Kamikazi Driving in India

Here's the short version of our trip from Jaipur to Delhi! 

Harrowing! 

The long version: It was the worst driving/riding experience of our lives. It took 8 hours instead of the predicted 5 to travel 180 miles. We arrived at midnight rather than 7-8 pm as had been scheduled. I have never seen so many trucks in my life, usually 4 lanes of traffic on 3 lanes of pavement. 

Then there were the camel carts, the bicycle rickshaws, and the motor cycles interspersed with cars and trucks -- with the local businesses only a few feet away. Subhash was a master of weaving through the maze at breakneck speeds. I wanted him to slow down but then we never would have gotten to Delhi. His car had not a dent, which is a testament to his driving skill, but it was very difficult to watch every maneuver unfold. Jim couldn't stop watching while I drifted into occasional uneasy sleep or waited for a quiet moment when I could ask questions:

1. Why do all the trucks say "Blow Horn" on the back? (To remind us to blow the horn when we are passing! Ha. They blow horns all the time, passing, stopping, and in dangerous situations that no one can do anything about.)

2. What does "Use Dipper at Night" mean? It's on the back of every truck. (It means to blink your lights when you are passing. The whole country uses a misnomer: dipper = dimmer? And no one does it anyway! They just blow their horns. If 15 seconds passes without a horn blowing, then you must be alone or dead, the later more likely than the former!)

3. What are those tassles on the rearview mirros that look like someone is waving their arm out the passenger window to tell you to pass? (Decorations.)

I love the looks of the trucks. They are all tricked out. I think this is one idea that could be adopted by American truckers -- sort of like tats on athletes! It makes a statement about who you are! I don't understand the symbols, but they look festive. Sorry, I have no pictures. Either we were going too fast or when we were stopped the trucks were only a millimeter away from the rear view mirror.

Even when Jim is not driving, he's still driving in his mind. He anticipated many of Subhash's moves and often thought:

A. I wouldn't do that.

B. That's impossible.

And then Subhash did it anyway -- successfully! Jim says, "If I were my own life insurance agency, I would have cancelled my policy half way through the trip." My thought is, "If I had been driving, I would never have gotten out of the first round about."

Here's the rest of the kamikaze aspects of the trip: At any given time, a truck or car (or ten of them) would be coming the wrong way because they wanted a short cut to the U-turn! Really. Here you are, driving at 50 MPH and in your lane comes a semi going the other direction! 

Then as the evening drew on, we'd see many trucks stopped in the slow lane! It turns out there is a curfew in Delhi and trucks can't enter between 9:30PM and 6AM. So why not just stop where you are? 

The highway is also under construction with many miles of 2 bumpy lanes and the slow lane sometimes being used by sleeping truck drivers and camel carts going the wrong way! At times we were stopped between huge trucks for 20 -30 minutes! It was nuts! 

There's great honking and blinking of lights when there's absolutely no place to go! Subhash was judicious with the horn, thank goodness.

We got in late, slept 6 hours, got up, showered, repacked for plane travel, had breakfast, and were on the road to the airport by 8. 

We had a new driver for that little trip who told us what makes a good driver in India: 

Good Brakes. 

Good Horn. 

Good Luck!