"Are you going to turn on your headlights?"
It's after sunset, deep in twilight, and we're starting back from our mountain climb in the Himalaya. It's a one lane mountain road that dives deep into a valley before climbing the near cliffside back up to the opposite ridgeline. It's 35km of twisty roads with the occasional oncoming car or, you know, bus.
"We don't turn our headlight on until it is full dark. That's how we do it in India" Says my guide.
I look at him with a smile "Just turn on the f-ing headlights. Safety first."
"Oh of course. Safety first."
Or safety.... never?
One thing I've noticed in my 10 days in India is that safety seems to be rather low on the list of priorities. Here are some examples:
--A 3 lane road, well.... it's more like a 5 lane road. Lanes don't matter. And cars, buses and trucks all drive with motorbikes, tuk-tuks' and bicycle rickshaws. I've seen so many near accidents it's unreal. Yet I've never seen an accident. (Other than the cars that obviously rolled off the mountain roads and were smashed to oblivion).
--Stoplights.... sometimes. If you feel like stopping. I mean, just honk. They'll move. (And they do...)
--Crosswalks? Brother please! Cross all 10 lanes. Somehow the cars will miss you. Especially if you hold out your hand. Occasionally people almost get clipped. (Somehow it hasn't happened that I've seen).
-- Blind mountain corners... probably shouldn't pass, right? Hell no! Pass away. Honk those horns. They'll move over, somehow!
-- 2 lane oncoming traffic at night. HI-BEAMS ONLY my friends! Screw the cars in the other lane, we gotta make the sucker in front of us move! (At night we use the horn less of course.) And this on a road with bikes and motorbikes that have no lights so you can not see them at all because you're blinded.
-- Passing one car wide.... nah, let's do 3 cars passing side by side on a two lane road. Yep, that's a truck coming at you.
-- Need to repair a pothole? Put up a pile of rocks, fill it in with stones by hand. No warning signs.
Wow, I just realized those are all DRIVING safety things.
-- The there's food, trash piles on the street, those cows in the road, stray dogs barking in wild packs (especailly in the mountains), cooking street food with no cleaning abilities, masses of people shoving to get into Golden Temples... the list goes on.
And there's the pollution. Yes, it's bad. Every road is dusty and smokey (Except the mountain... well, it's still dusty). Diesel blasts out of buses, dust seems to be everywhere, especially when it's getting dark. The train ride up the mountains had so much diesel fumage that I had a headache and felt shitty for hours after. (The views were great)...
... except for the places where people decided to toss trash over the hillsides, or in piles by the road, or... it's really sad that nature can be treated like that. It's not everywhere, don't think that, but people tossed trash out of the train up the mountain. Even cups of chai that said "Use paper cups. Reduce pollution." Ironic indeed.
It's taken me awhile to slip into the rhythm here. Longer than any trip I think I've been on. It's incredibly chaotic. Noisy (Seriously, the horn usage is unreal), and stinky (though not as much as I thought it would be). But I finally realized I was expecting India to be something.... specific. I can't put it in words, but I did have some notions of what India might be. And I've finally realized the issue was not India, but me. India will be what India is. If you can't handle it, tough shit. So I shifted, and today everything was right. India shows her form. And it involved a crazy border ceremony with Pakistan. In fact... I touched Pakistan today.... yep....
But that's another story.
This keyboard stinks and I gotta get up early tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
It's after sunset, deep in twilight, and we're starting back from our mountain climb in the Himalaya. It's a one lane mountain road that dives deep into a valley before climbing the near cliffside back up to the opposite ridgeline. It's 35km of twisty roads with the occasional oncoming car or, you know, bus.
"We don't turn our headlight on until it is full dark. That's how we do it in India" Says my guide.
I look at him with a smile "Just turn on the f-ing headlights. Safety first."
"Oh of course. Safety first."
Or safety.... never?
One thing I've noticed in my 10 days in India is that safety seems to be rather low on the list of priorities. Here are some examples:
--A 3 lane road, well.... it's more like a 5 lane road. Lanes don't matter. And cars, buses and trucks all drive with motorbikes, tuk-tuks' and bicycle rickshaws. I've seen so many near accidents it's unreal. Yet I've never seen an accident. (Other than the cars that obviously rolled off the mountain roads and were smashed to oblivion).
--Stoplights.... sometimes. If you feel like stopping. I mean, just honk. They'll move. (And they do...)
--Crosswalks? Brother please! Cross all 10 lanes. Somehow the cars will miss you. Especially if you hold out your hand. Occasionally people almost get clipped. (Somehow it hasn't happened that I've seen).
-- Blind mountain corners... probably shouldn't pass, right? Hell no! Pass away. Honk those horns. They'll move over, somehow!
-- 2 lane oncoming traffic at night. HI-BEAMS ONLY my friends! Screw the cars in the other lane, we gotta make the sucker in front of us move! (At night we use the horn less of course.) And this on a road with bikes and motorbikes that have no lights so you can not see them at all because you're blinded.
-- Passing one car wide.... nah, let's do 3 cars passing side by side on a two lane road. Yep, that's a truck coming at you.
-- Need to repair a pothole? Put up a pile of rocks, fill it in with stones by hand. No warning signs.
Wow, I just realized those are all DRIVING safety things.
-- The there's food, trash piles on the street, those cows in the road, stray dogs barking in wild packs (especailly in the mountains), cooking street food with no cleaning abilities, masses of people shoving to get into Golden Temples... the list goes on.
And there's the pollution. Yes, it's bad. Every road is dusty and smokey (Except the mountain... well, it's still dusty). Diesel blasts out of buses, dust seems to be everywhere, especially when it's getting dark. The train ride up the mountains had so much diesel fumage that I had a headache and felt shitty for hours after. (The views were great)...
... except for the places where people decided to toss trash over the hillsides, or in piles by the road, or... it's really sad that nature can be treated like that. It's not everywhere, don't think that, but people tossed trash out of the train up the mountain. Even cups of chai that said "Use paper cups. Reduce pollution." Ironic indeed.
It's taken me awhile to slip into the rhythm here. Longer than any trip I think I've been on. It's incredibly chaotic. Noisy (Seriously, the horn usage is unreal), and stinky (though not as much as I thought it would be). But I finally realized I was expecting India to be something.... specific. I can't put it in words, but I did have some notions of what India might be. And I've finally realized the issue was not India, but me. India will be what India is. If you can't handle it, tough shit. So I shifted, and today everything was right. India shows her form. And it involved a crazy border ceremony with Pakistan. In fact... I touched Pakistan today.... yep....
But that's another story.
This keyboard stinks and I gotta get up early tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
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