Bengaluru

We can travel halfway around the world without incident, but an hour long trip to Bangalore starts and ends with vomit. To start, Oscar threw up at the airport in Chennai and we almost called the trip off. He'd been having fevers for a few days but we decided to go since they were controlled with tylenol and had no other symptoms, thinking we'd just rest at the hotel when we got there. The car ride pushed him over the edge though and we both wore some pink tylenol "accents" on our clothing for the plane ride. His fever broke before we got on the plane and he was totally fine for the rest of the trip (thankfully). On our last day, I'm sitting down to a lovely cup of coffee for our last breakfast at the fancy shmnacy hotel with both kids (dada had already left for work) when I hear a sound...Livi had thrown up all over herself and her brother. I quickly took their shirts off and high tailed it out of the fancy shmancy hotel restaurant and asked them to bring our breakfast (especially my coffee) to the room. Thankfully at a fancy shmancy hotel you can do that with no problem, and get a full fresh pot of coffee and new eggs! :) My only issue with the fancy schmancy hotel with beautiful grounds is that every staff person who could, gave our kids candy and chocolate. It got the point where they couldn't even finish it and I think I still have some stray pieces in one of my bags - for our kids that's saying a lot! However, everyone was so welcoming and accomodating for the kids that the extra sugar highs were worth it. And who doesn't need a $10 plate of french fries washed down with a $8 chocolate milkshake now and then?

Livi's best buddy, who gave her candy everytime we left/arrived at the hotel

pretty livi with roses from an event the night before

how Oscar poses

the beautiful pool that was FREEZING. the kids loved it but lasted about 15 min before the teeth started chattering

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and couldn't resist the Bengaluru T-shirts - Bangalore is the English version of the city name, Bengaluru is the name in the local language of Kannada.

Since Oscar was there for work, the kids and I spent the days tooling around the city and taking in the sights. One day we climbed a big rock hill at the Lalbagh botanical gardens (fun) and dodged dog poop and corn husks along the way (not so fun). The gardens were very zoo-like, with Oscar and Livi as the main attractions. Oscar did his best to hide behind me, but Livi came out of her stranger-fear shell a little and even posed for a few pictures. This was both cute and a little disconcerting. The kids were bored after the climb though so we ended up at the mall and had Mc Donalds. Nothing says happy Grajales kids like chicken nuggets and a toy! (There is actually a McDonalds in Chennai too, but for no particular reason we haven't gone there yet.)

view of Bangalore from the rock hill

little kids, big rock

a little sibling love outside the glass house

he was bouncing off the walls when we got here

We enjoyed Bal Bhavan in Cubbon Park much more the next few days, complete with a train, amusement park rides, a castle/fort, and several playgrounds. While lots of fun, even Livi noticed some general issues about the playground equipment. Climbing across a suspension bridge she asked "Mommy, this safe?" Uh, mostly Liv, just be careful and Mama's got your back.

Overall I think my expectations were a little high but once I got over the initial "oh." I really enjoyed it. There's a lot more traffic, but there are also a lot more stores (several nice malls to our 1) and access to more creature comforts (namely cheese and wine). Throw in some walkable sidewalks and the cooler weather and we had a great week. We were happy to come home though!

Brigade street by day...

and night (yes, I'm actually wearing jeans!!)