New Orleans: A city of Bridges

New Orleans, despite its poverty and fairly ramshackle appearance is rich in its road and bridge infrastructure. Sited on the banks of the mighty Mississippi and surrounded by marshes this city relies heavily depends on bridges for its basic sustenance and communication. Here are pictures of a few of the bridges I traveled across.

New Orleans World War Memorial

I have always respected soldiers, men and women, who fight for their country and sometimes even make the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty. Irrespective of which country they belong they are all spurred by the goal of protecting their country or destroying their enemy country (except the Indian army). I visit war memorials when I come to know of one in the vicinity. While at New Orleans I decided to visit this world war memorial in the Ninth Ward and was surely surprised by the way the memorial had been fashioned. The memorial as a whole is similar to the Arch of Titus, but in listing out the names the front has only white soldiers names, while black and colored people are mentioned in a separate list in the back of the memorial. In short even in death for the country the glory for non-white people is little lesser. I hope this has changed since then.

Roadside Artworks in New Orleans, Louisiana

One of the features of American cities that I like is their affinity for art. Even if the city is an impoverished town like New Orleans, LA there are places in the city where one can find beautiful artistic sculptures, statues of important people, war memorials, etc installed across the main thoroughfares. In my opinion this is a great way to mold the younger generation into productive, patriotic and responsible citizens of a country. By constantly reaffirming only the good things about a civilization the children are subtly taken in the direction the establishment wishes them to go. This is good for the individual, society and the country.
As an example I would like to post pictures of some public sculptures in New Orleans, Louisiana, US.

New Orleans' French Market

This is supposed to be the French Market in New Orleans, but most of the vendors here are not French. In fact there are a wide variety of nationalities represented there, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Africans, etc. The array of merchandise being sold is equally diverse. I wonder why it is still known as French Market.

Some River Views of New Orleans

I was going through the pictures of my recent trip to New Orleans and thought that these river view pictures must be shared with readers of this blog. The river, man made shipping channel and the swamps make this state a naturalists paradise and I sure hope it remains as pristine in habitat for alligators and other wildlife for many centuries to come. For now I would simply say this is one place to enjoy nature, water and aquatic life to the fullest. For adventure lovers there are possibilities for kayaking, canoeing, jet skiing and alligator hunting too.

Strange looking trees by the river

Saprophytes hanging from the trees on the riverside

River with floating plants gets narrower as we get deeper into the swamps

A view of the river

Trees slashed by the lightning

Water hyacinth is a big problem in the US too. Apparently it was brought in from Japan for a show and then it spread like plague in the waterways

Beautiful water body....

New Orleans' different Cemeteries

While several places in the world suffer from shortage of ground water resources New Orleans, Louisiana has the opposite problem... too much water. Two feet into the ground would yield water. This has led to great challenges to the local population in pretty much every field of endeavor. Building homes, roads, bridges, commercial structures are expensive and takes lot more efforts than elsewhere in the US.

Perhaps this problem made the people to build cemeteries over the ground instead of digging graves. Over the past few centuries the mainly Christian immigrants from Europe and Africa to this place have started building graves above the ground. These graves look more like small rooms than places for eternal resting. I visited one of the cemeteries which has several small individual rooms and several family rooms which look more like a large bank vault with individual chambers for different members. Here are few pictures of the cemetery.

Unequal Even When Martyred

We know that until the Civil Rights Movement African-Americans didn't have several basic rights and were heavily discriminated against. Some of the books I read talked about soldiers of African-American origin who fought with the Union during the civil war and helped free their brethren. But what those books didn't say was that even though both White and Colored (African-American) soldiers did exactly the same thing, they were treated differently.

Bywater War Memorial, New Orleans

When I was in New Orleans earlier this month I took time off to visit the Katrina-devastated and under-reconstruction Lower 9th Ward. In Bywater neighborhood of the Lower 9th Ward is this World War I war memorial. The structure which looks quite similar to the India Gate in New Delhi commemorates those from this area who laid down their lives for the country. The memorial is a great initiative and everyone listed there deserves the respect of one and all. But what stuck me hard was the fact that the memorial has separate boards listing the names of "White Men" and "Colored Men". This is quite absurd in my opinion, a man or woman who serves the nation and performs the ultimate sacrifice of giving up his or her life is not to be perceived by color, they are patriots and that is it.










It seems like even after getting martyred some people are simply not accorded equal status.

New Orleans doesn't seem to get over!!!

I know... I know... I have been blogging about my visit to New Orleans for far too long. Believe me I have not shared everything that I saw and experienced out there. I have been kept on my toes by my professors at school so I haven't been able to spend as much time blogging as I would like to. There are few more stories I would like to tell you about my visit to New Orleans. But before I tell the stories I'd like you to see some of the sights of this vibrant city so you can try and guess what I am going to talk about in the coming days.

A drift wood sculpture installed in someone's front yard

This is not a giant clarinet but a painting which looks very very realistic

A war memorial installed in a round about

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?

Swamp Tour Update

Continuing from where I left off...
The guide gunned the boat deeper into the swamps through the channels passing adjacent to a large brackish water lake/ lagoon where shrimp farming is being practiced. As the boat lurched in the shallow waters of the swamps the guide explained that the water appears brown not because it is dirty because of the presence of a bacteria which stains the water. It is surprising that there were homes along the water channel and some had the most common sign I have seen in the US... "FOR SALE". There were speed limit signs for boats with warning of prosecution for violations, law enforcement everywhere, good for the local residents. Wish there was similar enforcement for alligators to prevent them from attacking humans :) and another law to make gators to voluntarily come forward to get culled :)...

Speed Limits on water too....

Large bird looks majestic and beautiful

I saw numerous birds such as cranes, egrets, ducks, an occasional eagle flying past ignoring the noise and spray raised by the boats as if it were their daily obstacles. The vegetation/ mangrooves became thicker as we ventured deeper into the swamps forcing the captain to slow the boat almost to a crawl as we passed an oil well which pumped away the black gold from the depths of the earth. Evidence that there is no corner in the earth which has not been explored and exploited by some greedy human being.

Duck with its chicks on a pier

An oil well in the swamps... quietly pumping away

After more lurching in shallow waters the captain stopped the boat and started shouting "oup... oup... oup... oup..." rather loudly. Initially I couldn't quite understand why he was yelling, but it soon became evident that he was trying to attract some wild alligators. Soon a few alligators were sighted around the boat and they started swimming towards the noise. The captain took out a bag of marshmallows and threw one into the water which was immediately grabbed by a hungry gator. Several gators came up as more marshmallows were thrown into water. The guide jokingly also said that if one of us wished to swim with the gators we were welcome to jump overboard.

Going deeper into the swamps... supposedly wild and unchartered territory

Gator coming for Marshmallows

Gator poses for a picture

Our tour guide playing with the Gator...

That's me handling the baby Gator...

We left the place and got back into the main channel after playing with the gators for some more time. The real surprise awaited us here. The tour guide produced a small one-year old gator and allowed everyone on the boat to carry it like a pet and get a feel of it. The yearling looked like the garden lizard but only more scaly, rough skinned and lazy. The baby gator didn't open its mouth, I wonder why... the guide mentioned that it usually doesn't open its mouth and bite but if it was suitably irritated it would. None of us tried to make it open its mouth was we passed it around. The last part of the tour was a fast boat ride through the channels, the twin-engine passenger boat showed its true power as the guide gunned it towards the pier. It churned up frothy waves and created a line of white as we sped towards our destination where we ended our short swamp tour.

Waves formed by the boat

As we disembarked from the boat the captain stood by the door gratefully accepting the tips handed out to him by passengers. There were boards all around the boat and the ticket counter which read "Tips accepted and appreciated"... Well that is how marketing is done I guess... instead of asking just say it...

What I must say here is that the guide did a good job in showing us the important sights around the swamp, gave us the true gator experience and even let us handle a year-old gator. He was funny and his narrative absorbing and never overbearing or overly seeking money. I think this kind of a positive attitude will generate lot more revenue than outright solicitation of tips.

Louisiana Swamp Tour Images

New Orleans, Louisiana thrives on tourism related industries. Swamp and Plantation tours, night clubs, restaurants, coffee shops, trinket stores, Native American and Cajun burial ground tours, etc are frequented by visitors, thanks to entrepreneurs offering these locations as attractive tours. I have always been an outdoors and adventure person so we decided to go on a swamp tour across the Barataria Swamps on a covered boat.
As we waited at the boat pier for the tour to start, I was surprised by the number of alligator products that were being sold at the souvenir store. Slaughtered gator heads for $15-35, Gator claws as back scratchers for a few dollars, gator skin, etc. It gave me an uneasy feeling in my stomach to see that these regal reptiles were being farm-bred for human consumption not only as meat but as these souvenir samples. We human beings often refer to wild animals as wild, cruel and savage etc, but I am convinced that it is the other way round. It is human beings that are cruel and not the animals. For wild animals it is a question of survival when they attack humans, but for us it is often pride, an urge to show off, etc that drives to attack animals.

Gator head for sale!!! Can humans get any more barbaric???

After a few minutes our tour-guide came and hollered for all of us to get into the boat. The guide was a tough-looking bearded man with a great sense of humor. He started the tour by saying that "Alligators are cold blooded like most women," and introduced us to the waterways on which we would be traveling and also the surrounding habitations where Cajuns of the Bayou continue to live amidst swamps. I was amazed to know that the waterway we were on was actually man-made, it certainly didn't appear so. I am pretty certain lots of slaves labored on this project and many perished too.

Man made water channel; amazing human endeavor!!!

As the tour progressed the guide pointed out a 2000 year old Native American Burial Mound adjacent to a Cajun cemetery and a small Fishing village!

Cajun cemetery and the Native American burial mound

The fishing village was particularly interesting because there was a large building on the wharf into which a drunk had plowed his speed boat. The wrecked boat and the broken building had been boarded up awaiting renovation. As we slowly ambled on, I saw several species of wildlife such as birds, turtles, furry animals, and of course a number of small to large Alligators or simply Gators.

The fishing village where a drunk boat driver had rammed the building!!!

Here are some pictures, but wait there is more to the tour... will blog in the next post.. including how we handled a 1-year old baby gator and fed large adult gators with marshmallows and more.