Sunday 2-24-13
The drive to the hotel from the airport was quite an experience. I had been prepared by others, but nothing compares to the real thing. I think it’s as close as I’ll get to NASCAR…if NASCAR had 100 times the cars in the race, and included a figure eight!
I got all checked in and slept long, and finally got up around 3pm. Soukarya came by and we talked about going shopping, but he wasn’t sure where to go, and I declined to ride on his two wheeler (motorcycles and scooters are everywhere). Meenak came by later and we had some supper and then they drove me around Bangalore.
We went to MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road) where there are a LOT of stores and kind of outdoor malls. I was looking for someplace that had crafts, so I could find some chess pieces or other gift items. It was late and those stores were closed, plus parking was really hard to find.
We talked about the town and Meenak showed me a lot of places. The thing about Bangalore is it was kind a retirement type town until about 10 years ago, when businesses started building here. Now, in the last 5 years they have doubled their population, and the infrastructure just isn’t there yet. Consequently there is terrible traffic and it takes forever to get anywhere, especially during morning and evening traffic.
Basically, everyone squeezes as close together as they can on the roads and they just swerve and move where ever they can to get forward. They have some roads with lane lines on them but they are completely ignored. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way, and the horn and flashing your lights is a way of communicating to the other drivers. Oh and I’ve seen 4 cows so far just wandering around. Maybe I’ll see an elephant some day!
I wrapped up the day by logging on at work and checking email.
