I am finally starting to get around Bangalore easily and by myself. I was warned about the rikshaw drivers being unreliable, but there is a simple way of not getting cheated. All you have to know is the distance to be travelled and that one kilometer costs 7 rupees (10 cents) in the daytime. Then you simply pick up a rikshaw, tell the driver where you’re going and agree on the price before jumping in. This way you don’t have to worry about driving around the city since both of you have the motivation to get there fast. You may pay a couple of rupees extra, but at least for me it’s worth the peace of mind I get.

I went shopping this morning to find something to bring back to Finland and to fulfill a couple of requests from friends. I also had to by a pair of Speedos for the diving course. My old ones are probably too loose to wear under a wet suit, but I found a nice pair for only 460 rupees (some 7 euros). In addition to my own stuff I found some idols and cosmetics, some of which I have to mail back home in order to keep within the weight limits of my flight luggage. I hope the Indian post does it job well.

The more time I spend in India, the less I find myself puzzled about the way things work around here. It could be that I’m only used to all the chaos around me, allowing me to ignore most of the stuff I was first so amazed of. They say that it is possible to get used to anything, so maybe that’s exactly what’s happening to me. I am even considering renting a motorbike in Goa for moving around and seeing places that are usually not shown to tourists. And it was less than two weeks ago when I said I won’t be going to the traffic with anything short of a Panzerwagen!

I also got the wireless working from the hotel, so I hope to post more pictures and videos soon. Now I’m off to search the post office and see if they even deliver to Finland. The rates look promising in general, but the problem is that they don’t mention Finland at all…

Tags: motorbikes, planning, post, prices, shopping, swimming, ways of working