Living Abroad

Seoul, Korea - Bangalore, India - London, England

[garrettdowd]

Well, it has been quite awhile since I have posted anything about travel. Last year I was living/working in Washington DC, which technically doesn’t count as “abroad” for me (although I probably could have blogged about it anyway). But now... now I am going abroad again for a FULL YEAR thanks to a Fulbright Award. I couldn’t be more happy. I will be studying for a MSc. of Technology Entrepreneurship at the great University College London (super central London). I might talk about how I got this award and all of the preparation that has already happened in a future post, but for now I just wanted to post an update to let you awesome people know what is up.

[garrettdowd]

StartupBus Americas 2016: A Recap

72 hours. 1400 miles. The longest and most intense roller-coater ever built. I am talking about StartupBus.

Put mildly, StartupBus is a 72-hr hack-a-thon on steroids. As the name implies, this event takes places in the confined area of a bus as you travel to your final destination where you pitch the idea and the business (yes you are expected to create a business in 72 hours) to investors and experts. This year there were buses from NYC, Tampa, Mexico City, San Fransisco, Akron, and Vancouver. All of the buses converged upon Boulder, Colorado for the final pitches. There is a lot of info out there, but this post gives a good idea of what the experience is like.

To give some background, I rode the bus from Akron (IoT & Maker themed). Before riding the bus, I graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Akron, had worked in Seoul, Bangalore, and Washington D.C. in the autonomous vehicle space, and had gone through the National Science Foundation ICorps program. I will also be starting a UK Fulbright in entrepreneurship this Fall and so I thought I knew what I was getting myself into with StartupBus. It turns out, by the very nature of the experience, that I understood little about the roller-coaster I was about to hop on.

The night before the bus left for Akron, I could barely sleep because of excitement and anxiety. After 5 hours of shut eye, I was boarding a tour bus with a bunch of strangers bound for an undisclosed location. The moment the bus started moving, each person went to the front of the bus to pitch their idea for a startup. Around an hour later all chaos broke loose. Everyone has finished their pitch and team formation had begun. Team formation was like speed dating 25 people in a room meant to fit 5 people, except you have to find multiple partners and mutually agree upon a single food dish that you have to continually eat for the next 72+ hours. 

Fast forward a few hours and we had visited some awesome places in Dayton, Ohio and were headed somewhere west (St. Louis as we later learned). Sunset was approaching and our team was still going back and forth between different ideas. We felt somewhat hopeless, frustrated, and discouraged. At the last moment and right before the sun set, we arrived at the idea for DashPilot (our startup that we are continuing to work on). This allowed us to power through the evening until we arrived in St. Louis. If the sun had set without our team working on an idea, the end result may have been much different.

Fast forward again through more ups and downs on the emotional rollercoaster and we had arrived in Boulder, Colorado. I had somehow become the person on our team who was pitching our company even though I had no real prior experience doing so beforehand. I probably sounded like a crazy person as I was constantly rehearsing my pitch over and over again. After the first round of pitches, the semi-finalists were being announced and our name wasn’t being called. They arrived at the final team that made it to semis and....... it was DashPilot! Both a a curse and a blessing because at this point we were all dead tired, yet we had the opportunity to advance on in the competition. We then made it to finals, pitched to top investors, experts, and influencers, and went on to take second place out of 28 teams from all over America.

But the experience didn’t stop there. We were spontaneously invited out to StartupHouse in San Fransisco to incubate our newly formed startups for two weeks. Without really knowing any details, I cancelled my existing flight (and my wallet screamed in pain) and planned a road trip out to SF with other buspreneurs (the name that is given to people who ride the bus). More friendships formed, connections with code gods, VCs, and mentors made, and unforgettable memories created. StartupBus is less about the multi-day competition and more about the lasting connections and networks that form from it and this experience is a key example.

Looking at the experience as a whole, StartupBus once again proved to me the invaluableness of actual experience, of just doing something even if you aren’t ready for it. Education through classes, seminars, discussion, etc. is extremely helpful, but there is no substitute for the types of unknowns and challenges that an experience like StartupBus throws at you. I sincerely thank the Knight Foundation and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation for generously supporting the Akron Bus and many of its riders, including myself.

[garrettdowd]

A fun little video i made of a recent trip to SE Asia

[garrettdowd]

Invited to a wedding!!!!

August 2014

Yep. I was invited to a wedding. The wedding was for a co-worker’s sister. I was super excited after hearing the stories that my American Indian friends would tell of lavish weddings with food and cultural clothing.

Having these traditional images of northern Hindu weddings in my mind, I set out to buy a more traditional kurta. I shopped at a designer store in Forum Mall (Koramungala) where I bought a fairly lavish kurta. I also bought the pants and slippers to go with it. The slippers look like elf shoes…

The day of the wedding, I got dressed and met up with my co-workers who were going with me. It turned out that I was the only person wearing cultural clothing (kurta) as everyone else was wearing regular western business attire…. We took a bus to downtown and then we walked the rest of the way. I still try to envision what people thought of me as I walk down the street in my kurta. The level of staring I received while wearing the outfit was unparalleled.

I should also mention that you do not wear socks with the slippers and so after about 5 minutes of walking my angles started to blister up. We then arrived at the wedding hall where there were around 100-200 people. Again, apart from the bride/groom and some family members, I was the only one wearing a kurta (face smack). I decided that I just needed to own my outfit and that is just what I (hope) I did.

[garrettdowd]

Super nice guy and auto rickshaw

August 2014

I went to meet a friend in Koramungala for a night out. I took an AC bus (500C I believe) from Whitefield to the Agara bus stop where I had to get off and change buses. At the bus stop, I asked another guy, who was well-dressed, if he knew what bus I had to take. He told me, but he said you might as well take an auto. Since I was late at that time, I then looked for an auto that would take me to a music club where I was meeting my friend, however none of the drivers knew the place where I wanted to go. That is because the drivers do not know addresses, they only know landmarks for the most part.

I was still having trouble finding an auto driver who knew where to take me when the well-dressed guy offered to share his auto. I obliged since he said he could tell the auto driver where to drop me. We talked for a bit and it seemed like he was a fairly successful businessman who had been to the US and elsewhere.

We arrived at his house and he then paid the auto driver to take me to my final destination even after I urged him to let me pay. He was a very nice person and it was one of those feel good moments where he showed me kindness even though I was a total stranger. It reminded me that small acts of random kindness can have large impacts.

[garrettdowd]

The Bundh

August 2014

The Bundh. This was a strike that took place during the week, although I forget why the strike was held.  Most of the public transportation was shut down and I think a few rallies were held. It basically became a working holiday for me as I stayed at my guest house.

In fact, I was strictly told not to leave my guesthouse because it was dangerous, which I sort of laughed at. I don’t think the strike became dangerous at any point. In fact, everything was up and running again by mid-day.

[garrettdowd]

Bier Place and losing phone

August 2014

So this is one the most bittersweet experiences and one of my most favorite stories to tell.

I cannot remember if I have referenced her before, but I went on a dinner date with one of my most beloved friends in Bangalore who lived in the same area that I did. She chose the restaurant this time. The place we were headed to was a German micro-brewery. The restaurant was actually located in a super small recreation of a German square with some other restaurants and eateries. It was quite a transition to walk into this place from the surrounding area.

Anyway, I had just done some shopping and bought some new sweatpants and a jacket at Zara. The outfit was better suited for 60 degF weather, but it still worked. It was pretty comfortable too, although the sweatpants pockets were a little weird.

I walked over to her PG and then we headed out to catch a bus, which would take us to Forum Value Mall. We took one of the non-AC buses. After getting dropped off near Forum, we walked to an auto stand and got an auto because we didn’t know how far the place was. It turned out to be within walking distance (face smack). We got out of the auto on a dimly-lit dirt side street with a large wrought iron gate in front of us. We walked through the gate and we were immediately transported to Germany. It was quite beautiful, so I decided to take a picture of it. I reached down to pull my phone out of my sweatpants. The phone wasn’t there.

I then checked all the pockets in my jacket. It wasn’t there. I rechecked all of my pockets to find that my phone was missing. As a reminder, I have a white iPhone 4s without any case. The pockets in the damn Zara sweatpants were too shallow and my phone must have slipped out.

At this point, I have no idea where my phone could be. It could be on the bus, it could be in the auto, it could be on the side of the road if it fell out of the bus or auto….. It was safe to say that no matter where I was in the world, I probably had a really slim chance of getting my phone back. And this is India, absolutely no chance of getting my phone back when someone could sell that phone for a relatively large amount of money. So, instead of gong back to search for my phone, I made the split second decision that this loss was not going to ruin our dinner. We proceeded to sit down and order some food.

In the back of my mind, the loss was obviously still nagging me. I now no longer had a way to communicate with others, which was social death in my circumstance. More importantly, the next day I had a scheduled dinner with students from my University who were visiting. I needed my phone to coordinate with them, as it was our only contact point. Additionally, I don’t think any college student ever likes to lose an expensive piece of equipment…

For our meal, we ordered an assortment of carefully crafted bar foods. I also wanted to try some of the beers since it was a micro-brewery. I think they brought out 6 shot sized trial beers. All 6 of them tasted disgusting, but I guess I hate beer in general anyway. Not sure what I was expecting. Lolol. The food was good. Conversation was somewhat hampered by the loss of my phone, but the company was enjoyable as always.

We finished eating and then resolved that we would retrace our steps to look for my phone. We left the little German town and walked down the side road towards the main road. I was looking in the ditch along the way to see if it had fallen out of the auto. No sign of my phone. We then walked back to the auto stand where we had initially taken an auto to the restaurant. (An auto stand is where a bunch of auto drivers form a group outside a mall or similar place. Since they somewhat have a monopoly over the area, they charge higher prices. The auto drivers then take turns with customer requests)

Since I am with my Indian friend, she speaks to the auto drivers to ask if they remember who drove us (our driver was not at the stand). At first, they do not remember, but then one of them does. The auto driver then makes a phone call to our previous auto driver and asks if there is a phone in the back seat. He says there is a white phone in the backseat and I immediately tell him that I will pay him to bring the phone here. The driver was about 20km away.

As we are waiting, I keep worrying that the driver will realize it is an iPhone and not bring it back, or it will somehow be the wrong phone. The driver finally returns and in his hand is my iPhone…….. I am still not sure how that happened.

Since a bunch of the other auto drivers were crowding around us and recognizing that it was an iPhone, I made the decision that I needed to negotiate the reward elsewhere. So, I had the original auto driver drive us back so that I could negotiate the reward and the fare together. I think I ended up paying about 1000 rupees (around $15) for the ride and the reward. I only had a 1000 rupee bill on me and he didn’t have any change. I was a little mad I had to pay so much, but given the circumstances I was happy no matter what.

[garrettdowd]

Going to Doctor (2/3?)

August 2014

Classes started and I lost track of writing these posts. It is now mid December, however I am going to try to remember everything that happened before I forget. So to continue where I left off.

There were a number of places around me that could perform the testing I needed. I needed to have some blood, urine, and stool tests performed as prescribed by the consulting doctor. There were actually a number of places around that provided this “laboratory” testing. Many of the labs were located in hospitals and there was a highly-regarded hospital with a lab on the way to work. It was called the Narayana Multispecialty Hospital. So, I hopped on a bus in the morning and took it to the stop nearest the hospital. I then walked the rest of the way and entered the hospital. The hospital was fairly basic although clean and nice. As with most buildings, the techniques used to build the hospital seemed a little rudimentary, but overall the facilities seemed adequate.

I walked over to the reception area and waited for he assistant to acknowledge me, which actually took some time. I then filled out an intake form and handed it back in. The receptionist gave me vague directions towards the testing area and I somewhat wandered back to the testing area since there were no signs. I arrived at the waiting room and handed my paperwork and list of needed tests to the person at the desk. I waited until my number was called and then entered the testing room. They drew a fairly standard blood sample and then I went back to the restroom to complete the urine and stool. I don’t think there was any stool in me at that point which made the experience more of a challenge. Anyway, skipping that, I finished testing and headed off to work. They said they would have results in 24hrs for the blood and 5 days for the stool. On my way out of the hospital I bought a carrot cake muffin and holy crap was it delicious. I think the café I bought it from was an Au Bon Pain.

Long story short, the tests said that I was fine. However, the consulting doctor said I might as well take the prescribed medicines (except for the anti biotics). As I was about to leave for the US, I did not take the medicines. Actually, in the last week of my stay, my symptoms stopped and I was pretty normal. However, upon my return to the US, I struggled through a week of readjustment to American food. I was totally fine after that readjustment period. Hopefully my readjustment to food in India won’t take so long next time?

[garrettdowd]

Going to Doctor (1/hopefully a finite amount of times)

August 2014

So my stomach problems have been going on long enough to guess that I have some sort of infection or something. My symptoms have been fairly mild, yet they are annoying enough that I want to seek medical care. As I quickly learned, seeking medical care in India is much different that seeking medical care in the US. I started my medical journey by visiting an expert in Gastroenterology. I checked him out online first and he seemed to be fairly legitimate.

His office was pretty far south from the center of the city and I estimated that it would take me about 2 hours to get there from the office. I didn’t know what buses to take and at that time I was not a pro at finding was buses to take either. His office was open from 7:30 to 9 and I wanted to arrive at 7:30, so I left the office around 5:30. I took the first bus down to Silk Board and then I found another bus to take me further in the right direction. I forget exactly what happened, but I remember walking a lot. So at that point I waved an auto down and had him take me to the Indian Institute of Management, which I thought was nearby the office. I was wrong.

The auto dropped me off at IIM, and I asked him if he could take me to the address that I had for the office. He didn’t know where it was, so I started walking south from IIM. It was already 8:00pm and dark out at that point and I had no idea where I was going. I walked and walked and passed some hospitals. I finally arrived at a big intersection with a road that looked like it might be the right one, so I walked down it. I didn’t walk to far before I asked some people if they could point me in the right direction. They were fairly helpful and said that it was probably another street further down. I think this situation needs some clarification. The address of the office was very vague and refers to a large area. The doctor actually messaged me landmark directions to get to his office…. Clearly, no one likes organized addresses or uses a GPS system here ;) I actually had reservations about seeing the doctor in the first place because it was far away and it was only open in the evening. Anyway, I went back to the main road and walked a little further down to find the next street. I pulled out the landmark directions the doctor sent me previously and put them to use. I found the correct street and walked down it for a while until I finally found the office!!! It only took three hours to reach…

So no appointment is needed with the doctor, you just walk in. This is also true in hospital for basically everything but surgery. I walked in the office and when my turn came I sat down with the doctor. After we got the boring stuff out of the way, he agreed that it was probably an infection. He also told me something that I found very surprising, and very disgusting at the same time. People in Bangalore, and maybe elsewhere, must “de-worm” themselves around 2 times a year. You know how dogs will get worms? Yeah, it is common for people to get worms here..

The doctor said that I needed to get some tests done at a laboratory or hospital. He gave me a sheet with the required tests, and he also wrote down what medications I might be taking if the test were positive. The interesting thing is that you don’t really need a prescription for medicine. I can buy anti-biotics with not much trouble, which is scary.

The next morning, I headed to a hospital near my office to get testing done

[garrettdowd]

Breakfast

            So initially, I had an all Indian breakfast, but now I have switched back to a simple continental breakfast. I have been eating toast and oatmeal with black sugar tea and mango juice. I requested that they use water instead of milk in the oatmeal (for reasons I described in “Kodaikanal (extra)”, so to make the oatmeal palatable I have been mixing in Nuetella. It may make the breakfast less healthy, but it tastes pretty good. I then use butter or peanut butter for the bread. Peanut butter is so expensive here! It is as expensive as Nuetella, and it’s not even as good as the JIF, ugh.

  I still get poori on poori day though (Tuesday I think). The poori they make is so good and it is far beyond any poori I have had in the US. I just learned today that they make poori in two distinct ways. The kind that they usually serve for breakfast is made with a lot more oil. It is lighter and obviously good. The second kind is made with less oil and is heavier. This is usually served at dinner. I should learn how to make this stuff and impress all my Indian friends.

[garrettdowd]

Sim Card

I finally got an Indian SIM card (like awhile ago now). It’s sort of hard to live without mobile communication, especially if you are trying to meet up with someone.

  One of my good friends who lives here in the city helped me get it. She used her own personal details to activate the account for me. I am still thankful for the kindness she has shown me. I could have gotten a SIM myself, but I did not have the required photos on hand. It is actually quite interesting actually. In addition to the normal details needed to open a prepaid phone account, you also need to have multiple passport size photographs.  These photographs are needed basically for any type of account. So if you come to India, bring like 20 passport size photographs.

  My account, or rather my friend’s account, is with Vodafone. Vodafone and Airtel are the two main providers here. It is also interesting to note that Vodafone actually uses Airtel’s network. Additionally, Bangalore has 2G, 3G, and 4G, however the 4G coverage is terrible. The 3G coverage is ok, but I do not think that it warrants the premium price. Go with 2G. I mostly use my data for Whatsapp, Google Maps, Zomato, and news. 2G is more than fine for this stuff.

  I am not too experienced with prepaid plans in the US, but I enjoy my prepaid plan. Basically, you put money on your account, which you can use for “talk-time”, SMS, or data. Talk-time and SMS have certain rates and the cost is simply deducted from your account every time you talk or text. Data works a little differently. You actually buy a data package from your phone (using an integrated menu thing on the phone). You can choose 2G or 3G, and they even have special packages you can choose from. In addition, Vodafone has give-aways and such for talk-time and data. All you have to do to enter is send a text after your recharge. It is quite an interesting model. Once you run out of money, you can just go to a local phone store and “re-charge” your phone. This just means that you add more money to the account. So yeah, I have a residential address and a local phone. Next step, get a driver’s license. hahahaha

[garrettdowd]

Kodaikanal (extra)

I forgot to mention…. I bought some hand-made chocolate, which I new wasn’t the best idea…. But I did it anyway. It tasted amazing, but I’m pretty sure I paid the price for it. You have to be very careful when consuming anything made with dairy products. Milk here is not pasteurized like it is in America or Europe. It is very common to buy raw milk at the store and then boil it yourself. I have been having stomach problems (I will leave it at that) and I think it is contributable to milk derivatives. I would say be more careful of dairy products than of water quality.

  Also, a lot of people asked to take pictures with me in Kodaikanal. Sometimes they would want to take group pictures, but most of the time they wanted individual pictures with me. So if there was a group of friends, each of them had to get a picture with me. I am still not exactly sure what they do with the pictures or why they take them in the first place, but hey, its whatever. As my friend put it, I could be like an animal in a zoo….. OR (preferably) I could be like a famous actor… I will choose to think of myself as the latter. :P

[garrettdowd]

Kodaikanal (Seis/Seis)

  So after the waterfall, the rest of the day was fairly normal (if you can describe anything on this trip as normal). It was absolutely beautiful even though it was quite cloudy and foggy. We also asked the driver to stop here and there along the way so we could get out and take pictures. Other than that, I am actually already having trouble remembering what exactly we did the rest of that day. I am writing this two weeks after we visited Kodaikanal. Its amazing how much time has passed and how many more experiences I have had. I do remember how amazing the shower was that night. All a good hotel needs is a nice shower and a clean bed (or floor if you are in Korea ;) 

  The next day we took the normal tourist tour through the main attractions of the city. This includes Pillar Rocks, Suicide Point (Green Valley View), Hell’s Kitchen, City View, Pine Forest, and Silver Cascade (waterfall). It seemed like most of these attractions were all along one road. I didn’t enjoy this day as much because everything was overly commercialized, although many of the views were absolutely stunning. I also greatly enjoyed trying the tropical fruits that the local vendors had. I tried the rambutan (spiky red ball thing), and the purple mangosteen. Both of these fruits were absolutely divine. The rambutan had a white grape-like center with a big seed. So you had to put the whole thing in your mouth and chew the meat off the seed. The mangosteen was also absolutely amazing. You have to apply pressure to the outside of the fruit to break it open (almost like a nut). Inside was a white meat that was divided into 5 or six segmented that surround a single seed in the middle. Sooooo Good. That fruit will stain your hands though, but its not a big problem. They also had jackfruit and starfruit and others, but I didn’t have the time to indulge.

  After our touring was finished, we headed back to the hotel. The hotel was very considerate and gracious. They allowed us to use the room we had the previous night to shower and change for the bus ride back. I think we ate some dinner there and then we headed for the place where the bus was scheduled to pick us up. We boarded the bus and I prepared to fall asleep. We stopped just outside of the city to load some cargo on top of the bus, which I didn’t necessarily like because it was making the bus more top-heavy….. and we were driving down steep narrow roads at night with dense fog. However, once we departed again I quickly fell asleep.

  The journey back was uneventful, and I was able to sleep for most of the ride back. I was lucky to bring noise-isolating headphones and a face-mask, which I would consider necessary for a sleeper bus. However, I think we were somewhat lucky. Once we got back to Bangalore it was early morning and the sun had not risen yet. The bus makes multiple stops in the city, however you need to be awake to get off the bus at the right point. They do not wake you up. Luckily… we were both awake and able to get off at the right point.

  So that is that. It was an amazing trip where the beautiful views were on par with the amazing experience of actually traveling there. While I would definitely consider myself as a tourist on that trip, I think my friend and I did a good job of making it an experience rather than just sightseeing and travel.

[garrettdowd]

Kodaikanal (<num> 5 </num>)

              We arrived at a small village and we parked. The village was very small and completely un-commercialized. At that point I knew that either the place we were going to was going to be great, or it was going to suck.  We walked down a steep path with rickety houses and such on either side.

  We were greeted with a fairly normal sized stream at the bottom and so far I was unimpressed. I didn’t see how there could be a waterfall somewhere along the stream. Our guide told us that there were wild forest elephants in the area through which we were traveling; he even pointed out some dung near the path. That surprised me because I never pictured elephants as living in the mountains. So we walked and walked for about 1.5 kilometers through brush that is similar to what I would find back home in Ohio. Then the brush was no more and before us lie bare rock. I became excited as I saw the end of the rock and the beginning of empty space. I realized that we were on top of the waterfall!

  After taking some pictures and standing near the edge, it was time to start the descent. To back track a little bit, our guide originally told us that he would take us to this waterfall because we were two young guys (not to insinuate any sexism as communication can be quite basic at times)). I did not understand what he meant at the time, but it became clear that he was talking about the descent. The descent required some athleticism, coordination, and a lack of fear for sliding down steep slopes to your death. Yep. We traverse slopes that were as steep as 50-60 degrees at points with footholds provided by plants growing along the cracks in the face of the rocks. Neither my friend nor I were expecting this.

  We made it down safely and took some pictures. After some time we trekked back up and made our way back to the car. I would estimate the elevation change at somewhere around 300m (1000ft) for the entirety of the path back up.   Oh, and I forgot to mention. My friend and I obviously wore shoes for this excursion, but our guide made it the entire way with flip flops, yes.. normal beach flip flops that fit in-between your hallux and your long toe (1st and 2nd toes). People here know how to use their flip-flops (usually referred to as slippers here).

[garrettdowd]

Kodaikanal (4/Kodaikanal)

            Why am I breaking up this subject into so many posts? I’m pretty tired as I write this and so every time I start a new paragraph I figure I might as well make it a new post … that doesn’t even make sense… It doesn’t help that I have iTunes on one half of my display playing all my music videos and this on the other half. I  watched the whole Beyonce music video thing.  I was impressed.

  Ok, back to the trip. Our first stop after leaving the hotel was to go trekking to this waterfall that very few people go to. It was probably the best part of the trip and it turned out to be the most dangerous part of the trip as well.

Actually, im kinda tired so I will continue writing tomorrow ;)

[garrettdowd]

Kodaikanal (3/9999999999)

            We made it all the up the mountain and into the hill station of Kodaikanal. We got off the bus and were greeted by a bunch of drivers looking to take us on their tour. Basically, everyone had the same packages where they would take us to the main spots in Kodai. We found one guy who would take us to our hotel, and once we got to the hotel we negotiated with him on the package price. It was good that we did. Since it had not been raining much, most of the waterfalls were dry. He agreed to take us to take us trekking to a waterfall that still had water. Backing up a bit, I should mention that the friend who came on the trip with me was able to coordinate most of the trip. He studies in Singapore, grew up in Malaysia, and is Indian. Luckily he speaks Tamil (the language of Tamil Nadu) quite well, so communication was not an issue. So after negotiation, we got out of the car and went into the hotel. We choose to stay at a hotel called the Altius Nest. It didn’t have an amazing view, but it was clean, had a nice bed, had a great shower, and the food was great.  After a quick lunch, we headed out for the first set of visits.

[garrettdowd]

Kodaikanal (2/a few more)

              So as I was saying, we reached the base of the mountain range and we started to climb. Unlike road near mountains in the US or elsewhere, there are no tunnels or major environment modifications. The roads are built into the side of the slopes and these types of roads are called Ghat roads. Most of these roads were built during the British times and they are quite impressive pieces of engineering for their time. The roads naturally snake up the mountains with hairpin turns and steep drops. In most places, the road is not wide enough to even let two small cars pass… and we were driving up in a big bus. When two vehicles want to pass each other, one would usually have to backup to a place where the road was wider. Many times we would have to pass another vehicle by basically scraping the bus against the mountain wall where there was a lot of vegetation. One had to be vigilant and watch for branches that would try to invade the bus through the windows. Interestingly enough, I had the window open on the way back and I fell asleep as we drove down the mountain….. I woke up covered in leaves and vegetation. It was really quite an experience in itself.

Sorry for the poor video quality, I had to compress the video quite a bit so that I could upload it on the network connection I have here.