Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Our first full weekend in Bangalore, so we wanted to explore the nightlife. We had a great dinner at Sunny's out in UB City which is an upscale neighborhood where a lot of expats live. If the cab and traffic hadn't made me feel so sick, I probably would have enjoyed my pasta and the local beer, Kingfisher:
We also discovered McDonald's at the Forum Mall. Although none of us eat at McDonald's in the States, this was a welcome sight. Notice, no beef or pork on the menu. Maharaja Mac not recommended.

This is the long walk from the campus gates down to the main road where we catch the auto-rickshaws. There are usually 3 or 4 at the bottom of the road ready to haggle with us.

The next night we tried American food at Twenty Feet High. After our first week of canteen food we were all desperate for a taste of home. So we chowed on chicken tenders and french fries! Yum. After dinner we went to a swank bar called Thirteenth Floor which was really nice and had great views of the city, if only Bangalore was anything to look at.

On our way to another fancy brunch at the Royal Orchid (this time downstairs), we took a back road and passed several of these shanty towns:

With improved weather, we made a last minute decision to go to the safari at Bannerghata National Park which is not like any national park I've ever seen. There's a zoo and then you can buy separate safari packages. For just a few dollars, you can take the lions, tigers, and bears safari and get on a caged bus that drives you around to see all the animals. These were the weirdest looking bears just hanging out on the side of the road:

Beautiful white tigers. They were playing near the bus:

India seems to have all manner of animal just roaming around the streets. So far I have seen cows, chickens, horses, camels, goats, sheep, monkeys, tons of stray dogs, and whatever these creatures are:

A cow hanging out with a pile of coconut shells:

We also decided to check out another shopping area since we had done the MG road thing a few times already. Commercial Road is predominantly Muslim and the roads become a narrow maze of store fronts and outdoor market stands:

A crazy building near Commercial:

The flower lady strings these beautiful flowers into garlands that you can hang on your rearview mirror -- just like the rickshaws!

Our last good meal of the weekend was at Miller's 46, a funny take on an American steakhouse. The waiters were all done up in their best cowboy gear and the steaks came with those little longhorn toothpicks: