Settling In

I'm finally getting back to the blog after a couple of weeks and so my apologies for the lengthy text below. I'm planning to do smaller updates more often in the future so bear with me on this one.  All in all we're doing very well and it seems like every day something fairly significant or interesting happens around here...

The 2 weeks since Christmas have been busy to say the least as we started to adjust to our new time zone and begin the process of actually settling in to Bangalore. We were hoping to move in to our new house right after Christmas but since things still weren't ready yet, our main contact from the Santa Fe relocation company offered us a tour of Bangalore to give us a better orientation. Chanda and I had been around town back in November but I figured I would have a better chance of remembering things the second time around. After seeing the Cubbon park area, the main government buildings, the central business district and the MG road area, we ventured out to the largest mall in India, called Mantri Square. I understand indoor shopping malls are relatively new to India and they are building them all over Bangalore at a rapid pace. They are very similar to American malls in many ways and the larger ones have 3 or 4 floors of shops with a combination of Western brands such as Nike and Addidas and Indian based retail shops that are similar to small scale versions of Kohls and Target. Mixed in with these shops are specialty stores selling formal Indian wear for weddings as well as electronics shops. You can also find a wide range of restaurant options from fairly upscale restaurants to your fast food court offerings. The big difference from what I can see is that Indians flock to the malls as a real destination for spending some serious time. They also appear to often bring the entire family, including grandparents to make a day of it. My sense is that the mall provides a real oasis of comfort to the average person from the general noise, dust and smells of outside street life. In particular, you can see in the food court that families seem to be settling down at the tables for long multi-course meals. With lots of options to choose from and TVs showing kids shows, it is more welcoming than your average American food court. Of course, this makes table turnover much slower and you really have to be on your toes to grab a table once it opens up. Indians seem to be very aggressive when it comes to getting their place and if you are too polite, you probably will be standing up while you eat. This brings up another interesting cultural difference with forming lines. Despite being ruled by Britain for a long time, the time honored English tradition of queuing up has been lost on Indian society. Several times so far I have been waiting to be helped only to have someone step in front of me very deliberately without any sign of recognition of cutting in line. Based on my early experience, I have already adapted and now push ahead towards any counter with more gusto than usual. Parking is generally done in either an underground parking garages with several floors to them or in above ground ramps that adjoin the main shopping areas. The engineers that designed them certainly didn't waste any real estate as the turns in the spiral ramps are so tight that Mr. Swamy usually needs to start his turn and then roll backwards to make the corner without hitting the walls. Also, in order to maximize space, they have added elevated parking spaces with hydraulic lifts so that additional cars can be stored on busy shopping days. It seems fairly clever but I'm not sure what happens when the owner of the raised car wants to leave the mall and the guy below him is somewhere else in the mall.

Inside a mall - even looks like snow

Parking Ramp with Lifts

With several kids’ movies showing in the theaters, we decided to head out one night to see the latest Alvin and the Chipmunk movie despite my vote for Tin Tin. Swamy got us to the mall near our hotel and we headed to the McDonalds for our pre-movie meal. After chowing down on McChickens and Filet-Of-Fish sandwiches, we headed for the ticket office on the top floor. They actually had 3 different ticket counters selling tickets for different movies so it took a few minutes to find where the Chipmunks were playing. Upon requesting 4 tickets, the attendant informed me that the only 4 tickets together where in the front row (assigned seating). Knowing the kids were anxious to see this one that night, I bought them anyway and headed towards the theater lobby to purchase our standard popcorn and pop. The choices were very similar to what you would find in Minnesota with the exception of no ice in the soda. As we suspected, even though everyone had assigned seats, the crowd pushed ahead when allowed to enter the theater. After going through another security check I found to my delight, the first row was actually back about where row 10 would be in America so no neck craning was needed. After only a few advertisements, the movie started and we enjoyed the large screen and good sound quality. Suddenly about half way through the movie, the screen went black and the entire theater went dark. Realizing that power outages are fairly common in India, I suspected that it would just be a few seconds before the backup generator came on. However, at least two minutes passed while we sat entirely in the dark. It was a strange feeling to be surrounded by at least 200 people in pitch blackness yet no one seemed to panic and it was pretty quiet. Eventually I noticed the safety lights and exit signs were illuminated so I knew there was at least some power available. After a couple of minutes, the lights came back on but the movie remained off. As people started to mill around, we wondered if this was an actual planned intermission for the movie. If it wasn't planned, people sure took advantage of it to hit the refreshment stand and I even noticed one of the employees taking orders from people in their seats. The kids, Chanda and I just hung out and talked to each other for probably 10 minutes and then suddenly without any notice, the movie abruptly started and the lights dimmed again. It all added to the already drama packed movie I suppose.

The next day was Jorgen's birthday and we headed to our future house to get some things done. We managed to procure our cooking gas cans (1 to use and 1 for backup), join the Palm Meadows association and eat lunch at the clubhouse restaurant. Things had progressed on the house about as far as they were going to so we decided that we would plan to move in on New Year’s Eve so we could attend the big gala at the clubhouse and meet some of our new neighbors. The Grand Mercure staff came through again with 2 cakes for Jorgen's birthday, one chocolate ice cream and one plain chocolate. In our quest to discover the best cake/bakeries of Bangalore, I also headed out on foot from our hotel to explore the interesting neighborhood. I actually wanted to stop by a dog grooming salon that we had driven by earlier so I walked by myself a few blocks. I always enjoy walking around a new place to get a real feel for it and this was quite an experience. In addition to seeing the usual cows and crazy traffic, this time I realized how dangerous it is to walk down the sidewalk with your eyes lifted to take in the sights. To do this is to risk falling into a hole that would likely lead to the sewage ditch that lies just a few feet below the sidewalk. There seems to be a lack of orange cones or safety tape to keep passersby from taking a tumble so you need to be aware. As I wound my way through a few blocks I also had to confront another dangerous proposition in India, crossing the street. I have discovered that almost everything about traffic rules is opposite to the US. To start with, pedestrians do not have the right of way in any situation I have seen. The primary rule seems to be the bigger and faster your vehicle is, the more right you have to the valuable street space. So, when crossing the street as a pedestrian, you simply have to pick a small window of open space and make a run for it. After a short walk, I managed to find the grooming shop and it was really nice. He had never worked on goldendoodles before but he did have one client with a labradoodle which is pretty close. He also informed me that there is a French dog food available in India that is supposed to be very good (can't be too bad if it's French). I also managed to find a bakery where I bought a 3rd cake just for fun. That evening, we celebrated in the hotel restaurant and tried the ice cream cake. It was great but poor Jorgen was feeling a bit homesick and wasn't so happy to be celebrating his birthday in India. While we tried to cheer him up, it's understandable that he was out of sorts with all of the change going on around him and no routine in place.

Jorgen's Not so Happy Birthday

When you arrive in India and plan to stay for longer than a typical tourist, you are required to register with the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Office) office within the first 2 weeks. We had been in Bangalore about 10 days when Vivek called to say that our prework was finally done and we could head down to the office. We arrived shortly before 8 AM to find a line out the door. It turned out that it moved pretty quickly but only as far as to get into the inner lobby where we had to line up again to get a number. Once Chanda procured our number, we hiked up a flight of stairs to find a room full of desks with different numbers and letters on them. We proceeded to the first desk where a few people were already lined up and sat down. I noticed that a sign mentioned that there were multiple levels of 'scrutiny' involved with the process which apparently necessitated the multiple desks. After we reached the front of the first queue, Chanda talked with the man about our applications for quite a while before he started his round of scrutinizing everything. After he gave his stamp of approval, he motioned towards another desk but we weren't exactly sure which one. So we picked the most logical one to us and waited a while the employee on the other side of the desk talked with his colleagues and offered them cups of coffee. After they got back to work, they motioned us to another desk where we started waiting in yet another queue. After 10 minutes or so, somebody came by and told us to go into an office that adjoined the main room. All four of us went in to find a man behind a large desk and he signaled us to be seated. He took our stack of papers and proceeded to look over a couple of pages and then stamp and sign each application. I guess that was his style of scrutinizing. He pointed to the door and told us to go to desk number 4 or at least that's what we thought we heard. We walked over there to find no one waiting which seemed too good to be true. A smiling woman took Chanda's papers and entered some information into a computer. We filled in some information on each document and then she told us to come back in 1 hour to pick up the papers. When we came back exactly an hour later, we went straight to the desk to find our papers actually ready for us. They asked us to review all the details and then sign. After all the levels of scrutiny, they had somehow managed to get my application type as 'employment' visa instead of an 'entry visa'. While I was hesitant to mention the mistake to them thinking it might require going back to square 1, I decided to get it right and told them about the mistake. They smiled at me and said they probably just assumed that I was there for the employment visa since I was a man. Fortunately, they were able to change it right there and reprint the document. I signed it, smiled and escaped to the street below. Time of final departure, 2 PM.

Good Times at the FRRO Office

Lots of Scrutiny in action

We moved in to our house on New Year’s Eve only to discover that the club at Palm Meadows had sold out all of the tickets to their big gala. We were pretty tired after all the moving that day so we didn't mind that much but I suddenly wished we had stayed through the weekend at the hotel and enjoyed their big party. We comforted ourselves by ordering Dominoes from right down the street (it was actually really good, especially the spicy chicken pizza) and watching a movie on the new TV that I had bought earlier that day. They were able to deliver it to our house on New Year’s Eve which is a great story all by itself so I'll save it for later. About 8 PM the big party up the street at the club got started and we could tell right away they had spent a big chunk of their budget on the stereo system.  Although we weren't able to be there, you would have thought our living room was the main dance floor as the music was rocking the windows of our place and making it hard to talk.  Of course, we enjoy music and didn't want to be a downer so we made the best of it and figured the kids would want to stay up until midnight anyway.  After a while, Chanda and I took a walk around our block and discovered that our street was actually ground zero for the noise. Everywhere else it was audible at say maybe a level 3 out of 10, but right in front of us, it was a solid 11.  We have been known to have some pretty loud New Year’s parties at our house over the years so I figured this was some karmic payback.  At least the DJ was mixing up some pretty sweet tunes. We welcomed 2012 as a family before the kids faded off to bed.  As we lay on our makeshift mattress and listened to Kool and the Gang echoing off the walls, I reflected that last New Year’s Eve I would never have guessed I'd be spending the next one in India. And who knows where we may be next year...

Our Christmas in Bangalore

It wasn't hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year despite the 80 degree temps as everywhere we go there are Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing. I even managed to get my typical last minute Christmas shopping done with the help of Mr. Swamy. As per our usual Christmas tradition, our Christmas Eve started off in the late afternoon with a couples massage in the hotel spa while the kids watched Home Alone 2 back in the room. We had booked dinner at the Leela Palace hotel for what we thought would be a cozy traditional candlelit affair as their advertisement displayed (see picture). We exchanged gifts to each other in our hotel room before heading out around 8 PM for the Leela. We arrived to this beautiful hotel with high hopes but soon discovered that it was nothing like we expected. A 3 piece cover band was belting out a mix of Christmas and top 40 hits near our table so we realized our conversation would be limited to short command oriented bursts. A large buffet had been prepared with a great variety of entrees, salads and desserts but the atmosphere reminded us more of a college cafeteria than a 5 star hotel. Recognizing we were already committed to the dinner, we all explored the food options which varied from Indian to English and even a roasted turkey and cranberry sauce. A single glass of wine accompanied this rather expensive dinner but unfortunately the quality of the wine was sorely lacking. Now, I realize this might be coming across like an ungrateful American with overblown expectations but we truly were disappointed given the price and the setting of the hotel. We certainly made the best of it though and as soon as we were finished, we departed for the very beautiful outdoor patio area. There we found some tranquility and I also discovered that the hotel bar is known for single malt scotch so I decided to try a flight of the Highlands variety which improved my mood significantly. Chanda and I enjoyed the peaceful setting and appreciated the fact that we were outside on Christmas Eve as we tried to keep the kids awake for the next stop on our Christmas Eve itinerary, an 11:30 PM church service at St. Mark's Cathedral in central Bangalore. We had heard that we needed to arrive early to get a seat and that was an understatement. After a 20 minute drive from the hotel, we arrived at 10:30 to find the very large church (approx. 1500 seats) almost full already. We squeaked into a back pew behind a 3 foot wide pillar and settled down for a long 1 hour wait before the service even began. The kids were really tired by now and they started to drift off and even I was starting to head bob a bit. At one point, the elderly gentlemen to my right, poked my arm and politely introduced himself and his son. He was a retired minister from a church north of Hydrabad and we enjoyed a little conversation about his ministry and our reason for being there. At promptly 11:30 the service began and Chanda and I were relieved to get things moving. The church is part of the CSI (Church of South India) which came about from the English Church after independence in 1947, so the service was very familiar and included most of our favorite carols.  The primarily secular nature of the holiday in India was made evident at exactly midnight when fireworks erupted from the nearby city park during the readings, which is especially noticeable when all the windows are open.  With both kids slumped over in their seats, we stayed seated most of the time until communion began.  By this time we were almost 1 hour into the service and the kids began to stir enough that we could prop them up and exit the pew when our time came. The communion provided us the opportunity to walk to the front of the brilliantly white interior of the church and take in the classical architecture. While I'm sure the travel books don't recommend drinking from the same wine chalice as 1500 other people your first week in a new country, we went with the flow and completed the sacrament along with everyone else.  Besides, the alcohol surely helped keep it clean, right.  After singing about 5 more carols with every verse included, the service concluded at around 1:15 AM and we exited the church to find Mr. Swamy waiting for us. We raced back to the hotel as speeds only dreamed about during the day to find that Santa had not yet visited us.  But we comforted the kids with the fact that Santa gets to India a little later in the night than in Minnesota. We awoke this morning to the kids happily opening their presents (yes Santa did find us) and yet Chanda and I could hardly pull ourselves out of bed until around 10 AM. We listened to Christmas music in the room and lounged about until we headed down to the pool for the big Christmas Day brunch.  After the previous evening, we were a bit skeptical but when we arrived a few minutes later, we were relieved to find a beautiful setting and our reserved table right next to the pool.  The hotel staff made sure that our glasses were never empty and I tried a little of practically everything from grilled fish to a southern Indian traditional chicken dish.  This time, all the food was excellent and sitting outside on a warm day made it all seem perfect.   Certainly, a X-mas unlike any other we have celebrated.  

Gingerbread houses in our hotel lobby

The Ista Hotel - where we stayed in November.  

Our hotel lobby X-mas tree

Advertisement for X-mas Eve dinner at the Leela Hotel

Reality - seat by the band

Beautiful lobby of the Leela

St. Mark's Church - X-mas Eve 11:30 pm

Christmas brunch at our hotel

Santa brought chocolate!

Santa even came to our table

Cocktails as first course of our brunch

Chef's grilling and running pasta bar

Food set up near the pool

Buffet tables for brunch

Live music - great Abba covers

After brunch, Jorgen hit the pool for his daily swim

First week in India (Kid version)

On the Airplane there where lots of movies and games. I almost stayed awake the whole time. It was REALLY FUN. Every thing else was boring from the airport to the hotel. I forgot the days but we did lots of stuff like go to zoos, temples and palaces. The first zoo was fun but had bad enclosers. The second was awesome! We went to Mysore and saw a Palace and Temple. It was boring exept there were monkeys and I bought a fresh coconut to eat and drink. It was my dads birthday that day so when we got home their was a birthday cake from the staff. Yester day was boring because we had to sit for an hour at another hotel. But at least we got to the pool.

First Week in India

Greetings from India - Our first post


We're new to the concept of blogging so forgive us if we are providing more detail than you are looking for.   If you want the executive summary version, it is that we had a great trip over and are enjoying getting acclimated to a fascinating city full of interesting sites, food, people and wildlife.  


For those of you looking for more detail, here you go.....


We arrived in Bangalore on Saturday morning December 17th around 1 AM (all flights to and from India arrive in the middle of the night).  Our flights went very smoothly (with the exception of the complicated logistics at the Paris airport) and the kids were kept entertained with endless movies and games in their business class seats.   Upon arrival, our 12 bags (yes 12) arrived within seconds and we piled them all up on 4 carts and rolled on through customs without being stopped.  Henrik couldn't even see over the pile of suitcases on his cart so I had to give him directions on which way to walk as he pushed his cart to the exit door.  Our drivers were waiting for us holding the kind of name sign you normally see for other people and then we barely managed to get all our things into their 2 small mini-van like cars.   We cruised on through the still fairly busy streets of the city to our hotel, the Grand Mercure and arrived around 3 AM.    All said, our 24 hour trip couldn't have gone any smoother.


We slept as long as we could and then emerged to explore our plush hotel home.  We have 2 separate bedrooms adjoining a small living room with a kitchen off to one side so it's comfortable for a longer stay.  Although the main room is littered with our many suitcases, Chanda and the kids quickly decorated the room with a small X-mas tree and stockings to make the place seem more like home.  We have since spent quite a bit of time poolside as the kids have enjoyed the large pool all to themselves.   The water temp is a bit chilly for me as they rely only on the sun to keep it heated and the temperatures, although perfect for us in the 70's so far, are not hot enough to get the water much above Lake Superior in late August.  However, Chanda and I have found the lounge chairs to our liking and we have kept the wait staff busy bringing us our favorite Danish beer (Tuborg and Carlsberg).


We have now made a few trips outside the hotel and have discovered our neighborhood represents the great economic dichotomy of India very well.   Our luxury hotel sits in a upscale neighborhood full of diplomat homes and yet a block down the street, we have found a family of pigs feasting on piles of garbage along side of roaming cows and wild dogs.  We ventured down the street on foot, navigating the broken sidewalks and street vendors to reach a Baskin Robins for an afternoon treat.   Around the corner from there, we found fairly high end shopping with stores such as a Sony Centre and Croma which seems to be the Best Buy of India.   


The jet lag has hit us all fairly hard on this trip and I awoke to the sound of Jorgen and Henrik talking to each other in their room at about 3 AM and despite my requests, they never did get back to sleep.   Around early afternoon each day, we have all started zoning a bit and it has taken a lot of focus these first few days to keep moving until at least 8 PM when we allow ourselves to crash.  


On Sunday at noon, we met up with Chanda's new boss Molly and her husband and some other Target co-workers at the Leela Palace Hotel.   This place can only be described as colonial India opulence at the highest level.   The grounds are gorgeously manicured and the staff greets you in full formal traditional India attire.   We have discovered that Sunday brunch is a very popular activity for the ex-pat community and the Leela brunch is particularly popular because they have a kid zone.  This is a separate open-air area complete with a large TV showing Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry cartoons while the kids eat a menu comprised mostly of candy and other sweets.   We have also learned that Indians will rarely if ever discipline children so the entire space becomes a play room where pillow fights rage.   30 feet away, the parents can sit in complete oblivion while eating unbelievable delicious Japanese food, complete with endless mimosas.   Needless to say, it was wonderful brunch experience for all of us.  


The next day we decided to see some sights and with our resident animal lover Jorgen in tow, we ventured out to the Bangalore Zoo.   The key thing to keep in mind about driving in Bangalore is that you simply cannot believe how crowded the streets are with any number of auto-rickshaws, bikes, motor-cycles, motor-scooters, cars, trucks, tractors, ox drawn wagons and of course, cows.  The kids have found it particularly amusing to see cows mingling with cars on practically every street in Bangalore with no one batting an eye.  We understand they are owned by people but have free reign on where they go during the day, which can be right down the middle of a busy road or grazing in a vacant lot nearby.  Fortunately for us, we have been assigned a great driver named Mr.Swamy who is fearless and knows every back street and alley in Bangalore.  He is challenging to understand but we have agreed that I will help him with his English and he will teach me Hindi so I'm more than happy with that arrangement.


On to the zoo..
We first boarded an old bus for the safari portion of the zoo.  I was given the honor of sitting in the first seat along with Henrik which afforded the best view of the animals we encountered.   The downside was that it had about 8 inches of leg room so I was packed sideways into the seat with Henrik between me and the driver.   We drove through winding hills for 30 minutes, entering various animal safari zones including various deer, sloth bears, lions, and tigers.   While I had direct access to the left side and front of the bus for picture taking, the driver was only too happy to snap pictures with my camera from his seat of the animals that approached the bus from his side.  It soon became obvious that he was working hard for an extra tip and that my placement in the front had been strategically arranged for this reason.   After the tour came to an end and I had paid my cameraman, we exited the bus and headed for the main zoo area.  This part of the zoo reminded us a dilapidated version of the Como Zoo from about the 1950's era.  The animals generally looked healthy and taken care of but the cages were small and far from a natural habitat for them.   The highlight of the zoo for us all was the elephant section.   A small herd of Indian elephants (smaller ears and short tusks than African) were standing close to us and soon the handlers were offering the kids photo ops on top of the baby elephants and blessings by letting the elephant take money from us and place his trunk on top of our heads.   Hopefully the elephants benefited from the arrangement as well.




Tuesday we headed out to see how our house in Palm Meadows was coming along and we arrived  to find a crew of workers busy with a variety of tasks.    We had been skeptical that everything would be ready for us so were not surprised to find that many of our requested changes had not been completed.   The kids were particular alarmed by the army of ants in a couple of the bathrooms so we discussed the need  for a thorough cleaning with the head guy.    In general though we love the house and are excited to move in as soon as everything is done.   We didn't realize it at the time we picked it in November, but our house is set on a particularly quiet street within the gated community so it should be a restful oasis from the hectic pace of life in Bangalore.   After talking through the remaining work to be done, we decided to plan on spending Christmas at our hotel and moving in the following week.   We strolled down the palm tree lined street to the clubhouse to show the kids the pools and they were delighted to find an even larger pool than our hotel awaiting them. 


On Wednesday we celebrated my birthday by taking a road trip to the former capital of this region which is about 3 hours (only 140 km) away.   The city is named Mysore and the main attractions there include an 800 year old Hindu temple and the 100 year old palace of the last king of Mysore.   The sites were pretty interesting but half the time we find it more fascinating to just look at the people and things going on around us.   We had lots of people come up to us (especially Chanda and Jorgen) just to shake our hands and even take pictures with us because they had never seen people with blond hair (maybe just in movies).  We certainly know we’re not in Minnesota anymore!   We enjoyed the sites but were worn out from the driving as even the highway we traveled on was chaotic at times and we never kept the same speed for more than 3 or 4 minutes with countless speed bumps and diversions along the entire route.  Thankfully Mr. Swamy got us home safe and sound.   When we entered our room, were were pleasantly surprised to find a delicious chocolate birthday cake with a card signed by the entire hotel staff.   It proved to be one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had!

Our Hotel - Grand Mercure Bangalore

Our Car (Toyota Innova) - Mr. Swamy our driver not pictured

Jorgen by the hotel pool

Just down the street from our hotel - the other side of India

Leela Palace Hotel Grounds

Christmas is recognized as a major holiday in India - lots of X-mas Trees and decorations

Kids Brunch at the Leela - mostly candy to go along with movies

Asian Sloth Bear - Bangalore Zoo Safari

White Tiger of India - Bangalore Zoo

Henrik at the zoo - lots of school kids visiting

Elephants up close

Jorgen gets to sit for a minute

We got a hippopotamus for Christmas 

Our house is still being worked on

Our future pool at Palm Meadows

Surprise Birthday Cake from Hotel Staff

Visit to Mysore - large colorful god with machete

800 Year Old Hindu Temple at Mysore

Women gathering water near temple

Woman selling flower offerings

Monkeys playing near the temple

Monkey profile - family resemblance noted

Fresh coconuts

Henrik not loving fresh coconut

Tour of temple - complete with Hindu blessing for prosperity, wisdom and family

Cattle roaming near temple

Mysore Zoo Warnings - Don't mess with the Monkeys

Mysore Zoo Warning - don't fall into tiger pit or you will be mauled and then escorted out by security

Mysore Palace - family photo