Laundry List.

so here are a few of the things i said i would catch you up on:

first, FRRO registration in Bangalore. all of us, since we're here for so long, have to register ourselves with the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office. and we can only register ourselves at the office in the city mentioned on our Indian work visas. mine says Bangalore. some of my batchmates have visas that say Mysore, and some whose visas say 'across India,' which is pretty sweet. so because Bangalore is a few hours away, and because there are 23 of us whose visas say Bangalore, the company decided to take us to Bangalore to take care of paperwork. they actually tried getting the Bangalore commissioner to come down to Mysore to make things easy on us. keep in mind that it takes some time to get to Bangalore, and the office is not open on the weekends - at least not with regular full-day hours. so friday the 3rd of august, all of us met with a company HR person to take a coach bus up to Bangalore. the deal was that we would leave our campus by 7:30 am, be in Bangalore by 10:30, and be out of there by 2 or 3 pm, putting us back in Mysore by 6 pm friday evening.

we sure did meet our HR person at 7:30 am, but instead of getting to Bangalore at 10:30, we didn't arrive until after 1 pm. and then we didn't go straight to the commissioner's office. we went to our company's Bangalore campus, which is on the other side of town. and we stayed there for over an hour. then we took the bus to the commissioner's offce. we didn't actually get there until 3:30 pm or so. and the office closed at 5:30 sharp. in fact, they closed the door in our faces because there's so much paperwork to take care of and i guess the HR person wasn't quite ready or somehing. so needless to say, we didn't get the stuff taken care of on friday, and we were told we would have to stay the night in Bangalore.

now for me this was fine, because i had planned, along with a few other people, to stay the weekend in the city, so we were prepared with extra clothes and toiletries. but the majority of people weren't ready, so for them it was a huge frustration to just be thrown into this situation. so we went from the commissioner's office back to campus, where arrangements were made for everyone to stay on campus in the hostels - except for 5 of us. they told us that 5 people would have to volunteer to stay at a nearby hotel. i volunteered, along with 4 other guys.

turns out the hotel was really nice. i shared a bed that night with RayJay. it was pretty special. nice place, very comfortable bed, and good restaurant downstairs.

oh, but then there was the bottled water. this was the one part of the hotel that was kinda shady. most of us are still getting used to the water here, so in order to avoid getting sick we asked for bottled water - you know, Aquafina, whatever. they bring to us unlabeled bottles of water. everyone except me [i wasn't thirsty] reaches for a glass, pours water and drinks. and everyone gets this look on their face like, 'wait a second, this isn't bottled water!' hahaha. turns out it was just tap water they put into bottles and gave us. bottled water - quite literally. haha.

so the next day we went to the commissioner's office - AGAIN - to sort out this mess. and fortunately, this time we got everything taken care of. KJS and i had arranged to meet our mates in the city - they had come in from Mysore earlier saturday morning while we were taking care of FRRO stuff - and go to the hotel to drop off our bags. so after we left the commissioner's office, we called to get directions to the hotel.

alas, no one in our group would pick up their phone or respond to texts. and rickshaw drivers in Bangalore are dumb as bricks. don't mistake them for regular cab drivers in any major metropolitan city around the world who would actually know where they're going if you ask for directions. so when we'd ask drivers if they knew where the Tricolour Hotel was, they'd just look at us and repeat the question. and thinking that by repeating it, they understood which hotel we were referring to, we'd get excited and smile and say, 'yes! the Tricolour Hotel.' and then they'd shake their head in that Indian way and walk slash drive away.

finally we got one of our mates to text us the address, and KJS got the number of the hotel from his dad back in the States who looked it up for us. and then we were able to have the hotel people talk to the rickshaw driver and then we got to the hotel OK.

but the frustrations didn't end there. when we arrived, KJS went to check us in, and was told by the front desk that the one key to the room was out. and we had found out when we did get in touch with our friends that they were all out at a mall shopping and chilling. now the front desk probably did have another key to the room, but seeing as how there were four of us staying in there and the hotel thought only two people were in the room, we very well couldn't ask for another key - they'd put two and two together. so now what?

let's recap. KJS and i had just had a hellish day and a half. we were tired, we wanted to rest, and we had our bags with us. all we wanted to do was go upstairs to our room, put the bags down, and go join our friends so we could actually enjoy our weekend in Bangalore. and now we couldn't even do that.

i made a phone call to one of the other two guys in our group. demanded - as nicely as possible without yelling - that they come back as soon as possible so that we can join the group.

within half an hour they were back. it was about 5:30. just enough time for me to shower, change and venture out into the city to find Khane. we made quick plans: i would go to JK, they would relax and decide what to do / where to go for dinner and the evening, and would text me so i could meet up with them.

so i journeyed out on my own. i had an address, so i asked front desk what to tell the rickshaw driver so he could get me where i wanted to go. funny story: the Khane is on a small side road off of Queens Road, one of the main avenues in the middle of the city. and the rickshaw driver dropped me off on the side of the road where i had asked him to go [the Grand Taj Restaurant]. except when he dropped me off, i was facing away from the road on which the JK is located. so naturally i started walking forward - away from Khane. and i roamed around, asking policemen and rickshaw drivers if they knew where Gannaught Road was. except the address i had spelled it Canougst Road. so everyone gave me very blank looks. i even tried looking at people, to see if they might be heading in a particular direction. no luck.

finally i ended up back where i started, and just for kicks i went in the opposite direction of where i had started when the rickshaw dropped me off. and lo! not 50 yards from where i had been standing was a big green sign. it was right there the entire time. sigh.

after JK i met a few people who helped me get to where everyone else from Mysore was. i got a text during Khane from KJS saying they'd be at this continental restaurant, so i got some help from someone in JK to get me there. so i met up with the rest of my group for dinner, and then afterwards we headed to a place called Pubworld. just a big ole bar. nothing else. except we got there right as they were closing. and while i was outside waiting for the others to arrive - we had taken a rickshaw and got there before everyone else - i was approached by a rickshaw driver who offered to sell me weed. his first question - and you have to say this out loud in a very heavy indian accent, just to see how funny it was to me - was 'do you smoke grass?'

i had to keep from laughing. but i politely declined, saying thanks but no thanks. it was so funny. and then Chad got accosted by another rickshaw driver who hounded him for 15 minutes, trying to sell him pot. eventually we found our way back to the hotel and crashed. i think i slept that night for a solid 9 hours, on a very comfortable bed. it was fantastic.

the next morning i went to find toilet paper and met one of the hotel people walking by in the hallway. out of the blue, he asked, 'are there only 2 people in your room?'

now obviously there weren't 2. there were four. but making a snap decision, i responded, 'yes, there are only 2.'

'OK,' he said, and continued on his way.

but now i knew that they were at the very least slightly suspicious. so i got my TP and returned my room to inform the guys of my exchange with Hotel Guy. and we worked out a plan - because HP had used his passport to check in, and because the name was registered under Kevin's name, they would check out with front desk. PL and i would come out with all the baggage, saying that we came that morning to help our friends with their luggage.

and we got away scot free.

we went from there to Garudha Mall, a huge 4-floor mall with restaurants, food court, clothing and electronics stores, a pub and a department store called "Westside." i bought an audio splitter (lets two people listen to an audio source with two pairs of headphones) for Rs 160 - about $4 - and a nice red and black tie for Rs 190 - almost $5. HP bought a new Samsung slidey cell phone - really hot item - for Rs 7000 - around $175 - and i was looking at a Nokia slidey but decided not to buy it right then and there. i think i'll get it sometime soon though.

after the Mall we left Bangalore, stopping on the way back to Mysore at the Great Big Banyan Tree. you can see the pics in my most recent album [link at the top of this page on the right]. it's just one big tree. but almost all of the roots are underground, so whatever is above ground looks like a grove of individual trees. really awesome stuff, and one of the biggest banyan trees in the world.

boy. this post has been LONG overdue but there you go. my weekend in Bangalore.