Friday, July 3, 2009

Driving in Delhi

Yesterday the NZ family had their day off and invited us to spend the day with them in the air conditioned comfort of the Delhi shopping malls. All nine of us bundled into the Sewa ambulance with Ray behind the wheel and headed for our old neighbourhood of Gurgaon. Not long into the trip we were flagged down by a 4 wheel drive claiming to be the highway toll collector. Some casually dressed Indians approached us and said we had to pay 300 rupees ($10) in toll... Obviously they saw a car load of white people and thought they would have a crack... We quickly dismissed them as it was not a toll road and ambulances are exempt from tolls.

Once we crossed the border into Gurgaon I took over the driving so Ray could try and direct us with the impossible street directory to the office where our excess baggage has been stored for the past 3 months. After asking rickshaw drivers and making several calls we finally found the office.
My first driving experience went well... It will take me a while to get used to the multiple lane roundabouts where there are no rules just push your way in and cut across the best you can... U turns at a round about are different too, rather than going around the circle you just do a u turn around the median strip. No need to indicate when changing lanes either... in fact the lines on the road should be considered fluid and largely irrelevant.

Today the weather is hotting up again... It was 33 degrees at 8am this morning and the sun is out... its going to be a scorcher...

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