Look-See Trip; We arrive safe and sound

After 25 hours in transit we arrived in Bangalore at midnight local time. That's a good time to arrive because 1) the temperature was 23C and 2) it only takes 10-15 to get to the hotel from the airport at night. It takes 45 minutes during the day. (So says the driver from the hotel, who also pointed out the buildings of various high tech companies, including IBM as we drove along.)
It took a long time to get our luggage but going through customs was very quick--hand in the form you turned in on the plane and move on.

Once we were through customs there was a man from the hotel waiting to meet us. He was looking form Mr. Samuel (my middle name) staying at the Park Hotel but he had my full name on his sheet of paper. I told him I had reserved a car with Hertz. He said it would be waiting outside, otherwise we could use the Hotel car. Outside there was a metal railing by the sidewalk. Outside the railing were many drivers with signs but I did not see my name. So we had the driver from the Park hotel bring to us here.


At reception we got to the room. The key (a credit card like key same as any US hotel) opened the door but none of the light switches did any thing. Inside the door, next to the light switches was a slot for the key. Inserting the key enable the light switches. However 30 seconds later they when out, leaving us in the dark with the key laying somewhere on the desk. In turns out that you have to leave the key in that holder for the lights to stay on.

The bell boy explained this to us, but before he got all the luggage in the room the lights went out again. This time due to a power failure but the hotel generator came on and restored power.