We went to Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) over the Independence Day weekend to visit Rajan (Sheila's brother) and his wife Manju. We started the trip, of course, by putting our clothes back into their suitcases and loading the van. Essentials for the trip included droid phones and a tablet to keep the boys occupied with video games on the eight hour drive. You can get a lot of mileage out of Angry Birds and Pumpkins vs. Monsters.
We stopped for lunch at an Indian rest stop. Of course, there was no Sbarro's, TCBY, or Roy Rogers. The rest stop consisted of a gas station and a restaurant with a simple menu. You could have the South Indian vegetarian platter or the North Indian vegetarian plate. In other words, green yellow, and orange vegetable curries with either dosa (South) or poori (North).
Bengaluru is about 3,000 ft above sea level, so the terrain became more hilly en route. I was still asleep, but Thuy recorded the trip for posterity (and this blog).
When we entered Karanataka, traffic came to a complete stop. Accident? Rush hour? Cow in the road? No, temple festival. The road was blocked by worshipers making their way to the temple while carrying things. A horde of motorcyclists was behind them, some on their way to the festival. The others looked for a break in the divided road and, after finding one, rode on the wrong side of the road to circumnavigate the worshipers.
Later that afternoon, we arrived in Bengaluru. The Bengaluru government is installing a Metrorail system in the city. In most places, the tracks are elevated over the roadway. So to erect the tracks, the roads must be ripped up and the centers barricaded for construction. This makes traffic in Bengaluru very, very, very, (one more) very bad. Despite that, we rendezvoused with Rajan on one of the streets and followed him to his house.
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| Passing a pedestrian on our way to Bengaluru |
Once we left Chennai we drove past farmland. The lack of population density is quite a contrast to the crowded streets of Chennai. Although the "highway" was two narrow lanes in each direction, the traffic was pretty light and the surface was much, much smoother than the city roads.
We stopped for lunch at an Indian rest stop. Of course, there was no Sbarro's, TCBY, or Roy Rogers. The rest stop consisted of a gas station and a restaurant with a simple menu. You could have the South Indian vegetarian platter or the North Indian vegetarian plate. In other words, green yellow, and orange vegetable curries with either dosa (South) or poori (North).
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| Restaurant and playground. No Starbuck's |
Bengaluru is about 3,000 ft above sea level, so the terrain became more hilly en route. I was still asleep, but Thuy recorded the trip for posterity (and this blog).When we entered Karanataka, traffic came to a complete stop. Accident? Rush hour? Cow in the road? No, temple festival. The road was blocked by worshipers making their way to the temple while carrying things. A horde of motorcyclists was behind them, some on their way to the festival. The others looked for a break in the divided road and, after finding one, rode on the wrong side of the road to circumnavigate the worshipers.
Later that afternoon, we arrived in Bengaluru. The Bengaluru government is installing a Metrorail system in the city. In most places, the tracks are elevated over the roadway. So to erect the tracks, the roads must be ripped up and the centers barricaded for construction. This makes traffic in Bengaluru very, very, very, (one more) very bad. Despite that, we rendezvoused with Rajan on one of the streets and followed him to his house.
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