Driving in India: Although I will avoid it as much as I can, I’m going to
have to spend some time on long bus or car rides later and so I’ll give you
some insight into the differences between driving in India and America to
give a better picture of what future “on the road again adventures” will be
like.
-The biggest differences are that they drive on the other side of the road
and the driver has to know the dimension of his vehicle down to the last inch
in order to squeeze past other vehicles or sacred cows in narrow country or
city roads while other cars continuously honk in front or behind them. If
less than an inch is available to squeeze through, a gracious passer-byer, the
other driver, or a passenger will provide some necessary hand gestures to
help remedy the problem.
- As most mountain roads are about the width of a 1 and a 1/2 vehicles, vehicles
going in opposite directions hug the middle of the road until the last 20
feet or so before the smaller vehicle moves to the gravel on the curb. If
you ever played “Chicken,” you know what I mean. While I realized Lelit was
an excellent driver (boy, was I grateful when I figured that out!) as were
most of the other drivers on the treacherous hills, I still found myself
withdrawing my elbow or hand sometimes from the window in a reflex reaction
when we passed. I finally was able to stop myself when I realized that if we
actually crashed into another vehicle and rocketed a mile down to the river,
my elbow or hand would be the least of my problems!
- If you want to pass a vehicle going in the same direction, you honk your
horn. That car will generally respond by moving away from the center of the
road by a few inches and/or the drivers signal with their hand or use a turn
signal to indicate whether it is safe to pass.
-Blind curves are treated as any other curve. Keep the same speed and honk
your horn. I rarely heard an oncoming honk because of the Punjabi music but
Lelit had better ears…I assumed.
-In driving through any roadside village or nearing any person or animal that
may come within 30 yards of your car’s trajectory, you…drum roll, please…
yes, you honk your horn repeatedly.
-In speeds up to 30 miles per hour through the really twisty mountainous
parts, Lelit navigated around or through rock slides or just large rocks
sprinkled across the road, recalcitrant animals, and waterfalls over the
road…usually after coming from a blind curve.
-Finally, from years of being a passenger in taxi cabs in Asia, I adopted my
usual attitude of “well, if its my karma to go this way, then so be it” and
didn’t do any back seat driving or worrying and only hit the imaginary brake
a couple of times. When you are in bus, you don’t get to see all the above
incidents up close and personal, you just get body slammed around the almost
non-existent padding.
