Moving to Bangalore Tips Please

Genesis101

Greetings All

I am moving to Bangalore to live & work in February.

I am interested to know what essentials I need bring with me..to live comfortably...furnished accomodation is provided....What are the things that are not readily available that are taken for granted elsewhere. (I am from Australia) I have been to Mumbai twice last year so have an idea what to expect...but know living there is a different thing alltogether.

Also what is the availability of water filtering/steralization systems...including shower head inserts to sterilize the water.

Any advise would be much appreciated.


Thank you

Prashant.M

Welcome to IM and to Bangalore . Drinking water filtering systems are available here from Philips, Eureka Forbes and Hindustan Lever (Unilever).

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Genesis101

Thank you...

I have now researched those brands...good to know I can get them in Bangalore.

kirangujjar

You can find shower head inserts from "METRO"

iloveindia1234

Bangalore is one of the best places in India. So i am sure you will enjoy your stay

crvlvr

how the heck does a shower "insert" steilize the water? anyone know?

abhay

Memorize a large list of abuses and expletives from Australia to abuse auto drivers,beggars and people who will try to rip you off at every turn and corner.

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1/2Astronaut

Bangalore is awesome. I have been here since Dec 14th.
You can pretty much get everything you need from toothpaste, cigarettes, coca cola etc and Bottled Water is everywhere.

Someone said to bring some pepto bismal tablets and eat one or two with each meal to avoid getting ill. I did that for awhile but have since stopped.

I hope you have a driver!

ocr8es

I agree with 0.5 Astronaut. A good driver is your best assett if you are coming here to live and work (I assume your company will provide a driver if they finding an apartment). Once you find a good driver you should hang on to them. Although the traffic is chaotic, driving in the city is not generally dangerous as the speeds are limited by the volume of traffic. On the open road outside the city things are different, your life will be in the hands of your driver.

As for a shower sterilizer, I have never heard of such a thing. I have been here for 1 year and have not been affected by shower water.

Don't get paranoid about eating, on two occasions I have been ill was from eating western style food and a buffett in an expensive hotel.

RoadWarrior

Whoever told you that gave you HORRIBLE advice! Paralyzing your digestive tract with Pepto Bismal is the worst thing you can do for bacterial diarrhea. Your body is trying to flush the bacteria out of your digestive tract as a natural defense strategy, and the Pepto prevents it from doing so. That doesn't cure anything, but merely delays the inevitable. It's horribly unhealthy too. Masking the symptoms is not a sound strategy to solve the problem.

The best thing you can do if you get diarrhea in India is just let your body do what it does naturally to flush your system. In extreme cases, an antibiotic like Ciprofloxacin will expedite the process greatly, but I'd only use that in severe cases.

The most important thing is to NEVER drink the water. That includes not brushing your teeth with it and making sure that shower water doesn't get in your mouth. However, one way or another, Indian bacteria is bound to get you!

libertycanyon

Whoa! This is pretty extreme advice in my opinion. I lived with my husband's family in Bangalore for 4 months and I brushed my teeth and took showers in unfiltered water everyday and never got sick from it. I didn't gulp down glassfuls of the stuff but I rinsed my toothbrush in the tap everyday and never had a problem. The two times I got stomach illnesses were at a tourist-trap restaurant in Goa and from either the water or the chutney at an Indian restaurant in Bangalore. My husband's family doctor says that he actually recommends avoiding both glasses of water AND chutneys at restaurants. They kind of fall into the "salad" category of uncooked veggies. But honestly, being sick a few times is worth it for yummy sprouted lentil salads and chutneys in South India

For Bangalore, be prepared more for getting sick from a cold or allergies than from the water. Even the natives complain about this. I had a recurring head cold whilst there, sneezing mostly. Stock up on the cloth handkerchiefs you can find at lots of shops and always have one or two with you. It sounds gross to dedicated Western kleenex users, but it is much easier and cheaper to use hankies in India than hunting for and paying huge prices for tissues. I've now converted to hankies even in America!

Brandon

I've been traveling to Bangalore a lot, and I have a simple advice. Always take bottled drinking water, while eating at small restaurants in the city. (It is available easily and inexpensively, every where in the city)

Hope you enjoy Bangalore, it is a wonderful city. If you like rock music, it is one of good cities to be in. There are couple of big performances every year and it has some places which play great music.

natalisingh

I'm not from Bangalore but have already grown to love the place. Yes I would advise expats to stick to bottled water but if you are planning to stay here long term than slowly start getting used to Aquaguard.

There are tons of sights to see and lots of places to visit using Bangalore as a base.

Check out my blog http://natalisingh.blogspot.com for some suggestions or ANY queries!

spark1e

welcome to Bangalore!

It's a pretty easy city. There are a bunch of expats, so naturally there are plenty of stores that cater to a variety of tastes.

A word on bottled water - it's totally worthwhile to either get a purifier or get water delivery in big bottles - saves on $$ and disposable plastic.

tink

I moved here a couple of weeks ago and have to agree with libertycanyon about water for brushing teeth and showering!

The one thing I'm really glad I brought with me is non-biological washing powder. I can't believe that my first input to this forum is about washing powder, but my skin can't handle the detergents I've found in the shops here, so, if you're skin is a wee bit sensitive, it's something to think about.