News
from Delhi.
You may wonder why you have not seen
postings for a while, but I have been planning a tour of India and this is my
first opportunity to report back on what has been happening. Arriving in Delhi
was an experience. The traffic is about seven times that of London, never stops
and fills every inch of tarmac and where possible pavements too! I have seen
bikes and cars trying to beat the traffic, most of the time unsuccessfully. I have
spent many miles as a passenger in a taxi observing the antics of riders and
drivers they have a different set of rules to those we use in the UK. The
“safety bubble” and “keep your distance” do not apply. There is a level of
closeness that would feel uncomfortable to most riders in the UK. I have more
to comment on as the tour progresses. Playing chicken is normal with almost
forcing other road users off the road and sometimes hitting them. No one seems
to bother to stop unless the person doesn’t get up again. Even cows get in on
the act.
The first adventure was a train
trip to Shimla. Taking the train from Delhi to Kalka and an overnight stop
before continuing on the narrow gauge railway up to the town rising more than
1800m. The railway was built by the British and completed in 1903. It was and
still is a feat of engineering and an experience to be had. On the way I picked
up a complementary paper that was reporting on the activities of the local
police motorcycle display team showing off what they could do.
They are
obviously short of Enfield motorcycles and I captured this image of them
rushing to an incident after these other two guys had been showing off.
It was
cold in Shimla and I stayed at the Clarke’s Hotel. It is an amazing place with
all the waiters in traditional costume; including hats that were so well done
they looked like a very well dressed army ready for a ceremonial occasion. One
day at Shimla then the return trip on the toy train and then back to Delhi that
evening. I got back to my accommodation only to be told that my flight to
Guwahati the next afternoon had been cancelled and the alternative was now at 7:30am with no direct flight it
was diverted through Calcutta making a 3hour flight into 5 hours having to
disembark at Calcutta to get on another plane. This meant that I had to be up
at 4:00 am to be ready for 5:00 am to take the taxi to the airport to catch the
plane with time to spare. On arriving in Guwahati and taking a taxi to visit
family I saw the first accident. A car was doing a creeping overtake of a
tuc-tuc, as the drivers do even against oncoming traffic, he failed to see a
car coming towards him swerved into the tuc-tuc bouncing it sideways and
putting several dents in his car. The tuc-tuc looked no worse for wear and carried
on slowly regaining some composure as the car sped off and did a swift left
turn to escape from his misdemeanour. I have taken many rides in tuc-tucs, as
they are called in Thailand, auto rickshaws in India and most other places call
them more unpleasant names. In Thailand tuc-tuc comes from the sound that the
diesel engine makes as the go along. Piagio make them as do Bajaj and Mahindra.
They are extremely robust with a chassis that will not break. Ideal for taxiing
and most other commercial uses. There are lightweight bikes and scooters
everywhere and on every journey I could see different makes and models with the
usual presence from Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki with only a few Kawasaki, but new
to me were the Indian Hero Honda, Bajaj, Mahindra and TVS.
No comments:
Post a Comment