Commercial Street

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Commercial Street

Pavitra and Saloni from the HSC team kindly offered to take us shopping on Sunday, so we met them on Commercial Street which is about a 45-minute drive from the hotel.  It is actually a series of roads and alleys with shops, outdoor stalls and places selling snacks.  Goods ranged widely from American brands (official Levi & Wrangler Stores) to trinkets (carvings of animals in wood and soft stone, wooden boxes and paper mache items) to jewelry stores as well as clothing stores (both modern and traditional Indian styles & fabrics).  Bangalore is known for its silk and for its sandalwood which has an aromatic smell & is grown here.  Except for the nice stores, it is expected that you bargain, so we were glad to have Pavitra & Saloni with us.  Street carts sold guava, starfruit, green grapes and freshly squeezed sugarcane juice. I watched as a man on a bicycle with young coconut attached to it, used a huge knife to whack off parts of the skin to make coconut drinks for thirsty shoppers.  After a couple hours of shopping, we stopped by KFC and had a light snack and a delicious mango smoothie.  The restaurant was quite crowded and Saloni shared that she and her friends will meet and hang out at KFC.  While we were shopping, our driver waited for us nearby. When we were done, he took us to see some government buildings with nice architecture and a park.  The city is currently constructing a metro station near the High Court of Karnataka, a beautiful red structure.  Bangalore is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka.  The driver stopped in the road for us to quickly take a photo as other cars honked at us, of course.  Apparently, it is also against the law here to talk on a cell phone while driving because our driver was pulled over by a motorcycle cop.  It was the first police vehicle of any kind we had seen.  You have to pay 300 rupees or they will confiscate your driver's license.  It is common to see people driving cars, motorbikes, mopeds and bicycles while on the phone, although you'd think they would especially want to pay attention given how people drive here.  Shortly after being stopped for using his cell phone, our driver's phone rang again.  We yelled  in a joking way to him, "Be careful! Don't pick it up."  He did anyway.  Our regular driver was not available on Sunday, so this driver came instead.  He was very kind and friendly, so we were glad that he took us around the city that day.

High Court of Karnataka