Bangalore Roads and Traffic

Bangaloreans talk incessantly about traffic like Minnesotans and Wisconsinites talk about the weather. Since the weather and traffic are both maddeningly inconsistent this makes sense. Traffic is also one of the first things people who haven't been here ask about; "What's the traffic like", "I hear the traffic is really bad", "Are there really cows in the streets?" etc. The answers are; Unpredictable but usually bad, I don't care where you've lived in the US your definition of bad isn't the same as India-bad, and Yes there are cows, goats, horses, oxen and even the occassional camel in the streets.


Although it is really impossible to really comprehend the traffic and driving styles without experiencing it, I've tried to capture a small snippet by video taping a few of my morning commutes. I'm also including a video of riding in a rickshaw in Kerala just for fun.

This video shows the start of my commute. Leaving Zen Gardens - note the high tech gate opener, and Artillery Road.

This is airport road. A major road way. I leave for work very early so the traffic is really light. Hello Cows! The sidewalk doubles as a cow pen. It is pretty common to see people milking them by hand in the morning. Notice all the push carts - usually going the wrong way.

Intersections are fun for pedestrians and vehicles

Oops, have to stop for traffic. Motorcycles, or 2-wheelers are less impacted.

Finally made it to Intermediate Ring Road, the home stretch. Notice all the people along the road. 20 minutes after I took this there would be 3 times as many cars and 2-wheelers and at least 3 times as many people walking on the road.

This is Old Madras Road, about 1 km from where I live. I'm including this to give you an idea of how many auto rickshaws are on the roads.

And finally, what it is like to ride in an auto rickshaw. This is one I took in Kerala during the Snakeboat races (separate blog entry).

Is that a Snake Boat or are you just Happy to be in Kerala?

Kerala is the south western most state in India. It is known as God's Own Country. The northern part has a tropical climate and is a maze of lakes and inlets from the Arabian Sea known as the Kerala Backwaters. Visiting the backwaters is a great experience for the natural beauty but also becasue the principle tourist lodging and transportation are one and the same - staying on a houseboat. These are not the houseboats of my youth however (which, in my admitedly faulty memory always seemed to looked like condemned house trailers dropped on a boat hull). No these are amazing, luxurious constructions of hand carved hardwood, hand woven bamboo matting, a cooking and serving staff, air conditioning and satellite TV. Of course you might get a boat where the satellite is not working and have to dig through the stack of Hindi movies to find one with subtitles and realize there is only one with subtitles then spend three hours watching Krrrish (which actually wasn't too bad, sort of a combination of Batman & The Matrix with actors better than Keano Reeves but worse than Michael Keaton).

Touring the backwaters on a houseboat is enough reason to plan a trip to Kerala but once a year there is another reason - The Annual Nehru Trophy Boat Races or the Snakeboat Races as they are more commonly known. The Nehru Trophy is named after India's first Prime Minister after Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru. The Snakeboats are named after snakes.

A snakeboat is pretty amazing to see. The come in various sizes but are all very shallow draft, rowed boats. The largest are over 100 ft. long, have 105 people rowing and about 13 "pace keepers" along the length. Their job is to keep everyone rowing in unison. But since pictures and videos speak louder than words take a look at a couple snake boats in action..

The races themselves are attended by a few hundred thousand people, or a few lakh as they say here. There are so many heats leading up to the final that there is an intermission complete with a half-time show Indian-style

Although the races were the main reason we went, we also got to spend 2 days on a houseboat and see a lot of the natural beauty of Kerala. But before we could embark on the boat we needed provisions; beer, vodka, whiskey, banana chips and jack fruit fries. I am assuming all non-Baptists reading this are familiar with the first three. Banana chips and jack fruit fries may need a little explanation. Banana chips are pretty easy. Take a banana, cut into thin slices and cook in coconut oil and voila - banana chips. A jack fruit is the largest fruit in the world growing up to 75 lbs. The fruit of a jack fruit can be sliced just like a french fry and cooked in coconut oil to make jack fruit fries. I prefer the jack fruit fries to the banana chips but both are good (I'm going out on a limb and guessing almost anything deep fried in coconut oil is going to be fairly tasty)Bags and bags of chips and fries
Then on to our 3 bedroom houseboat. Yup we were really roughing it.

I wasn't happy with how they were driving the boat so I took over for most of the trip (if you believe that I have a bridge in Bombay I'd like to sell you)

And here are some pictures of the backwaters themselves

The bright green is real, I didn't change the colors at all. This is a rice paddy separated from the channel by a thin strip of land just wide enough for the farmers to build their small houses on.

The last stop was the Chinese Fishing nets in Cochin, the capital of Kerala.
These nets are 100s of years old. The fishermen pull them up and down hundreds of times per day and basically catch the fish the swim across them. Or for a few rupees they'll gladly let you pull the nets up for them

For a more complete set of photos click here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pbalthazor/Kerala#