Yesterday as I left work some of my co-workers were planning on going out instead of returning to the Guest House. I decided to go with them because in the past few weeks I've spent way too much time at the Guest House doing essentially nothing. I also knew that if I went back I would never catch up with them again. This requires some explaining.
You see, the guest house we live in is in a place called Electronic City, or EC for short. EC is located aproximately four miles south east of the Bangalore city limits. The trip from where we work to where we live takes about an hour either way during the first part of the morning and afternoon rush hours. I say "first part" because the traffic in Bangalore gets progressively worse for three hours after the work day ends, and then it wanes down to "normal" levels again by about ten p.m. Bangalore traffic doubles every fifteen minutes during the rush hour build up, and then drops off in about half the time it takes to build up.
So, with that information its time to do some of what I call "India Traffic Math." If I were to leave work (Point A) at 5 pm (the beginning of rush hour) to go to EC (Point B), it would take me an hour. Then I would need to get ready, which could be done in a half hour. Then if I wanted to catch up to my co-workers I would have to leave EC at 6:30 pm (Point B) for wherever they happen to be (Point C). Usually they venture deeper into the city than where our work is when they go out. So, getting to them would take aproximately two to two and a half hours. I would arrive between 8:30 and 9pm hungry and wanting to eat.
Meanwhile, my co-workers would not only have eaten, but would be well into their cups and at a club somewhere. I would spend another hour finding food, then make it to the club at about 10 to 10:30. A note on the Bangalore Club scene: All clubs here close between 11:30 pm and Midnight. So, our "India Traffic Math" tells us that we would spend four hours traveling, one hour eating, and one hour dancing. Thats no good at all.
So instead, I just went with them.
We left work at 5:30 because the Taxi took forever to come get us. We headed for a restaurant called India Joes. When we got to within 100 yards of the joint (we were actually on the off ramp of the highway) the police completely closed the road the off ramp exited onto. So there we were about 100 yards from our destination stuck in completely stopped traffic. So we did what any good adventurous Americans would do: we got out and walked.
Here in India the Taxi drivers (Cabs) hike up the price of their services after 10 pm to two or three times the normal rate. To avoid this problem, we hired a cab for the night. This works out well for both parties as Cab drivers are not guaranteed to get the late night business anyway. We told our cabbie that we would call him when we were done with India Joes.
To our dismay India Joes was closed for a Muslim holiday, fortunately for us T.G.I. Friday's shares the same building as India Joes. I cannot describe my ecstasy as I bit into that hamburger, munched on mozzarella sticks, and ate those fries. It was too good to be true.
My co-workers started their first drinking game of the night about the time I finished my appetizer. The goal of the game was to drink more liquor faster than anyone else. I barely payed attention as all of my energies were consumed digesting wonderful tasty food.
Shravan (one of Indian my co-workers) had his brother meet us at Friday's and we all left together after eating. Shravan wanted to stop at his house to get ready for clubbing (shower and what not) but his parents are so traditional Indian that we wouldn't be welcome there after hours (it was like 8:30pm) so we went to the coffee shop on the corner (Coffee Day its called) to wait for him.
He took forever, but finally we headed to the first club of the night: Fuga. Fuga was a wonderfully clean and spacious club, the house music was decent and the atmosphere was friendly. Only problem: it was nearly empty. Shravan, genius that he is, had timed things wrong and got us there too early. We arrived at 9 pm and the clubs dont start getting full till 9:30 or 10.
Our group at this point had ten people in it, as we had picked up more of Shravan's friends. They were drinking but getting antsy at Fuga. We went down and started dancing once more than five people were on the dance floor. At this point Shravan decided it was time to go hit another club.
So we spent fifteen minutes getting everyone OFF the dancefloor (it was retarded, I know) and out the door. We drove another ten minutes to a club called Nyx.
Nyx is on the fifth floor (the top) of a medium rise building in downtown Bangalore. The setup is a bar open to the night surrounded by tables and lounge style chairs on one side of the roof and an enclosed dance floor on the other side of the roof. It had a vaguely Indian-Hawaiin theme outside, but the inside of the dancefloor was all business. Hardwood floors and sound padded walls to keep the outside feeling more relaxed than the hard-core house music going on inside.
Fuga was much nicer than Nyx, but the DJ at Nyx was WAY better than the one at Fuga. I danced for over an hour and the DJ never let me get too tired, he would drop the beat just at the right time and then pick it up before too long. When the club finally closed at 11:45 or so, I was sweat soaked, tired, and happy. My co-workers were not too drunk to dance, but they were drunk enough to dance and be hilarious to watch! I think I enjoyed that almost as much as the music.
The Bangalore Police showed up about fifteen minutes after closing and the Nyx manager started telling everyone to leave before the cops started beating people. As a funny aside the cops were drinking cocktails next to the bar while they waited for the beatings to commence, and from how slow people were moving to exit I am SURE someone caught a beating. I, however, did not stick around to find out who.
Our group split up at that point as some people wanted to go sit and drink at Shravan's brother's spot while others (including me) wanted to call it a night. Dancing and socializing and a full day of work before that had taken its toll on me and I was almost literally...clubbed to death.
The trip back to EC took about 40 minutes. The same trip that takes 2.5 hours during rush hour. Gotta love the nightlife...
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