The 80s live on...

Saturday night - we met two local AOLers in bangalore at the hotel bar Geoffrey's. A self-proclaimed "authentic British Pub". That was hard to verify - it was so dark in there.

Maybe it was 70s/80s night - but the song-list from the DJ was a flash back.

Safety-Dance
Never Gonna Give You Up
Kung-Fu Fighting
Beat It
etc....

And the bar DJ must have loved the Scorpions -- I've been in the bar twice while visiting, and both times - he played an entire Scorpion CD.

I had dinner there -- mermaid fingers and and veggie lasagna tower. The mermaid fingers appeared to be fish sticks with slight indian spices. And the veggie lasagna had a sweet sauce and lots of strange cheeses - also with slight amount of indian spices. Even though I've never been to Britain, I'm sure this is NOT an authentic British Pub.

Mental Note to Self -- when in India -- eat Indian...its sooo much better.

About 10pm I headed upstairs to sleep -- I was getting tired.

Random Bangalore Facts:

No dance clubs in Bangalore.

No alcohol served after 11pm

Bootleg DVDs can be bought for $2

10 rupees an hour for an auto-rickshaw is a good price

Pubs are pitch-black when the power goes out. No emergency lights here!

Cricket is BIG in India.

Can the French and the US get along?

Can the French and the US get along? Absolutely. I was heading down to the lobby in the elevator when I struck up a conversation with the another guy on the universal language -- technology. He had a Red Wrox programming book so we bonded immediately.



Turns out - he's from Paris - and also here on business for his company (they have 600 people here in Bangalore). Same thing thats happening in the US -- all the jobs that can be done in India - are being moved to India.

We had a really nice breakfast on the terrace....and Jim -- I didn't bring up the ungrateful bit about D-day or try out any of the French jokes you've been e-mailing me. I figured that'd be in bad taste.



As expected - I run into business people from just about every major company...Intel, Accenture, Oracle, etc.. Everybody's doing work in Bangalore.

Random Factoid: Only 3% of residents in major cities in India have broadband

And with good food and company - it seems like a traveler's paradise. What could go wrong? Well...every couple minutes - when the wind blows just the right away -- there's a over-powering odor in the air that smells like a cross between death and raw sewage. A mystery...what could it be?