After a nine hour flight we arrive in Bombay or Mumbai.. whatever you want to call it.. it seems to be an Indian thing that you can call a place by several names which makes things a little confusing.
We hire a cab from the prepaid stand.. air con or no air con.. we choose air con.. only to find that the driver drives with the windows open.. a true sign of how things work in India. Its great.. we can smell everything and hear every hoot of a horn on our way to our hotel. At first India is mind blowing.. the poverty is just unreal but its a welcoming distraction from the driving.
Driving in India takes either balls of steel or plain stupidity.. cars, bikes and autorickshaws, pedestrians, bicylces, cows and makeshift carts are all fair game. Signs read 'please obey traffic signs'... no one does.
We are on a 3 lane highway/road..I guess.. there are no markings. The cab driver follows the mass philosophy of if there is a space take it.. and if there's no space take it twice as fast. A number of times we could have held hands with other passengers in another car/bus/rickshaw/bike in mid journey or at what seems to be one of 3 traffic lights that the drivers will actually stop at.
It only been 20 minutes and we have already seen 5 people on one motorbike..2 parents and 3 kids. As I said.. watching the poverty and the dirt along the side of the road was a welcome distractiion.
We hire a cab from the prepaid stand.. air con or no air con.. we choose air con.. only to find that the driver drives with the windows open.. a true sign of how things work in India. Its great.. we can smell everything and hear every hoot of a horn on our way to our hotel. At first India is mind blowing.. the poverty is just unreal but its a welcoming distraction from the driving.
Driving in India takes either balls of steel or plain stupidity.. cars, bikes and autorickshaws, pedestrians, bicylces, cows and makeshift carts are all fair game. Signs read 'please obey traffic signs'... no one does.
We are on a 3 lane highway/road..I guess.. there are no markings. The cab driver follows the mass philosophy of if there is a space take it.. and if there's no space take it twice as fast. A number of times we could have held hands with other passengers in another car/bus/rickshaw/bike in mid journey or at what seems to be one of 3 traffic lights that the drivers will actually stop at.
It only been 20 minutes and we have already seen 5 people on one motorbike..2 parents and 3 kids. As I said.. watching the poverty and the dirt along the side of the road was a welcome distractiion.
Our cab, small but fiesty!
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