PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

The strangest thing about India is the 150 mile stretch of road from Delhi to Agra and the van driver that we had along the way. Ryan, Erika, Dustin, Jenny, Claire, Dannie, Erik, and myself got a large van that could fit all of us inside. They charged us about $25 to go to Agra and back. Agra is where the beautiful Taj Mahal is located. I figured this was overpriced for India but cheap considering it was about a 4 ½ hour ride each way and the driver waited for us the entire time. Even if it was a rip off, I felt it was a good price compared to what we would have paid at home (Shamrock shuttle is like $30 just to get to the airport… wtf mate).
The first thing you notice about India when you get on the road is how much they use their horn. We use it only to tell someone they suck after cutting us off or to warn someone before getting in an accident. Well, in India, they have a contest with themselves that if you don’t beep your horn more than your heart beats then you lose. You might think I am exaggerating, but to put this more seriously… it goes something like this. You come up on a car, and you literally beep a few times before just laying it on and leave the horn on until they finally decide to move over and let you pass.
The saddest part of it all is that when you are beeping the horn so much, it becomes completely irrelevant and people stop paying attention to it. The people of India are completely numb to the sound of a car’s horn.
As if the horns weren’t bad enough, different enough, but the other laws of driving also don’t even apply. If there is any rule of driving in India, it’s that there are no laws. If someone were to drive in the US like they do in India, it wouldn’t take 5 minutes before they get a speeding ticket, reckless driving, kill 10 children, run over 4 cows, and probably total their car.
Now India is rich country, but also a poor country. I feel they are wasting some of their valuable money. The put these things on the road called lines. Some of them are yellow, most are white and others are even dotted. They usually make up what we call lanes on the road. Something to learn is that these lanes are completely ambiguous. They mean nothing. Therefore, do not be alarmed if the driver crosses into the other direction of traffic and cruises along and comes within 6 inches of another car while going 50mph.