Bangalore

After a 4 hour drive to Lufkin, a 2 hr ride to Houston 25 hours on a plane and a 9 hour lay over (the flight was delayed) in Bombay, I am finally in Bangalore.

Bangalore is far more beautiful than I expected, even the trash lying around looks as though it is part of the landscaping. This is a stark contrast to the view I had of Mumbai! From the plane, I saw the slums that outlined the runway. I could see large group of children playing cricket and king of the mountain on the dirt piles. Shanty towns were seen through out the city of Bombay, completely interspersed with upscale hotels. This is definitely a kind of poverty I could not comprehend. Since I did not venture out of the air port, I did not encounter any beggars. In Bangalore, which is quite opposite, the shanty towns were hidden by hills and very hard for me to notice (at least in the area I travelled through).

The ride over was quite interesting. Really the lanes in the road are kinda pointless. As no one stayed in their lane and only move over when they were honked at by another car. I rode my first rickshaw today. It was a little fun and will probably become my basic mode transport within the city (very cheap), but even after the ride, I a had a hard time finding this internet cafe and I had to walk a bit. With all of the anxiety I had prior to coming, I feel quite comfortable walking here during the day (I would not dare go out by myself after dark).
Tomorrow I will meet Dr. Lyttle and his family. He is the physician that runs the organization I am travelling with this week. We are planning to go to a national wildlife park here in Bangalore. I looked very interesting and will probably be my closest experience to a safari.

I will keep writing posts as I can, some internet cafes are hard to find.