Would deffo love a full India TR also if you can be arsed, if not no bother. Will happily repay it with a Myanmar/Burma TR or anywhere I go next year which could be somewhere like Japan or China, but yet to be decided. Love hearing about people's experiences
I'd quite like to do a proper India report. I've started one a few times in my mind but I can't seem to come up with anything that does it justice.
It was such an onslaught of experiences. When we were travelling, (which was most of the time) We couldn't seem to go more than about 30 seconds without going, "Wow! Look at that".
One day in Jaipur, we had just returned to our hotel after visiting a temple. Mrs Red was chillaxing by the rooftop pool that overlooked the grounds at the back of the hotel, and I was trying to find a place where I could look down on the busy city street that ran past the front.
The front section of the roof was partitioned off by a sort of chain link fence, but this was breeched by a galvanised maintenance ladder which serviced some air conditioning units.
I had a quick look around to make sure that no one was watching, but Mrs Red & I were the only people on the roof, so I nipped up the ladder and made my way around the air conditioning units. It was perfect. I had an incredible view of the teeming street below, but no one could see me.
The road at the front of the hotel was marked out into four lanes, but in India, road markings, along with roundabouts and traffic lights, are seen as ornamental rather than functional and a sea of vehicles flowed in all directions.
It was an amazing and mesmerising sight when viewed from above. Every conceivable form of transport, propelled by every imaginable power source, made its way along the road, often at an alarming speed, with never more than a a couple of feet, (and often considerably less than that) between it and the vehicles that surrounded it on all sides.
Almost everything, from enormous juggernauts to donkey carts and bicycles, were routinely overloaded to the point of stupidity. A truck designed to carry 5 tons would haul 25 tons. Curious as to how it was possible I looked beneath one one day and discovered that a row of thick wooden chocks had been jammed between the axles and the chassis to prevent the springs from bending far enough to allow the mudguards to be squashed into the wheels.
A 25 seater bus might carry 70 or 80 passengers, and, original engine long gone, be powered by one taken from a cement mixer. Failing that, shafts might be attached to the front so that it can be pulled by an elephant.
Motorcycles are transport for entire families, including their livestock. I read a review of a 125cc Honda that stated, "a very versatile vehicle, but a bit of cramped for four people on long journeys".
Bicycles are used for everything. We watched some houses being built and all the materials, cement, bricks, reinforcing bars etc, arrived by pushbike.
Now throw in the tuk tuks, the rickshaws, and a few thousand pedestrians. It's quite a spectacle.
After a while I noticed two policemen standing by the roadside. Every now and then one of them would wade out into the traffic and grab a motorcyclist by stepping in front of a slow moving bike, reaching over the handlebars and removing the ignition key in one fluid, well practiced movement. Then he would escorts his hapless victim to where his partner waited on the pavement and between them they would go through his pockets. If they found any cash they would levy an on the spot fine, sometimes taking all the the money, sometimes returning about half of it. The offender was then free to go.
After I noticed this I started watching the approaching traffic more carefully. Any motorcyclist who happened to see the policemen in time took evasive action, ether by moving to the opposite side of the road or doing a complete U turn. If the policemen were already frisking a 'suspect' they would ride past quite close to get a better look. Like wildebeest walking by close to lions that have already made a kill.
Bugger! I had no intention of writing about traffic when I started this post, I wanted to tell you about something else that I saw from the rooftop, but that will have to wait until next time now.
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