Vehicles and Transportation
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A tree-lined street in New Delhi, showing a bit of the variety of
transportation alternatives: two auto rickshaws, two cars, a bicycle,
some pedestrians, and a truck in the background.
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Gé points out that Indians park like they drive -- very very close to
one another. Delhi, outside Metro Heights Hotel.
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One of the ubiquitous traffic circles, featuring and old fashioned
(but fairly new) white "Ambassador" car, which I believe in this case
was a police vehicle. Many of them are used as taxis, but mostly for
the government ministers and the big-shot tourists.
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A closer view of auto-rickshaw, also known as a took-took or Indian
helicopter. This one, in particular, belonged to the
driver/tour-guide who took us all around Bikaner the afternoon of Jan
28th.
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Motor scooters and tiny motorcycles are a major form of transportation
in India. It is very common for two or more people to ride on a motor
scooter.
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In some cases, a woman in a sari will ride side-saddle on the back of
a scooter or motorcycle.
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A bicycle rickshaw in use, with others in the background. Ironically,
these seem to be more common in the larger cities than the smaller
ones.
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This is in fact a very large vehicle in India... even though it is
only about the size of one of the Japanese mini-SUVs.
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A parking lot full of various types of vehicles. In the background is
Delhi's Mosque, which we were never able to get to, probably because
it was Friday afternoon.
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The outside of our overnight train to Bikaner. It's actually brown.
It turns out there are (at least) two different gauges of tracks, and
it seemed to me that the brown trains ran on the narrow tracks and the
blue ones on the wide tracks.
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We came to a full stop -- a get out of the bus, wander around and take
photos stop -- because we had arrived at a train crossing and the
gates were down. This one was pretty quick -- we heard that at times,
the wait can be half an hour or more, for a very long, slow-moving
train. In the foreground is a cart brought out by a guy who
apparently makes his living from selling to people stuck at the grade
crossing. Also note the colorfully decorated and (in the back)
ridiculously overloaded trucks.
Between Bikaner and Deshnoke.
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Another brown train, on narrow gauge rails. In a somewhat
self-referential twist, this train is carrying... more rails.
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Part of the train is carrying nothing at all -- maybe it left its
cargo somewhere along the way? Maybe I was just trying to get a photo
of the plant!
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It turned out that one of the attractions our tour guides thought
particularly fine was the old automobile museum. It was an
interesting sight (mom being particularly fond of the snake
crawing up the fender), but not necessarily what I came to India to
see.
However, it was rather entertaining that our tour guide (completely
unaffiliated with the museum) tried to convince us to get into the car
so he could take our picture in it. No "do not touch" signs here,
apparently.
Bikaner auto-rickshaw tour.
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Sometimes it's hard to believe how much they manage to pack into their
vehicles. This camel-cart is more of an overstuffed camel-sack on
wheels. Apparently used airplane wheels are commonly appropriated for
camel carts because they need to be replaced often for safety reasons,
and the wide tires work admirably in the desert sands. On the road to
Jaisalmer.
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This isn't the most extreme example of a highly-decorated
Indian truck, but it's pretty typical... and pretty interesting. Thar
Desert, between Bikaner and Jaisalmer.