Photos © Ruud Leeuw Photos © Ruud Leeuw
Our very first visit to India... At the airport of New Delhi we were met by a chauffeur and he drove us through Rajasthan. After visits to Jaipur and Pushkar, we took to the road again for Udaipur. It was the first stop where we would stay two nights instead of one. Click on the thumbnail images to view a larger image |
 After a disturbed night and a cold start at Pushkar (but an excellent breakfast), we were pleased to find the sun warming quickly. The nights are cold. We settled in for the six hour drive to Udaipur. We soon became engrossed in the fascinating scenery outside again. |
The sun is out but it takes a while to drive away the cold of the night, so people can shed their jackets.
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A young goat herder takes things easy. All these photos were taken from the car while driving. Speed bumps in villages work well to slow traffic down. |
The countryside turned distinctly desert-like, less villages and the roads became simpler (two lanes).
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 We passed through another town, which traded extensively in marble. This camel seems to be on a break... |
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Bricks are in India probably more common building materials than marble these days; we saw bricks being baked in huge quantities. |
 Using sacks the trucks can be loaded with even more goods.. |
 Those heavy loaded trucks can appear from out of nowhere. They are lumbering juggernauts, filling up your entire windscreen and taking right of way.. Our driver did a good job negotiating these behemoths, but it slows you down a lot. |
'Nobody' eats pig meat, so why I saw so many? Danielle Aird, seasoned traveller to India, explained: "Christians eat pigs; when you see pigs, you know there are Christians around!" [Danielle's Blogspot]To be on the safe side we stuck to a vegetarian diet; no hardship as Indian dishes taste excellent. |
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| Busses and trucks aplenty on the roads, but sometimes you see them beside the road... The road accidents I noticed during our stay often involved a truck, sometimes just one truck.
The road network seems to cope with the growing number of vehicles, but as soon as one arrives in a major city one is slowed down to a crawl because of the congested traffic. |
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35 rupees is less than 60 euro cents, noted for history. At home a litre costs around 95 - 105 euro cents |
India has a vast network of national highways that cover the length and breadth of the country. India has a total of 65,569 km of highways. The longest National Highway is NH 7, which goes from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to the southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari in Tamilnadu. It covers a distance of 2369 kms. One of India's very famous highway projects is the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Project, connecting India's four metropolitan cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta and Chennai. |
The variety of transports is endless... |
There was even the occasional -decorated- elephant on the road.
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Helpful links: Indiaonline.nl (Dutch) www.india-tourism.com www.bharatonline.com Lonely Planet Wikipedia |
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Our driver had trouble finding diesel fuel for his car and stopped at many fuelstations, only to find them closed or without diesel. By the sixth or seventh attempt he found himself (and us!) lucky. About time too, as with increased worry I had noticed his fuellight had been on for quite a few kilometers.
In all fairness: we seldomly saw roads so bad.. But they never heard of drainage that is for sure.
