Elephants – no zoo ticket needed!

The roads are shared by everyone & everything.  I’ve tried to list in the order of popularity what you see on the roads: motorcycles, rickshaws, people, cars, trucks, buses, dogs, herds of cows, and the occasional elephant.  Oh, I forgot, people pulling or pushing carts full of vegetables-fruits or goods to sell…and more motorcycles.

What do you hear on the streets? Beep, beep.  Beep, beep.  The interesting thing about the horn honking is the people are not aggressive about it.  It is purely used as a warning or a way of kindly asking ‘would you please move a little over, so I can scoot by? Thank you.’  No yelling, ugly faces or hand gestures – it is a very noisy, but friendly travel system. 

Also, a chaotic one!  In India, they drive on the left side of the road - that makes me dizzy!  I never know what my driver is doing.  I am used to a right turn being a relatively calm turn – in India, you are turning into traffic that looks like it is going to hit you head on. 

Most roads, do not have lanes and the vehicles are not in anything that resembles a straight line.  From what I can tell, it follows a ‘slow vehicles towards the left side of the road’ pattern – but this seems to be a mere suggestion – no rules. 

In fact, the only large traffic style signs that I have seen, say things like: ‘Please keep the city clean’ or ‘Please stay off your cell phone while driving’ – again, I think these are just suggestions.  I have only seen a few signs that indicate to make a right turn to go to Mumbai.

Intersections.  Sure there are a few intersections that have traffic lights, but most of them are just a push your way through it or across the on-coming traffic.  This includes the pedestrians…just fight your way across.  Don’t expect people to stop a couple of feet before you…just walk in front of them and they will stop within a few inches of you.

We have seen a couple of herds of cows cross the streets.  These holy animals get the right away, but like pedestrians, the drivers give the animals only the necessary amount of space to cross.

There appears to be one elephant that is frequently on the streets in this area.  Our driver always gets up next to the elephant, so Benjamin can see it.  And naturally, Benjamin’s eyes get big and he gives us a “Wow!”  I have been too occupied with making sure that Benjamin sees the elephant, that I haven’t paid attention to what the person on top of the elephant is transporting.  Rene says he believes this elephant is blind.

Benjamin has a drawing toy in the car.  Normally, when I ask him what he is drawing, he says “tractor.”  After seeing the elephant yesterday, his answer has changed to “Taaa-rolll” (which, in case you didn’t recognize it, is the sound an elephant makes).

Sidewalks – what sidewalks?  What I consider the area on the side of the road that would most likely be referred to as a sidewalk, is basically torn up dirt – to bumpy to walk on.  Plus, this is where people set up to sell things or set up their place to sit for the day or where the sleeping dogs lie. Therefore, people are walking in the streets with the million modes of transportation used here.

City street where the people & vehicles mix on the street.

See the man carrying a bag of goods on his head.  This is very common here.  I've seen women with huge bags on their balanced on their heads and not using their hands at all.  One woman was carrying long branches (wood) wrapped in a cloth on her head.  

Lined up at a traffic light.