91热爆

This is an archive report written by our 2006 Blast reporter, Amy Hall.

Bangalore was a big shock when I arrived.

I got picked up from the airport about 4am and the first thing I noticed was the noise. Despite being the middle of the night the driver of the taxi was beeping his horn all the way to the Katary Villa (or KV as it is affectionately known) where I am staying.

My roomate Aina, who is from Norway, was sleeping. She had arrived a few hours beforehand. She didn't mind being woken up though and eventually, after cutting my finger open on a penknife we both went to sleep. I woke up pretty early though as Bangalore is very noisy compared to where I live in Cornwall.

The next day we decided to go in search of water. After getting very lost we found a shop who managed to sell us soda water for 40 rupees (way more than it should have been and not even water!) When we arrived back at the KV Mrs Katary, who's house it is thought this was very funny as we stumbled dehydrated and hot into her kitchen. She explained we could have just got filter water from her for free so that was our first lesson learned!

Amy's local street in Bangalore

All in all life in Bangalore is very different from home. It is very busy and quite polluted. I am surprisingly used to it now though. There are also cows wondering around which I don't seem to find as unusual as the other volunteers do. The main things I have learned are that as a rule India people don't use toilet paper so I need to make sure I take some around with me.

Also there is a head nod thing people do kind of sideways which I seem to have adopted in the last few days. Not always sure whether they mean yes or no though!

The traffic takes some getting used to. Apart from the continuous horn beeping there seems to be little road rules. We take a rickshaw to work which looks a bit like a more hardy golf buggy. The drivers dodge in and out of the traffic which is sometimes quite hair-raising. There are a lot of motorbikes and mopeds too. I have seen a family of four dodging in and out of the traffic on one moped!

Cubon Park in Bangalore

Everywhere in Bangalore is shut by 11.30pm, so there isn't much wild partying to be done, which is good because at least I can get up for work in the morning.

Rave Magazine is very different to how I imagined. The office is very quiet compared to places like Radio Cornwall! Everyone is really friendly though despite not talking much.

It is a strange time for the magazine because the editor left four weeks ago and now the new one has too, so it may be a bit different next time I go in.

Apart from work there is a lot to see in and around the city. One of the places we have been in the city is Cubon Park which is very pretty.

Amy's new local - Le Rock Bar

On Saturday just gone me and some other volunteers Beckie, Sooz, Aina and Sonali went to Nandi Hills which is a two hour drive away. It is a hill station in the countryside and so beautiful.

The view was amazing and as far as you could see there were no big towns. It was nice to be in the countryside again somewhere quiet and unpolluted. There were so many monkeys around too. The older ones were really friendly and I even sat on a bench with one at one point.

One of our favourite places in Bangalore so far is 'Le Rock'. It is a bar which plays retro rock, metal, grunge etc on screens. They even have Jimi Hendrix matchboxes!

Opposite is another cool bar called Pecos playing '60s and '70s music. It only sells beer and chips and has a really nice dark pub-ish atmosphere.

New volunteers come every two weeks and it's strange because after only a week or two with people you feel quite close and it's sad when they leave.

A tame monkey in Nandi Hills

It's also pretty exciting getting new people though and I'm here for three months so I will have to get used to it. The good thing is that Aina will be here for eight more weeks and Sooz, who lives nearby, for ten more like me. Also Tom who arrived at our house today will be here eight more weeks.

Anyway, that is it for this installment and thanks again to Camborne Rotary Club for sponsoring me.

More from Amy in India soon.