[v12]

I am not sure if I can call this a Travelogue – one reason being that I was there for work purpose and second reason being that I did not get to explore the place much or see the places that I had planned to. Nevertheless this will be a memorable trip for me for 2 reasons - 1. It was the first flight in my life. 2. The flight was taking me to a place which I have always heard since childhood, but never visited – Bangalore.

Before you proceed, please note again that this is not a true travelogue. Its more of a Photologue of the places I visited most during my short stay there.

When in school, we always visited Karnataka (Udipi / Kemmannu) for our summer vacations almost every year – Bangalore was always left out. The main reason being that it was too far and we didn’t have relatives there.

Fast forward to 2014 – I got an opportunity to travel to Bangalore for training. I was so excited to see my first flight tickets. That also mean that I had to pack my bags with a fixed weight in mind. After multiple packing, weighing, emptying, re-packing – finally managed to hit the 15kg mark.

Finally the day arrived and my brother drove me to the airport. I had already web-checked in and had booked a window seat – obviously did not want to be seated anywhere else on my first flight. Since I had reached an hour early – I decided to hang out at the waiting area near the boarding gate. I watched as some aircrafts taxied towards the boarding gate. Far into the distance I could also see a few private jets parked neatly.

Finally my flight arrived on time.


Private Jets parked near Air India hangar.


Maybe this Air India could make it to the Vintage Aircraft gathering dust


Flight takes off finally.


The Western Express Highway as seen from the plane. Goodbye Mumbai.


Hello Bangalore

[v12]

I was greeted by a nice S600 V12 just as I came out of BIAL- unfortunately this was not my cab  - My Etios was waiting a few meters away. The first thing that struck me about Bangalore airport is it is not as crowded as Mumbai airport. The airport is clean, well maintained and organized. What struck me immediately when we drove off was the absence of any kind of traffic. Thanks to the newly constructed 6-lane road which was opened a few months ago.

We reached the toll gate and encountered some commotion – police bandobast along with news vans. At first I thought it could be a visiting minister – but it turned out that a couple of days ago there was a strike against increasing the toll fare from Rs 30 to Rs 115. Anyways I had a nice one hour drive from the airport to my hotel where I chatted with the driver comparing Mumbai roads and traffic to Bangalore.

The below pics (except the S600) are when I was returning to Mumbai. Could not take any pictures of BIAL when I landed.

The mighty S600 V12 followed by a S350


BIAL






Waiting area for Departure


ATC


The road to BIAL


Airport Toll Naka

[v12]

I had decided before coming that I would try and visit most of the places in and around Bangalore. So did a Google search to find out the “Places to Visit”. Top on the list was UB City, MG Road, Lavelle Road etc – all thanks to Manishasrani and his supercar pics – I had to check this place out. Next on the list was the Vidhan Soudha - Bangalore’s legislative building, HAL museum and the Mysore palace. This was only possible on the weekends when I was off from work.

Finally after 5 long days (which felt like weeks) – Saturday arrived. I started looking up Google maps on directions to UB city and the best mode of transport. The map showed me all the different bus numbers, distance, walking distance, switching buses etc. What really surprised me was the frequency of the buses – it was mentioned as “every 2 mins”. Obviously I would not fall for that – and in my mind I was prepared for a long wait incase I missed a bus. And as it happened I did miss one bus – but shockingly within 2 minutes another one arrived. I was highly impressed – cheers BMTC. The Volvo buses were also clean and well maintained, the bus drivers and the conductors very friendly. Another good feature in the bus was the use of the dot matrix display to display the next stops with an audio message (in Hindi and kannada). BEST – you can take some tips from the BMTC guys. There were also other local buses (Ashok Leyland and Tata) along with the vestibule buses.

The best mode of transport is definitely a 2-wheeler. If you plan to roam within the city itself, I would recommend a 2-wheeler. Public transport is good but you will have to change multiple buses. BMTC does offer a tourist bus service which will take you to the tourist spots. The flip side is the bus only halts at each of the places for not more than 15 minutes.

Volvo buses


Vestibule buses




Bike is the most convenient mode of transport (since auto's are expensive and do not run on meters)

[v12]

After changing 2 buses to Richmond Circle and walking around I managed to reach UB City. Being a Mumbaite, I always used to think that there is no place like South Mumbai anywhere else in India. Churchgate, Peddar Road, Altamount Road – nothing could come close to these places in terms of poshness. But I was mistaken – this place proved me wrong. The place was clean, the buildings were beautiful, there were no hawkers. It felt very nice to walk in the shades of the trees laden on both sides of a narrow lane. The traffic situation, however, is a different issue altogether. The place does tend to get a bit crowded during peak hours.


















As I passed, I noticed the Harley Davidson showroom – took a few pics and reached the junction where to my right was the Lamborghini showroom (which I did not notice on my first day), the BMW and the the Porsche showroom (which I did not notice) straight ahead and UB City to my left.






I walked towards UB City mall, Oakwood Premium Prestige – and I could recollect all the pics that Manish had posted in the Supercars in Bangalore thread. Being a weekend I expected some exotics to be around – but my bad luck. Anyways, UB City was amazing – it looked more like a 5-star hotel than a mall. . I entered the mall – walked through all the shops inside and the food court and made my way out. UB City had all the exotic brands inside – you name it – it was there.























I continued my walk around to explore the place and reached MG Road – where I found myself lost. This was one of the busiest streets in Bangalore - it had everything - restaurants, stores, shops, offices. The pic you see first is the MG Road Metro station - but I am not sure if it is still under construction. I was supposed to catch a bus to the HAL museum which was on my way back. After checking with the locals on the way to the bus stand and going around in circles, I finally got into a bus to HAL museum.

[v12]

If you are an airplane freak – you have to visit the HAL museum. It is located on Airport Road just parallel to the HAL Airport. It has on display a lot of airplanes including the Mig 21 and helicopters like the Sea King and the indigenously built Advanced Light Helicopter.

The airplanes are very well maintained and labeled for easy identification. The ground floor of museum is a photo exhibition of HAL’s progress through the years. There is a collection of some rare photos of aircrafts being manufactured, foreign presidents visiting HAL, HAL built cars and buses etc. I managed to take a pics of some of the photo exhibited there. For our Vintage and Classic Car enthusiasts – I managed to take pics of all the photos which had an automobile in it.

So sit back and enjoy the tour of HAL museum.

[v12]

HAL museum covered – the next on my list was the Vidhaan Soudha. I was always under the impression ithat this building was building was built by the British. But after reading about it I got to know that it was built in the 1950’s. I should have read about it some more – and then I would know that (1) its closed on Sundays (on w weekday I would have got to enter inside) and (2) the building is lit up in the night. I went on a Sunday afternoon and missed both these opportunities.











After visiting the Vidhaan Soudha – I made my way back into VM Road for lunch. Again because it was closeby, I decided to walk it out. And what luck – I came across this Ford Mustang Fastback on a flatbed, I passed through the Porsche showroom and the Lamborghini showroom (which I missed the previous day). Being Sunday, both the showrooms were closed. There were 2 Lambo’s in the showroom – but both covered so couldn’t get a glimpse of them –although I could make out they were a Gallardo and an Aventador. After checking them out from the outside, I walked towards the bus stop near Bishop school. While I waited, I decided to walk around and saw a Land Rover Defender in the opposite lane. So I deceded to check it out. As I neared the place – I saw not 1, not 2 – but 3 of them parked there – from 2 generations. And all of them were very well kept and one of them had a sticker “Xtrails Cycling Holidays”.













A pair of E250Ds for sale

[v12]

Weekend 2 : I was so much impressed with VM Road that I decided to spend another day (Saturday) there to explore around. So I visited VM Road, MG Road, Lavelle Road. The Porsche and the Lamborghini showroom were open. Porsche had an un-exciting Cayenne inside so did not bother to check it out. However outside it had a very nice BMW Z3 – which reminded me of the movie Golden Eye, where it was first debuted. Also seen an immaculately maintained red BMW Z4 (the first gen one). Lamborghini had a yellow Aventador and a white LP560-2. Photography was not allowed inside the showroom so got this pic from outside.







Weekend 2 (continued) – Sunday : This being the last day left for me – I thought of going to a different place. Mysore was ruled out because it was far and would take a total of 7-8 hours to and fro. So I googled for places of interest and “Shivaji Nagar” and “St Mary’s Basilica” came up. Went through Google Maps for bus directions to these 2 places. I had to take a bus upto Marthahalli bridge and then change to a bus going towards Shivaji Nagar. I reached Marthahalli bridge and waited for the bus. I would normally take the 335E bus to go to VM Road and was impressed by the frequency of this bus – every 3-5 minutes. You would never feel that you have “missed” a bus. However, the bus frequency for Shivaji Nagar was just the opposite. I saw almost 4 335E buses coming one after the other – but not a single one going to Shivaji Nagar. Finally one of the old buses arrived which would take me to Shivaji Nagar. It was a non-AC bus but I liked it more than the Volvo buses. It had huge windows and no rods running across them – so u could get some nice fresh air if you were sitting on the window seat.

I finally arrived at Shivaji Nagar bus stand. The basilica is just 5 minutes from the bus stand. You walk down from the bus stand – take a right where you see a lot of crowd – and that’s where the basilica is. It is believed to be one of the oldest churches in Bangalore and is very famous for the St Mary’s feast (similar to the Mount Mary feast celebrated in Bandra, Mumbai).

























What next? VM Road again – it was getting dark and I decided to check out VM Road for the last time before calling it a day. A place so beautiful during the day – would look much more beautiful during the night. So I head towards the Shivaji Nagar bus stand to catch a bus to VM Road. To my surprise, everything (routes, locations etc) were written in the local language and I had to check with a few people to get on the right bus. As the bus moved away from the bus stand, it passed through a small garage – at the entrance of which I could see 2 Morris Minors. After a lot of hesitation, I finally got off the bus and head back to the garage. The owner was an elderly man who was kind enough to let me check out and take pictures of the entire collection (which was apparently for sale). There were 2 Morris Minor’s, Vespa’s, Lambretta’s, Yezdi’s, a Willys Jeep, an old Ambassador, Fiat Topolino body – all for sale. I did not ask him about the price – but if anyone is interested, I can PM the contact numbers of the owner.

[v12]

Miscellaneous pics in and around UB City :

[v12]

Vintage/Supercars/Bikes/Other imports seen in and around Bangalore :

[v12]

So finally at the end of my stay, here are my impressions of Bangalore. These are my personal views and may differ / vary with what actually is.

• Bangalore’s weather was amazing. Even in May, where in Mumbai you would be sweating it out after 5 minutes of walking in the sun – it was much much bearable in Bangalore because of the low humidity.
• Public transport is amazing – I only used the Volvo bus – not sure how the other local buses are.
• Autos are expensive and definitely not the preferred means of transport. To add to it they do not run on meter. The plus point is that the ricks are fitted with mp3 players so u can play your choice of music.
• Bangalore has a huge obsession with Fiat and VW. I have seen more Punto’s than any other car in the city. In my office basement itself there were around 7 Punto’s.
• Bangalore is full of Team-BHPians – there was never a day where I did not see a Team-BHP stickered car. Of the number of cars that I photographed – I spotted three times more which I couldn’t click. IronHawk – I wonder how you manage to click almost all of them. Team-BHP stickered cars (this is just a fraction of what I saw)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Most of the shops close by around 8-30 / 9 PM here. So you have to be sure you have bought all essential items before this time.
• The place where I was located – Marthahalli-Sarajpur Outer Ring Road – it was told to me that this place was a small village earlier. And it has now developed into a very huge office hub – with a lot of international companies / IT companies / Banks setting up their offices.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Vid6639]

Wow what an amazing and interesting travelogue V12.

It is quite refreshing to see Bangalore though the eyes of a tourist. Somethings are just taken for granted till you see it like this.

Next time your down do let us know. Most of us are not too far from Ecospace and VM road.

[theexperthand]

Thank you for the photolog - though we see most of these places on a regular basis, it is refreshing to see them through a different view point.

--Anoop

[FINTAIL]

Originally Posted by v12

After changing 2 buses to Richmond Circle and walking around I managed to reach UB City. Being a Mumbaite, I always used to think that there is no place like South Mumbai anywhere else in India. Churchgate, Peddar Road, Altamount Road – nothing could come close to these places in terms of poshness. But I was mistaken – this place proved me wrong. It felt very nice to walk in the shades of the trees laden on both sides of a narrow lane. The traffic situation, however, is a different issue altogether. The place does tend to get a bit crowded during peak hours.


I continued my walk around to explore the place and reached MG Road – where I found myself lost. This was one of the busiest streets in Bangalore - it had everything - restaurants, stores, shops, offices. The pic you see first is the MG Road Metro station - but I am not sure if it is still under construction.

The station was long completed, and is working. Full steam ahead!

Actually, Bangalore gets too crowded, way too much, I mean. Just try and cross a road here.

But, Bangalore is one of the most awesome cities in the universe!

Team BHPians are too many here, of course. Ironically, most of my neighbours here seem to be BHPians, going by the number of stickered cars around.

Might I ask, where exactly were the Mercedes Benz W110 & the W126 seen?

The classics over here are quite a few, many,many more when compared to dear ol' Poona, which has become a pale shadow of what it was.

And who can forget the weather over here, a pleasant cool breeze blowing about!

Truly mesmerizing!

Cheers!

[girimajiananth]

Nice one I must say . You were quite closed to Harley Davidson , Triumph and Aprillia showrooms . Did you miss it ?