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April 17, 2005
Bike Ride
Last Saturday I had to go to a place called Vellore which is almost 220km (137.5miles) from Bangalore. I decided to go at the last moment and I don’t have a car so I was left with only two options.
Option #1. Go to the train station an hour earlier in the afternoon to catch the train. Then to get into the AC compartment, I might have to bribe the Ticket collector.
Option #2. Ride my brother’s bike to Vellore.
Well I thought option #2 will be fun. I was a little bit scared because I have never done any solo bike ride in India and 220Km is a long distance here. It took me 3.30 hours to reach Vellore. And on the way the battery died and I had no horn and horn is a very essential thing in India, some how managed to get back with out any problem.
Here are some pictures from my trip
I observed a lot of things on the highway. Here are some of the things I observed.
1. The pedestrians think that they own the road. The highways runs through villages and the people who are walking on the road think that they own the road. They don’t even look either side before crossing. The thing is unless they hear a honking sound they will just cross the road. So don’t take the hand from the horn while crossing any village.
2. The bicyclists think that they own the road. It’s the same situation as the pedestrians, if they don’t hear the horn they will just turn anywhere in the road.
3. The buses and the trucks definitely own the road. The bigger the vehicle is the more reckless they can drive. Respect the bigger vehicles.
4. No one respects the bikers. Bigger vehicles gets in front of you and they will cut you off the road, they don’t respect the bikers at all.
I think the basic problem in the roadway is everyone thinks that they own the road and no one gives a shit about others life. Well this is a bigger problem. I want to do more riding here in India; I guess I am just beginning to learn the rules here. Hopefully I won’t get into any trouble.
Posted by Sam at 09:27 PM | Comments (4)
Send Off
It has been a while since I blogged. I am busy trying to settle down here in Bangalore and also I don’t have internet connection at home yet.
I had a really busy last two weeks in US trying to meet people to say good bye and also trying to get everything settled. Everyone gave me a good send off, thank you guys.
I forgot to take my camera with me to some of the send off things and some places they didn’t allow the cameras ;). Here are some of the send off pictures.
Posted by Sam at 09:17 PM | Comments (2)