We stayed with uncle Sym while our companion animals, Jim and Janet were in India. We had a great time with uncle Sym who let us watch the squirrels outside his windows. Boy! if only there weren't those window things between us and them!
Back in Bangalore...we spent the last couple days visiting some more stores where we might go shopping for food and household stuff. On Saturday we went Bannerghatta Park which is about an hour from the center of the city. The traffic was heavy in some places but we reached the park. We wanted to see the Lions and tigers so we immediately hoped on a safari bus after buying our tickets. The driver and guide gave us the two front seats. We wondered whether they saved those seat for foreigners who might tip more or whether it just worked out that way. Janet had her first encounter with the common toilets and reported that it was unpleasant, but she had used similar ones in France in the 1970's. The safari bus driver was kind enough to wait for those who used the facilities. We drove off on a bumpy road in a bumpy bus and went through gates to see some buffalo, deer, and other animals before seeing some bear and lions and tigers! We saw the 8 month old white tiger cub.
Afterword, we tipped the driver and guide, as they expected, though they asked for more.
We then road back to town and asked our car driver to take us to the area where our apartment is located so we could get a better feel for the location relative to other places. This was valuable, because it helped us find the place on a map and get oriented relative to the major shopping area on MG road.
On our last day we decided to go to the Leela Palace Hotel to try their Sunday Brunch. The hotel is quite an amazing place and clearly expensive. The brunch was excellent, but with prices like those in any large Hotel in Europe or the USA. We visited a few more shops to see what kinds of merchandise they have. We also visited another craft shop and were again impressed by the quality of the items. We packed up our bags at the hotel and had a light dinner before heading off to the airport for our return home. We felt good that we found a couple places we might live and picked out a car... next, on to all te details!