In a couple weeks, I'll be off to Bangalore, the "Garden City" of south-central India, for a business trip. This will be my first trip to Asia and I'm eagerly anticipating it, although the flight is sure to be a killer. Preparing for travel to India is straightforward but full of apparent contradictions. To the uninitiated traveler, the country seems to be a mix of the Third-world with British manners and the snap of Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom. It's the world's largest democracy, yet the average per-capita income is about $500 (INR 23308). That figure has grown steadily over the past five years, ticking up by nearly 11% last year.

I'll be staying at a nice hotel, near my workplace there, yet I am directed to not drink the water or eat raw fruit anywhere. Hepatitis-A or gut-wrenching distress is likely to result, if I do. There's no yellow fever there, declares the CDC, but I have to take malaria medicine, like an occupying British soldier, and get a typhoid vaccination. I can eat McDonald's (unlikely) and see wonderful and old sights, but I'm admonished not to walk the streets of Bangalore in the evenings, for my safety. I'll be working with top-notch technical people on modern systems in glass and chrome environs, yet the air pollution is rumored to be bad enough that I should move my evening run to the early morning, before the air gets really bad.

More than likely, most of this advice will go unheeded and I'll do as I please. I will be getting vaccinations, since you can't argue with mosquitoes and germs very easily.

The weather looks to be nice (monsoons are over) and I have a support network of local folks lined up to show me around. A group of colleagues went earlier this summer, so I have their tips and advice on the area.

I'm pretty excited, although I'll miss my family something fierce. I'll be posting some here while I'm gone, most likely with some pictures.

A quick search around reveals some local blogs and other stuff:

• TravelBlog
• Globe of Blogs
• Jeremy Zawodny
• Anita Bora
• Bangalore Walks

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