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As I see more and more of the country, I’m constantly amazed by how different all the parts are, yet still share enough to uniquely tie it all together. Pune has exactly the same sort of rickshaws as I’ve seen in other parts of the country, the only difference is that they actually use the meter most of the time and when you do have to haggle, it’s much less exhausting. They’ve even modified some vans into a rickshaw-like look that act as mini-buses driving along pre determined routes.

Our digs in Pune are, for India, very nice. I’m staying in a house with the other two trainers with each room having a nice little balcony to sit and relax on. It’s very close to the office and catching a rickshaw from there has been relatively easy. Most trips in a rickshaw are only about ten or fifteen minutes to other major places like ABC Farms and MG Road.

Pune is home to plenty of Universities so that means plenty of bars and restaurants at very reasonable prices. It also means a much more relaxed and younger crowd when you do go out.

The weather has been grand since getting here. Not a spot of rain. It also means everything is especially dusty and dry. I definitely prefer dusty and dry over wet and humid.

We’re seeing more and more of Pune as the days go by and its refreshingly not as manic as Bangalore.

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I would have written this post a while back but unfortunately between a server transfer and some library upgrades, my photo gallery wasn’t working and I think the photos from this trip are really something. Probably three weekends ago now, I had the pleasure of staying in Ooty, one of the famous hill stations of India. Hill stations show yet another side to the ever complex Indian landscape, this time full of mountains, lush green trees and a refuge from the heat (at least in summer). The British first developed this particular hill station after taking it over. One of their legacies, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway is now a World Heritage site. An hour long train journey winds through some of the hills and despite its tiny one metre gauge and overcrowded carriage seating, offers some of the nicest and most varied scenic views of the area.

Ooty is also famous for its vast number of tea plantations and many of them offer a tour of their operating facilities and very cheap tea. I highly recommend trying all the teas on offer. Chai is absolutely divine here and the tea plantation we went to offered another sweet Chocolate infused tea.

Getting to Ooty ended up nightmarish with a 13 hour bus ride up in almost torrential rain for the last four hours. The path leading up to this hill station was horrible with so many pot holes and sharp curves meaning a snails pace with the less than ideal weather conditions. Contrasting this with the return journey to Bangalore that only took about 7 hours back. We also stopped fewer times and I think the conscious effort to get back much quicker meant we also stopped for less time when we did.

Lake Ooty also offers a different experience though its water are brackish and appear blue green from the algae that seems to float all around. We didn’t notice that many birds and doubted the existence of plenty of fish given the rubbish and state of the water, though the surrounding trees helped to make it feel like a much nicer place.

I would have to highly recommend visiting Ooty, or any of the hill stations, if you visit India. They’re not only a great escape from the hustle and bustle of many of the other cities and offer just that extra different perspective to India you just don’t get to see that often. Check out the rest of the photos here.

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For every batch of students we train, we take them for a day trip outside of the city. Instead of Mysore this time, we went on an arranged trek to Savandurga, one of the amazing hills that surround Mysore. The day started off a little bit later than expected, with the first of our buses apparently ending up in an accident resulting in a rather long wait for the second to be dispatched. The result, a group outing breakfast to one of the darshinis (stand up eating places) and a round of masala dosas kicking off the day.

We stopped to pick up our companion guides for the day, one of them including the national rock climbing champion who told us some amazing stories about her early days of training. Apparently the sturdy rock climbing equipment of today wasn’t available in India and the result was either using no equipment or a sturdy rope harness system with an anchor person. We all found her stories pretty amazing.

We picked up our packaged lunch consisting of rice and vadas wrapped in banana leaves and newspapers. We also picked up two litres of water each that ended up being a wise move as the day was completely exhausting for everyone.

Our first stop at the hill was a temple at the base where we anointed ourselves with some coloured powder and picked up two more travelling companions (starting to feel like Dr Who a little bit) in the form of two dogs. Both dogs followed us for the entire trek and really seemed like old hands at the path, with one of them later following us up the mountain as well.

The trek was relatively easy with a well defined path and thin enough brush to push past. A few slippery spots and grassy knolls later found us at a point where our guides set up some equipment for abseiling. Everyone tried it out, even to the small protests of the few and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We continued to trek to the lake (or rather apparently a dam) built to the other side where we ravenously consumed the packed lunch we’d carried down. The final parts of our trip saw us return to the bus to top up on our low water supplies before heading back to scale the mountain and finish the day off with some rock climbing.

A great and exhausting day that, even though we all ended up a bit sweaty and smelly, slept especially well that night. Check out the photos here.

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After two training classes we’re heading off to our other Indian office found in Pune. It’s located closer to the west coast and much closer to Mumbai so I’m looking forward to seeing yet another part of India. The plan for the next trip with the students will be Mumbai itself that I think will prove interesting. I feel a little sorry for the students arriving from overseas since no international flight flies directly into Pune. Instead it means another three or four hour bus ride from Mumbai.

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Does a fantastic Singapore Chilli Crab at a bargain at INR600 (£7.80). That’s all.

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More restaurants in Bangalore:

• Peco’s - A bar that also serves food, this multi storied building found on Brigade Street offers a unique dining experience with lots of memorabilia and rock music played from cassette tapes. It’s a great atmosphere with pitchers of beer around INR200. They also offer a number of dishes including Indian versions of Tex Mex cuisine. The chilli chicken here is pretty good.
• Queens -A local restaurant serving lots of types of curries. Its interior design makes it look like modern Moroccan restaruant and is pretty busy with locals all the time. This one is found half way up on Queen Street. Nice and cheap with a big meal costing around INR250 (£3.50) per person.
• Beemas - An Andhran styled restaurant found further up Queen Street towards the Tavern pub. You eat on banana leaf-lined silver platters and offers a ton of Indian cuisines. They even have an air conditioned room (with prices that match) that we ended up escaping to because the rest of the place smelled a little bit too much like a damp cloth. Pretty cheap all up costing about INR350 (£4.50) per person.
• Nandhini Palace - Another Andhran restaurant but this time a chain. There’s one that’s pretty much opposite our office. I’d seen the motor bikes zooming around Bangalore obviously delivering food. Another great selection of food with lots of very spicy food. Averaged around INR300 (£4) per person.

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On the way to London, flying BA, we had the great on demand entertainment system. It broke down on the flight back and ended up with multi-channels of entertainment instead of the on demand system. I still had a great opportunity to see a few movies. Read the short reviews below:

Surf’s Up
An animation film involving rather overly cutesy Penguin characters that are into surfing. Stepping out of the rather repetitive and trite format of animation movies, the behind-the-scenes format involving the perspective of the camera crew and some very funny interview sessions made it much more refreshing. It’s a light hearted tale that’s easy to watch and expect a few chuckles but not any laugh out loud moments. TheKua.Com Rating : 7 out of 10

Withnail & I
Recommended to me by one of my friends, this cult film portrays two struggling actors set at the end of the 1960s and living in Camden town trying to live their life and a quick get away to the country. Though stated as a “comedy” in the movie guide, I felt the seriousness (even for English comedy) was sometimes a little bit much. I found it an interesting insight into life during that period and found it entirely believable as well. I wouldn’t recommend this movie and though I didn’t enjoy it that much whilst watching it, I can see its appeal to some audiences. If anything, it’s interesting to see places like Camden Town, and Regents Park (at the end of the movie) used throughout the movie. TheKua.Com Rating: 5 out of 10

Knocked Up
A recent comedy movie featuring the girl I knew from Roswell. It tells the story of a one-night stand turning into an accidental pregnancy with all the ups and downs that go alongside. It features some awkward moments and I became a little bit bored with the all too common jokes. TheKua.Com Rating: 3 out of 10.

The Ex
A black comedy featuring Scrubs’ star Zach Braff about a New York couple moving back to Ohio and how they deal with raising a new baby, starting a new job and dealing with old relationships. There’s some very cringe-worthy moments, with plenty of things going wrong. Described well as a combination between The Office and Meet The Parents, this movie is made more worthwhile with the addition of those small Zach Braff moments. TheKua.Com Rating: 7 out of 10.

He Was A Quiet Man
Tables turn as a quiet office worked with intent to kill ends up as a hero after shooting a worker who ends up killing others first. He ends up taking care of one of the only survivors of the office shooting - someone that is the only person he cares about. Suddenly he is more popular than he’s ever been and doesn’t know how to deal with it. It’s certainly a different role for Christian Slater to play and an intriguing movie with plenty of internal dialogue to boot. TheKua.Com Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

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I just got back this morning from my weekend in London. I unfortunately missed the amazing fireworks of Diwali here although had a brief taste of it on Thursday before leaving with lots of fireworks going off in the streets everywhere. The trip was short but sweet. Most of it ended up being taken up with the Away Day (an internal company conference) and the post celebrations into early Sunday morning. Sorry if I missed any of you over there.

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