It's been almost a month since my last posting, and I've actually had complaints about not getting another one up sooner! However, I have been busy with my 4 mates who came to visit and do a tour of the Golden Triangle, which means we visited Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra and Varanase. One girlfriend stayed on a bit longer, and we went to Rishikesh and stayed in an Ashram- very serene, but lots of cows in town, necessitating the inevitable hopscotch routine to avoid the resultant cow paddies that dotted the roads. I never knew that cows got diarrhea as well!
I have so many potential blog stories from our little tour that I hardly know where to start. Shopping was a main theme, and let me tell you, the ladies arrived home with bursting suitcases and large duty payments at customs for being over the acceptable limit. I'm not sure how I am going to fare when I finally make it home in July:)) I'm already scouting around to buy a 2nd suitcase to hold all my essential purchases! Ashram life will be another blog, although I will have to divulge my secret external forays to satiate my caffeine addiction. Varanase itself is another blog.
Nonetheless, I decided to start with describing our road trips, as the driving and traffic was even crazier than in Delhi, and was a source of much fear and consternation throughout the trip for most of my companions. We actually had a very good driver, and so our discomfort was not a reflection on him, but rather on the general driving and driving conditions in India. So why do you suppose that the drive from Udaipur to Jaipur, a trip of some 400km takes about 7 hours? It is actually a 4-lane highway which in Canada, even in the winter, would take 1/2 that time.
Well, for starters, don't assume the "traffic" consists mainly of cars, overloaded trucks and belching buses with millions of passengers in them. No... Imagine having to share the highway with rickshaws built for 4 passengers but holding 25 people, little motorized carts that are so loaded with whatever crop or product that if they tipped over, they would only fall a foot or so before their load at the side touched the ground, cushioning their fall but, similar to a turtle on its back, virtually ensuring that it will never regain its upright status until it is emptied of its cargo. But that is not all.... I haven't mentioned the carts pulled by donkeys, camels, horses, let alone the beautifully painted elephants that we enountered on their way to weddings.
So how does one navigate this myriad of moving humanity? By mimicking the driving habits of racing car drivers in the Indy 500 of course. The trick is to blare your horn constantly whilst weaving your way in and out of traffic, squeezing into the smallest gaps between vehicles before overtaking once again, and finally, overtaking by crossing to the other side of the road in front of oncoming traffic and then ducking back in at the last minute. At no time do you ever pay attention to any rules of the road (are there any?), and certainly never stick to any lane markings or dividers, otherwise you will be driven off the road. What is the result? A shorter traveling time, but the downside is white knuckle passengers with cramps in their "braking" leg, and dirty underwear. But, as one of my travel companions put it, "if it's my turn to die, then so be it". I must say though that by the end of the 3rd day on the road, everyone was a lot less anxious, and by the time we got back to Delhi, it all seemed rather tame!
Go figure! Mates, start your engines!
