The Journey in Bangalore (current name Bengaluru), India

We arrived at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) on 7th February 2011. The main purpose is to visit our daughter whom now is studying in Davangere,Karnataka.

We had a 2 days visit in Bangalore after visiting Davangere and departed by bus in the midnight.After 6 hour of journey,we safely reached Anand Rao Bus Station in Bangalore early in the morning.

From there,we took an auto to the hotel which took about 15 minutes with a fare of INR 80.as our daughter had visited bangalore for several times,she acts as a tour guide for us.

Check out the door lift.It's so antique and we laughed wholeheartedly to see them.You have to wait for the door to be fully closed for the lift to be operated

In Bangalore, we stayed at The Sri Lakshmi Comforts which is situated in the MG (MAhatma Ghandi) Road.

MG Road and Brigade Road are two of the popular areas here as there are tons of shopping places served for the tourists.IF you are seeking for branded items,yes you are in the correct road

Restaurants,banks,hotels and also pharmacies (which is quite similar to guardian in terms of the logo and colour theme) are available here.it's easy to purchase lip balm and lotions as the weather was quite dry at that particular time.It's quite a busy streets with people and transports and gets merrier during the weekends Souvenirs (from keychains to fridge magnets,sarees, Kashmir goods,punjabi suits,you name it!) can be bought from here only.bargaining is a must as they usually put a higher price for foreigners.

If you don't have any intention to buy their products,don't ever dare to ask the price or you'll end up being followed for the whole journey,even though you tried to avoid them by entering to other shops,yes they'll be patiently waiting for you until you become all stressed up..but we managed to avoid them,eventually.

We had our bruch in kfc.the rice and the chicken is delicious but the curry(or sambar as they called) was quite inedible for me.but the others managed to finish it though

but the others managed to finish it though

and guess what?we were lucky as there were sales in bangalore at that time!Nike,Adidas and Levi's cheaper and you can get until 50% of discount for these items.

We bought 1 Adidas shoe for our other daughter whom didn't follow us.and i had myself an adidas bag

it had become quite a habit for the locals to eat "sireh".not just like our usual sireh,they also had tobacco and some other stuff(which i didn't ask as i know i won't be knowing any of it) in there.

We have a chill in the Baskin Robbins,our daughter's treat and the price was really satisfiable.Look at imran's happy face

Look at imran's happy face

Then we went to one of the shopping complex,Garuda Mall.My husband bought some shirts in one of the shops there.

and then we have our feet rest and have some drinks in the Barista cafe..the price is quite ok and after that we continue our journey

the price is quite ok and after that we continue our journey

After visiting several malls,roaming around the huge bangalore city,we had our way back to the MG road.Most of the citizens can speak (broken) english, and it makes our journey smoother and easier. The situation here was more or less the same as Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman

By the time we reaches MG road,it's already dark and the streets become more crowded and we took this opportunity to buy any items that we surveyed earlier during the day.

As u know Ira had the shoe..and our son (Daus) had a jersey.

Imran bought some key chains (it's a rice with his friends' names on it,placed in a bottle with some coloured oil).he purchased a total 5 of them and cost less than RM2.cheap isn't it?Then we bought some souvenirs for the family members

he purchased a total 5 of them and cost less than RM2.cheap isn't it?Then we bought some souvenirs for the family members

After having our Maghrib prayer,we headed to the Indijoe Sizzler, which was just around the corner.

we were very satisfied with the food (which are huge in quantity per meal),the price and the veges served

the price and the veges served

and then we paid a visit to Bengaluru Hard Rock Cafe,just across the street,to buy some souvenirs.there was a performance by a local band

and then we went back to the hotel to have some rest .

2nd Day

We had some western breakfast (instead of our usual nasi lemak and roti canai) near the hotel.we had some veg samosa,potato puff and pasta with garlic bread

while my hubbie and 2 kids went to the Royal Enfield showroom,i just stayed at the hotel.laziness strikes lol.my hubbie would really love to see the British bikes but made in india.

they had gone to the Davangere's showroom but it was much smaller and there was no stock for the type that my hb wants.so the guy in davangere kindly gave them the adress in bangalore an voila!my hb's dream came true

the showroom was quite far from our hotel and they paid INR 80 for one way journey.

At first we planned to just roaming around the MG road but as we were walking,we met with 3 Malaysian students and they told us about the street named "Commercial Street" .

Where you can get the sarees and Punjabi suits In lower rates and coincidently they were also on their way there so we just followed them by auto.it cost us about INR 20 only.

when we reached there,it was overcrowded with people.though bargaining was not quite allowed here but the price was incredibly cheaper.The punjabi suits were gorgeous but most of them were short sleeve so we decided not to buy any.

I bought myself 4 more crepe type of sarees and majority of the sellers are muslims.we saw 3-4 mosques there and it made praying easier for muslims.

when i was busy choosing sarees,my husband had asked some of the seller for a delicious halal restaurant and most of them pointed out the Taj Hotel

We ate grilled chicken (firstly we ordered only half of it but decided then to have another half as the taste was awesome),briyani and parottas (indian version of roti canai).

We surely had eaten a lot and had some of it home and when we asked for the bill,we were quite shock..

it was extremely cheap for that amount of food which cost only about RM20.

oh,and one more tip.it's always better for you to have bottled drinks to avoid any unwanted diarrhea incidents.

After lunch,we walked around the rest of the CM.the alleys were divided accordingly (shoes,kurtas,nighties,sandals,etc).we just went to some of the part as it was already late evening.

me and hb love antique goods so much and we have purchased 2 of the items here.the shop was really tiny for me and i was scared if i hit some of the stuff and they will all fall down and i have to rearrange it back.luckily it did not happen :) the best thing of all was the goods sold were mostly usable.

When we were on our way back, we accidently met this guy who offered a free auto ride with us,with 1 condition: to pay a visit to the Indian Silk Store in Cunnigham Road. He claimed that he will get INR 100 if he brought customers to the shop.at first we were hesitated but i didn't know how we then just followed their steps.

One of the interesting experience was when stopped at the traffic light.there were this street vendor who can speak quite a good english,asked us where we were fom..when we said malaysia,he replied "Malaysia Boleh", we were quite proud of that though we were speechless at first

When we arrived at the hotel,the auto driver asked for INR 10 but we didn't give any because of the earlier deal,remember?

We had our dinner in Empire Restaurant and we saw many muslims stayed at the above hotel.

we had light food consisting of grilled lamb feet,capati,parotta and chicken kebab.it cost us about INR 300.

imran doesn't have any food,he had some kfc earlier,bought in commercial street.

We continued our journey to the nearby shops.we went to a supermarket which sell international items including malaysia's..ayam brand's sardine here cost around RM 9 and the Tong Garden snacks around RM 21,suitable as an international items.

After buying some needs in the "guardian" pharmacy,we packed our stuff and headed to the bus station.we arrived early and the bus departed at 2330

The 2 days visit to bangalore was not enough though for us as we have not visited some other parts of bangalore.if we have enough money (and age),we would really glad to visit our daughter and go to another places her.