For real?

Wait...is that...?...Gandhi?

The family vehicle

Five family members.
One motorbike.
Efficient.

Bike mechanic space

Here is some intense bike repair space.
This guy's brain must be super organized to work in an environment so chaotic.

Helmets

I saw this kid driving through the heavy, rush hour traffic of Delhi.
Somewhere he will be delivering motorcycle helmets.

The irony?
His own helmet is a very sad affair?

Really?  The men who employed him for this job couldn't make sure that his own safe skull was the best advertisement for their sales? 

Sad thing is, a delivery kid is probably worth less to them than the cargo he's delivering.
I wish it weren't true.

Motorcycle sea

Delhi: it's a motorcycle sea out there.

Motorcycle mass

Is it a parking lot full of motorcycles?

No.

It's only your average, everyday stoplight.

River crossings

I am fascinated by this.

From the simplicity of bridges, where you have to cross the river yourself with your own two feet.
To the simple poled ferry for a few to cross over.
Or for many to cross.
People wait to get across the rivers and canals of the backwaters.
To go over just themselves.
With their shopping.
With their bicycles.
And--yes!--with their motorcycles.
Whoa.
Would you dare put your motorcycle on a boat like that?
I wonder if they've lost any...

There are many ways to cross a river.
Cool.

Only in India...

Today's random traffic shot.

Unsuccessful errands

I had an unsuccessful day. I went out looking for four different things. I made three different stops. I found zero of what I was looking for. Took up five hours of my day.
But, as usual, I saw other interesting things
At the coffee shop where I stopped for some tea, I sat on the balcony and watched the tide come in on the sea of motorcycles below.

At another stop I saw something new.
Do you ever look up at the ceiling? I do. And today I was rewarded. There were barefooted men walking over the panels of whatever the roof is made of, squeegeeing it.
Here's a brief look at the action:

Drive a motorbike, save money

Here are some photographs of my recent motorbike victory. It's only cost me approximately $2.50 in gas this past week. That's a saving of an average $39 in taxis. How nice.
No wonder I'm smiling.

I did it!

And what did I do?
I drove a motorbike from the house where I'm staying all the way to where I work. I didn't stop there, but took the u-turn and headed right back home. It took me about 45 minutes all together. Because I didn't drive faster than 58kmph.
So why didn't I go to work?
I'm able to get a ride to work most days with the lady I work with. But she leaves the office a lot earlier than I do and I usually have to take a taxi back to the house. It costs me $6 every day.
My pocketbook was saying "be braver".
I could have been driving the motorbike for the last month, but I've been too chicken to go out on actual roads with actual traffic.
Today when I arrived at the house, handed over another $6 to the taxi driver, I went straight into the house and got the motorbike keys. I started out driving around the neighborhood for a few minutes. Then I felt brave enough to leave the neighborhood. I wondered just how far I would dare to go and thought maybe I'd drive all the way to the highway and then turn around.
But at the highway there was no good place to turn, so I just joined the merging traffic and drove all the way to the office.
Now I know I can do it. And I can drive to work tomorrow and save myself some money.
Woohoo!

Lost parking pass

I went with my two roommates to a movie and we took their motorbikes. When you enter the parking lot, you have to take a parking pass. It's not to pay anything, but to make sure your bike is secure. If you loose it, though, there's a $3 fine.

Well, Roommate#1 misplaced her parking pass, couldn't remember where she put it or maybe dropped it in the parking lot. It was gone.

So when we left, Roommate#2 volunteered to pretend it was her who lost the pass and to try to get out of the fine. But it wasn't quite that easy.

There was a form that had to be filled out with passport and driver's license information and registration.

Bad news: Roommate#2 didn't have any of that along!

So Roommate#1 handed over hers to the guard.

Then he wanted a phone number.

More bad news: Roommate#2 didn't know her number and didn't have her phone along.

Roommate#3 (that'd be me) didn't have hers along either.

So Roommate#1 went to get her phone and look up her number, but her battery was dead! It died right there in front of the guard.

No phone number for him.

Did we have the money for the fine? Yes, that Roommate#1 could provide.

So, yeah, it's a somewhat serious thing to loose your parking pass at the mall.

But if you think about it, it was just a silly little piece of paper, so we shouldn't have been treated too harshly, which we weren't. But we didn't have anything the guards needed to keep track of us if we were stealing a motorbike. :)

Motorbikes

Lots of people here ride motorbikes.












One of the people riding them lately is me. I've ridden with Ute. I've ridden with the boys and their father (four of us on the bike!) for my commute to work.


And I've even been driving one myself. Eek.

A little bit.

Not very far from home.

The traffic's kind of scary.




Here I am riding with a friend.









The scary traffic

And an overview of the street.