Rules of the Road in India

We spent our first two days in India in Bangalore where we learned very quickly that it is best to close your eyes while riding in the car. Cars, motorcycles, trucks, rickshaws, pedestrians, cows, etc share the road and no one stays in their lane (if there are painted lanes) and no one stays on their side of the road. Instead everyone just honks their wildly to say 'Get the hell out of the way or I will run you over without remorse. The first night in the city, one of our contacts in the city had his driver and his 9 year old son take us to the street market to do some shopping. I've never seen so many cars, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, dogs, goats, people, etc in such a small space. I also think that our driver wins the award for worst and best driver all at the same time. We came millimeters from hitting people, cars, buildings animals numerous times. If we needed to turn around (which we needed to do often) he would just back up no matter what/who was behind us. Once while backing up, he bumped into a couple on a motor scooter. The couple drove forward, punched the driver through his open window and yelled at him profusely. The driver didn't seem to care. He told us that he had been in the city for one month and had already hit 6 objects/ people (no one seriously injured). At one point the driver also stopped in the middle of the road to argue about whether or not we should get out and walk around without him or if he should park the van. The people in cars behind us started shouting and laying on their horns and someone started chanting loudly. Once again the driver didn't seem to care. We were glad to get home without injury and without starting a riot.

Feeling brave at having survived the night before in a van, the next day we decided to brave the streets in a rickshaw. Our first ride was scary but fine and Katie is quite the pro at haggling a price down 20 cents. The second ride took a more dramatic turn. Once in the rickshaw, the driver told us that he was going to take us to his family's store for just a few minutes. We said "no" and that we needed to go straight home but he was having none of that. He kept insisting that we go to his family's store. When we came to stop at traffic crossing we told him that he needed to proceed directly to our hotel or we were getting out. He didn't move the rickshaw so we jumped out as quickly as possible and ran away.

more to come about what we are actually doing here to come . . . just think lepers, widows and alot of dancing to the "peel bananas" song