Jan 3 & 4, Saturday and Sunday - Welcome to India!

I created this blog so I could share my experiences while in India with all of you! I'll be working in Bangalore for 6 weeks - getting home on Feb 10 (my birthday :). I will be working with IBM Human Resource colleagues in Bangalore. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and seeing the pictures. I left Syracuse, NY at 10:30 AM on Jan 1 and got to Bangalore, India at 12:35 AM on Jan 3. Bangalore is 10 1/2 hours ahead of EST. It took about 27 hours of travel (Syracuse - JFK - Paris - Bangalore) to get here. By the time I went thru Immigration, got my bags, went thru Customs and met the Hertz driver, it was about 2:45 AM when we got to the hotel. I'm staying at the Taj Residency and it is about 50 minutes from the airport. When you rent a car in India, it comes with a driver and for good reason -- the traffic here is nuts! I thought my driver would crash the car before we even got off of hotel property! Reckless driving is the norm and traffic rules considered mere suggestions! The drivers constantly honk their horns and flash their lights if they want to pass - which they do when they're only 1/2 a car length from the car in front of them! I spent the Saturday unpacking and learning how to use the Internet, tv and dvd player. There's a breakfast buffet each morning so I had breakfast at 10:00 AM. I haven't been hungry forced myself to go down to get some dinner - had 1/2 bowl of wheat raviolis stuffed with spinach and mushrooms. Did I mention that the Taj is a 5 star hotel? :) The hotel has increased Security since the Nov incident in Mumbai (about 700 miles away). The front gate is closed with a couple of policemen monitoring who comes in, there are barricades in front of the hotel (although it is right on the street), cops in the lobby and a metal detector as you enter the lobby. They also went through my bags when I arrived. The other 4 women I'll be working with arrived this morning (Sunday) between 4:30 and 7:00. I had asked to get here a day earlier to allow my 50 year old body time more time to recuperate from the trip. :) I slept for 12 hours last night. It was funny - I woke up at 8:48 AM this morning (Sunday) and one of the women from Raleigh (Karey) called about 1 minute later to say they had made it in about 7 AM. I went down to her room (4 doors down) in my jammies and hotel robe and was happy to give Karey and Kelli hugs (I've worked with both of them in RTP). I told Maria I'd spare her giving her one since we just met. :) They opened up a spa here in September called the "Jiva Spa". Here's a link to the spa's homepage that shows the spa lobby. http://www.tajhotels.com/Jivaspa/JivaSpa,Bangalore/default.htm I had a luxurious massage this morning. It was fabulous - and that's coming from someone who gets a lot of massage (of course Dave's are the best. :) The first thing they do is give you a detoxifying tea drink. It was exceptionally delicious- and I don't typically care for tea. You then take a 10 minute steam in a private booth, shower and put on disposable panties (like a glorified g-string) for the massage. The massage room was elegant. The first thing they do is wash your feet in warm water (rose petals floating in it). The massage therapist explained that they wash the feet because each guest is treated like a deity. :) Everything in the spa is organic, down to the robes which are made of organic cotton and dyed with organic dyes. The massage ended with the therapist putting a sandalwood mixture in-between my eyebrows and then putting 2 grains of rice into it (for prosperity). She then put a flower necklace around my neck to honor the goddess within. Cool, huh? I ate my sole meal today at pool side about 3:00 PM. Turns out it was their weekly brunch with live music (western pop). It was fun to be out there with kids playing in a blow-up jumping gym and frolicking in the apparently cold pool. Noticed a lot (maybe 20) other westerners there too (in addition to some Indians). I tried several Indian dishes and they were delicious. I asked for them not to be spicy but southern India is known for its spicy food so they couldn't eliminate it - just toned it down. Tomorrow's the first day of work!