrible cough and was hacking away the entire drive (which wasn't so much fun, considering we were crammed into a small car as it was). Once I got over the fact that our less than comfortable....I started to really enjoy the ride and the villages/towns we passed along the way. From the Delhi airport, to get out of the city, we passed through a HUGE office park with an IBM office included. Pretty much every US company you can think of, seemed to have a large building there. There were also a lot more office buildings under construction in the surrounding area. Delhi and the surrounding towns that we passed on the way to Agra were scenes of contrast. There were huge office complex's and shopping centers, with slums situated in between (villages filled with mud huts and tents). It surprised me how close together these two very different images were to each other. Once we got out of the outskirts of Delhi, there were mainly small villages. There were people and animals everywhere.... the roads and the side of roads. Even though I was exhausted (from waking up at 3 AM that morning!), there was no way I could sleep because of all the different things to see and experience along the way!



Another thing I noticed, amidst the small towns and villages we passed on the drive, were the gigantic Science and Technology campuses lining the road. We must have passed about 5 huge complexes on the drive, and they all looked brand new. There were a couple under construction as well.

All in all, I'm really glad we did the drive, even though it was LONGGGG....I'm glad we were able to experience it :)



Photos: Camels pulling large loads on the side of the road; a barber shop; views from the car; an impromptu cricket game

Classroom Fun

Here is a picture of Karey, Deb, Kelli and I with some of the women yesterday in the training class: Swathi, Deepanjali, Beena, Natasha, Palavi, Mridula and Akshata. There are 11 women in the class and it has been really fun getting to know all of them throughout these last couple of weeks. They all have very different backgrounds and stories. Akshata just got married a couple of months ago and showed us the pictures from her wedding (there were 800 guests there, and that was considered SMALL!). Natasha lived in Vancouver, Canada for a couple of years while her husband worked there, so she has some interesting stories about her time there and what she learned while living there.

There was a festival in Bangalore this week to mark the beginning of the sugarcane harvest. Because of the festival, some people in the class came dressed up in their nice sarees (a couple are wearing them here).

I am off to Agra early tomorrow morning - can't wait!

Elephants, Monkeys, Temples.....

MYSORE, Karnataka


Yesterday, Kelli, Karey, Deb and I ventured to Mysore. Mysore is a city about 3 hours away from Bangalore and our driver drove us for the day. We left our hotel around 7 AM and didn't get back until 9 PM so it was definitely a long day. The drive itself was really interesting, because we passed through many small towns along the way. It was definitely nice to see some of the Karnataka countryside, since we haven't experienced anything except for the city life since we've been here.

On the way to Mysore, we stopped at Dariya Daulat Bagh, which was Tipu Sultan's summer palace. They had an art gallery inside of the building, and every wall and ceiling was painted in really bright colors. It was really pretty, and the gardens surrounding the palace were really nice too. There were many groups of people everywhere, and lots of groups of school children. Since we were some of the only non-Indian tourists everywhere in Mysore, many of the kids (and adults!) were coming up to us to say HI and ask to take pictures. Some asked to take pictures of us and some asked US to take pictures of them (see the picture of the family below). It was definitely an interesting experience!

Apart from the shopping ( we did a lot of it since Mysore is known for its fine silk and fabrics), we also went to a Hindu Temple and the Maharaja's Palace. The temple is called Sri Chamundeswari Temple and it sits on top of a steep hill. It was really pretty and there were tons of people there. We walked through the temple and learned about the Hindu religion, and about some of the things they offer to the gods. It was really interesting because there weren't many tourists there at all, so most people at the temple were there to worship. It was really neat to see, even though we definitely got ripped off by the "guide" that adopted us and walked us through. Oh well - at least he was knowledgeable and we learned some things!

The Maharaja's Palace in Mysore was beautiful. Shankar's friend, Babu, met us at the palace and was our tour guide while we were there (we also ended up getting a little ripped off here, but I guess that is all part of the experience, right?) and he gave us a nice tour.

It was a really fun day and we were able to see a lot. Definitely a nice change from being in the office all day!

We are planning a trip to Agra next weekend to see the Taj Mahal so stay tuned :)

Here are some more pictures from Mysore yesterday....

http://public.fotki.com/mdebacco/mysore-/