The Adventures of Rick Shaw

My Summary – Part III

October 20, 2009 at 8:20 am (Uncategorized)

The route to Jaipur was a 600km drive and due to us taking so long to learn how to drive our rickshaw we decided that we should hit the highway to make up some time.  The N8 would lead us all the way to our next destination which would put us in good stead to get to Agra.

The road was surprisngly well maintained.  I thougt it would be a dirt track but they actually used tarmac would you believe!  On the road the imminent smell of danger became a norm to us.  Zipping in and out of tight gaps between buses and lorries became second nature as we followed other daredevil rickshaw drivers on the path.

We soon became aware that the most important part of our vehicle was the horn.  The constant sound of the highpitched wail is still ringing in my ears.  People do not use the horn in anger like they do in the UK, they use it as a means of letting the driver in front know that they are about to zip past them because no-one uses indicator lights out there!

The roads are a dangerous place in India.  There is no highway code, right of way is given to the vehicle with the greatest mass and our little beast was often left in the dark.  Our road rage was constantly mounting, especially mine as I failed to understand how a nation operates on these shocking road rules.  I was blurting obscenities that even shocked myself, things that the Urban Dictionary would censor from its pages.

Anything and everything occupies the roads on the sub-continent.  Even on highways there were ox-drawn carts and even man-drawn carts packed twenty foot high with crap they were selling in the nearest town.  It is really hard for me to describe quite what the roads are like.   It needs to be seen to be believed.

Many times as we warmed to the driving conditions we found ourself in imminent danger, being body checked by buses and cars.   At times, when there is a jam on one side of the carriage way people would cross onto the oncoming carriage way in order to bypass the jam!  This happens a lot!

Where are the traffic police??!?!?!?!?!?

About half way in we made the biggest mistake of our lives.  We stopped at a road side “café” for a bite to eat.  Manon’s cast iron stomach handled the food just fine but Nilz and I somewhat struggled a few hours after our digestive system had got its teeth into this food. I think my intestines vomited into my stomach at the utter disgust of what I had put into my body.  I would have thought that cooking that food would destroy the disease ridden microbes but I could not have been more wrong.

Not long after the stop off Nilz and I were feeling the effects of road side food.  I shall not go into details but Delhi Belly is not a nice thing to have.

At this same roadside we met a lorry driver who was intrigued to know why a white guy (who after a number of days in his country had still not tanned) was taxi-ing around two Indians.  We explained our story to him and he offered to help us.  Lying three planks down from his truck to the ground in a diagonal fashion we drove up the shallow incline and parked on the back of the flatbed.  He drove us a good 80km before we parted ways as we chilled on the back.  It was good fun and gave us a chance to rest a little and enacting all the movie charades that we could think of.

Jaipur

As we neared Jaipur the terrain took a rather drastic twist.  Not only did the sun beat harder but the land turned into a dry, arid desert.  The roads were still intact but all around us was just dusty terrain and sparse vegetation.  For as far as the eye could see … there was nothing.

This was quite a daunting feeling because it showed us how we really were all alone out here.  If something went wrong we would be walking for miles before we came across the smallest hints of civilisation.  Lucky for us our little demon did not break down (not once) and we cruised through the desert in the baking sun (and still, I did not tan).

We did not want to be caught in this land, not only because of its bad reputation for illegal highway men and dodgy gangs but also because of the dangerous heat.  We didn’t even stop for our siesta (which is common out there between around 2pm and 5pm due to the heat).  Siesta is actually when the roads are at their quietest and so we took advantage of this on a regular basis.

As we neared Jaipur we were making really good time and we could even see signs for Agra.  The signs for Agra really got us racing and we actually decided to spend the night in a train station and miss Jaipur completely and carry on the next day to Agra as the Taj Mahal awaited …