Bangalore Tour (June 23)

It was Saturday, the day after we arrived. Sure enough, the trainers did not want us to have jet lag, so they take us for a tour of Bangalore, for the whole day.
But it was great!! First day out with the whole TWU!
More pictures are here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/559825381uSljKK.

Bull Temple
It's a temple :). We had to take our slippers/shoes off. Oh oh. I guess it's not a problem for some people, but it is for me. Oh well. It's a small temple, just one round walk around a big bull statue. In the inner middle side of the walk path, they put a box for (money) gift. I think one priest was standing there, too. Outside the door, there were a few vendors selling books about temples around Bangalore, and other small gifts.
Next to the Bull temple, there is a garden, with a med-size monument in the middle. The monument is about 10 m in diameter, and 20 m in height. It has carvings of famous Indian leaders around the walls.

City Market
It is a traditional wholesale market (kaya pasar Sambongan di Surabaya), very crowded, lots of people carrying big bags of vegetables (or other things) on their head. The sellers on the street-sides yelled something.. maybe prices. This was where our group got split (of course!). I didn't really enjoy visiting it :p

Lunch
We had south Indian buffet. The plate was made of steel, and it was big, with dividers that look like an animal paw ^_^. First, they gave a small cup of lime juice with honey, very sweet. Then they came and filled in the paws with different sauces (or maybe I should say chutneys). It's been sometime so I don't remember all the dishes :( but there were many varieties: poori, (sweet) almond sauce, fried balls that look like falafel, 2 kinds of curries, yogurt rice. My my.. I certainly liked the food, but I was too full! I think someone said it costs (only) 100 rupees (~US$ 2.5) per person. Oh yeah, it is a good price.

Lalbagh Garden
This one is similar to Chicago botanical garden. It has a bridge with river and lotus flowers, gardens with different tropical trees and plants, and .. a dome-like hill. On top of that little dome (or hill), there is a small temple-like building. I'm not sure what it's for, but we could see the city from there, very nice.

There are a lot of similarities between Bangalore and Surabaya (or other big cities in Indonesia). The small shops and industries (toko-toko, meracangan) on the streets, the road and traffic conditions.. man, it comprises mostly of four things: auto rikshaw (mirip becak bermotor), cars, buses, and horns. I feel it's more noisy than Surabaya.. but maybe because I always ride in a car back home :p hehe.

We went home around 4 pm. Very tired, but very happy to have seen the city. I think I can like it here :)