Claire and Morten Travel Blog in India 2012: 06/02/2012

Today we got up around 8:30 and then went for breakfast just after 9:00. The rest of the day was spent on a variety of things.
For starters, we sat down again to book our onwards journey all the way to Kochi - we didn't completely finish it all, but most of the stuff is booked and we are just awaiting quotes for car travel from Coimbatore to Kochi - it turns out that we simply cannot find a train or a bus that will enable us to get to Kochi after arriving in Coimbatore - except for the very basic and not-so-nice busses. Depending on cab quote we'll then decide what to do.
All this planning ended up taking over two hours, with the involvement of both Laika and Ajith, and we weren't out the door for the final sightseeing rounds here in Bangalore until around 12:30. Even then, we decided to get a few things out of the way, including topping up phones, going to the pharmacy for more Nadoxin for my chin, going for a coffee at Gadula mall etc.
So at around 14:00 we were finally on our way by foot and returned to Lalbagh to see the Glass House that we missed the last time, as well as a few other things in the park.
Then, after a bit of walking to find a major road in the right direction it was off to the Bull Temple where we spent about 20 minutes taking a few pictures and talking to a priest and a devout helper, getting blessing and importantly - to them - donate R.200,- ;-)
Afterwards we went to see the Bangalore Palace - got there by auto-rickshaw - where we spent just over an hour inside while listening to the audio devices that they gave us as we arrived and paid the entrance fees of R.400,- each.
Finally, we returned to Laika by auto-rickshaw at around 18:45.
On our way around we haggled quite well with the auto-rickshaw drivers and even left a few behind as they just weren't playing ball and wanted to bring us to emporiums, their family's stores etc. It was actually great just to walk away and leave them to find someone else to scam - felt very good to know how to work the system here... ;-) We ended up spending about R.240,- for a total of approximately 16km, which isn't bad really.

We spent about 30 minutes in Laika to freshen up before walking to the Tandoor restaurant, which came highly recommended. The food was pricey (about €30 for for the whole meal - a lot by Indian standards) but really nice and the staff quick and attentive - the portions were huge! I had a lamb roganjosh and Claire a fish curry - we also shared an Aloo Jeera (potatoes fried in cumin and other spices), plain rice, a garlic naan and a roti - fantastic stuff!
Afterwards we walked back to Laika to rest for the evening and then went to bed at around 22:30.