Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

It's a bit anticlimactic, celebrating Easter in a country where Christianity is in the minority. The very global and cosmopolitan make up of Bangalore leads one to find a bit of Easter paraphernalia on the streets - like chocolate Easter Bunnies and egg shaped colored buns at the bread shops. An article in today's paper shared quotes from Hindu's that were celebrating the Easter holiday by going to the markets to buy Easter eggs, and references were made to the Easter Bunny- such a religious turned commercial shopping holiday. We awoke on this fine Easter morning at 5:45 am to the pounding of construction workers atop our hotel. It's moments like these that make us really miss home - our families, our bed, our western food, and the predictability and custom of celebrating a holiday at home with family. We had a "safety & comfort" day in our hotel room. I waited until 11:00 for Java City to open it's doors across the road, where I make my pilgrimage each day to buy our one hour 40 rupees worth of wireless internet access to use from our hotel room across the street. The man behind the counter interrogates me today. "Where you use internet?" "My hotel room," I quickly retort, as if it's a no brainer - you're selling wireless access, dude, who cares where I use it, I think to myself. "No," he shouts, "you use it here in cafe'." And the argument goes on... I say no, I want to use it in my hotel room. "No, only here" he yells back. I'm not in the mood for more hassles. I already get hassled from underemployed rickshaw drivers as I cross the street to patronize the Java City each morning. "Look," I say, having completely lost my patience and having no energy to be culturally sensitive or polite on the one of two holiday during the year that I should be happy, in the warmth and comfort of family. "I want to use it in my room, I have AC there," I reply. "We have good AC here too," he points to the malfunctioning box stuck in the window. "No, it's not good AC here," I gasp... "your AC barely cools, people are smoking like fiends and the fumes burn my lungs, and it's noisy here, I can't concentrate, I will use wireless internet in my room." With that, I snatch the slip of paper with the password from his hand, as he's already taken my money, and head back to cross the street. "Rickshaw madam?" sings the skinny dude blocking my path to the hotel steps. "Only 10 rupees, one hour sight seeing, very good," he persists. "No," I yell, "no ride, no sight see." I head up the stairs, past the rank trash that's been festering on the street since we first stayed there over a week ago. Flies swarm around me as I head up the stairs and I get a waft of expired sauerkraut from the nasty restaurant trash below the stairs. Holding my breath, I run up the steps and shut the door behind me to close out the frustrations following me from the streets. I'm back in our hotel room, away from the sensory overload, quiet, safe, and comfortable in our room, with my I.V. injection of internet connection. Peace. We sit, waiting for our wait-listed seat to clear for our train at the Coconut Grove restaurant, enjoying an easter lunch, plain and simple curd and rice with fresh lime and soda to hold over a good stomach for two nights aboard an Indian second class train. We load up on snacks for the trip at the local market: Indian junk food, banana chips, cashew biscuits, Moong Daahl, Indian mixed goodies, and yes, our Australian favorite we found tucked away on a shelf- imported Tim Tams! We met Sandeep out for a last drink at the New Night Watchman pub that was a purely "locals joint," and indulged in a special treat of pineapple, cheese and cherry on a stick, to accompany our last pitcher of Kingfisher. Sandeep and Archana took us all the way to our train seats, thank God! The Bangalore train station, a smaller version of the Delhi station, was packed with all sorts of people, and it was daunting just getting through the entrance, let alone to our correct seat! While sad to say goodbye to our new friends, we know we'll see them when they come to visit us in San Diego. Sandeep also left us with an MP3 of his Bee Gees-Night Radio Show that we're really keen to listen to.