Bangalore: Sari-shopping and Clubbing on No Sleep

Our flight was set to leave from Bangalore, a major city in the middle of southern India, so we decided to ride a ‘sleeper’ bus there. The seats on this bus leaned fairly far back, and they were reserved so none of the crampingness was going on. The bus stopped once for dinner at a fast-Indian-food restaurant, and afterwards I pretended like I was going to be able to sleep on the swerving bus. In my half-asleep state I felt sure whenever I was jerked that the bus driver had fallen asleep and we were now driving along full speed in a ditch (about to go off the cliff). I wasn’t awake enough to prevent this thought from recurring through the entire trip… I don’t think I’m going to ride on an overnight bus ever again. When we arrived in Bangalore I was tired and had a headache, and feeling really willing to deal with the fact that you’re supposed to book hotels in Bangalore a week ahead of time. Through sheer persistence we found an awful hotel, and Jessie took a shower while I tried to take a nap.

Then we went shopping. Bangalore is a huge city and Main Road looks a lot like an American shopping complex. Jessie wanted to buy a sari for her sister to use as decoration, so of course I ended up seeing one that I just had to have… it’s a lot of really pretty silk for just $17. It is darker and bluer than sea green with a gold sheen, and the blouse and border are tan and gold. I thought maybe I’d be able to wear it to my Nepali sister’s wedding, which I had heard news of by calling from Kozhikode. I was surprised to hear of the wedding, as my sister hadn’t sounded that fond of the guy when she had met him, but they said that she had changed her mind and that the wedding would be within the month. It turned out that I couldn’t get the blouse sewn in time, but I had my other light purple sari to wear, so it turned out ok.

Jessie had heard that Bangalore has good clubs, so we went out again that night for dinner and to see what the clubs were like. They had a cover charge, the drinks were too expensive to buy really, and they played too much techno. Other than that it was a pretty normal scene. Dealing with the airport the next morning, after two nights of not enough sleep, was another frustrating experience with system inefficiency, but we did manage to make it back to Kathmandu.