The art of honking...Intro to Indian driving

5/11/10-5/12/10- Coimbatore, India

Excuse this majorly "stream of conscious writing". This took place after my flight landed in Coimbatore (after my journeying through Atlanta to London, London to Chennai, and then Chennai to Coimbatore). I had a 3 hour taxi ride ahead of me to my final destination which was in the lovely mountains of Ooty, India... For me, I wanted to write whatever struck me, so please excuse the "non-sequentialness" of it all.

Daniel was right. The majority of people want only crisp bills; thank you Lord that Daniel gave me some "fresh" rupees before I left, or I wouldn't have had anything to even get out of the taxi parking lot with! And here I go... Beep Beep! Honk Honk! Trash. Dust. Trash. Brilliant colors. Female drivers steering mopeds? Never the case when they are on a bike with a man, though. SO many "skinny angels" bridging the gap between us and the others drivers--and it's only been five minutes in the car! Poverty reeks... and yet You speak. The driver turns on Christian music of all things--in English! Something along the lines of "You are good and you are strength". . . Shacktown yet the roads are paved and painted for the most part. . . Please obey the traffic laws!. . The horn as a blinker, the horn as a greeting, the horn as a game of chicken! . . . I am choosing to find the humor in this. With all the obstacles I've already encountered, I am surely going to make it to Ooty...in one piece! . . . Only days ago I graduated from college. In 3 days I've been on 3 different continents! . . . Trying to pass lanes without blinkers--on a two-way road! The have almost NO clean water, yet they have a xerox company?! . . . I'm coming to India in mango season-yay! . . . I just had an epiphany...I just realized why almost all New York drivers are Indian--because they're the only daring enough one to drive this craziest of conditions! ...Yep, definitely just had 3 cars sandwiched together in a 2 lane road, driving opposite ways from one another...We lost the game of chicken this time (and hand to pull over into the dirt to let them by). Maybe it was providential that I'm sitting on this side of the car; that is, I'm sitting on the side that's farther away from the center of the road. . . Why hello herds of aimlessly roaming goats skinny cattle! . . . Coconut palm trees . . . . Trees with white paint on them? My guess is that the paint acts as a marker to give the drivers as "friendly" (or last) reminder of how much shoulder room they actually have, which happens to be little to NONE! . . . Okay skinny bulls without fencing or even being roped up! . . . A man on a bicycle with a pile of either dirt or feces in his basket, though I'm leaning towards the latter (?!) . . . I thought for a millisecond that the widening of the road would be a good thing....NOT! The widening only encouraged more changing lanes with the whole idea of "whoever has the bigger vehicle has the right of way"! . . . It is truly miraculous, however, that through all my complaining, I do not feel anxious. I have total faith I'm going to make it to Ooty. (And as I wrote this , a HUGE truck sailed so closely to us that I could feel the heat of their exhaust pipe(s) when it cut in front of us, ha). . . and then again, we haven't made it to the mountains yet! ha! Leather-less motorcycle drivers and riders. . . Thinking of Kyle in his Tom Cruise/Top Gun/Zac Efron/17 Again leather jacket. Thinking how Leah would have obsessed over the coconut palm trees in middle school. Thinking of how Emily would probably settle for a goat, since I haven't spotted an elephant yet. Thinking of how Megan would probably just want one of the local shacks. . . Livestock rummaging through trash for food. . . Just saw a moped called "scooty"--made me chuckle. . . "Fresh" produce stands everywhere! . . . God, where are you amidst this people? . . . Thankful the roads are at least paved! Picturesque image of a family picnicking in a field nearby. . . Just saw 2 shepherds! . . . Little boys playing baseball! . . Oxen actually pulling a wagon! . . . Families of 4 on 2-seater scooters! . . . Lone donkey holding up the traffic. . . Brilliant fabrics. Filthy streets. . . Honking out of boredom? . . First mosquito--pray it's the last. (I've been cutting back on bananas lately and trying to "up" my garlic intake to ward them off!) . . . Ah! The mountains! Shade! Second sign for Ooty! . . . The most palm/coconut trees I have ever seen and will probably ever see! Hello Tamil Nadu Forest! . . . Just had my first monkey sighting! View becomes progressively more unbelievable--like a mixture of Puerto Rico, Chile, Vogel, and Amicalola! . . . Not even carsick (hallelujah!)! "Our God is good, all the time" as the song plays. . . Fresh honey comb on back of a bike. . . Entire bus pulled over to let little boy "relieve himself". . . Ooty = 37 km left to go! . . . Monkeys galore! . . . Body odor--and it happens to be me this time! . . . Honking as a revised morse code? . . . Oh I know--honking as a means of radio for those who don't have it--honking as instrumentation, of course! . . . And the bus in front of us just stalled out and started moving backwards, on an incline, on a mountain. . . Lived to tell about it. whew! . . "Hair Pin Bend"--sounds like fun. . . READY TO DANCE UPON INJUSTICE!!. . . Ad on the streets "truth is in my every breath". . . I am quite possibly the first or one of the rare "white people" who come through this area, because upon seeing me, these little boys starting smiling and screaming at the car; hello paparazzi. . . Makes me think of Kyle's trip to Kenya last year and how the kids thought he had a white powder on his skin and rubbed to try to get it off of him! . . . I am digging this "natural AC"-- one benefit of impatient driving! :) . . . Thank you God for the little things; I haven't had to stop in 3 hours to go to the bathroom! . . . Ministering to a microcosm. . . Oh Holy Spirit, flourish! . . . Just saw a sign that said "Redeemer Prayer House"--quite a shock after seeing countless mini-hindu altars and temples. . . Sign on back of rickshaw reads "Nobody is perfect. . . I am nobody"! haha

Namaste Ooty! I am HERE!