Bangalore, banganational

Gaurav and I made our way out of Pune and to Bangalore this week to interview vendors. After rising at 5am, for a 6am flight, and making our way through the Pune military airport and to Bangalore, we were greeted by hordes of people in suits, more foreigners than I’ve seen in a month, and nearly as much traffic as Delhi.

Bangalore is truly an international city. A cross between NYC, Egypt, and San Jose, Bangalore is swarming with all types.

We checked into the hotel, and made our way to the first vendor meeting – an ad and web agency - tucked away behind apartments, as many offices seemed to be (the city busting at every seam). After a successful meeting, we headed across the city to agency #2. prior to heading in it was time for lunch. It’s funny, wearing a suit and acting professional doesn’t normally go with eating with your hands and sitting on a dirty park bench surrounded by picnickers. Here that’s normal.

A day of meetings later and we were wiped. Randomly, Lynnette was also in town working for another company. After splashing water in my face and downing a tea, I made it to her hotel – the Leela.

Walking in I felt like I left India and made it into a dream. The hotel was massive filled with marble and decorated by urns with floating rose-petals everything. 90% of the patrons were European all seeming to talk about some deal they just closed or outsourced model they were looking at kicking off.