an interesting drive

Driving in India is quite an adventure and I'm happy that I don't have to do it. It isn't that people speed, that definitely isn't the case at all...there is too much traffic to be able to speed; it is that there are so many things to keep your eye on; cars, busses, bicycles, cows, camels etc. (and no, I'm not exaggerating, on the "highway" between Delhi and Jaipur I saw probably 100 cows and 50 camels, the cows were just hanging out, the camels were pulling carts)

I must say that I have rather quickly adjusted to the Indian way of driving and only rarely do I get freaked out any more.

This weekend however I had a totally new and interesting driving experience which was a classic Indian driving moment. So, we are happily cruising back to Delhi when we got to a little traffic jam. At first I didn't think much about it, traffic would periodically slow down on the road; but after a minute or so it became clear that there was some sort of accident up ahead. So, what did we do?

Well, slowly but surely the cars started backing up to a break in the median about 200 metres back and crossing to the other side of the highway to drive past the accident; no waiting around for police to fix things; that is just what they do here. It was actually amazingly orderly...until that is there was an accident on the other side of the highway - shockingly not because they were driving into oncoming traffic, but one person just rear ended another.

So back we moseyed to our side of the highway and soon enough things cleared up.

I've been here long enough now that when I get stuck in traffic I'm happy when my driver sneaks into a tight spot and goes around things or crosses the highway to get past an accident. Completely outside of the way things should work, but somehow it all kind of works...kind of.

The worst driver I've ever seen here actually was a student driver...they were following all the rules, driving in the lanes, and it was completely screwing things up.

And...for your viewing pleasure, traffic on the main street in Jaipur, bicycles, rickshaws (auto and not), about a million parked motorbikes. Amazingly, no cars, I guess they knew better then to try and squeeze onto that road.