IMMERSIVE Episode – Exploring Bangalore, India: Dosas, Rickshaw Chaos and Lush Parks

Bangalore, India.

From grand palaces to bustling streets, serene green spaces to buzzing nightlife, let's dive into the sights, sounds and flavours of Bangalore. How you doing?

My journey from Vancouver to Bangalore was long 22 hours in the air with a layover in Hong Kong. Catay Airways was our airline of choice and I must admit it's one of the best flights I've ever had for legroom.

We arrived into Kemper Gouda International Airport around 1.30am. Such a long day, and it's located 40km from the city centre. Straight away, the heat, the busyness and the noise hits me, but I was buzzing to be here. As we arrived into the airport, we were treated like mini celebrities. There are camera crews, people filming, lots of photo shoots.

and a collection of media with us to go to the hotel. Time to head to the hotel, get as much sleep as possible, then get up for the next day for a of exploring of Bangalore.

Bangalore is known for its iconic South Indian breakfast dishes like crispy dosas, soft idlis and vada served with chutney and sambar. And for me, no messing about, straight in to the masala dosa and coffee for breakfast.

Hello all, an impromptu trip to India. It's taken an absolute age to get here, 22 hours. And I'm in Bangalore in the south of India and I have one day to explore the city so I've got a pretty tight...

packed itinerary, there's some cafes, some parks, some palaces in there, some food as well. I've had a Masada dosa for breakfast, that was top notch, great to get started with that. And it's a beautiful day, 30 degrees, really sunny, no cloud in sight. And my first book call is gonna be Cubbon Park. Gonna walk around there for 45 minutes an hour. I'm gonna do a mix of walking and rickshaws, so let's see how that goes, and Uber maybe as well. Let's do it, excited.

After getting cash out of bank, I hailed down a rickshaw and began my journey. It's great to be back in the chaos of Indian traffic.

Nowadays, you can book rickshaws on Uber and get a set price. Traditionally, you'd hail one down and negotiate a price. But there's literally 10, 20, 30 rupees in it. It's up to you. Bangalore introduced the first electric rickshaws into the city to promote eco-friendly transportation. But let me tell you, eight million people on the roads, this is crazy. Traffic everywhere, beeping constantly. You think you're gonna crash one minute?

You swerve the next. It really is an experience.

I sat back, soaked it all in and reminisced about my trip here 8 years ago to India. All the amazing memories, trips, cities, mountains, food, people, everything. This really is a one off place and I'm buzzing to be back in amongst it. Let's go and check out Cubbon Park.

The Kupen Park is known as the Lung Space of Bangalore. Over 300 acres offering lush greenery and historical statues. And my first impressions was calm in amongst the chaos that is Bangalore. It was mid morning and not many people were out in the park. It felt serene, colourful, lots of greenery. I absolutely loved walking through here. Just what I needed.

after the long day travelling of yesterday.

These bird noises are idyllic.

There are a few ways to get here. You can walk, if you want to go through the chaotic streets. You can get a rickshaw like I did. Or there is a metro station right next to the park. Three easy ways to get here. And I promise it would be worth it.

It was quite hot at 25 degrees so I found a seat in the shade and sat there and admired the views.

First stop, Kaban Park. This is a lovely little area. Very pristine, very clean, very quiet. Lots of nature noises. It's actually really nice in the chaos of Bangalore. And there's plenty of walking routes around. You can just take any path through. It's quite a big park. I'm going to wander around, get some sounds, enjoy nature, enjoy a bit of chill time, enjoy the sun. There's lots of shade here, so not directly in the sun. And it's not too busy either. Maybe some students walking about? Yeah.

What lovely feel! After an hour, it's time to head out for a coffee.

My cafe of choice is called Dolce, which is a well-known cafe in Bangalore, famous for its cozy ambience and delicious desserts. I had an Americano and an Oreo cheesecake. It was superb.

David from the Travel in 10 podcast on the Voyascape network is here too and we agreed to meet for lunch at UBC. So now it's time to get a rickshaw and take a journey. Traffic is crazy, isn't it?

UB city is India's first luxury mall and if you listened to last week's episode we had a lot of local food to come so we decided to get something a bit more fancy in the mall and it was Turkish for lunch

How you doing? bad. Yeah, it's been alright. Does that have chips underneath it? Yeah, it's gotta be like fries or chippy things or kidney potato chip.

Our restaurant of choice is Oz by Kebabchi. Doesn't worry me but... Some chicken and some kebab meat. Absolutely awesome. After lunch it's time to head to Bangalore Palace.

Now it's time to head into Bangalore Palace. It's so hot right now, it's ridiculous. This place, two things of note. It's 500 rupees entrance for a foreigner and you can't take photos or videos in there. So you can do it outside on the grounds here, but yeah, so now I'm to go in, check it out and see what it's all about.

Okay, spent 30 to 45 minutes in there. You get a free audio guide, which I would recommend. Just need to hand some ID over. It's about 21 stops, I think, on that and about a minute and half to two minutes each. And it gives you all the information about the palace. Learned a lot about this Bangalore palace. Very historic, lots of royalty involved and gala's and dress and games and history, loads to learn. So now in the gardens, which looks very nice, quite dry as it's hot.

But for a day, I think this is like maybe an hour, hour and a half max. Get a Uber from town, it's going to cost you probably around $2 to $3 for an Uber. But yeah, Rickshaw will be cheap as well. But yeah, for a one day tour of Angalore, this is pretty cool. I'm not a huge museum person, but we did fancy going to the Visvez Varaya Industrial and Technological Museum. Visvez Varaya is India's legendary engineer.

and this museum showcases interactive science and engineering exhibits. It also features a life-size replica of the Wrights Brothers flyer, which is actually a bit of a highlight for me. There's also a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex. That's pretty cool as well. But I found it super interactive, lots of learning to get involved in, a lot of fun, and it was actually quite busy with a lot of people. If you're into museums, this is a recommendation for two to three hours.

Also great to be in aircon.

We stayed until closing time and then headed off in a rickshaw to Commercial Street.

This is one of Bangalore's oldest and busiest shopping streets. And straight away I was blown away by the lights in the dark. It's pretty incredible.

It is mostly high end branded stores and street vendors but if you walk off the street into the little streets beside it I think you find some pretty cool deals and some great markets. We walked along the main street and checked it all out.

I know.

As we approach the end of the day, it's time to check out one of Bangalore's first microbreweries called The Beer Club. It offers a variety of craft beers brewed in-house. We had fish and chips and pizza and some local beer. A great way to finish the day. That is one heck of a day. 16,000 steps, so really fitted in.

a lot today and I think for one day it's the perfect itinerary. You will be out all day basically from sunrise to sunset but hey what a great day of exploring that is if you have one day in Bangalore. Towards the end of the trip we had another day to explore in Bangalore so now I'm checking out Fraser Town which was established during the British era.

and is famous for its colonial style buildings and its diverse food culture. It definitely is a bit more upmarket. So this here is one of the expensive apartment blocks. Yeah. According to Google.

We took a walk down Mosque Road and had a great lunch at Savory Family Restaurant. Then we headed out onto the streets to check out more of the area.

We had no real plan but we wandered down Saunders Road, Coles Road, Spencer Road, Promenade Road and Kemp Road with the ultimate aim of heading towards Coles Park. But really it was walking around soaking up the atmosphere, taking photos, people watching and just loving the sounds of the street. No plan, just wandering. I love this type of travel. I like it, I like it.

We finally made it to Coles Park and it's time to split off, enjoy a walk, do some recording and some quiet reflection. you can tell, not as quiet or serene as Cubbon Park, but still it was nice to walk around and take a moment to reflect. In terms of timing, this is towards the end of my Indian trip.

Feelings like gratitude, privilege and happiness that I'm back in India. I've loved my time here all too short.

But the question is, are you annoyed yet at the constant beeping? It does get you after a while.

If you are based in Bangalore, this is a great park to take a jog. There's a nice little route around the edge of the park.

With me and David on this walk is Rosie. She's a British creator and she makes me laugh. She had a slight problem here. Yeah, you got to climb over that I think. Her drone flew over the fence to a restricted area. Not if you hurry up. It's not all fun and games creating content or maybe it is. Behind the scenes content.

Bangalore, what a city. Just in Coles Park, got the mix of lovely greenery, modern apartment buildings. It's a very upmarket, high-end area, but it's nice to walk around. The streets are leafy, very old colonial buildings, and this is a dream to walk around. There's people milling about for lunch, chilling out in the shade, hanging about with family and friends. Yeah, I love it. It's been awesome. On our way out of Coles Park, we checked out St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral.

Now it's time for an iconic temple in Bangalore.

There was a big group of us from the event heading to Sri Radhakrishna temple also known as the ISKCON temple in Bangalore. This is one of the largest Radhakrishna temples in the world attracting thousands of devotees daily.

You are not allowed to take any photos or videos inside the temple and you can be queuing for 30 minutes like we did but once we made our way in we were absolutely stunned. As you walk around the queue you go to the main temple there is a gold temple which is a gold-plated shrine in the middle and it's absolutely stunning. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

There is incense in the air, there's a band playing, there's people praying, there's people crying. It really was an exhilarating experience. And I'm actually quite glad I don't have it on camera. It's there for my mind and imagination only. And that's the way travel should be sometimes.

It's time to leave Iskcon temple and it's time for food and one of my favorite experiences of this whole trip.

Rameshwaram Cafe. This was a recommendation from someone in Vancouver and I couldn't be more happier with the outcome. Rameshwaram is known for its crispy dosas, fluffy idlis and strong filter coffee. It has become the place to visit for foodies, offering traditional South Indian cuisine. With a modern touch, we were the only foreigners in there.

good sign. There was eight of us in total and the battle plan was we pick three doses, three idlis, drinks and share and let's see what comes out. And the way it works in the cafe is you go up to the counter, you order, you pay your fee, you get your ticket, you wander over to the counter and collect your freshly cooked food. And the taste is absolutely awesome. This is a must do in Bangalore and we were so happy.

It's time to head back to the hotel. So we ordered three rickshaws for our group and the sights and sounds are incredible. It's pretty much like the daytime, but at night and a bit more crazy. Lights everywhere, traffic you don't see and just so noisy, but we absolutely loved it. And it's time to soak in one last journey before flying back the next day.

Here is a summary of Bangalore, a recorded on-site on location. I think Bangalore is bit less crazy than Delhi or Varanasi. The roads are busy, there's eight million people in the city. But for me, I don't find it too bad to walk around. It's stifling hot at 30 degrees. But there's enough space here and enough nice leafy streets to kind of get away from that. Lots of parks, they're all clean as well. They really do try to look after their parks in the city.

and I'm very excited to explore another new city in the world as well as India. And the state of Karnataka, I think I want to come back actually and check out more of it. So I don't think this will be the end of my content in India. And yeah, I got asked last night, would I come back? 100 % I'll come back. I think India's huge, I'll go back to most of it. It wasn't on my radar for two or three years, because I thought I didn't need to, but now I've come back and had a taste of it for eight, nine days.

I've got the taste for it again to go back and have an extended time away. So we'll get planning. Let's see what content I can come up with for next year. I don't think it'll be this year. But definitely not ruled out India. It's going to be an exciting trip, I think, if we did do it. And I'd love to combine Sri Lanka and the Maldives as well. We just spoke to a guy on the street from the Maldives. He's asking, are you taking content for YouTube or social media? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a chat. He's here for some medical stuff. And yeah, really lovely people here as well. The Karnataka people.

are definitely some of the friendliest I've met in India for sure. So, really looking forward to my next trip. And I think as a summary, you've got to come and check out the state. They've got beaches, they've got temples, they've got big cities, they've got small yoghurt-y type cities and towns and villages. They've got hills and mountains, adventure sports, everything under the sun that you can imagine. So, if you a full wholesome trip, I think this would be a place to check out. But to be fair, most of India has the same sort of things, I think. but it doesn't get the...

Exposure is Rajasthan but I think it's equally just as good for all those types of things. I know it hasn't got the Taj Mahal and the desert but there's other stuff that's pretty cool to check out as well. And for Bangalore specifically, what a city. So much to see and do, so much I haven't seen. It's bustling, it's happening, it's super safe and it's such an awesome place to visit for your first time in South India and I can't wait to go back.

Hopefully this has inspired you to book that trip. If you've got any questions, send me a DM or a message on social media. Be sure to hit that follow and subscribe button and please leave a five star review for the podcast. This really helps and it's free. Thanks for tuning in to Winging It Travel podcast. There will be many more immersive episodes coming your way and of course some great interviews and I'll see you next time. Let's go wing it around the world.