India 2012 ~ Day 5

And then… today was awesome!  A picture paints a thousand words but I feel like I need five or six thousand to really tell the story, so I’m going to try some new things with links and maps and whatnot so you can link to more info about all the places I went/saw this weekend.  I wish I could have found links for everything, but not every business has a website.  You’ll have to give me some feedback and tell me what you think. Also—there will be lots of pics from this weekend coming later this week.  I’ve taken a bunch with my phone, but because Kaila and Matt are so awesome they are going to share their pics with me as well.  Which makes me real real happy because it’s real real hard to take pictures of myself and get a good view of what’s behind me—possibly because my cuteness consumes the entire frame regardless of how much space in the frame my face actually takes up.  HA!  Ok—moving on.  The weekend--  Ready…  GO!

The morning was fairly uneventful.  I slept until about 8:30ish and then got up and ready. Can I just say that life without a hair dryer is possible, but not necessarily my idea of a good time?  Especially when you have hair as—“independent” and “awesome” as mine. Even with the help of styling products and a hair dryer I never really feel like it looks done, tamed or in any way under control.  Today I waited for it to air dry (which is about as much fun and takes almost as long as waiting for paint to dry) and straightened it with the flat iron—SO glad I thought to bring it with me.  Anyway—all dressed and ready to go I’m sitting in the living room waiting for my ride.  Mom is leaving to run some errands and as she’s leaving she says to me “Have fun, just don’t go and buy up the whole store and then start crying!”  Haha… clearly my last trip was extremely memorable for everyone.  Backstory: I may or may not have spent a ridiculous amount of money at The Cottages and Lakshmi Silks when I was here last. Pretty sure I made their short list of nominees for Customer of the Year.  I wanted to share my trip with EVERYONE and so I bought just about EVERYONE gifts… when I left the store I was pretty sure my boyfriend at the time was going to lose his mind and throw me out when he got the credit card bill.  Poor Divya.  We walked out of the shop and I was so distraught wondering how I was going to explain the bill to Eric that I sat down and started bawling.  She didn’t know what to do with me!  I was a bit of a mess.

Anyway—about 15 minutes after mom left, Bala and Gupreet picked me up at Shali’s house and we headed to UBCity for lunch at Khansama—so yummy!  There we met up with Matt, Kaila, Ganesh, Diana, Gerard, Mahitha, Sukanya, Terrence and a slew of other people whose names are escaping me at the moment (sorry kids).  Ganesh brought his daughter.  She was so cute!  I think she’s about 8 or 9 years old and so stinkin funny—and SO animated!!  Oh my land I wish I’d had a video camera on her most of the time we were there.  The one liners and funny kid moments that came from her were priceless!  She had us all in stitches we were laughing so hard… just adorable!  

Side note:  The Urdu word khansama translated to English means, male cook or chef also assuming the role of house steward.  Not super important information or necessarily relevant but I thought it was interesting.

Aside from lunch with mom, Shal and Inika on Friday, my Indian food intake has been somewhat rationed… which is truly tragic.  Remember how I super-love Indian food with my whole heart?  Still completely true, however—enjoying it in all of its’ authentically yummalicious fantasticality can present a problem for the untrained American digestive tract.  The quality and flavor of the Indian food available in the US pales considerably compared to what is served natively—for obvious reason.  LOL   I would say most Indian restaurants I’ve been to in the US (with the exception of 5^th Element on Baymeadows in Jacksonville) are more North Indian style and very Americanized—milder flavor and creamier sauces.  Natively, flavors and skin tones are mild/fair in the north and get bolder/darker as you come south.  Remember how I tend to be attracted to the extremes in life?  Yah—Indian food is no different.  I like the bold and spicy flavors of real South Indian cuisine!  My stomach and my tongue sometimes fight about it—and I’m not gonna lie… my tongue usually wins, but my stomach doesn’t always ming.  :o)  My last trip may or may not have involved a 2 day stay at Baptist Bangalore, for extreme exhaustion and dehydration…  lol  I still think it was directly caused by the random bleh grey matter yucky moment that George and Murli fed me after Catholic Club.  Bad juju. If I could remember exactly what it was called, I’d add it to a short list of “Don’t EVER” items.  Anyway--after my hospital appearance in 2007 (which by the way, is apparently a great story, because people who I’d never met have heard the story… lol) everyone here has been very attentive to my stomach: “how is your stomach feeling?”, “is there too much of spice?”, “do you need some curd?”, “do you want me to find something more American for you?”, “are you sure it’s ok?”, and my favorite-- “Leeza—drink drink!  You must have more water.”  These truly are some of the most gracious and accommodating people I’ve ever had the good fortune to meet and call friends. 

Outside of Khansama, UB City, Bangalore

Now, back to Khansama.  The buffet was ridiculously yummy.  Mutton, paneer (tofu), murgh (chicken), prawn (shrimp), aloo (potato) and gobi (cauliflower) yumminess-- so many sauces I could never remember then all.  And naan!  Love love love naan.  I could likely make a meal of just that.  Dessert was gulab jamun (of course) and ice cream!  And don’t worry—spice is not limited to savory foods.  I had chilly ice cream for the first time.  Um… can I just say uh-MAY-zing!  It’s orange in color with little red flecks.  When you first put it in your mouth you get what you expect when you’re eating ice cream—that yummy sweet creamy moment of heaven melting in your mouth… and then… a gentle burn in the back of your mouth.  You take another bite and the burn is immediately cooled with that first taste of the next spoonful and then you swallow it starts again, a little spicier this time.  Oh my wonderfulness.  If I hadn’t been so full I would have gone back for a second bowl.  It was amazing.  I’m going to have to see if I can find a recipe online and try making it at home. 

Bala: Good couple!  Me: Oh no u juss dih-nt!  We're so not friends anymore...  lol

Lunch and dessert consumed, we went out to take some pictures of Kaila, Matt and the team.  Just outside the front door of the restaurant there is this awesome bronze of a lion between the host station and the door to the restaurant.  We were joking and laughing, and taking pictures of the a few people.  I go up for my tourist moment and pose all by myself (cuz that’s not awkward or anything) and Bala says—“they make a good couple!”, speaking of me and the lion… such a funny kid.  :oP  I gave him an “oh no u juss dih-nt” face and everyone dissolved in laughter.  Good times!

From Khansama we went to Amoeba, very cool little bowling alley/arcade moment; similar to a small scale version of Latitude 32 or Trafalga.  And we bowled.  Remember how… I have long nails?  And remember how… it hurts real bad when they hit stuff?  And remember how… bowling is less of a sport and more of a spectacle when I’m involved?  Don’t even worry, I did NOT disappoint.  Final score?  63.  I was in rare form… pulled at least one 0 in 9 out of 10 frames.   Almost fell once (with great finesse I might add).  Don’t worry, Bala was filming and caught the almost fall on video.  The story was told and the video shown several times throughout the rest of the night.  LOL

Kaila and me and Amoeba-- how do u like my hat??
I think it was either Bala or Terrence who put it on my head... can't remember... lol

Like a boss!!! I totally dominated the 0's... u'll notice no one has nearly as many as I do... LOL  I'm THAT good.

After Amoeba, we went walking the streets to kill some time before going out for the evening and to see about maybe a little shopping.  We found a guy on the street painting names on grains of rice, which was cool.  Mine says “Liz India 2012”, a dollar well spent.  :o)  Kaila got one with her name and the names of her husband and two daughters (all on one grain of rice).  While we were standing there, a girl came up begging for money.  I told her “no” and tried to brush her off, but she wouldn’t leave.  I’m trying to ignore her and one of the guys tells her to go away.  She finally did after a wicked stink eye moment that seriously looked like she was cursing him. Anyway… we’re walking and laughing and just king of taking in the city.  SO many people in such a small space!  We saw some pretty great stuff.  One of the things I love most about India is the completely contradictory melding of new and old world ways of life and how the come together so seamlessly.  As we’re walking along, we come upon a Van Heusen clothing store.  There’s a crew working outside the front entrance placing or maybe replacing some of the tiles/panes on the front of the store.  The workers were using scaffolding that we might describe as being somewhat medieval. Check out the pic.  Stripped, unfinished poles lashed together… no flat boards to walk on, no safety railing, no harnesses, no hardhats and no ratchet gears to move platforms up and down.  Total old world tools and resources building/improving a completely new world structure.  I guess some things just don’t necessarily need to be improved upon in order to get the job done.

Just past the guy with the rice... wish I had taken a pic of him and his little table. 

Good ol' McD's... you just can't get away from... EVER.

So may people!  I think this is Brigade Road... 

Dear Willis':  Did you know that ur lifestyle is marketed in other countries?  

Old World fixes New World.

We walked probably ½ mile or so down the street and around the corner to Brigade Road and called the driver to come pick up Kaila and Matt (I was riding with Bala).  While we were waiting for the car to arrive, creepy curse girl shows up again.  It was the weirdest thing ever… one minute she wasn’t there and the next, she was.  Just weird.

After the afternoons adventures we headed to I-Bar (can't find a link for this one :-\) for dancing and music and fun!!!  And FUN is exactly what it was!  So many jokes… so much laughing… so much dancing… I’m pretty sure neither Kaila or I stood still for much longer than 45 seconds at any given time during the night.  Of course the bowling video came out more than once during the night and that just made us laugh harder.  The DJ was pretty good and we really did have a great time.  Only problem was when it all stopped rather suddenly and very early.  Apparently there is some random city ordinance requiring nightclubs to stop serving at 11:00 and to close own by 11:30.  Which—I don’t know if you know… but that’s super early… just sayin.  We had been told that I-Bar was able to stay open until 1:00 which is why we had decided to go there.  Anyway, party over (boo) and we all piled into cars and headed home.  I planned to stay the night with Kaila at the hotel in White Field (Zuri) so I piled into their car with her and Matt. 

Yay!  There we are!  L-R Mahitha, Diana, Kaila with me in front.  Good times!!

I sincerely wish I could remember what was so funny...  cuz clearly... it was hilarious... :o) 

That's Kaila on the right... no you're not drunk... she's dancing... lol

We get to the hotel thinking the night is over and what do we find?  A party in the club on the ground floor of the hotel!  Wheeeeeee!! WIN!  We took our bags up to the room and then headed straight back down to the club and continued to dance until 2.  It was awesome. 

With the DJ... cuz we're cool like that... :o)

Upstairs to “sleep fast”…  leaving for Mysore at 7:00am!  Tomorrow is going to be another awesome day!