Notes

So many little details. At one point we were driving behind a tanker. It was painted as a fuel truck, had an orange chemical cargo label on the back - and was leaking. Not a lot I guess, comparative to your kitchen sink running at full. It was when he had to brake in an intersection it got interesting; it was no less than a flood on liquids engulfing the drivers cabin, soaking the entire forward part of the truck. It did not explode so I assume they had loaded it with water, or perhaps diesel.

Seatbelts are not considered vital. Our driver was nothing short of a little offended when Susanne put hers on, asking if his driving was that bad? It is only mandatory to wear it in the front seats. I must admit that I am usually not wearing mine. Not because I would not like to, but it is a little random when I can get it to extend or not. I am not sure the belt would help much in the event of us not completing our by now default narrow escapes (considering build quality of the car and lack of under-run protection on the grossly overloaded trucks), but it does keep my head from hitting the roof during the worst jumps, bounces and jolts. The roof is padded by the way.

Now that is also interesting. In India, everything is used to its full capacity and beyond. A 4-seat jeep will, after a 50cm extension, hold close to 20 people. Trucks are loaded to the point where they are unable to start moving on their own and must get a little push to get going, and even the tuktuks are carrying loads one can hardly believe. Just the other day I heard a strange raucuss, sounding somewhat like my dads old wooden boat. It was a tuktuk slowly making its way up a hill. It was so loaded with people and goods that it was about to burst - and it had a similarly loaded tuktuk in tow. This constant strain is also seen on the side of the road. In every village there are tuktuks and other vehicles with countless 'mechanics' swarming about them and at night almost every hut is lit by a welding torch. Truckstops outside the townships handle the largest vehicles. Interestingly modified cranetractors are seen everywhere. If a vehicle is deemed too broken to be repaired it is simply left on site. Then parts vanish into other vehicles still able to ply their trade for another stretch of time. The various stages of degradation can be seen like a nature documentary showing how the corpse of an animal withers away over time. Crushed drivers cabs, empty rear shells and clean frames are dotting the road, as are burned out cars and derelict tuktuks. Derelict, that is, until someone decides that they might be able to use it and brings it back to life. Paint is also vanishing fast. I have seen many vehicles with 2009 or 2010 incorporated into their paintscheme, but the wear of the paint giving the impression that its been in hard use for decades, not months.

One time we were driving behind a bus. It came upon a flock of cows. As usual it sounded its horn. In most cases the cows pull to the side of the road when they hear the horn. This time though, one of them went on its own little rampage straight across the road. And over/through the motorbike coming in the other direction. Everything got engulfed by a large cloud of dust, with biker, bike and cow appearing out of the cloud at various angles and directions. However, once the dust had settled, the cow was back on her feet and the biker once again on top of his trusty steed.

It becomes clear that English was forced down the throats of the people here. Few master it, but I must say that most give it an honest try. Typoes and interesting grammatical twists abound. Some are constant, like "Wel-Come", while others are just a result of lacking education. I have lost count of how many different ways I have seen "restaurant" being spelled, for example. Or in the menu here, where the Amertican Breakfast comes with pouched eggs, jem and hony among other things. On the same page, one can also see pooched eggs, plan omelette, mvshroom omelette, deit coke and Nuttrela toast.

We are still almost always able to figure out what they mean though, even if we have to alter our questions a little. Our driver for example, saying "much too" instead of "very" and "to rest" becomes "taking the rest".

Almost all large/slow/cumbersome vehicles here have text painted on the back. The most common text is "please horn", meaning you should horn before passing. Another text is "wait for side"; when in heavy traffic it is better to let the driver in front figure out where there is more space, you horn and he blinks to the side you should pass. Then there is "use dipper at night" - here I should add that everyone drives without lights at day, and with hi-beams on all the time at night. It is simply not possible to see all the dogs/cows/people/bikes/broken vehicles/lost cargo in time with driving lights. Now back to the dippers, instead of just horning at night, it works out better when flahing your lights a few times.

This also came in handy when a two-lane motorway was rerouted due to road maintinance. They simply routed the two lanes going one direction into the two oncoming lanes. No signs, no barriers, no decreased speed limit. This way, it was a two-lane unidirectional motorway. Interesting. It still worked out with flashing lights and indicators. It reminded me of all the fuss that ensued when a driver accidentally went down an off-ramp in Norway and ended up going against traffic.

So far today, little has happened. As you can see from my last blog entry I got to bed a little late. I only woke up once my backup alarm fired at 8:30, I cannot stand that tone. Susanne was feeling a little off yesterday and her nose was running. Today she is feeling a little worse, slight headaches and a full nose. All in all we were not at our best, so I walked down to the reception and asked for our driver - just as he came around the corner. I asked about the plans for the day and also sorted laundry. Until I got to the hotel in Jodhpur I had been wearing the same clothes since 2010, bar underwear and socks that is. It was usually so cold that the clothes stayed fresh. Cleanliness also take other shapes and proportions here. While I would have liked a new set of clothes a day earlier, there were no (good) facilities for a shower in the desert and it seemed counterproductive to wear clean clothes without being clean myself. Hence my joy at finding the cleanest yet bathroom in Jodhpur with the first warm water on the trip. Seeing as this is the only place we stay for a whole day, I had decided to get the laundry done here. Our driver arranged it with the hotel manager. First Sanji came upstairs so he could explain to us his plans for the day and give Susanne the chance to decide what to do. It turned out that there was only light sightseeing planned anyway, and that it should work out leaving sometime between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. He would instead take the car to a garage and have something fixed in the mean time. I am not sure what, but Ive heard what could be a bad ball-bearing somewhere. Joining him back donstairs I delivered our 30 items of clothes in desperate need of washing to the waiting laundry-person. They will be delivered to our room before 9 tonight.

So here we are, sitting in bed and writing/relaxing. Susanne is feeling better, and I am slowly coming to life as well. I have discovered the full potential of my phones fullsized keyboard as you might have realised and Sue is tipping away on the Eee, glad to finally have a little time to catch up on her blogging. If I dont fall asleep Ill try to remember other details that come to my mind as we roam around. This really is a fascinating country, so endlessly diverse. Proofreading is tricky on my tiny screen, but Ill give it a go later. I guess.