India Guide
Karnataka
Bengaluru (Bangalore)
The political hub of Karnataka, Bengaluru (Bangalore) is a world apart from the rest of the state and likely India's most Westernized urban centre. From a charming, verdant "Garden City" of just over 600,000 at Independence, the former Bangalore has been completely transformed by a decade-long technology boom into both a trendy, high-speed business hub and a bustling, smog-choked megalopolis of eight million. These days, signs of the West are thick on the ground: Starbucks-like Café Coffee Days on nearly every corner; a flash new airport and ultra-modern metro (set for completion in 2011); and legions of hard-working, free-spending twenty- and thirty-somethings in designer T-shirts and mini-skirts.
For the tourist, Bengaluru's few attractions are no match for those elsewhere in the state, and the city's comparative local advantages are ten-a-penny in the West. That said, this is an efficient transport hub, well served by plane and bus, and at nearly 1000m the climate is relatively mild. Paired with first-rate shopping, dining and nightlife, this vibrant city can still deliver a few days' respite from south India's more taxing inconveniences.
The centre of modern Bengaluru lies about 4km east of Kempe Gowda Circle (and the bus and railway stations), near MG Road, where you'll find most of the mid-range accommodation, restaurants, shops, tourist information and banks. Leafy Cubbon Park, and its less than exciting museums, lie on its eastern edge, while the oldest, most "Indian" part of the city extends south from the railway station, a warren of winding streets at their most dynamic in the hubbub of the City and Gandhi markets. Bengaluru's tourist attractions are spread out: monuments such as Tipu's Summer Palace and the Bull Temple are some way south of the centre. Most, if not all, can be seen on a half-day tour, but if you explore on foot, be warned that Bengaluru has some of the worst pavements in India.
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