Another day of adventure:
One of the film crew mentioned that India doesn’t need roller coasters and amusement parks because India has its roads! That is so true. I traveled by car to Patna the other day. If you’ve been to D-Land and ridden on the Indiana Jones ride, then imagine that 2 minute-long ride being extended by 2+ hours! So there I was in the car bouncing and bumping and jerking along, just like the Indiana Jones ride, as we sped down the road avoiding obstacles. When I was traveling on the pilgrimage bus, I was laying across the back seats and my whole body actually took air as we went over a bump!!
But unlike the D-Land ride, the seat belts in the car weren’t used. The shoulder strap was available but the seatbelt release button was not visible! I couldn’t help but think of how there is a seatbelt and a security bar for the ride at D-Land in which patrons sit in a jeep and follow a track up and down and around as we dodged gigantic snakes and Mara.
Side view mirrors are seldom used, it seems. They are folded in to allow more inches of space necessary for passing obstacles in the road! For more excitement, add a driver talking on a mobile or even engaging the driver in conversation. The driver tends to turn when speaking to the person in the back seat and thus, taking his eyes off the road. Now that’s an amusement park ride!
Instead of snakes and skeletons and the like, we dodged huge trucks, buses, motorcycles, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, bicycles, sheep, oxen, cows, dogs, goats, men, women, and children. We swerved around an occasional brick, rock, pile of dirt, tire laying in the road, huge pot hole, and stopped vehicles. Huge trucks will just stop in the road when the driver needs to relieve himself or if he is stopping to get a bite to eat or even just to chat with someone!!
As if the obstacles weren’t enough excitement, we encountered a traffic jam and ended up taking a side road. When we came upon the traffic jam, trucks, buses, and other vehicles were at a complete stop. After speaking to a person stuck in the jam, it was suggested that we follow some buses down a side road. This dirt road narrowed as it wound through a little village. As we passed the village, we came to farm land and ended up driving on a narrow levee road. This road snaked around with tight turns that made me think of another D-Land ride, “Mulholland Drive,” that has tight switchbacks (or actually of the real Mulholland Drive!). We sped down this road braking to avoid the obstacles mentioned above, like women carrying huge loads of hay on their heads or a big truck dumping rocks for the road. I didn’t think we’d make it around the big truck on that narrow levee road, but we did!
We continued to follow the two buses ahead. At some point, the blue bus directly ahead of us stopped. Some conversation in Hindi between my driver and a villager prompted us to drive down an embankment. The blue bus followed behind!! Now we were on a dirt path (literally just a path) that wound among mud huts. We managed to wind around and make a sharp left by a little school and then another sharp right through a little village down a road only just barely wide enough for the vehicle. Then we were back on the levee road heading towards Patna. I have no idea what happened to the blue bus. It certainly couldn’t have followed us through the little village and it didn’t seem to me that the bus would be able to drive back up the embankment. But I could be wrong; I’ve seen some amazingly skillful driving by bus drivers!
Back on the main, paved road we drove into the traffic of the big city! On the return trip, I jokingly asked if we were going to stay on the main road or drive through more villages. I don’t know if my comment got misinterpreted, but we ended up once again driving down a dirt, side road through little villages. On hind sight this was probably better than staying on the main road because it was getting dark.
Night driving in India is something else! Head lights only come on when they are absolutely needed. With no lights lighting up the road, drivers have to be super alert as they encounter many vehicles and people in the road that have no lights or reflectors. We often had to brake suddenly as we came upon horse drawn carts, bicycles, auto rickshaws, or people, which weren’t visible until we were right upon them. At least going down the side road (short cut) our speed decreased and the number of moving vehicles also decreased.
In one village, a huge tractor dumping a load of dirt/rocks was blocking the road. This required us to sit for a time and honk to get the attention of the tractor driver. The road was narrow with an embankment to our right and a mud hut. The tractor pulled forward with its front tire going off the road and onto the embankment. This still wasn’t enough room for us, so it pulled forward angling precariously downward and so close to the mud hut. But the tractor stayed upright and we managed to get passed it with only a few inches between the two vehicles.
Entering the village of Bargaon, we were stopped once again. This time by men and boys dancing in the street in front of a huge tractor blasting music and pulling a Sarasvati statue and shrine. The driver quietly locked his door, so I followed suit, remembering how Sourabh had told me that the dancing men and boys drink wine. One young boy tried to open the driver’s door and the driver promptly rolled down his window and chided the boy. The tractor passed by us and then we were on our way once again arriving at Nalanda a few minutes later.
One of the film crew mentioned that India doesn’t need roller coasters and amusement parks because India has its roads! That is so true. I traveled by car to Patna the other day. If you’ve been to D-Land and ridden on the Indiana Jones ride, then imagine that 2 minute-long ride being extended by 2+ hours! So there I was in the car bouncing and bumping and jerking along, just like the Indiana Jones ride, as we sped down the road avoiding obstacles. When I was traveling on the pilgrimage bus, I was laying across the back seats and my whole body actually took air as we went over a bump!!
But unlike the D-Land ride, the seat belts in the car weren’t used. The shoulder strap was available but the seatbelt release button was not visible! I couldn’t help but think of how there is a seatbelt and a security bar for the ride at D-Land in which patrons sit in a jeep and follow a track up and down and around as we dodged gigantic snakes and Mara.
Side view mirrors are seldom used, it seems. They are folded in to allow more inches of space necessary for passing obstacles in the road! For more excitement, add a driver talking on a mobile or even engaging the driver in conversation. The driver tends to turn when speaking to the person in the back seat and thus, taking his eyes off the road. Now that’s an amusement park ride!
Instead of snakes and skeletons and the like, we dodged huge trucks, buses, motorcycles, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, bicycles, sheep, oxen, cows, dogs, goats, men, women, and children. We swerved around an occasional brick, rock, pile of dirt, tire laying in the road, huge pot hole, and stopped vehicles. Huge trucks will just stop in the road when the driver needs to relieve himself or if he is stopping to get a bite to eat or even just to chat with someone!!
As if the obstacles weren’t enough excitement, we encountered a traffic jam and ended up taking a side road. When we came upon the traffic jam, trucks, buses, and other vehicles were at a complete stop. After speaking to a person stuck in the jam, it was suggested that we follow some buses down a side road. This dirt road narrowed as it wound through a little village. As we passed the village, we came to farm land and ended up driving on a narrow levee road. This road snaked around with tight turns that made me think of another D-Land ride, “Mulholland Drive,” that has tight switchbacks (or actually of the real Mulholland Drive!). We sped down this road braking to avoid the obstacles mentioned above, like women carrying huge loads of hay on their heads or a big truck dumping rocks for the road. I didn’t think we’d make it around the big truck on that narrow levee road, but we did!
We continued to follow the two buses ahead. At some point, the blue bus directly ahead of us stopped. Some conversation in Hindi between my driver and a villager prompted us to drive down an embankment. The blue bus followed behind!! Now we were on a dirt path (literally just a path) that wound among mud huts. We managed to wind around and make a sharp left by a little school and then another sharp right through a little village down a road only just barely wide enough for the vehicle. Then we were back on the levee road heading towards Patna. I have no idea what happened to the blue bus. It certainly couldn’t have followed us through the little village and it didn’t seem to me that the bus would be able to drive back up the embankment. But I could be wrong; I’ve seen some amazingly skillful driving by bus drivers!
Back on the main, paved road we drove into the traffic of the big city! On the return trip, I jokingly asked if we were going to stay on the main road or drive through more villages. I don’t know if my comment got misinterpreted, but we ended up once again driving down a dirt, side road through little villages. On hind sight this was probably better than staying on the main road because it was getting dark.
Night driving in India is something else! Head lights only come on when they are absolutely needed. With no lights lighting up the road, drivers have to be super alert as they encounter many vehicles and people in the road that have no lights or reflectors. We often had to brake suddenly as we came upon horse drawn carts, bicycles, auto rickshaws, or people, which weren’t visible until we were right upon them. At least going down the side road (short cut) our speed decreased and the number of moving vehicles also decreased.
In one village, a huge tractor dumping a load of dirt/rocks was blocking the road. This required us to sit for a time and honk to get the attention of the tractor driver. The road was narrow with an embankment to our right and a mud hut. The tractor pulled forward with its front tire going off the road and onto the embankment. This still wasn’t enough room for us, so it pulled forward angling precariously downward and so close to the mud hut. But the tractor stayed upright and we managed to get passed it with only a few inches between the two vehicles.
Entering the village of Bargaon, we were stopped once again. This time by men and boys dancing in the street in front of a huge tractor blasting music and pulling a Sarasvati statue and shrine. The driver quietly locked his door, so I followed suit, remembering how Sourabh had told me that the dancing men and boys drink wine. One young boy tried to open the driver’s door and the driver promptly rolled down his window and chided the boy. The tractor passed by us and then we were on our way once again arriving at Nalanda a few minutes later.
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