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April 17, 2005
Bike Ride
Last Saturday I had to go to a place called Vellore which is almost 220km (137.5miles) from Bangalore. I decided to go at the last moment and I don’t have a car so I was left with only two options.
Option #1. Go to the train station an hour earlier in the afternoon to catch the train. Then to get into the AC compartment, I might have to bribe the Ticket collector.
Option #2. Ride my brother’s bike to Vellore.
Well I thought option #2 will be fun. I was a little bit scared because I have never done any solo bike ride in India and 220Km is a long distance here. It took me 3.30 hours to reach Vellore. And on the way the battery died and I had no horn and horn is a very essential thing in India, some how managed to get back with out any problem.
Here are some pictures from my trip
I observed a lot of things on the highway. Here are some of the things I observed.
1. The pedestrians think that they own the road. The highways runs through villages and the people who are walking on the road think that they own the road. They don’t even look either side before crossing. The thing is unless they hear a honking sound they will just cross the road. So don’t take the hand from the horn while crossing any village.
2. The bicyclists think that they own the road. It’s the same situation as the pedestrians, if they don’t hear the horn they will just turn anywhere in the road.
3. The buses and the trucks definitely own the road. The bigger the vehicle is the more reckless they can drive. Respect the bigger vehicles.
4. No one respects the bikers. Bigger vehicles gets in front of you and they will cut you off the road, they don’t respect the bikers at all.
I think the basic problem in the roadway is everyone thinks that they own the road and no one gives a shit about others life. Well this is a bigger problem. I want to do more riding here in India; I guess I am just beginning to learn the rules here. Hopefully I won’t get into any trouble.
Posted by Sam at April 17, 2005 09:27 PM
Comments
Ooooohhhh I like the bike :p - thats a rare bike to see in India. All you normally see is the bullet - a nice bike though. So watcha up to in Banglore. Hehehe the horns scare me, here horns at pedestrians have different meaning. So walking down a street hearing horns took some time to get used to. :))
Posted by: visithra at April 18, 2005 12:43 AM
It’s a nice bike, but I would rather ride a bullet.
I am helping one of my friend in his company here in Bangalore, that is my part time job. Full time job is checking out the pubs here in Bangalore. ;)
Posted by: Sam at April 18, 2005 09:42 PM
Yes bullets are nice. I like your full time job!!!
Posted by: visithra at April 20, 2005 02:31 AM
sam: bike riding here is fraught with danger. but then so is any other kind of activity on the road. even in a car, you are not safe considering the huge number of accidents that happen on our highways. but you can probably get some tips from my friend pallavi (http://jilmil.blogspot.com) and her hubby who have covered a lot of south india on their bike. i am sure she will have some tips to share if you're looking at biking more in the future.
Posted by: anita at May 12, 2005 03:08 AM