Bangalore - Bengalaru - Bangladesh + India x 2 - CycleBlaze

December 12, 2010 to December 13, 2010

Bangalore - Bengalaru

A couple of nights in Casa Piccola Cottage

It's the little things in life - like a hot shower - that you can soon miss and it's wonderful to get one after what seems a lifetime.

The waiter comes back to my table to apologize and say that they don't have scrambled egg. He then tells me I can have an omlette. You work it out.

It's about 25 km into Bangalore, where it may be possible to get a dongle and my own computer working online. Technology drives me crazy.

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One reason - the main one - for coming here was for one of the magazine articles I set up months ago. The proposal is about a classic scooter club in Bangalore, but I haven't had any recent emails back from the guy I contacted and if I don't get one by Monday morning I'll probably be heading towards Mysore. We'll see.

The route is busy and wide and soulless as most highways are, full of vehicles carrying commuters and whoever heading into and out of Bangalore, which is India's answer to the Silicon Valley.

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There's a service road for a while, which is nice, but it becomes dusty and not something to take it easy on, so I ride along the main road instead. There's lots of traffic, but it seems okay to me - not too manic maybe as it's Sunday. 

There are signs of America - Mc Donald's and KFC - and then a nice clean coffee shop looks very tempting, but I've ridden past it before it fully dawns on me. Soon after another one appears about six kilometres from the city, so I stop and go in and order a cappuccino and a chocolate doughnut and once I've downed that I have a second cup, sat on a veranda watching my bike below.

The waitress asks me to give some money to poor children, which I can do, but she asks for double what the bill is and this seems over the top to me as the pamphlet she shows me says donate a rupee (singular) not 200 of them. Maybe it's because I'm a white guy. 

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The terrain undulates slightly with perhaps five hundred meters gently up and then slowly down. I'm speeding it most of the time to get this over with as there's zilch to enjoy really -- industrial units and nondescript buildings with the occasional restaurant spaced between here and there with homes tucked behind, out of the way.

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A car stops and there are two bikes on a rack. One I see is a Colnago - an expensive road bike so I'm a bit surprised. The passenger-seat guy nearest asks about my tour and we talk above the noise of the passing traffic about bikes and stuff and if I hear him right there's a race heading through Mysore and Ooty this month, so I make a mental note. Maybe I'll get to see it.

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I keep riding due south with some cows are straddled across the busy highway at a Y junction going god knows where and if that's not enough the owner lets them wander among the traffic. I fully expect to see blood and intestines, but am thankful not. Later a goat the size of which is bigger than any I've seen before is tethered beside the road and it's not clear what it's doing there.

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I make it to Bangalore's periphery and my Lonely Planet suggests heading for MG Road and so that's what I do, watching out for erratic drivers.

A guy on a trek road bike glides up and asks about my trip - another nice bike - and he says there are cycle shops where this pricey stuff can be bought here in Bangalore. 

The guide book recommends Casa Piccola Cottage and even though it's not cheap I think why not after all those cheap nights in Bangladesh and when I get there they have a room for 3,500 rupees and I decide to take it for two nights, by the end of which I may have heard from the scooter guy  hopefully.

The bonus is I can use my laptop with their Wi-fi here. 

Casa Piccola Cottage
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However, I won't be here past Tuesday and want internet access while on the rural back roads, so pop down to a nearby tele-internet provider's store to see about getting a dongle in the late afternoon only to get told that I need proof of an Indian residential address, which is something I expected and immediately decide to kick this whole Indian dongle idea in to touch.  

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Day 2

'Town of boiled beans' is what Bengalaru means. 

I have a day to wander it at leisure and discover what makes it tick. I leave the bike locked up with the city traffic being like it is and my Lonely Planet mentions a park that's not a million miles away, so that's where I head for. 

Near Cubbon Park I spot one of those branches of coffee shop I called in yesterday - Café Coffee Day, which is like a version of Starbucks and have a cappuccino again. And a chocolate doughnut. Then I walk north some more.

Café Coffee Day
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Funnily enough just before the park there's another Café Coffee Day and although it's less than 20 minutes after the first I pop in for another cup and this place is huge but empty. My brunch is a mustard chicken on herb bread.

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The park isn't what I expect and comes as a disappointment. Roads cut through it and the footpaths are being relayed, so there's little to experience apart from a view of trees as cars pass me by. 

At the end of the thoroughfare is the city's main library, which is clearly a British-era piece of architecture, and I wander in to see what it's like and get shown up to a narrow, semi-circular room on the upper floor by a man who must think that's where I want to go. It's the periodicals room and is full of around 200 men sat reading newspapers. There are no women. 

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I go back down the coconut-matting-covered stairs and walk further north and eventually find my way to Commercial Street, then venture down side streets which seem to have more character. 

A few old doorways are left from last century, carved and solid-looking, crafted from hardwood and spot one once-grand Victorian villa with a fretwork and an ornate bargeboard gable that's on its last legs. It really needs demolishing, as it's clearly a something of a hazard now. Most of upstairs has fallen down, as if a bomb has made a direct hit. And yet it seems people are still inhabiting the ground floor. 

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An hour later I'm in Bangalore's branch of Mysore Saree Udyog, which is what I've made a beeline for. This is a spacious two-storey shop dedicated to fabrics from India, especially silk and cotton. Christmas is coming and the thing is I've got gifts to buy like most other folk, even though I'm touring around. 

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By chance I find a bike shop on my way back to the hotel. It didn't look anything special outside, but they sell Cannondale and GT and Mongoose bikes and I bought a new bell for 40 rupees -- kind of funky and cute, but it may not last the whole tour. 

Well, I reckon the scooter guy is going to leave me disappointed, so I'll just have to make a move in the morning, head southeast towards Mysore. 

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Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 1,710 km (1,062 miles)

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