…Are indeed the rules of thumb in the Indian traffic “system”… System! Ok…
So, last night we were in a mood of celebration being as though we had just moved into and furnished our new digs. So we decided to go out for a nice meal. On the way there we got caught in probably the worst traffic jam I’ve ever seen, much less been in!
Ok, in the San Fransisco Bay Area there is a place called “The Maze”, it’s the confluence of traffic going in and out of San Fransisco, Oakland and Berkeley, CA. On average the California Highway Patrol log one death by auto accident every single day in The Maze, EVERY DAY!!!
Well I’ve driven in The Maze thousands of times but I have never I MEAN !!!NEVER!!! seen anything like I saw (and lived through) last night in Trivandrum, Kerala, India!
There we were just humming along down M.G. (Mahatma Gandhi) Road when all of the sudden we were literally surrounded on all sides by cars, rickshaws, motorcycles bicycles and peds coming straight at us in all directions at once and the most amazing thing about it was, when we finally came to a dead-stop everybody all at the same time broke out laughing and started talking all at once!!!
“Hello!”
“Where are you from?”
“Welcome to Kerala!”
“Nice Bike!!”
It was the best nightmare I’ve ever had, and not a single person died or even got pissed off enough to start shooting…
You know we’ve got a saying Dena and I,
“Let ’em honk honey!”
And that is exactly what it is they do with my slow ass. I stay to the far (Left) side of the traffic and go just a little slower than the flow. It’s working out great so far and I’m learning as much as I can about driving on my “wrong side” of the road on a motorcycle that is built backwards, meaning the gear shift is on the right side and the back brake is on the left.
I’m learning at an incredibly accelerated pace being as though that pace is being guided by the very same flow of traffic.
