Getting Around in India

For the first two weeks we were here, we used a lot of public transportation to get around. This mostly included rikshaws. There are bicycle rikshaws, which are basically bicycles with a "carriage" in back. You pay your driver based on how far you are going. We would use these when we weren't going too far. We could get our whole family on one, with the kids sitting on our laps, although we only did that for short rides as it wasn't very comfortable. The kids really enoy riding on these rikshaws - I think it is fun for them to be up high and right where they can see all the action! One day Hannah Beth told me that she wanted to ride in a rikshaw at least once every day!

The other type is a motorized rikshaw. We would use these for farther distances. They were a little bigger, so they were more comfortable for us all to sit in, although Nathaniel would still be on my lap. True to form, Nathaniel could fall asleep in either mode of transportation! Inside the motorized rikshaws, it has what kind of looks like motorcycle handles/steering. I would say it is more like a big motorcycle than a small car.

Here is Hannah Beth sporting her new sunglasses and enjoying a ride in a motorized rikshaw.

This isn't a very good picture of it, but I was trying to show how close everyone drives to each other here. There are roughly lanes on the roads, but the cars, motorcycles and rikshaws all crowd right in and pass within inches of each other. They use their horns all the time to tell each other that they are behind them or coming through. They don't go very fast on most roads, so I haven't been too fearful of a major accident, but I am constantly amazed that we haven't been side-swiped or bumped by any other vehicles. Most cars do have scrapes and dents on the sides of them, though!

The family we are taking over for here owns a car, and they have a driver. They are letting us use their car and driver while we are here, and we are paying for the gas we use. It is a small car, but is great for our family, and the driver knows where most things are and we don't have to worry about navigating through the traffic (plus it has air conditioning!). When our driver is off, we either walk to places close or use the rikshaws. We are blessed to have a big shopping area close to us - within walking distance - that has restaurants and shops.