back to work

yesterday morning about 6:00am our bus pulled into bangalore. after getting jerked around by a rickshaw driver who refused to believe that we knew the way to bonaswadi main road and continued to inform us that the route was "most direct," we yelled at him to pull over, paid his exorbitant fee and walked the rest of the way. had a dosa at our favorite joint just around the corner from "mighty" boosh thomas' house and called danny and sayo. they were in the middle of good friday preparations but got us the keys to the house and we were back in luxury's lap. a quick tour of the apartment, a shower and me and eliot both collapsed into our beds.

i woke up about 12:30 determined not to sleep all day. had a tea, did some calisthenics and walked down to india kitchen for a chana masal, parota and jheera rice. stuffed, i headed back to the house and played solitaire until eliot roused himself. with much dragging of our respective knuckles, we cleaned up, repacked the bike bags and went downstairs to catch up with danny.

after a tea and a chat (man, we drink a lot of tea here), we hopped a rickshaw to MG / brigade road commerce district and ran some errands - i purchased to new shirts (the old ones are worn out, covered in chain grease and still "holi-ed"), eliot bought a pair of pants (he has worn the same pair since the trip started - without washing them), sold off the excess books at blossum's, and ate a MacVeggie burger at the golden arches (more on this later). we walked around after that, poking our heads into Hard Rock Bengalaru, then headed to the house. after dominos, a round of cribbage and two more cups of tea it was bed time.

it's nice to be back in bangalore where we have friendly hosts, super-comfortable accommodations and know more or less the lay of the land. but nicer still is the knowledge that tonight we board a train to hampi where the bicycling continues. it was awesome having seth around but we both have the itch to get back in the saddle. as eliot observed: "biking feels like work. the last two weeks have felt like vacation. it's time to get back to work."