Bangalore or Bust: A Travel Log (Day 9)

Author's note: For the next several weeks, I'll be posting tidbits of a travel log, which I kept during a two-week business trip (the reason I was in sporadic contact with the world recently). Enjoy!

For those who haven't yet seen the other posts in this travel log, check them out:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

(And again, if you're interested in seeing more photos than I'm providing, check out one of my co-workers' blogs from the same trip)

Day 9, Friday (3/2):

Having gotten back to the hotel quite late, it was good that I had requested a wake-up call, because that was the only thing that woke me up the next morning. Rushing around to get ready for work is something I haven’t had to do for the entire week, being as how I’ve been waking several hours ahead of a normal schedule. So, needless to say, I was a little off-kilter for most of the day.

For lunch, most of the group and our respective Indian teams ended up heading to what seemed an upscale Indian restaurant. It was a welcome change from the pizza we’d been having the last several days. They fortunately toned down the spice to a more reasonable level for us, which was good. I enjoyed my selections, personally.

All in all, though, most of the rest of my day was spent in meetings and in answering e-mails from Wichita. I really didn’t feel like I accomplished much, but that’s how life is sometimes. Hopefully some rest and recuperation will help even things out in the coming week.

On the way home, I’ve found that my comfort level with the traffic conditions seems to be reaching a point of saturation. In fact, since I didn’t have time to read the local paper this morning, and my day was filled completely, I ended up reading it in the car on our way back to the hotel. All the honking horns, the suicidal pedestrians launching themselves out in front of speeding vehicles, motorcycles and auto-rickshaws racing past and jockeying for position…none of it really fazed me all that terribly. I guess it really is all in what you’re used to.

I’ve also discovered, however, that I seriously over-estimated how much free time I would have on this trip. It seems like I get up and go to work…then come home to work and barely any time passes until we’re heading out to get our dinner. And then it’s usually time to come back to the room and go off to sleep after a call to my wife. This isn’t going to bode well for my attempt at meeting all of the writing goals I set for myself.

Another trip to the steakhouse yielded very heavy traffic at night. The restaurant was far busier than it had been earlier in the week, and for some reason, the T-bone steak we had this evening was presented in a far different way (and more familiar to those back home) than before. There was also a mishap with one of the other fellow’s beers spilling and dousing my jeans (thank goodness for the hotel laundry service). I have a feeling that’s why the driver would often roll down his windows on the way home. Another late night, but a good way to relax after a long week.

And that's all for today...be sure to come back for the next installment...