Day 2: Drive through South India

~ loading up: (l-r) Angie, Dorris, Shaker and Cathy ~

After breakfast Shaker and the taxi driver picked us up. We loaded our things and set off for a 7 hour drive through the south Indian countryside.

But first we had to navigate Bangalore's downtown traffic. Several things to note about driving in downtown Bangalore (I latter found, this style of driving isn't limited to Bangalore).

1. drivers do not obey road signs, stop signs particularly
2. drivers honk and/or flash headlights to alert other drivers that they are passing or entering an intersection
3. the white lines that divide lanes are for decoration only
4. there is no minimum or maximum speed
5. bicyclist share all lanes of the roads with horse or cow drawn carts (5 mph), motor rickshaws (15 mph average speed), buses (30 mph) and cars (45 mph)
6. traffic police simple let the biggest or most aggressive looking vehicles through intersections first, and
7. you will loose your arm if you stick it out the window

Atlanta's rush hour traffic will be nothing when I'm home.

The countryside is BEAUTIFUL. Lots of farmland. Here are some pictures that will describe it better than words can.

~ an enterance to a market ~

~ the plains ~

~ we passed lots of people walking their cows down the side of the road ~

~ check out the scafolding on the side of this building, this is what all scafolding is like ~

~ bananna leaf stand ~

~ types of housing: huts and tents in background~

~ shared the road with a variety of vehicles ~

~ my first meal on a bananna leaf with different types of cocconut based curries, bread, yogurt and buttermilk; I ate with my fingers ~

~ the outside of the place we ate lunch ~

~ the cows that provided our fresh buttermilk and yogurt ~

~ many people live in thatch huts made of palm leaves like this one ~

~ railroad track was elevated above the plains ~

~ we passed this truck carrying sticks ~

~ we made a quick stop by Mysore Palace ~

~ Flame of the Forest, it is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists ~

~ trees along the road ~

~ Indian Laburnum trees are the yellow ones ~

~ rice fields ~

~ cement is very cheep and the clay tile roof is made from the local soils ~

~ other that shared the road ~

~ we saw monkeys when we drove through the national forest ~

~ some vacationers at the national forest picnic area ~

~ Dorris taking pictures of the deer in the national forest ~

~ the national forest has an elephant breeding program ~

The sun set by the time we began to climb the Nilgirls (literally Blue Mountains) so I was not able to get pictures of the mountains. But if you google the Nilgirls you should be able to see some pictures. The books The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895) by Rudyard Kipling include stories about Mowgli and in the jungles of these mountains.