Bangalore is India's silicon valley. It is a city of 6 million people located in Karnataka state, in southern India. It is 2000 km from Delhi and 1000 km from Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay).

I flew to India via SwissAir. I took an internal airline called Jet Airways from Mumbai to Bangalore.

For the location of Bangalore and Karnataka, click here.

The main side trip I took was to Cochin (also called Kochi). It is the major seaport in a state called Kerala. This is a city of 1.6 million people on the southwest coast of India, close to the southern tip. It is 500 km southwest of Bangalore, 1400 km south of Mumbai.

For a map of India showing Kerala, click here. Cochin is close to the bottom tip of Kerala, about 100 km north of Thiruvananthapuram.

I traveled in several interesting ways on this trip. Here are pictures some of them.

Indian Railways, sleeping car

Auto-rickshaw

a ferry in Kerala

My hosts in Bangalore and environs

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Satish (left) and Prakash (right). They were very generous of their time. They took me around, ensured that I was well taken care of and did not get ripped off by unscrupulous merchants.

I took this photo inside a 400 year old banyan tree just outside Bangalore. The tree has expanded to cover over 3 acres. This is not the biggest banyan tree in India. In other regions, there are supposed to be several much larger and older trees.

Here I am with eCredit.com staff at a restaurant

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