17 to 19 Day Tuesday, January 19, 2016 Bengaluru

Namaste,

Right from the beginning, I must mention that obviously not one highlight follows the next, and I feel confirmed by other travelers that Bengaluru is nothing special.

In the evening at 9pm, I started my journey to Bengaluru by train. My idea of boarding and sleeping was interrupted by an Indian family who were supposed to share the compartment with me for the night. They blocked my sleeping area and had a dinner. After an hour, the ordeal was finally over and everyone prepared their beds. Not even 10 minutes later, the lights in the compartment were turned off and I could sleep.

In the morning, we reached Bengaluru with the first rays of the sun. So, I quickly had a Chai (Indian tea with milk and sugar) at the train station and headed to the Tuk Tuk stand, where I found out that once again my hotel address was incorrect. Luckily, I had already set the location beforehand. So, there was a 10-minute discussion about the address and price because they always wanted a fixed price, but I wanted to use the taxi meter because it's cheaper.

Eventually, I jumped into another Tuk Tuk and mentioned the taxi meter while starting the ride. Works! So, I found the hotel, checked in, and freshened up. Time to explore the city. After a short walk, I reached a fruit, vegetable, and plant market which was bursting with greenery.

Unfortunately, that was the only highlight of the city. In the afternoon, I strolled through the botanical garden, which was quite peaceful (no traffic noise and no honking) and beautifully designed. Then, I had a Tuk Tuk take me to Bengaluru Palace, but upon arriving, they wanted to charge me double the entrance fee of about €6 because I'm a foreigner, which deterred me from visiting it.

So, I walked 3 km back to Mahatma Gandhi Road, a shopping street for the well-off. There, I decided to end the Bengaluru adventure. Although I must mention that this city appears quite clean and tidy.

The next morning, I headed straight to the airport as I wanted to reach my next destination by flight. So, I took a Tuk Tuk to the central bus station and from there, I took bus line 9 and reached the airport after a 90-minute ride.

Goodbye Bengaluru...