Wild Partying and other views of New Orleans

It is long overdue but then I can't resist sharing the experience of our visit to the wildest party place I have been to. Bourbon street in downtown New Orleans is a place where all the good things are available... Booze of all types, brands, and blends flows like water from then hands of pretty damsels, burly bartenders and also stripped up gays and male strippers. The narrow street comes alive only after the rest of the city sleeps. This is the place where everything not available in the morning hours becomes readily yours for a price. There is music, dancing, drinking, smoking, both male and female strippers... and of course a homosexual part of the street too.

We parked in a multi-storied parking lot and walked the rest of the way into Bourbon street. As we entered the street we were welcomed by the blaring blues and jazz music which spilled out from the bars. Touts were holding placards and yelling "3 for the price of one" or "2 for the price of one" etc to attract the patrons. Some even tried to block our way and herd us into their bars but we politely pushed our way forward into the depths of Bourbon street.
One thing I must say is that this street has lots of musical talent. Every bar/ nightclub has a live band playing and their music is really fantastic. We stepped into a bar which was playing blues and enjoyed their soul-stirring performance for sometime. I was particularly impressed by the saxophone player's versatility to sing and the play the sax with equal elan.

As moved deeper into the street of pleasures I was surprised to see a fairly large gathering of devout Christians with large placards "Jesus loves you", "God loves Gays" and shouting slogans against the bar culture in the street. Ironically not many of the visitors were even giving a second glance to the boisterous group and were minding their own business of enjoying booze, music, and everything else available.....

The next part of Bourbon street was certainly the wildest and perhaps a tad bit scary too. The past two years in the US I have seen scantily clad women and girls everywhere... in the streets, on college campuses, in cafes etc. But here it was quite the opposite, women seemed to be fully clothed but some men on the other hand were stripped down to the bare minimum. Leather underwear, chains, mini skirts, and what not... to see fully grown men wearing so little clothing was a bit of a shock. Surprisingly this part of the Bourbon street seemed quite neglected by the city authorities, there was litter piled high along sidewalks, beer cans, plastic bottles, paper, and all kinds of trash was strewn around. Street lights were few and far between.. perhaps the government doesn't like homosexuals...

We had had enough by then so we retraced our steps along the street to our car and headed to a nice Chinese restaurant to grab a vegetarian dinner before heading home to sleep. Almost all the eateries on Bourbon street served alligator meat and prided themselves in their seafood offerings with very few or no choices for grass eaters like us.

New Orleans - Street Views

I am still back in my list of blogging topics because I have been very busy with school and other mundane activities. Anyway I shared my experience of the swamp tour in New Orleans, now let me tell you a little about the roads and what I saw around there. First of all I didn't travel much of the city except for the downtown areas. So I don't know what the suburbs look like and my opinion of downtown New Orleans is definitely not great... this is one of the rundown cities in the US that I have visited. The roads are narrow, potholed, there is the tram that still runs, like in Kolkata, the city seems heavily dependent on tourism. This is city is quite like any big city in India, one can see abject poverty as well as extravagant opulence. Fancy flyovers and highways, but narrow roads within the city. Dirty sidewalks especially around the Bourbon street area. Skyscrapers overshadow small homes and generally it is obvious that there is a lot of poverty in the city.
Our host was telling that earlier he would walk to his work which is just a mile away. He stopped doing so because every day he would be accosted by at least 3-4 dirty, grimy, beggars (pan-handlers) asking for a Quarter (25 cents), food, etc. They would not beg but rather ask/ demand. Now he drives the distance or takes the tram. Here are some pictures I shot while travelling in the car check it out and let me know what you feel?