Weekend not according to plan

I had wanted to get away this weekend and my plans were to go to the coast. I am really missing the ocean and was hoping to get my fix. I had asked the receptionist at work to help me with my travel plans and she seemed pretty excited to organize my trip. In the end she came to me late on Thursday and I was told that she had reserved a room in Ponticherry and that I would be travelling by car to get there - there is no near by airport. When she told me that drive would take about 6 or 7 hours, I balked a bit. After my busy week at work, I was really not in the mood to spend half of the weekend travelling to and from my destination. I had asked her to organize something at the coast, but I thought I would be flying, not spending such a long time in a car to get there! So the plan now is to fly to Goa next weekend. Ponticherry does sounds quite nice, and I still may still decide to take the long drive to get there another week.

So I did the next best thing I could think of. I spent most of Saturday working out and reading by the pool again. Got in a long swim, some weights and even though I didn't reach two hours, it was well over one hour and the longest I have managed to stay on the treadmill at one go before turning into a steaming puddle.    There was some talk of a bunch of us from the hotel going to a movie, but again, those plans did not come to fruition and will take place hopefully another time. All in all it was a very enjoyable, relaxing day and was much better than sitting for hours in a car! Next weekend will be all about water and beaches - I hope.

Mike and Nancy came to the rescue and on Sunday we all went into the city and checked out Commercial Street. So far all I had seen shopping wise were malls. I knew there must be some street markets in Bangalore and now I know this is the place to be. Commercial Street shopping area is not just one street but there are a lot of side streets and parallel streets as well. It is easy to spend a whole day wandering around here. It is quite hot mind you, but if you know which shops have good air conditioning it is quite bearable. They are also ripping up the street which makes it very dusty and dirty, but it did keep a lot of cars from driving through. We spent quite a few hours looking around, spending money and also having lunch. We went to a vegetarian place called Woodys. It did not look like much from the inside or outside, but I have to say, it was one of the best meals I have had since I have been here!  It was labled a South Indian mini meal on the menu, but I am not sure I even ate half of it and I was stuffed.

Actually, I must mention that last Tuesday night was another good meal.  There were some bigwigs from the corporate Aon Chicago office in town and they took pity on me when they discovered that most of my meals have been either at my hotel or the office food court.  They invited me to tag along to dinner with them and with one of their clients at the Oberio hotel - one of the nicer hotels in the center of Bangalore. We ate a really nice dinner at their Thai restaurant and the evening was actually a lot of fun, even if it really was a client working dinner.  (Please note that I am not saying that my food at the hotel or the food court isn't very good - I don't think I have eaten much so far that I have not enjoyed.  I am actually in vegetarian heaven.)

Still have not bought myself a sari, but I vow not to come home until I have one. I will definitely be coming back to Commercial Street for said sari before I head home - and maybe even a souvenir elephant (kind of prerequisite for a visit to India). If anyone has any special souvenir requests, just let me know.