January 2006 - I traveled to Bangalore India on business with a colleague, Billy Garcia. We took advantage of every opportunity to sight see and try new things. The first weekend we spent there we took a tour out to a Biological Park where we saw a variety of animals. The tour took us back into the city and to the Lalbaugh Botanical Gardens. Still recovering from the jetlag we concluded the tour after that.

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January 2006 - For our second weekend in India we decided to head out to a town called Mysore by way of car. Another local colleague, Ravi, graciously volunteered to drive us rather than using a car service. The day started off well with a casual (by India standards) ride out of Bangalore. We stopped at a cafe and enjoyed donuts and coffee/hot chocolate. Shortly after heading out again I asked Ravi about the elephant on the dash that had some dried flowers in front of it. He explained that it was a religious token of his driver and decided to toss the dried flowers out the window. Shortly there after we were forced to stop with a flat tire. Once we got back on the road reference was made to this and Ravi decided to put another dried flower that he had in front of the elephant. All we can figure is that the elephant didn't like this very much as we had a death wish cyclist walk his bike right across the road in front of us while we were moving pretty quickly. Ravi had to swerve into the median to keep from killing the idiot. Fortunately everyone was not seriously injured. Ravi did require some medical attention, so I went with him to the hospital, where he had to pay a staggering 4 cents USD for the doctor to put 4 stitches in his lip. After this interesting little episode and a significant wait on the side of the road Ravi went back to town with his car, but Rajesh, Billy and I pressed on and eventually made it to the Mysore Palace. We almost got tossed out of there because of some illegal photo taking, but we managed to escape without punishment and with photos. ;-) The ride back to Bangalore provided some additional stories. Overall it was a great trip.

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January 2006 - We spent our last Saturday of the India trip on a 4 1/2 hour car ride out to Agra from Delhi. Agra is the home of the world famous Taj Mahal. The crowds were very tolerlable and the weather was very nice for the trip. We stopped several places along the way and checked out lots of cool things like Akbar's palace. Of course, what car ride in India would be complete without a car accident? ;-) Fortunately, this time the incident was very minor. Only the driver suffered any real damage and that was mostly to his pride. ;-)

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January 2006 - Our final Sunday in India was spent just touring around New Delhi. It just so happens that we were there on the Sunday before India's Republic Day. The problem this created was that many of the typical tourist sights were closed for security reasons. They rehearsed a parade that morning and posted extra security all around the city. We were unable to get into the India Gate and the Red Fort, but we saw the Lotus Temple, the Qutb Minar and the Jantar Mantar.

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January 2006 - Two events that occurred while we were visiting India were Rajesh's 33rd birthday and the engagement party of Ravi Kumar.

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