Hands up if you have ever driven down a motorway/ major highway (416/401) and passed a camel and an elephant? I can now proudly raise my hand.
In transit: So we left Andrea and Simi's at 1pmish on Saturday afternoon and here is our journey to Delhi -
Bus ride to central glasgow 20 min
Train to airport 1 hr
Plane to London 1+ hr
Bus to Central London 1 hr
Underground to Heathrow Airport 1 hr
Arrived at 1030pm overnight in airport
Plane to Delhi at 955am, landed at 1055pm
When we got to Delhi we had to wait for 1hr for a gate to open up so we could deboard. We got to our car and were hit by the warm, sweet smelling air of India. After we changed the flat tire, drove to the gas station and repaired the flat tire, we headed through the crazy traffic to our hotel.
Along the way we had the craziest driving yet. If you have 3 lanes of traffic on your side,which lane do you drive in? Well, in India you drive in the middle, on the side, 5cars wide or wherever you like pretty much. It was mayhem. And the traffic was as busy as rush hour. Cars and bikes and trucks and a camel or elephant, each vying for a place. You just have to be aggressive and ultimately bigger. The one condolence was that this white knuckle driving was not done at the break neck speeds of Africa. We finally arrived at 130am and although we should be exhausted, I think the adrenaline rush of the drive kept us awake.
So far the scariest driving record goes to India!!! We drove around the next day to see the sights and it was insane. Round abouts? Just swerve across 5 lanes of traffic cutting everyone off - no problem. Red lights? Do they really mean stop -we ran a few. Traffic jam? No problem just turn around and drive into oncoming traffic. Anything seems to go.
We did get to see some amazing sights aside from the obvious hubub of the city. We went to a hindu temple, the lotus temple,Ghandi's park, the gate of India and ate breakfast for 2 with drinks for $3.
Off to Kathmandu:
Train ride -16 hr
Bus to border 4 hrs
Tuk Tuk across border
Bus to Kathmandu 12 hrs
Quite a long transit all in all. It was pretty funny to see Greg try to squish in the back seat of a bus for which he legs were definately too long and there is absolutely no way he could fit,so he sat side angle as they filled the bus. Apparently, local buses follow different rules, as in fit in as many as possible, even though there are 5 seats, let's put 7. Greg needless to say had his legs stuck sideways in an awkward way as they stuffed him into the seat.
We arrived in Kathmandu at 530am finally to get some much needed sleep.
Pics and more tales to follow!
Here are the pics as promised!
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