Sunday, August 8, 2010

India: Bangalore Koramangala


Größere Kartenansicht

 Here, I am living for the time being. First Block Koramangala, very nice and silent place. There are lots of small restaurants, a very good connection to the BMTC bus system, many small shops, good supermarkets, ...., I like it.
It is now my second week in Koramangala. I can highly recommend this place.
Sony World, AlienWare Shop, a very nice small Punjabi restaurant, Sunis Laundrary (40rupees per kg) and there is more to come.
Koramangala is also a kind of a student area, many young people living here. So, bars and cafe are always well patronized.

In detail, I live in one room, which is part of a four-room guest house. Sharing kitching, living room and shower with my room mates. They originate from all over the world, Spain, France(maybe), Germany, and Russia. In addition our land lord is a swiss photograph. For Indian standards, this is a very cool place, but for an European there severall things, one has to arrange with.
Including the Indian manner of using the toilet, ..., there is no toilet paper at all, just a min shower.... But I am willing to learn. One also has to mention, that we have a very cool garden where one can take severall sun bathes. As contrast, there is one of these special Indian rivers nearby, so keep an eye to the wind direction.
One of Bangalores rivers

India: Bangalore Whitefield

After three weeks in Bangalore, I love this city. All in all it is totally amazing. This city has all sights of India concentrated to one big melting pot of cultures and social ranks.
I lived for the first two weeks in a service appartement at Varthur Road, Whitefield(the place to be for IT guys). Nearly every global player has settled down in Whitefield or Electronic city. As contrast all cool places like the MG road, the student area Koramangala are at least 40min apart. Although, there is everything what you need for your daily life. So if you only use Bangalore as your base to make journeys all over India and you go for an internship to an IT company, that's the place to stay.
Check out Hyper City, Forum Value Mall, Sportsbar, and a good bar between Dominos Pizza and Cosmos Mall. I hope, I will find it in the next few days and figure out the name. To sum up everything is around, just have to know where.
As mentioned above, one need 40min to reach the city centre by public bus. But attention, the rickshaw driver in Whitefield know that every guy here is working for an IT company, and so they will try to cheat you. So, I think it is cheaper to take a taxi or the bus. Another amazing fact, buses are the faster vehicle in Bangalore, I assume that is because they are the strongest vehicle and get the priortiy in this crazy traffic.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

India: first impressions

After the completion of my bachelor degree at the Hasso Plattner Institute (Potsdam, Germany), I went to India for an internship at SAP Labs Bangalore. So, I am here for nearly one month now and I like to sum up my learned lesson and my first impressions of Bangalore. Here part one.

First, do not trust any body who comes to you and want to guide you to a taxi, a shop or anything else. These guys will definitely cheat you and charge you more than ten times of the normal price. For this reason, before coming to India alway talk with some Indian friends, contact some Indian colleagues or read some Indian tourist guides.

A fact, which would save me a lot of money is, that per km the price for a taxi never exceeds 20 rupees and the normal price per km for a rickshaw is 7 rupees. Sounds not a lot, but a rickshaw is your daily transport vehicle in Bangalore unless you get a 2-wheeler. This I would recommend to you, so do not forget your international driving licence. I currently try to bypass the Indian bureaucracy to get an Indian licence, but it will be much easier to possess an international licence.

In addition, if you go to an internship it is clearly recommended to get an employement visa. I actually know it before apllying for the visa, but the embassy guys told me to get a business visa. As far as I know, it makes no difference (till now).