Driving in the 3rd World And I should mention here what driving on any Nepalese roads really is like. First of all, the Nepalese roads (except maybe in downtown KTM) are just too small. Most are about the size of an average driveway in the U.S., black topped and with no shoulders. On these, you have full 2-way traffic, often at high speeds. But the rules for traffic are quite different than in the West. Let’s start with the car horn. In America, the horn is seldom used and, if used, used only as a last resort, a danger call or a sign of irritation. Not so in Nepal and India. The horn is used there, constantly. Just like we use the steering wheel to drive, in a very real sense, the Nepalese use the horn to steer with or to guide the flow of traffic. It is used all the time and not just for warnings. It is also used to acknowledge and thank. But it is disturbing to those of us trained to hear the horn as a last-ditch, emergency measure. Moving right along, let’s discuss the Nepalese method of playing chicken, over-steering to force the oncoming vehicle to give way and offer you the most room possible, even if you don’t need that much space. First, the larger vehicle does not give way, even if it means a head-on crash. If you are driving a big truck, it is assumed that all smaller vehicles will get out of your way. It is not the case that both vehicles will give way equally. Not the case at all. The smaller, weaker, vehicle gets out of the way of the larger one. And since the size of the roads are the size of a driveway, this usually means getting off the road or half on the road and half off, every time, every few hundred yards. And you might think that in these third-world countries, there is less congestion. Wrong. There is more congestion and each driver makes it a point to stray farther over the middle line in order to have to give up less road room when the actual moment of passing occurs. This, coupled with the fact that in most of these countries they drive on the opposite side of the road from America, gives you the recipe for a headache. There you are (in the passenger seat), on the wrong side of the road, but in what would be the driver’s seat in America. In other words, you are hurtling toward oncoming traffic, but have no way to steer the vehicle. It is like an amusement park ride gone mad. In all the weeks that I was in these countries, I never managed to fall asleep, no matter how long the ride (sometimes 6-7 hours) or how tired I was. I was bolt awake in the passenger’s seat staring at what was about to happen. Which brings me to the most important fact about driving in the 3rd world: things in the road! In America, with the exception of vehicles, our roads are empty. It has never occurred to us that there could be any other way. In the 3rd world, the roads are filled full with people, animals, and endless smaller vehicles. It is this fact that makes driving so difficult there and sleep impossible for me. It is a remarkable fact that the main congregation point for the entire community, animals and man, is in the road. There is no doubt about it. In the 3rd world, they do it in the road. There is no way I could have anticipated this fact. The roads are filled with activity, day and night. Every dog sleeps in the road, and not just on the side, but right in the very middle. Mothers place their babies sitting on the edge of the black top and leave them there. Kids are sitting all over the road. Animals sleep on the road. And that is just for the lie-downers. A lot more activity happens walking on the road. Groups of people and single people walk in the middle and edge of the road, both day and night. People carrying things, large things, often on their heads or backs, people weighed down with huge packs, bales of straw, bricks, raw vegetation. Cows, all of which are sacred in much of this area, stand crosswise in the road, at all angles. They do not move or move in ways that cannot always be anticipated. If you kill a cow on a road in Nepal, it is automatic life imprisonment. Beasts of burden, like the ubiquitous water buffalo, are also everywhere along the road, walking, being walked, being driven singly and in large groups, walking tandem, piled high with burdens, whatever. Groups of goats and sheep, herds of sheep, with or without a master. And we are just getting to vehicles. Bicycles galore and 3-wheelers carrying loads. Rickshaws and motor scooters, 3-wheeled-motorscooter cabs that wrap their passengers in darkness, motorcycles. Tiny cars and microvans that drive like mad. Larger cars, jeeps, land cruisers, and land rovers. Larger vans and small busses, filled to overflowing (every time) with people. And at the top of the food chain are what we like to call the circus trucks, which have to be seen to be believed. These are large, Mack-truck sized vehicles that have like a crown of lights and decorations above their cabs. Undoubtedly of Indian design, these gaudy things have about every Hindu protector deity imaginable painted on their front, to protect their journey. They are huge and they are garish and they rule the road. And there are thousands of them plus they are everywhere and they are dangerous. They assume you will be able to get off the road as they roar past. They never give an inch. Imagine a circus gone mad, hurtling along the highway, so that you pass them all day and all night, or rather, they pass you. ...back to the opening page go on to the next story...