Yesterdays Pictures

Here are the pictures from yesterday. I've got to work on taking panoramic pictures while riding in the car. Single shots don't come anywhere near to capturing the full effect of the scene.

Bikes like these are everywhere. Some haul goods others haul people. I love the double downtube and top tube. What's also interesting is the majority of them are too big for the pilots. I don't know where they were made, but as you see, the guy (and most riding them) is standing to pedal. Granted he has a heavy load, but even guys riding single passenger bikes will stand or let their hips rock wildly to reach the full pedal stroke.

This bike fits better.

The people on bicycles are crazy compared to American standards of cycling safety, but the people on motorcycles are absolutely nuts. At least the people on bicycles stick to the side of the road. The motorcycles and mopeds will go anywhere at any speed. They weave and speed around trucks, buses and cars. I actually saw the aftermath of a moped getting hit yesterday. The rider was ok, but his moped was not.

This morning I saw a motorcycle passenger holding an infant in his lap. By the way the infant was haphazardly held, I imagine it was a girl. I say that after reading a newspaper article about the high mortality rates of girls here. Apparently when girls get sick, families are much less likely to do anything about it when they're growing up. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Maybe if there were more woman around, there wouldn't be so many men just standing around doing what appears to be nothing.

Finally the mega malls. For a place with a lot less women, they sure have a lot of malls.

It's really odd. It's almost like they're saying "Hey look at us! We're advanced and civilized. We have malls, models and movies!" Yet they can't get clean water, mosquito control or equal rights.

To their credit, they probably treat their street cows better then we treat our street people.

-b