First Impressions

My driver, Rajeesh?, was nice, quiet... maybe a little crazy. At least that's what I thought initially. Driving here is very, very different. Those white, dashed lines, meaningless. I actually think I could probably do a pretty decent job driving around here except for the whole opposite side of the road thing. No stop lights, just a few blinking yellow ones which blink yellow both ways, so they seemed pretty useless. Random speed bumps took the place of red lights, I guess.
I'm not sure if we missed Bangalore proper because it never really looked like a city. But that's probably just my faulty understandings. The level of poverty here is about what I expected, it's the volume that caught me off guard. Lots of trash and pollution. Lots of people. We went through town after town after town. I guess living in Texas or even North Carolina it was hard to understand. There are metropolitan hubs with dense populations that extend out a ways, but eventually end. Not so here, or at least for the seven hours we drove.
Lots of stray dogs that all look alike. That was kind of strange too. I think I've seen two different dog breeds. No stray dachshunds or chihuahuas. Cows and lambs, a few horses, all along the streets. The people seem hospitable but few smiles. I did see one McDonalds that I still wish I had gotten Rajeesh to stop at.
Driving through Mysore was likewise full of dodging pedestrians and other vehicles, driving on the "wrong" side of the rode and incessantly honking. Which is different here two. It's not road rage, like I first worried, the honking has a whole range of expression. There are even different noises. I heard an elephant, looked back expectantly and was dissapointed to see just another car. There are duck ones as well.
We drove through a couple security checkpoints and an animal preserve. Everyone stares at me. I think I'm going to start staring back.
The animal preserve was nice. Several monkeys, elephants, peacocks. No tigers. I asked:
"Oh, the Tiger Preserve? So there are tigers here!?
"No sir... is just a name.
"Ahh... I was really wanting to see a tiger... maybe it's for the best.
"...yes sir.