During January and February 2000, I am spending the winter on an assignment at the Honeywell India Software Operation in Bangalore, India. My wife, Diane, accompanied me for the first month of the trip, but she's back now in cold Minnesota while I am watching the thermometer climb a bit higher everyday.
This was not my first trip to India, but it was my first experience in South India. A simple comparison between North and South India is that each is "different, but also the same." There are certainly regional variations all around India, but a definite shift from North from South in customs, languages, foods, religious practices, and of course, the climate.
Bangalore sits high (3,000 ft.) on the Deccan plain in the state of Karnataka, located in the center of southern India. The coast is about a day's trip traveling either west or east. Compared to northern cities, the Western visitor will immediately notice that the terrain and vegetation in the countryside is more tropical here. Not surprising, considering that the city is at the approximate latitude of Honduras and Panama in Central America. It's a very crowded city, about 5 million inhabitants, but it is surrounded by agriculture countryside--small rice paddies, mammoth coconut plantations, and further out, coffee plantations in the mountains.
I've collected some of my observations and facts that I've learned about life here along with some digital snapshots. I hope they give you a sense of everyday life in Bangalore, along with some views of some special places that were fun to visit.
Sravanabelagola and the ancient temples at Belur and Halebid
Mysore and the Bandipur National Park
Overland to the coast and Mangalore (in progress)