Working in Whitefield for 2 months. Help

Worked in Bangalore for a few months in 2008. stayed in koramangla and enjoyed the time.
am now going back for another two months starting July but this time staying at Whitefields next to ITP.

Can anyone advise what the area is like?
How long to get to city centre, Brigade Rd etc, and best way to get there, bus, taxi, rickshaw?

Anywhere interesting to hang locally. find the hotels sterile, might as well be in Europe if you hang around the bar all evening.

Also ideas for short weekend trips. I guess will go to Mysore again but maybe some where further afield. Five hour train journey away.

Look forward to any suggestions.

English_tom

hi
Whitefield is a very good developed place. It has all the basic facilities nearby. It is mainly an IT park. It has 5-7 good hotels to stay in and around. Couple of malls too have come up. The public transport system is very good. You have good frequency of Volvo bus to take you to Bangalore city, MG road/brigade (20kms) from ITPL.

I second what Shashlavy said. The 333/334 Volvo buses take you straight from ITPL to the city centre, in about 30 minutes at the most. It is way cheaper, faster, convenient and safer than taking a taxi or a rickshaw owing to your out-of-towner status. Culturally, I don't know what your interests are, could you elaborate? Of course, Bangalore has a very vibrant pub scene with a wide array of choices.

My interests are varied. Theatre, temples, dining> I am told there is a Sai Baba ashram near whitefield. Can you visit this?

dining-> Herbs n spices is good place to sip some wine and have good food on a nice rainy day!
also, there are lot of restaurants on the road leading to Forum value mall.

I just started working in Koramangala, now my company wants to base me in whitefield. Do the volvo buses really go that fast? I've heard the commute is over an hour and half in some peak times. Are you talking about less peak times only guys or is this just during non peak hours?

Any elaboration on commute time would be helpful. I'll have a driver but am looking to stay closer to the city and just deal with a daily commute of 30-40 minutes, if possible.

With regards to Theatre, there is a vibrant theatre scene in Ranga Shankara, though it may be a little far away for you. I shall ask my friend who is really into theatre and get back to you about this.

Temples - Forget it. From my experience, they are getting commercialized. Small temples are quite nice with regards to atmosphere [very calm and soothing], though I'm quite the irreligious agnostic. If you're talking about something along the lines of very old, architecturally amazing temples, they are almost non-existent in our part of town.

Dining - A ridiculous amount of incredible restaurants are within your vicinity in Whitefield and surrounding areas, Marathalli, Sarjapur Road, Indiranagar and a little further away in Koramangala. Any specialities? I think I can really help out with this

With regards to the Sai Baba Ashram bit -
http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/Pages.../Brindavan.htm

You surely could visit it. But if you have a weekend to spare and you really want to soak in the Ashram feel, I recommend you go to Thiruvanamalai, about 4 hours away from Bangalore. I find this whole Sathya Sai Baba thing quite commercial and possibly misleading [in short, a scam].

If you're looking to unwind with a spiritual/philosophical tinge to it, I'd recommend visiting the J. Krishnamurti Study Centre. It's just outside the city but transportation can be easily arranged. Keep in mind that it's located amidst a forest and has a very friendly atmosphere. Here's the link to help you - http://www.kfionline.org/studycentres/bangalore.asp . If this is something that you're interested in, I can really help you out as I recently passed out of the school run by the same organization, which is right next door. And trust me, that it's more morally relevant and spiritually satisfying than any pseudo-Ashram can ever get.

Whitefield to Koramangala is approximately around 20km as per my calculations. There are no direct routes [volvo] to Koramangala as far as I know. I travel in this route almost every day so I have a decent idea about this. I'd say you could make it within 45-60 minutes from Whitefield during the peak time, because the roads are quite big and are jammed only at crucial junctions. But you never know right? Last night I barely travelled a km and I took an hour.

Orwarrior, your suggestion of the Krishnamurti cenyre sounds interesting.
Is it the sort of place I could visit on a Saturday morning and hang around all day or do you have to turn up for specific classes ?
On a sunday I plan to revisit the Buddhist temple in Bangalore, the Mahabodi temple. I went there last time I was out a couple of years ago. hope i can find it again. they have a Sunday morning service. I must check if it is still on

It's barely an institution, so you don't have to turn up for any class, especially since there is nothing like that. You have a lot of material in various media, you can grab a book, sit in the study centre, below a tree and just contemplate. However, many good discussions/talks take place quite often. I find this very insightful and would try attending one of these, if possible. As I said, if you're interested in any of these, hit me up when you get here and I'll offer you my help, maybe show you around the centre or maybe just shoot the shit in some pub.

whitefield doesn't have the same wide variety of dining options that you'll find in koramangala & surrounds - but it does have a few decent places (albeit some are based in hotels) and a movie theatre (in one of the malls). getting a taxi into centre of town is about 250INR with one of the most prevalent cab companies. rickshaw pricing/availability will depend a bit on the time of day and your negotiating skills. : )

djstan - recent experience of the daily commute by car from koramangala to itpl whitefield was that the morning commute (leaving at 7:30) took about 35-40min while the afternoon commute (leaving between 4:30 and 6:30pm) ranged from 45min to 1hr 15min. generally towards the lower end of the range if you can leave the office before 5pm and/or before it rains.