Bangalore!

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to put up a quick post letting you all know that we are in Bangalore! We are here for a week for our "pre-visit" and it is presently Sunday morning here. We came in late last night at about 12:10 a.m. The Bangalore airport is a small unimpressive building, but our bags were waiting for us by the time we came out and then was the adventure of finding our driver. We thought there was someone who was going to pick us up, but we weren't certain. When we asked the dashingly dressed (pressed Nehru jackets and dress slacks) "hosts" - not sure what else to call them -and they indicated that the man from our hotel had just stepped out. When he came back he did not have us on his list. Hmmm, well perhaps there is a private driver waiting for us?- we headed out the front doors of the airport and saw drivers lined up with signs all along a walkway leading to the street. There were so many signs! Easily 200, and so you walk along trying to find a name that should be familiar (after spending roughly the last 24 hours traveling and thinking that perhaps you have had a couple of hours of sleep at best!). Luckily Bryan found our driver, and luckily there WAS a driver there for us and we were in our car and driving away without too much trouble.

Driving away from the airport I quickly realized just how different it really is here. There is rubble, I'm not sure you can call it garbage, along most of the roadways. We zipped a long, passing cars, bikes, "two-wheelers" (scooters/motorbikes) and yellow motor rickshaw taxis. I have been looking at maps of Bangalore for months in an effort to get to know the layout of the city and I was pleased to know that I was able to figure out two of the roads we were on! It was something to see them in person though. So, apparently this driver is "ours" for the week, I think. We were really a little out of it when we arrived. But our driver, Shankar, is going to return to pick us up at noon today (it is currently about 9:40 am Sunday) and we are going to check out the city a bit. Anna is in the other room alternately watching Hindi music videos and cartoons, channel surfing I guess. She wants to go to a mall today and I will get some pictures to share with you our adventure-

Till next time here is a little Bangalore driving for you...At least listen to the sounds as this is what I hear through our hotel window. Beep!