Books, beers & beats

 This morning we returned to the “good” buffet at the Leela Palace. Not that the ITC Jaipur was bad, it just wasn’t ask good as the Leela. Even Ethan, the spoiled boy that he is, commented that the pancakes weren’t as fluffy there! Now, let me explain Bangalore 28 degrees. It’s very different to Sydney 28 which is hot and dry, or Bangkok 28 which is boiling and sweaty. It’s just actually a pleasant temperature with mild cloud cover, some smog, and lots of trees keeping it all very shady. Locally people don’t really wear shorts, so we’ve adopted this mostly, and have grown accustomed to wearing pants. Unheard of in Sydney at this degrees! But here - fine.

We took an Uber to the national gallery which was probably the most underwhelming gallery we’ve seen. There was one exhibition that was fine, showing paintings endorsed by Mahatma Ghandi of villagers going about their day. Say, a woman pounding rice, an ear cleaner (profession), and a person on a toilet. The main gallery was like two rooms of some very average art. Shame, really. So we took a taxi to Champaca bookstore. Darcy had done his research and this one had a good queer and feminist selection as well as plenty of kids books and a cafe. Ethan ate a quiche and we got a few kids early readers centred around life in India for when he grows up and begins to read.

Then, we went to Brigade road for some shopping. We found a few mass produced but still Indian brands and bought a few pants and shirts. We took another tuktuk 10min away to a small art gallery - but it was closed! While we waited for our Uber back to the hotel Ethan fell asleep on my shoulder and then slept all the way home (30min) and another hour in the hotel room! When he was awake, we suffered through a post nap tantrum and took him for some chocolate cake in the hotel all day restaurant.

We tried to get an Uber out to dinner, but we quickly realised that they’re all taken at peak hour. So we hopped in a tuktuk and had a hotel staff member translate for us where we wanted to go. A brewery called “Toit” that Ethan’s uncle Pavan had suggested. It was good beer & entree (an arancini ball) and Ethan had like a bite of his margherita pizza so rather than order dinner, we just ate the rest of his food. Oh well. When he claimed he was tired at 6:45 we hopped in a tuktuk to the hotel and the driver said “you like music?”… sure! And he turned on the loudest clubiest deep track and we doof doofed all the way home. Ethan loved it and we had a boogie in the backseat. What an end to the evening! Then, since I was energised from the music, I went down to the library bar for a cocktail to write this post. I asked the staff where the speakeasy was, as we were told about it by the manager upon checkin last week. They made me a booking and a staff member lead me past the restaurants and through the hotel garden. We passed a guard, walked through a kitchen, up a lift and past a dimly lit smoking room right into the bar. It is a quiet space, in red velvet and mirrored ceiling, with a pianist and bartenders dressed in white coats. I ordered a martini and was sat at the bar and made small talk with the bartender. I feel like this is the vibe that the Sydney speakeasy’s try to emulate but they just get overrun with trash trying to hook up. It was a relaxing experience, and a wonderful way to end the night. A pretty fun day altogether in Bangalore!