Venture out into the city

Yesterday I had arranged for my driver to come and get me in the morning and he drove me for an hour closer to the city centre. I found out that he does not like to speak, so asking questions is pointless. The mall was not that exciting, but the drive was pretty entertaining.

He took me to what he said was the best mall in town. The mall was pretty typical to malls in Canada, but they are much more security cautous as a lot of the shops and the entries into the mall itself has scanners and you have to check any bags before going into the shops.

I thought stuff was going to be cheaper. It was cheaper than Vancouver, but not by as much as I would have thought. There are sales everywhere of 20 to 50% off so that helps. I am hoping the street markets will be better.

I have been told that the economic down turn hit India pretty hard as you can see by all of the skeletons of unfinished buildings that are everywhere. It is quite something to see because on my drive I saw large modern office buildings among half built ones, some apartment buildings ranging from high scale to squalor, old shops and even make shift shacks made of all sorts of scraps that people live in. Saw tons of more wild dogs and about a half dozen sacred cows roaming around.
Closer to city centre there were the beggars tapping on your window looking for change at the intersections.

One thing I want to find the answer to is why there are big piles of dirt everywhere. There are no real sidewalks in most places and where they should be are just these dirt piles. I suspect that they are dug up and sifted through for rocks, or are dumped by building sites. If I find out I will let you know.

My Digs

Vivanta by Taj is the hotel I am staying at and I am told it is quite a modern hotel for India. Not that I have much to compare it to but, but I would have to agree. I quite like the aesthetics.

I tried the gym and the pool today. The pool which you can see in the background is just over 20 metres - which is great because it is quite big for a hotel pool. However my swim today has me a little worried as the water was freezing! I was determined to swim for half an hour and really had to force myself to stay in that long. The temperature outside was about 27, but the water temp must have been about 17. Next time I will try to go when the sun is shining on the water and not when it is in the shade like it was today. I was so cold afterwards that I couldn't stop shaking and ended up going to the gym to spin on a bike to warm up!

My room is small but big enough for me, and comfortable. This is the view from my room. There is a big field beside the hotel and from what I could determine a group of men spent the whole day bending piles of straight rebar so that it could be loaded onto trucks. Not the best view, but at least it is not looking straight into another highrise. I went wandering on the other side of the hotel where there is a small industrial park with some large office towers and a mall that contains many odd stores - mostly composed of banks, food kiosks and other odds and ends to cater to the office workers I suppose. The Aon office is not in this area, but will see how it compares when I go on Monday.

Made it to India!

Got into Bangalore just before 2:00am - about 24 hours after leaving Vancouver. My driver as promised was there to greet me and whisk me off to the hotel.. Actually the airport is about an hour away from the hotel so I didn't really feel whisked!

I was pretty tired from travelling for 24 hours without much sleep, but managed to notice that even though the traffic was quite light, for that time of the night at least, my driver had to concentrate on his driving more than answer all of my questions. The drivers (mostly trucks at that time) like to drive in between lanes and about 25% of them did not have any back lights! Did see quite a few of the wild dogs I was warned about roaming around. They actually don't look that wild, just homeless and harmless, but then again I didn't get to close to them.

Have now slept for a bit and am off to go wander. Probably won't wander too far today, just get myself acclimatized to the heat and humidity. The hotel is on the outskirts of an industrial park. There are some shops around which I will go check out and perhaps use the pool and fitness facilities later.

Last long run

I was very happy to see the number of people who showed up for my last long run before I head to Bangalore. Our Sunday running group was much larger than usual, but maybe it had more to do with the fantastic weather! I don't know how much running I am going to get when I am away, so I was pretty determined to get one last longer run in the trails before I leave. It was mostly up to me to pick the route this weekend and since we all know the coffee and socializing afterwards is almost the most important part of a Sunday run, I thought that Port Moody fit the bill. Rik picked out a run that was a little different from our usual run out in that neck of the woods. We ran a very decent 10 miles that took us from Buntzen lake, over to Sasamat and then out to Bellacara and back. It is always so great to get out and run somewhere we have not been before. This run will definitely be added to our list as it is easy to add other trails for extra miles.

Just one more PRR run on Tuesday and then the question of what kind of training can I get in while in India - I have a feeling that I may have to get fond of the treadmill at my hotel!

Leaving behind in Vancouver....

My cat Penny will be left alone with Marco. It is going to be interesting to see who is going to miss me more....