Ranakpur Part 2: The Trip

I know I've already poked fun at the driving here in India, but it really is beyond belief. It's insane, crazy, and plain fucking scary.

Within the city centres, people (mostly) drive on the left hand side, but outside the city limits, it's anything goes. There really are no rules. None.

Some interesting facts:

• India has just 1% of the world's vehicles, but accounts for 10% of the world's road accidents. BBC
• Nearly 100,000 people die every year on India's roads. ABC
• Mortality rate is 14 deaths per 10,000 vehicles. Australia's is 1.8. IJS

What this all means is, when I jump in a taxi, my chances of ending that ride by becoming fused to the front end of a speeding truck is nearly 800% higher here than it is at home.

Anyway, the trip to Ranakpur was unforgettable, for more reasons than one (my guess is about 2 dozen-ish reasons). 2 dozen-ish times where I genuinely thought we might not make it. There were moments when I'd involuntarily pull my legs up to my head - as if my thin legs could somehow deflect the fully-loaded bus that's just swerved onto our side of the road.

Our driver would constantly overtake on the right hand side of the road, in the dark, around blind corners, all while driving at 50kms over the 90km/h speed limit. But don't worry too much, he'd always sound his horn as he did it.

The horn, the all-purpose magic wand for the Indian driver.

And just a little side note - half way through writing this post I had to switch internet cafes (my computer kept resetting itself). On the walk over, a white hatchback wiped out a small kid right in front of me, sent him skidding across the road. He hit the ground pretty hard but came away relatively unscathed - only an injured, perhaps broken, arm. His own fault really, silly kid should've been carrying a horn.

I've seen plenty of smashed up cars on the side of the road, but that's the first 'live' accident I've witnessed here. I'm sure it won't be the last.