Just got back from India. Absolutely stunned by the driving / riding over there. I can’t make my mind up if they are the worlds best or worlds worst drivers / riders. I can only sum it up as a sort of chaos that everybody accepts and knows what they are doing. No accidents but near misses every 5 seconds!
The driving in the cities and towns looks scary when you see it on TV Was it an organized tour you were on?..need more pics
Watching "Tough Rides India" on Amazon Prime at the moment. Two Canadian brothers covering 14000 kms in 54 days on Royal Enfields! Scary stuff
I wasn’t riding - thank god. I did get a lift in a tuk tuk at one point and tried to take pictures and video. Nothing I took could do justice to the experience. It was like the best ever scary fairground ride without any safety features. Would have loved to take pictures but I was hanging onto the frame of the tuk tuk like grim death. Have posted a picture of a monkey in the snow at Shimla - brass monkey weather.
Hi Wessa. It was a holiday (of a kind). Organized by Great Railway Journeys took in Shimla, Deli, Agra and Jaipur for the big touristy stuff. Majority was done on Indian trains. If folk are interested I could post some train photos......?
I don’t need much encouragement.... This is an Indian Z3 class locomotive used between Kalka and Shimla. You’ll note the narrow gauge. Built by the British, it transported the British officials of Empire to a base in the foothills of the Himalayas during the Summer to escape the heat of an Indian summer in Delhi and elsewhere.
This is a American made WAP 7 locomotive which is used to pull the Indian express trains. This particular one was running between Kalka and Delhi. Interesting features of the rolling stock is that they include both drop and conventional toilets. I better stop posting now about trains as I don’t want to get a reputation....
Any British made locos over there? I know we sold them a lot of moving kettles but it would be hilarious to see something resembling a Class 20 whistling its way around India.
Ah. The English Electrc Type 1. I have fond memories of hearing them rumble behind my childhood in Hull. No sight of anything I vaguely recognized as a UK based loco I’m afraid nor any steam engines. Just to shift the topic. The price of beer if you can find it is extortionate. Hotel prices were coming in at £7 / pint. Though did find a micro brewery in Shimla which was a surprise and had more realistic prices.
I have been to India (Chennai) numerous times. However I went for a ride once and decided to roll the bike back instead. I thought I was going to die. It seemed everyone but me knew what they were doing Tuk Tuk is fun but sometimes you get a nutter who thinks he is Rossi......And you are sitting there praying to every known God out there. Then it comes to a point where you cut your journey short.....mate, pull over here and here is your money and goodbye Sri Lanka was different. I felt they had traffic discipline. I did 14 days tour on a 250 Bajaj around the coast. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Both countries were totally different and good in their own ways. I thoroughly enjoyed it
Looks like we had similar experiences. Im still not sure if there are terrible or brilliant drivers. As I said I didn’t see an accident in over two weeks of being there which is more than can be said of more old commute on the M25. Sri Lanka sounds good, I’ll investigate further. Thanks for the tip.
I travelled extensively on trains in China in the nineties. On a winter trip to Manchuria we stopped in ChangChun, which means "eternal spring" - it was 30 degrees centigrade below zero... It was interesting to see the steam engines festooned in icicles! Sadly the photo's got left behind with the ex-wife...
