Driving and stuff

Hooray. Kerala. Another island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. And no need to get back on the truck for 4 days. By which time it will hopefully be fixed and we'll be reunited with our other driver.

In his absence I've been riding up front with Dan for the past few days and so have had a chance to observe Indian driving close up. And we've come to the conclusion that it's not reckless, or even suicidal. It's homicidal. Because when they crash (and it's surely just a matter of time) they're almost certainly going to take out plenty of others. The overtaking method (particularly popular among the decrepit state run buses) is to just pull out and move past the target vehicle (ignoring minor details like blind bends or brows of hills) and when something comes the other way just flash your lights and sound your horn and hope he stops or gets off the road. When you combine that technique with bloody awful road surfaces and drivers who only use full beams after dark, it makes for a fairly draining ride. Dan hasn't flipped yet but I sense that the camel's back can only take a few more straws!

Cochin, India