Minneapolis Life: crazy. city. cycling.

I take full credit for a bad idea. A $10.00 death wish. I had been staring longingly at my road bike that sits on its trainer in the middle of my living room. I close my eyes and imagine myself biking along Minnehaha River in the middle of a Minnesota Summer with a pit stop for fish tacos with a fresh lime squeezed on amazing raw oysters with oh so delicious sriacha sauce at Sea Salt, and taking sips from Adam's local brew.
But wait...wake up... "I am in Bangalore. I can't bike here outside. Or can I"? I sign up for a local biking online digest and discover low and behold an organized, biking event called "Go Cycling, Go Green." I thought, my two favorite things- awesome. I close my eyes and imagine Adam and I cruising amongst quaint villages and hidden nature nooks and crannies of India.

But wait again... this is Bangalore. Not exactly biking in say the south of France. But actually this last thought didn't register with me whatsoever. (not unti la bit too late, anyways) What I did think was wow, 10 bucks for breakfast, lunch, fully supported ride, stops, and swimming at a resort mid-way and a t-shirt? um yeah! Totally, sign me up!

So. Here we begin. It is a 5:00 am wake up call. Water bottles? check. Helmets? Of course (one safety measure we can assure ourselves of on looking back) Adam and I look up the starting point on google maps. Needless to say, don't look up direction on google maps in Bangalore. We get lost. Biking downtown amongst one ways and early morning vendors and trucks. But, we arrive at our starting point at 7:00am. phew.

We are pumped. Lots of thrifty hipster Indians and their bikes, mostly mountain bikes and no helmets. Great dosa and idly breakfast of champions and we are off. Well sort of. By now, it is 8am and traffic is in full swing. We are going to do this how exactly? Immediately faced by honking and crazy streets, not side streets mind you. Straight down MG Road- the busiest in Bangalore. Watch out for the cow $#*& and wow, the cow too. Oookaaay....Stubborn gal that I am., I convince my dear hubby that we can do this.

We proceed to stop and go, stop and go, going between 5km-20km an hour. Which is great actually, a relief seeing because the roads, when paved, were strewn with rubbish and potholes. Now I see why all the other folks have mountain bikes. We are amongst 70 bikers, and it truly felt like survival of the fittest on this extreme biking tour. The entire route was lost amongst the pilot coordinator in the jeep ahead of us. I guess I get my wish to visit a quaint yet bustling village afterall. So, we made our way through bustling narrow streets, attempting to avoid street carpet and fruit vendors, beggars, rocks, buses, trucks and motor bikes. Because, honestly this is not the states- no one will pause or stop for you nor go around you. They will go straight through you if need be.

At utter point of over stimulation however, we reached our first pit stop- a glorious reprieve as we sip coconut water from a guy with his rickshaw in abundance of coconuts for us. A nice break in the rising heat and smouldering diesel fumes we had inhaled along the way.

Finally, for the last 8km of our 42km journey, the lanes of traffic became greater and we had some space and room to bike. Never mind to say, it was a highway! A welcome change as we cruised on paved roads and rode our sweaty selves to our destination. a nice resort with a pool.

Well, some may say we are cowards for quitting at this point. Some will say we were stupid to even try. We packed up our bikes into our Toyata Innova and came home- Thank you, Imran!- not making the return trek. Exhausted from sensory overload more than the biking.

I thought walking down the street here was sensory overload! Ha- it is all a matter of perspective, I suppose. Before leaving the U.S. I got overstimulated walking in a Twins crowd at Target Field. Look at me now! Move over, Bangalore, a brave chick and handsome hubby conquered your streets!

Go green or go home. Next time, I think I will just stay home for this one!