Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Some quirky things about India

It was my first time in India. I was on a business trip in Hyderabad, and didn't have a lot of time to travel around, but I have been able to notice some funny differences:
  1. Cars play music (sounds kinda like a midi file) when they go in reverse. Apparently, people pay a lot of money for this feature.
  2. People really do carry cargo on their heads (bundles of wood, jugs of water, bags of stuff).
  3. Even the fanciest buildings have piles of rubble in front of them. Imagine an upscale mall or restaurant where the sidewalk in front is completely torn up.
  4. The bus doesn't come to a complete stop when picking up and dropping off passengers. It sort of slows to a roll while people jump on and off. Sometimes you have to get a running start to hop on.
  5. A 4-person rickshaw can really fit 9 people.
  6. A moped can really seat a family of 4.
  7. Cows really can do whatever they want (like hang out in the middle of the road, and everyone has to go around them).
In an unrelated picture, people sell delicious-looking fruit everywhere, but us weenie white people can't eat it because we'll get sick because we're not accustomed to the different bacteria in India. So hard to resist all the awesome-looking (and super cheap) fruits!


Seriously, India was awesome, the food was delicious, and the people were really friendly. I would highly recommend it (but definitely bring a stash of Cipro, just in case - I needed it).