While in China, I obsessed over the title of the post that I would eventually write. Should it be 'From Bangalore to Beijing', you know like 'Chandini chowk to China'. Or should it be called 'Beijing Bites'? All along I made notes on random observations that would go into this post. Back home, the notebook went missing and provided the perfect excuse for not writing at all. Today, I found the book but believe it or not the page in which I made those little notes has vanished. Maybe the perfect post was not meant to be and you will have to make do with these tit-bits that I remember...
* No google, facebook, twitter. The Chinese have their own versions of all these sites which they claim is far better than the original.
* People, people everywhere!
* And they look great. Wonder how they stay so thin and look young. Could it be the tea that they constantly drink?
* Had to face the horrid summer heat. It rained on only one day in all the time I was there and that was on my birthday.
* The traffic and the one hour long journey to work everyday made me feel at home. Even then it is not as chaotic as it is here.
* Communication was a big problem. It was like playing dumb charades everyday.
* This trip reminded me of my Turkey visit for many reasons. The feeling of old meets new, history lingering in every corner, the sense of pride the locals have...but then it is not the same. People are less friendly and guarded.
* There are quite a few Indian restaurants, I even found a Kamats restaurant. But wonder why Indian cuisine hasn't had the kind of influence Chinese has in India.
* Speaking of food, Indian-Chinese beats Chinese-Chinese any day ;)
* I didn't interact much with the locals there, my only source of information was the daily English news paper which I eagerly looked forward to everyday. Other than the daily news they'd write about how men were finding it hard to find women, of parents trying to 'arrange' their kids marriages, how they try to escape the one child policy...all in all very interesting.
* The subway system though crowded is the best way to travel within the city. Cheap, fast and efficient. I cant wait for Metro to take off in Bangalore.
That is all for now..here are some pics. Enjoy.
