Madame…you can speak English!

 Welcome to Bangalore

Beautiful early morning sky to depart Australia

11 hours of sitting, eating various versions of Indian curries/snacks, sleeping, watching movies and occasionally getting up to stretch the legs, we arrive in Bangalore. We are greeted by Joshua Samuel, an IT consultant for Paramjyoti School and there to pick up some computers from us. He negotiated with the airport Vodaphone sales person a price for a SIM card for each of us - $1000 rupee each ($17.62AUD). He thought this was expensive for India, but to have our phones sorted on the first day - we would pay anything!

We strolled up to the counter and asked for a SIM card each and the sales rep says “$1400 rupee”…um, excuse me, you just told our Indian friend it would be $1000. “Ok, ok, $1000” Hmmmm, welcome to India! Almost an hour later 😖 many photos and scans of our passports, our phones were meant to be online. We did check them by calling Joshua’s phone, but we discovered later that night that our phones would not call each other - so frustrating. Luckily, my Optus Manager daughter, who knows everything about networks, suggested a fix and voilà, we were in communication with each other. 

When booking our accomodation, I requested a pick up from the airport, but silly me forgot to check with the hotel before departing Sydney. As it turns out, they did not send a transfer and so Joshua suggested I call the hotel. After speaking for a minute or so and asking my question, the lovely Indian girl said to me, “Madame, you can speak English….” Um…I am speaking English 😂…I handed the phone back to Joshua and he helped us organise an Uber. This turned out to be an important lesson anyway as we have used Uber’s ever since to independently get around Bangalore without having to haggle a price.

The hotel was amazing, the buffet sensational and the bed very welcoming after such a long trip.