Skip to main content

Ripped off in Lalbagh

Sam is back in town, this time for good. Bugger drove from Delhi via Udaipur-Mumbai-Pune-Kolhapur-Dharwad and reached Bangalore in 5 days. Total distance driven in 5 days: 2502 kms. As a result of this great achievement, or lack thereof, we planned to visit Lalbagh Botanical Gardens.

Expected a lot from this place specially after seeing some pictures that were forwarded from people who had visited previously. What total crap!!

Covered the entire garden and couldn't spot one flower. There is an area called Lotus Pond, but the pond is a mess with empty plastic water bottles 'beautifying' the Lotuses, and not one Lotus spotted. Moving on to the Rosery, which you guessed it right, not a single Rose lining up the place. Guess it was just not the right season. Another so-called attraction was the Aquarium, closed!!

It is a paradise for couples who want to get away from the maddening rush of the city itself, but with the number of people staring at them, there is no solace in the garden either.

Frustrated, tired and hungry, we left the place close to 3 PM, thinking about having lunch at MTR, but again experiencing the kind of day we were having, it was also closed. Up on the bike and back to Koramangala, hoping to find some lunch at Gramin, as luck would have it, closed!! Aaargh.

Ended up eating at a place called The Empire. Although it was a bit late for lunch, at least there should have been some courtesy from the waiters there. We asked for water and the waiter plonks a jar of water on the table, without even filling the glasses. Even spoons and forks had to be begged for before being handed down. Sam thought that we would be the ones who would be cleaning the dishes as well. Guess the Telangana split had gotten into the hotel staff's heads. With loaded bellies, we trotted off to end the mis-adventurous day with an ice-cream. Probably the best part of the day, 2 scoops of delicious chocolate, fudge n brownies. Yummy!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Please Help

While I have been blogging for nearly 2 years now and that visitors (like you) are fairly low in number, I would still like to know who you are. Although I know one of my UA friend is a regular here (and yes, it is you Hari), I don't know who are the other frequent fliers. If you choose to remain anonymous, that is also fine, but kindly leave a comment or two in the message box that is on the right side of the webpage. I am trying to get a feel for how often do you stop by. The reason I am asking you to do this is because I need your help. No, it has nothing to do with donations or anything monetary, but here I am in my third month in Bangalore and I am absolutely bored. I need some suggestions to utilize my time efficiently and effectively. Please refrain from suggesting using the gym or joining a book club. These 2 are not my cuppa tea. My mind is 100% blank about extra-curricular activities and I need some 'external' help. One of my closest friends had suggested joining...

Peculiar Observation

Had been to the Hindu Temple today. One of the first things that I noticed about the temple parking lot was that it resembled a used Honda and Toyota car showroom. These two Japanese auto powerhouses have to thank the Indians all around the US for their exceptional sales. And this observation is true about any temple in the US. Pittsburgh Balaji Temple, Aurora Balaji Temple, Lemont Rama Temple etc are the few huge temples that I have visited and have been pleasantly shocked to see the number of Hondas and Toyotas in the parking lots. Lexus and Mercedes are also catching up. Seems the Indian diaspora is not gravely affected by the recession. They were/are smart about the money they earned. Talking about car sales, almost everyone from GM to Ford to Chrysler to Toyota to Honda to Nissan have seen their car sales decline by double digits. American automakers are struggling to sell their "bad" products to the consumers and this time unlike earlier years, the consumer knows better...

Of Snowfalls and White Winters

It snowed this weekend for the first time. Enough said, this is going to be a white Christmas and a long winter to look forward to. With every snowfall comes great complaints about short days and never-ending nights. Depressing to say the least. However, with all those years living in snow-clad regions it is about time we embrace and appreciate the beauty of all things white. Christmas and snowfalls bring about the colors from all the cities across the country with decorations lasting a few weeks to months into the new year. Winter wonderlands come up at communities inviting suburban folks to have a few smiles and gawk at the decorations. Heavy snowfalls are no reason to stay indoors. In fact, they are to be enjoyed outside by building a snowman and having snowball fights with close friends (and enemies if you can find them and entice them for a fight). Snowfalls are to be enjoyed on mountains where ice-tubing and ice-skating are as eagerly looked forward to as a sizzling summer aftern...