Dorothy & David Case ...Meandering the World: Feb 24, Tuesday, Delhi, India, Park Hotel

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Feb 24, Tuesday, Delhi, India, Park Hotel

Today the rest of our tour companions are arriving. There will be 16 people in all. We started out from the Suryaa Hotel with a tour of the Red Fort and the Brila Temple on our way to the Park Hotel in the Connaught area. The drive through Delhi was just as advertised. See rules of the road below.

Highway code of India:

1. Traffic is on a caste system. In order of descending precedence, give right of way to: cows, elephants, camels, buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, pedal rickshaws, private cars, morocycles, scooters, auto-richshaws, handcarts and last, pedestrians.

2. To slow is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat. This is the Indian driver's mantra.

3. The use of the horn: short blasts indicate supremacy. Long blasts denote desperation, ie. "I am going too fast to stop". Single blast (casual) means "I have seen someone out of India's 1 billion whom I recognize", or "I have not blown my horn for several minutes."

4. Trucks and Buses: all horn signals have the same meaning, "I have a weight of 12.5 tons and have no intention of stopping, even if I could."

5. All maneuvers, use of horn and eveasive action shall be left until the last possible moment.

6. Traffic entering a road from the left has priority. So does traffic from the right and also traffic in the middle. All India traffic at all times shall occupy the center of the road.

7. Overtaking is mandatory. Ocertaking should only be undertaken in suitable conditions, such as in the face of oncoming traffic, on blind corners. No more than wo inches should be allowed between your vehicle and the one you are passing. One inch in the case of bicycles or pedestrians.

8. Nirvana may be obtained through a head on crash.

9. Reversing. No driver in India likes to use this gear.

We met Dev after we arrived at the Park Hotel. Our room is quite nice and modern. We joined 6 others in our group at a nearby Indian restaurant. It was very dark so it was hard to read the menu or figure out what was offered. Whatever I had, I am still alive. I was worried about having the raita, but all is well. Our friends Russi and Chandrabala from Huntington Beach recommended chewing a pepto bismol tablet before a meal when in India. It seems to work.