India Project Day 1

The Arrival

This is my trip for a hotel project in Bangalore, India. I will be working this project together with my friend, Zul. He will be doing the interior and I will be doing the architecture of the hotel.

We arrived late last night. We took Tiger Airways direct flight to Bangalore at 20.30 from Singapore and arrived at 01.00 Singapore time, that means 22.30 Bangalore time. The flight took about 4,5 hours, my body felt like hell when we off the plane. That was my longest flight I ever had. I sms mu hubby right away. The weather is cold, a bit colder than Bandung, and I love it!!

The client fetched us. So technically it was my first time met the client. First impression, he seems like a very nice person. We talked all the way to the hotel, The Emlion, it was about 20 minutes away from the airport. At least I know he hate the wrestling show we watched at the dining room last night, he thinks it's ridiculous, and I totally agree weth him. After some sandwich bites early morning, we came back to our room. I had the King size bed and Zul had the twins bed just next to my room.

This is the my hotel room :

And this is the view from my window :

I started to unpacked my luggage, got my pijamas and toiletres, cleaned up, and prepared to sleep, didn't forget to sms mu hubby and my Studiofour pals. But I was barely closed my eyes, so I switched on the TV and stayed tuned with the Mtv channel, the only channel that I understand, because most of the channel are local channel, which I don't understand the language. After 20 minutes, then I finally felt asleep with my Mtv still on whole morning.

Day 1

Good morning India!! I woke up at 7.45 local time, that means about 9 singapore time. I opened my window and can felt the cold wind, I adore it!!

Today's schedule will be having breakfast at 9 then together with the client visit the site. After that, we're going to the client's office and have some discussion about the project and the deal.

It was still 07.30 when I woke up. Zul called me from the intercom and asked to walk around the neighbourhood. But it seems that life begins at 10 in here, so there was nothing much we can see. But I do realize that there are so many wild dogs everywhere, and so many of their shits too. I saw a lady picked the dog shits, looks like it is her job, what a life!

So by the time the client arrived, we left the hotel at 9 and had breakfast at the Cafe' Coffee Club (this is Indian's Starbucks since they have it almost everywhere). The one we had is just downstair our hotel. I had a spinach-corn sandwich costs 50rupees equals S$1.5 and a cup of mocca late costs 60rupees equals S$1.8. Its Cheap!! After that we went to the project site and he explained whatever he wants the place to become. I trully amaze of the existing building. I'm sure it will be a very interesting place once we complete our design. There are so many thing we can do with the site. This is just so overwhelming. I can't wait to start designing. But it seems we still have to wait for another day, because the client haven't settle the agreement with the contractor yet. He explained about the agreement at his office while we had the meeting. So hopefully he get the agreement settled, so we won't waste our time come to this country.

After some discussion at his office, he took us for a sightseeing at the centre of the city. We passed a stretch of road where both sides sells marble and granite in huge pieces, it was very nice. At the centre of the city, 90% of all the women are wearing saree, in so many interesting color, vibrant!! The cityscape quite similar with Bandung (a shopping city in Indonesia), small road with the terrain here and there, both side of the road are fashion outlet, cafe', bar and hotels.

And then we dropped by at the so called "one of the largest shopping mall in town" : The Forum. I compare with the shopping centre in Jakarta, it's still nothing :) Jakarta still better, and of course Singapore in the best, but price-wise, Bandung is still number unos, hehe. But their local movies are quiteboom (doh! they have Bollywood), about 75% of the movies in the cinema are local movies, awesome! We had lunch at Transit, the food centre inside the shopping mall. I had an indian food which I forgot the name, hehe. Full set of meals costs 90rupees equals S$2.7 (again) so cheap!! Here's a picture of the food :

And then we stopped by at the mini market to buy some snack and slippers for me, and also some magazine. After that we went back to the hotel to take some rest. It's raining now while I'm writing this. It makes the wheather even colder, I love it!

Now I want to take shower and get prepared to go out for dinner with Zul and the client. So see you tomorrow.

PS: Really really miss my hubby so much!!!!!! wish he were here...