Titles are hard...

It's really hard to put a title on a post. It feels like most of my entries for the next few months will just be titled "Impressions".

I'm currently looking for apartments in Bangalore. The range is huge. I hear from some people about 2br houses at Rs. 6K per month ($120) but then there's also places at 30K ($650). The places that have nice natural light, modern bathrooms, a good finish, and pleasant view... they tend to be 3 br places that are upwards of 1800 sq. ft. That's much too large for me (I spent the last 2-3 years in 700-900 sq.ft. apartments).

If I could find smaller places with a nice finish... that'd be awesome.

So people keep complaining about the traffic. I thought that was the purely nonindian perspective speaking, but the traffic really is pretty horrendous. I often out-walk auto-rickshaws on the way home.

I experimented with the bus system over the past few days. It's actually not as bad as I thought. For the most part, people are pretty friendly on the bus. The only annoying part is when the bus gets ridiculously crowded and you have to squeeze your way through the mass of people.

I've noticed that restaurants in India don't seem to believe in giving one menu per person. In general you get one or two menus per table. I'm not sure if there's some sort of shortage or cost savings going on, or if people just don't see the need of having their own menu.

Long time

Unfortunately it's been a while since I last blogged. Sorry for the suspense - I don't have great internet access at the hotel and I'm really busy during most of the day at work.

So I'm in Bangalore. I have a local cellphone number - email me if you need to get a hold of it.

This last weekend was a long weekend for dasra. 4 of us from work drove to Goa for the weekend and spent two long and blissful days on the beach eating prawn curry and rice, rava fish fry, masala fish, tiger prawns; drinking kingfisher, planters punches, and old monk rum; and browning our already-brown skin. It was wonderful.

I'm back at work. For some reason I'm at work and before I know it, it's 8pm.

Vikas and I found a huge climbing wall this morning and did a few climbs. There were people practicing for the national rock climbing championships in Delhi so there were some hardcore climbers there. Kids as young as 7 upto adults. It was awesome - I have to make sure I stay close to there.

This morning I took the bus to work. It's about 4 times cheaper than taking an auto-rickshaw. And the annoying auto-drivers refuse to go half the places I want to go anyways. And they try to cheat you. If I can get used to taking buses, that'll be the way to go.

We did a tour of the city yesterday to look at apts, and we're going to have another tour today. I think the people showing us stuff are mostly showing us fancyshmancy-expat housing with swimming pools, gyms, the works. I'm tempted to get a much more modest place but then sign up for a nice club where I can go work out, play golf, and socialize. We'll see.

OK. Must get back to work.