The long-awaited preliminary nightlife review!!!

It is the first Monday morning back at work following my first full weekend after adjusting to this outrageous time-change. That being said, I will now relay the experiences and impressions I had in my first weekend out on the town in true Nasty Nate Linkon form. Actually, this weekend was merely a warm-up as I surveyed the landscape to formulate a strategy and game plan that will allow me to conquer this city. There are roughly 7 million people in Bangalore, and as I embark on my mission to party with each and every one of them I will keep my loyal readers fully informed. At least as informed as you can be while keeping my family in the dark as to my life when the sun goes down. Enjoy!

Little did I know that the weekend in Bangalore, at least for the expats, begins on Wednesday. (Expats, short for expatriates, for those who are not familiar with the term are what the foreign nationals here on business are called.) And just as I thought starting the party on Thursday was a bit premature for the working man, here come two days of hangover before the true weekend! I figure that half of my reason for being here is to network, and network I will! After all, it is my professional obligation to do so.

Wednesday night started at Taika, a very eclectic club that satisfies both the need to dance and relax. A beautiful waterfall and river that runs through the center of the main room with floating rose petals. This main room consists of huge couches with tons of pillows. This is a great area to lay around, have a casual conversation. The dance floor is separated from this room by the bar, so you can enjoy the music while having a conversation. The food is really great and so are the drinks, but they are both fairly expensive. There is also a 300 Rs. cover, but you get a drink ticket, so it’s not all money down the drain. A 650 ml. (about a pint and a half) bottle of Kingfisher, Indian beer that is actually pretty good, is about 100 Rs. (roughly $2. By the way, I’m going to stop making the monetary conversions every time, so just get it in your head that it’s about 45 Rs. to the dollar.) You never have to get yourself a drink at the bar because there is always a waiter within shouting distance who can get you a drink in a few seconds. It took me a while to get out of the habit of heading to the bar every time I needed a refill. I’ll get used to it somehow. We enjoyed Taika so much that we went back there on Thursday night. I got to hang out with some of the new interns from China, which was very cool, a country I hadn’t yet met someone from. We talked for hours about the NBA. “I much like Ray Allen and his outstanding ability to shoot the perimeter.” This guy claims to be quite the baller, but we’ll see. I should really keep a list of the countries that I’ve met people from, although there are already too many to remember

The weird thing about bars in Bangalore is that they have been closing lately around 11:30 PM. As I mentioned before, the government of Bangalore can be very corrupt. The “law” states that no bar can serve alcohol later than 11:30, but the commissioner of police usually accepts bribes, and depending on how much you bribe, your bar can stay open later. The old commissioner used to demand a crore, which is 10 million rupees, a month for some of these bars to stay open! Apparently, this money would be collected at a warehouse, and there is so much cash collected at such a rate that there are not enough people to count it all. Maybe the reason for the hiatus in bribes? In any case, some bars used to be open till 5:00 AM, but there is a new commissioner of police who is, at least for the time being, not accepting bribes. A few of my Indian friends tell me that this runs in cycles, so in a week or two the commissioner will begin accepting bribes and the bars will be open later.

On Friday night we went to a bar called Spin, which was more of a dance club than anything else. This is interesting, because dancing is technically illegal without the appropriate license, which Spin does not have. Traditionally, most dance clubs have operated on the bribery system, so with the bribes out the window it is rare to find dancing, but Spin had it and it was great! I had to pay 450 Rs. to get in because I was not with a girl. This will soon change. I was initially really pissed about this, but they give you the money back in coupons equaling the cover, so you are basically forced to buy 450 Rs. worth of food/drink, which I was clearly going to do anyway. I ran into Prakash, one of Indian guys that my flatmate’s girlfriend, Huda, introduced me to at Taika, and he introduced me to some cool expats from Florida. When Spin closed I ended up leaving the club with Prakash, Winnie and a few other "IndiaIT" employees and we went to the Raj Residency, a 5-star hotel in Bangalore, for desert. Wow! It was really amazing! I got home at about 2:00 AM and passed out. It was really a great night.

Saturday I was too tired to go out, so I just chilled in the apartment, watched a movie and passed out by 12:30 or so. Expect a better effort out of me next weekend.

There were a few things that really struck me about the nightlife here. First of all, the whole system of briberies that effect the closing times. That really sucks, but I’m told it will change soon. The other is the price structure of the bars and life here in general. The clubs we frequent, the “expat circuit,” are clearly priced for expats. Expats = top 3% income. That is, it may cost 300-500 Rs. to get into a club. To put this into perspective, I went to the grocery store and bought enough food to feed for a week easy. This cost me 483 Rs. So merely getting into these clubs costs me a week’s worth of food. I can also order enough Chinese food from Chung’s’s to give me dinner for 3 nights for 150 Rs., and a beer at the bar is 100 Rs.?! It just doesn’t make sense. Now, I’m still spending significantly less at a club than I’d be spending in the US, but the value comparison seems insane!

All in all, not a particular crazy weekend, but they will only get crazier. This is the last week for this round of interns, so we’re going out a lot later in the week. Probably Wednesday through Saturday and then to a nice brunch buffet on Sunday that has free champagne, beer and wine from 10:00 till 4:00 with masseuses and a pool. It is clear that the bulk of my expenditures will be on going out. Some things never change.

That’s all for now, folks. In a related story, the monkeys have yet to be named because I haven’t seen them around much lately. It’s been raining a lot so they’ve been hiding in their tree.