On the Road

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I took these photos from the car, mostly as we made our trek from Japiur to Agra (in Northern India). Admittedly they are not the greatest photos, but hey, the car was moving!

Some of them were taken in a city, I'm not sure which one, probably either Delhi, Jaipur, or Agra. Most of them though, I took when I had my turn in the front seat and Praveen #2, our driver, was taking us the long hard stretch from Jaipur to Agra. I thought I'd try and capture the variety of vehicles that were sharing the road with us.

I have another set of photos to post soon that were focused along the roadside, instead of ON it.

Note to my family and friends who live in India: I realize you may not be too interested in these photos, as you've seen it all before, or all the time. Mostly I wanted my American friends and family to be able to see what I saw. Riding down the road in India is much different than here. I have to say that I DID like how everything goes MUCH slower.

Perhaps I should post some photos taken on a busy big-city highway? Well, sorry, I hope to not be on a big city highway, but if I ever end up on one, I'll try to remember to take a couple photos so you can see what THAT is like.

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Photos

View from the Car Window
This guy was hauling bricks on a wagon pulled by a camel. He was only one of many; there must have been a brick plant in the area. The look he gave me after I snapped the photo told me that he was NOT happy about it.

View from the Car Window
I'm not sure what these trucks were carrying, but it was amazing how they had them loaded so full, draped in some sort of gunny-sack type of huge bag or something. We saw many of these. I wasn't excited about passing them, but of course that is exactly what we had to do.

View from the Car Window
Behind the cow you can see one of the three wheeled vehicles called an "auto" which seems to be short for "auto-rickshaw".

View from the Car Window
Here is another version of "how to load a truck" with a more conventional version on the right, passing....as we soon would do also.

View from the Car Window
People ride in the back of trucks too. Notice how all these vehicles are going the same direction? No, it's not a one way street.

View from the Car Window
I could have probably reached out the window and petted this one!

View from the Car Window
We passed a lot of these trucks. I assume "edible oil" is cooking oil. Other interesting notations on the truck include, "use dipper at night", "keep distance", and colorfully illustrated on the bumper..."blow horn" (which was written on the back of most trucks and larger vehicles. Also note how it's so colorfully painted. This type of paint job on trucks was the norm.

View from the Car Window
Look how packed full of people this car is! (not unusual) This white car is very common. I was told that even though they may look old (in style), many of them are new. Until recently, there was little to no competition in the auto market, so one auto maker just continued to use the old factories that the British left behind without bothering to make any changes. Most or all of these cars are white! For many years this was the only car that could be bought in India, but now that is rapidly changing. There's another colorful truck in front of the car.

View from the Car Window
Another colorful truck.

View from the Car Window
Obviously not a good picture, but you can see that many people are riding in the back of this truck. Note the usual "blow horn" sign painted on the back of it.

View from the Car Window
There weren't many cars on this street, but lots of autos, bikes, and bicycle type rickshaws.

View from the Car Window
These people are so close to our car I could've rolled down the window and touch them. Bicycles, motorcycles, and rick-shaws...the guy in the tan jacket dialing his cell phone while riding on the back of a motorcycle.

View from the Car Window
How does a car get through this? Very slowly with a lot of horn tooting.

View from the Car Window
I'm pretty sure this was in Delhi. The camel's owner wanted him to make a left turn, the camel seems hesitant, and with good reason, the street was packed! The camel was pulling some kind of low riding cart or hummm, not sure what it's called....kind of like a sled filled with things.

Comments

[gunduwhitegirl]

Memories
Your blog and pictures remind me so much of my trip to Madras/Madrai two years ago to meet my husbands family. I feel like I'm back in India...boy do I miss India!! You really went all out and I love your blog!!