After all that wonderful food…I still managed to wake up at 4:30AM! I tried to sleep for a bit longer but it just was not happening.

After speaking with Mohamed the night before, we agreed that he’d come around 10:00AM to pick me up so we could begin touring Bangaluru.

I ended up getting up up around 6:30AM and got in the usual morning routine. After I got wrapped up I felt great!

I also felt a little nervous as I didn’t know quite what to expect from the day, and thanks to the meditation in the morning, I was nicely calmed and excited for adventures ahead!

So Mohamed came by a little earlier, perhaps around 9:45AM, which was good because Dad thought that this place we were going to go would close at 10:30. I had spoken to Athai on the phone a couple of times, as well as Dad, and we had narrowed down the list of things to do.

Our first stop was MTR 1924, this place with amazing food. This place had an open style cafeteria feel to it, and you had servers and cooks bustlin’ all over the place. We sat down and there was only one thing on the mind, masala dosa.

Our server came around and we put our order in, but!, you also had to have idles and things to accompany your dosa as an aperatif.

So we ordered two masala dosa and two orders of idli. The idli came out and they were SUPER fluffy, soft, and delicious. They were accompanied by a sambar and chutney. The whole combo was so good. Seeming to go with the trend.

And then these dosas came out. Straight. Fire.

They were perfectly done, and MTR does them a little bit thicker, too. Super crispy and flavorful, and the potato baji contained inside was out of this world. Perfectly season potatoes with onions and cilantro with some mustard seeds to boot.

ALSO, I forgot to mention that today was Mohamed’s birthday! So, the night before, I had messaged him saying that I would like to invite him to eat. He politely accepted.

Ok, so, as we continued eating, Mohamed looked at me and said, would you like another?

I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I knew the correct answer was ‘no, I’m good’. But it was just SO good, and then I thought, I’m here, while I’ll probably be back next year what if circumstances change, so after much deliberation, we came back with a ‘yes’.

Mohamed spoke to our server and out came dosa numero 2. Somehow it tasted better than the first. The combination with a different sambar really helped these dosas pop (typically it is one type of sambar for the idli and then another for the dosa). We then got half coffees to finish .

Holy s*#!, what a meal. WE WERE SO FULL. These dosas just sat in the stomach like a brick. SO, we left the restaurant and decided that we needed a walk.

Walked back to the car and made our way over to Lalbagh Park. This park was immense! And this was one really lovely aspect of Bangaluru. The city maintains an extensive focus on greenery and plant life. There are two major parks, and Lalbaghwas the park we chose for the day.

As these dosas were sittin’ heavy, I constantly looked at my watch to make sure we were getting in enough steps. We saw such amazing flowers and trees.

Mohamed was quite knowledgeable as well, and we had quite lively conversations as we moved around the park, hoping that these dosas would also not continue to weigh us down.

The main things I wanted to do today were eat MTR, check out the garden, Dad/Athai had suggested MG Road (Mohatma Ghandi), Brigade Road, and the commercial district.

So, MTR and garden, check.

Then it came time to make our way to the other areas. I had to get another pair of shorts because one pair got stained, I don’t even know how. I also wanted to see if there were any gifts I could get the kids.

SO, we went to the commercial district. This was place was BUZZIN’. People everywhere. We were driving down these super narrow streets, horns honking so as to make sure that we don’t bump into anyone. And finding parking was going to be difficult.

Mohamed took me to this jewelry store as I typically get my nieces some piece of jewelry.

Sat down at the counter and the gentleman was pulling out various pieces given the description of what I had given him.

He had two out, and I looked at their tags, around 4K Rupees each. Precious stones and diamonds for $60? Impossible? Perhaps? So I asked how much they cost.

“A little over two lakhs” he replied. HAHAHAH. I thought two things in this moment.

1. I’m doing something right if dude things that I can come in here and have $3K in disposable money, though, in retrospect, I thought that it would be a bit more. Now, that doesn’t seem too bad!
2. Do do they do this to everyone? Upsell, see where they are, and then bring it down to something more reasonable?

So I had no idea how they got this idea, but I set my man straight.

Settled on two pieces for Sonia and Alisha for a couple lakhs less than the total of the other two pieces, and made our way to the clothing store so I could replace these shorts.

Picked up a pair and then made our way into the heart of the commercial district. walked around and checked out some of the stores. Two things of note. One, there were very few if any stores for men. Most stores were all catered to women, whether selling saris, jewelry, or any other cosmetic product. Two, again, most all of the models or photos in marketing that you saw were of ‘Indian’ people who were incredibly fair skinned.

We wrapped up our walk about and made our way back to the car to head back to Natasha’s. A mere 5km journey, given the crazy traffic, would take around 35 minutes. I originally thought around an hour! Good thing it was less!

Also, Mohamed is such an amazing wonderful person. We had such a wonderful day together. Not only did he take me around the city and explain what each thing was/represented, we joked around and shared many a story. Really lucky to have someone so wonderful taking care of/looking after me.

Got back to Natasha’s and was SPENT. The dosa was still sitting like a brick! I had to do something to feel better, so I did a particularly challenging yoga and meditation which, afterwards, had me feeling great!

Natasha was wondering what we should do for the evening, and thought that we would go to The Collection, that super posh mall in the center of town. We got ready, and after almost 11 hours, I finally felt like I could eat again.

We got to The Collection, and my goodness what a mall. ALLL the top posh spots to shop. Diesel, Jimmy Choo, they even had a Ducati dealership. After a cursory walk around, we decided to head to the 3rd floor to inspect the dining situations.

There was an Indian spot, a cafe, a Mexican spot, and then this place called Shiro tucked away. Natasha said that it was Japenese fine dining. Once I heard fine dining I said “let’s check it out”.

We made our way in and the space was incredible! Super open with these massively tall ceilings, and equally long drapes to match.

They had an extensive beverage list and menu, and were running some specials on an entire dumpling menu. We looked at the price point versus quantity ratio and decided against it.

As it turns out, Natasha had never had sushi before. So, I had her take a look at the sushi menu while I looked at the liquor. Not much by way of bourbon and whiskey, so I got a sauvignon blanc from, you guessed it, NZ! It was so so good.

For our appetizer Natasha decided it be best that I pick the sushi and she would pick an additional dish. I went with the tuna maki roll, and she went with the kung pao shrimp.

The sushi was delicious! And Natasha really enjoyed it. I was a litttttle worried about eating sushi in India. Natasha allayed those fears by telling me that it was a fine-dining five star restaurant (sidetone: did not incur any problems).

From here, it was time to decide each entree! I went with a coconut shrimp dish that required rice, and Natasha went with a noodle based chicken dish.

These dishes came out and were fantastic! Eating in this space, you would not think you were in India. Could have been anywhere in the world!

We got wrapped up and were too full to even look at the dessert menu, which as y’all who know me, was painful.

We left the restaurant and went back to the apartment, SUPER SUPER FULL, from a fantastic day. We chatted for a little bit and promptly went to bed at around 10:30/11:00PM.