Thursday 15th March ’07

Flight of ‘allovus!
After scraping the bottoms of every abyss to finance our trip and after waiting in line after line at the Indian High Commission in Colombo, we finally begin our journey to the airport. But not until the last minute because one of our guys’ names had been struck off the list, thanks to some computerised error (so they say). He finally made it after having to pay more… determined lot we are. There we go, all 20 of us, stoned out of our heads on one heck of a trip. Bangalore or bust!

We arrived in Bangalore at around 9pm local time. After a lot of alcohol onboard (someone gave us a bottle of whisky!). The airport is a fish market; crowded and chaotic. And one of our friends, Thushara, lost his dad’s expensive digital camera. Poor guy; felt really bad for the dude.
Made our way to where we were staying (The Corporate Habitat apartments on Leville Road). Bangalore is a beautiful garden city with a very pleasant climate that’s somewhat dry. However, the first thing I noticed is that Indian drivers were all trained by Michael Schumacher! They don’t stop for anything or anyone.

Everyone wanted to go for dinner to a rock club called STYX. Everyone except five of us who stopped to make a few phone calls home. The shit scene in India is that clubs and bars close at 11.00 pm!!! We couldn’t get in. And we thought our laws were crap (they still are!). The five of us (Myself, Ruwanthi, Andrew, Keerthi and Mirshard) went to the Hotel Empire, a 24 hour restaurant that serves great food at dirt cheap prices.

Ended up at one of our apartments where we all had a few drinks and then called it a night. My room mate was Thushara and I had to share an apartment with the guys from Funeral in Heaven, a Sri Lankan black metal band. Thushara is a young die hard Maiden fan and I feared he might spontaneously combust if he got any more tense. He’s also a nice and intelligent guy, who reminds me way too much of myself when I was his age. As for Funeral in Heaven, I love those guys, though I’m not a massive fan of black metal… these guys are just side splittin’ nuts! There were no animal/human sacrifices.

Friday 16th March ‘07

Maharaja the Great
We had the entire day to ourselves so five of us (the same five last night) thought we’d do some sightseeing and check the venue out. Keerthi was nice enough to sponsor a cab for us; a nice spacious air conditioned mini wagon that took us all over Bangalore.
Our first stop was the Bangalore Palace. We got a guided tour of the palace… and she was a pretty guide, too. The palace was a vast and weird pickle of European and Hindu architecture filled with artefacts from all over the world. Talk about foreign exchange! After passing halls adorned with hundreds of paintings of nude women, Mirshard had to ask our guide if she thought the Maharaja was a womaniser. The Maharaja was a man after Mirshard’s own heart! Now feeling very poor, we headed over to the other end of the property (acres upon acres of it!) where the Iron Maiden gig would be.

Hallowed Be Thy Stage
There was only a base of a stage with columns when we arrived. The production crew were scuttling about the stage, fixing lights, sounds, etc. I felt a chill run down my spine as I stood there, just the five of us, in the middle of this open field and a giant empty stage ominously looming over. I’ve seen hundreds of stages and been to hundreds of soundchecks… but this wasn’t just any stage. It was Iron Maiden’s stage! I was standing on hallowed ground. I had this overwhelming urge to kick myself silly until I woke up.
But I didn’t have to. An official came over and kindly asked us to leave.

Brave News World
On our way out, we were stopped by the NDTV news crew covering the Maiden event and after finding out where we’re from, asked us a few questions like why we’re here, how many of us, how much we spent and what time we plan to get here. Cool! Now the whole of Asia knows 20 Sri Lankans came to Bangalore to see Iron Maiden and will return home to live below the poverty line! When asked by the reporter what time I recommend people get to the venue, I replied ‘after us!’

After our 30 seconds of fame and after Mirshard gave the crew a Paranoid Earthling EP, we left the Bangalore Palace Grounds to celebrate our little moment. We headed back to our apartment with loads of beer and Bacardi Breezers!

Strangers in a Strange Land
We then headed back out to do some shopping and sightseeing. Bangalore is huge but looks no different from Sri Lanka, except for a few old colonial buildings here and there. I was disappointed that I hardly saw one of those Fiat Ambassador cars immortalised by Indian cinema. Though, there were plenty of those yellow and black trishaws (they’re called Autos; pronounced ‘Aaato’) with metres and uniformed drivers. Expected to see Rajinikanth (south Indian movie super star) jump out of one, flick a cigarette and beat the shit out of a bunch of hoodlums… I suppose all that’s in Chennai.

I also couldn’t help but notice how all the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen have been unfairly smuggled into Bangalore! For the guys in our group, this was a data overload! Our eyes couldn’t process faster than we could ogle… hehe.

Went to Brigade Road and Commercial Street to do some shopping. Ruwanthi helped me pick out a sari for my mom and I helped her pick one for her mom because neither of us know jack about saris! Mirshard thought he’d get lucky and find a sex shop but bought a pair of shoes instead. Stopped at Planet M, a CD store, and it was Iron Maiden fever all over; a free poster with every Maiden CD and buy 2 Maiden albums and get the 3rd free! I bought No Prayer for the Dying, the only Maiden studio album that was missing from my collection (actually it was nicked by some asswipe!). Trying to find Maiden t-shirts was a fruitless endeavour. The whole of Bangalore had bought all stocks of fake Maiden t-shirts and the leftover stock was sold at double the price! Luckily, I already bought two nice fakes from MC back home.

Faces High!
Came back to our apartments in the evening and had a pleasant surprise waiting for us. Someone had asked an ‘aaato’ driver for weed and came back with loads of the lovely green stuff. Stupid thing to do in a foreign land but we’re thankful for it anyway. Indian weed is probably one of the best shit I’ve smoked, ever!

Later in the evening, after getting well stoned, drinking more beer and misdirecting poor ‘aaato’ drivers all over Bangalore, we finally ended up at STYX. It was one fantastic rock n roll party; around 400 people packed inside, standing on tables, banging their heads, drinking beer, singing Iron Maiden songs and drinking more beer. The Indians know their metal! They later played videos of Slayer, Sepultura, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, etc. The vibes were great with strangers sharing their beer and hi-fiving you with the words ‘Maiden Rocks, maaan!!!!’. But if the Indians know their metal, the Sri Lankans know how to party hard. And we won the respect and adulation of our gracious hosts. It’s a shame that local government laws have to shut down all pubs and bars by 11.00pm… over here, we start at that time!

After staggering and puking all over the empty streets of Bangalore, we made our way to the Hotel Empire for a late dinner. It was here that an intoxicated Andrew peed into not the toilet, but the plastic bucket of water next to it. It seemed like a nice gesture at the time, so I too emptied all the fun I had into the hallowed bucket. Alcohol does cause brain damage.

Everyone was tired nobody wanted to sleep. Some wanted to stay awake till 4am and go to the venue. No one listened when I said leaving at 6am would suffice. Once again, alcohol causes brain damage.

Screw it. Went to bed for at least an hour or two of sleep. It was around 2am on a Saturday morning. I’m going to wake up to ‘The Longest Day’!