Nic's worst fears come true
Date: Jan 10, 2010
Nic's worst fears are coming true: we're going to Bangalore. Yesterday, despite staring late (8:30 instead
of 6:30) getting lost leaving town (another 1:30 till we knew we were out of city in correct direction) and
finishing early (we had our first hotel checkin before nightfall) we still managed to cover 300km to reach
Gooty, on Route 7. This town is the turn off to Goa, but alas for Nic (albeit for all the right reasons) we are
heading south. For Nic the problem is this: he's been to India before. In fact he lived in Bangalore for 6 mths
in the leafy suburb of Koromongala. He caught a rickshaw to work, and his rental car driver picked him up in
the evenings. Idealic? No. Sustained living in India as a westerner is very different from the novelty of being
a 2-week tourist. For example, something as sinple as his own street address was a tongue twister: 44 8th A
Main Rd 4c Block Koromongala. Unfortunately Indian businesses don't outsource their call centres back to
Australia so Nic had the weekly challange of trying to get something home delivered. They ordered pizza a lot
because Dominos had the address on a computer. After 6 months Nic was ready to start going fisty cuffs on a
number of Bangalorian residents. It was time to leave and never ever return. Alas, in 250km and about 5 hrs,
his worst nightmare will come true: Nic will be back in Bangers.
(Received at 01:28)
Route decision made. We're not going to Goa. Tourists to India enjoy the Golden Triangle: Dehli, Agra (Taj
M) and Japuir (palaces). We have instead enjoyed two points on our Poo Brown Triangle: no dead people in
Varanasi, and no tigers at Kanha NP. We anticipated that in Goa we would be denied further tourist pleasure by
the beaches being shut down due to a tsunami or something. The trip to Goa is 300km longer (a day on the road)
than an alternate route through Mysore via Bangalore. At the town of Kurnool we finally had a showdown as the 5
of us surveyed the map and attempted to get our own way. "On Route 7 we can do 60, past Goa we'll do 40 because
of all the coastal towns" "Goa has beaches, alcohol and chicks" "We won't have any time left to spend in Goa"
"Chicks" In the end, "Chicks" wasn't enough to sway those on the fence. We've done 200km this afternoon to get
to Kurnool and it's 3:20pm. We'll now aim for Anantapur for hotel/dinner. It's getting very warm during the day
and even the evening.
(Received at 09:50)
After the flyover we were then pulled over by traffic police. We showed them various documents and licenses
and pollution certificates and he still wanted to fine us for something. "500Rs" "200Rs" He barely spoke
English so eventually he took us to his boss to resolve the issue of How much we will be fined and What it
might be for. The boss asked '"Where you from?" ""Australia" "Excellent, have a nice day" and the minion got no
bribe from us.
Location: Hydrabad - Andhra Pradesh, India (Received at 09:12)
cont... sign saying 'Bangaluru' begged to us. Nic pulled over and pleaded with the guards to allow us on the
flyover. 'Just 2 autos?' 'Yes!' 'Ok, you go.' Woohoo! 500m along and we realised: there are no other cars on
this flyover. Along 11km of magic road towering overall quarter of the city we saw 20 cars, in a city of 5m
people.@
Location: Hydrabad - Andhra Pradesh, India (Received at 05:45)
World's Longest Flyover in Hyderabad? We had a lazy kickoff this morning, congruating at the ricks around 8,
some mini coffees (6Rs) and teas (4Rs), and then discovered a disturbing trend amongst the locals. Many of them
didn't know how to leave their city. Our planned route towards Cochin is still under discussion. The longest
route (through Goa) is 1550km. The shortest route (through Bangalore and Mysore) is 1250km. All three start
with the same first 300km, down our old favourite Route 7 headed towards Bangalore (re-re-named Bangalaru). So
in asking locals how to exit their city we were asking for directions to Bangalore. Eventually we found someone
who gave good directions, and later at a junction we asked for more directions from a Traffic Police. He was
wrong. 10km and 30 minutes back into the city and we were told to turn around and go back. Fortunately we made
a huge discovery: Hyderabad has an awesome flyover - a 4 lane road 3 to 6 stories in the air - that goes on and
on for 11km around the city. There was a hitch, the following types of vehicles are prohibited: commercial
trucks, 2 wheelers and 3 wheelers -us. But the huge blue sign above the entrance saying
Location: Hydrabad - Andhra Pradesh, India (Received at 05:38)
