No kidding. After a few days here, the greenery, the coffee, the tech, the laidback feeling — constantly the thought runs through my head that this town is similar to Portland, Oregon. And that is a compliment Bangalore deserves.

Claudia and I have been loving it here. She's gotten a chance to relax, and she and the famed DustyShoes have been getting along like sisters. I've dug starting to see how different north and south India are. The north is so rushed, and so much more in your face. So far in the south though — and we've seen Bangalore and Mysore to-date — we've hardly been hassled. Claudia hardly even gets leered at.

Home-cooked meals have also been nice. Dusty and her family have been great and hospitable hosts; I just hope Claudia and I have been decent guests, and not just these two fast-talking Yank oddities who drink water out of large plastic kegs. We have, however, greatly improved at eating food with our right hands, which is the traditional way in which Indians eat. We still use forks with rice dishes, but even I've finally gotten the hang of one-handedly ripping a chappati — Indian flat-bread, like a tortilla — into little strips for scooping up food.

We've shopped on MG Road (the main drag; "MG" is short for "Mahatma Gandhi, and most cities have an MG road), started enjoying some of the coffee south India is so reknown for (and which may cause me not to leave!), and been to many parks. Dusty also arranged a day tour to Mysore for us, but more on that another time.

Yesterday we spent the morning in the city's botanical garden. It was beautiful and peaceful. There are trees from all over Asia, including a massive Javan tree that had the largest root structure we've ever seen.

In the garden we also discovered a beverage delicacy: grape juice. And not your supermarket Welches stuff either, or your hippie all-organic $5-a-shot rot. It was deep purple, sweet and grapey, 5 rupees and thist-quenching. I wanted to buy a case off the wallah...

We also got a big laugh from a toilet wallah, when I trekked off to the gent's. The toilet wallah doesn't sell toilets, but rather collects a "toilet toll" from people using the facilities. Nice racket, huh? You find them in parks and train stations, and yes, they charge the locals too.

The guy in front of me handed the wallah a 10-rupee note, and got back change. When I went up though, our man tried to charge me 10! "No way!" I said. "He gave you ten, and got back change!"

The wallah grinned. "No, no... twenty. Twenty."

"Twenty! Bah!" I started laughing. "Knock it off, how much."

He chuckled back. "Well, what do you have?"

I handed him 3 rupees. "That's all I've got," I said, and we both laughed as I walked into the toilet.

Yes, Bangalore is nice. We've had a great time, and on Tuesday we leave for the east coast, to Pondicherry.