First Impressions: Driving

The drive from Delhi airport to our hotel was quite the experience.  We were told what driving in India is like and we even watched videos of it on Youtube; but none of that adequately prepares you for the real life experience.  Honestly, I was quite sure our driver was crazy and we would end up in an accident.  Driving in India is absolutely insane.

While there are lines painted on the road, they are meaningless.  A two lane road miraculously accommodates a bicycle, motorbike, auto rickshaw, car and tour bus all side-by-side.  I would look out the window and see someone staring back at me from only a foot away.

The horn is used constantly and as a means of letting the mode of transportation in front of or beside you know that you are overtaking it and it needs to move out of your way.  Which, most of the time, they do.  It's a noisy, chaotic mess of vehicles, bicycles, ox carts, and pedestrians; but yet it all seems to work.  Organized chaos.

When we arrived back in America we all commented on how quiet the roads were.  We were so used to the non-stop honking that without it everything seemed eerily silent.

Here's a snippet of one of our Took Took (auto rickshaw) rides. 

In this clip we are leaving Delhi, headed to Vrindavan, and at about 15 seconds into the video you hear a loud thump on the car.  Apparently our driver got a little too close to a pedestrian so he punches our vehicle.