Photo (by Yveline Gobil): This reminds me of the drive to Dehra Dun; the taxi drivers are very skilled drivers... they need to be... it is CRAZY traffic... and I don't understand the rules of the road.
We flew back to Delhi on April 29th and met Raja, our guide for the mountain trip, at the hotel in Karol Bagh.
At the airport in Delhi we had arranged for a driver. As you leave the arrival area, as at many airports, the hired-car drivers are lined up with signs displaying the names of their customers. But in Delhi, this is a SEA of people waving signs... hundreds of them. We didn't see our names on the first pass, so I doubled back to look again... no driver. This is actually comical, but Chris went around into the crowd of drivers looking for any taxi to take us to the hotel, and there next to him was OUR driver (he had been pushed out of the area since our flight was an hour late).
We wandered around on foot that afternoon... just getting familiar with the flow of life around that area of Delhi.
The next day, Dr. B. and I organized our gear and were ready to go on schedule at 9 AM. The drive to Dehradun (capital of Uttaranchal/Uttarkand) is about 180Km from Delhi - a 6-7 hour drive. The roads are two-lane. They handle everything from cows, animal drawn carts, bicycles, motos, scooters, cars, buses, trucks... it is quite a tangle. We saw three major accidents with trucks askew on the side of the road. No surprise. Driving on these roads is like a game of chicken... vehicles pull out to pass, honking their horns, and the oncoming guys flash their lights - and they squeeze past (most of the time). It is noisy and confusing... All of the trucks and motos (motorcycle engines with passenger compartments for 6-12) have ornaments, fancy paint jobs, and signs on the back that say, "Horn Please" and "Dipper at Night". This means, honk horn in daytime and flash brights at night to signal passing.
Dehradun is another overcrowded, noisy, dirty and low air quality city... it sits North of Rishikesh and Haridwar. It's a jumping-off point into the Himalayas.
We arrived in Dehra Dun (capital of Uttarkand) around 3PM. After getting settled into the room we took motos to visit both Hindu and Buddhist temples within a short drive; and also visited a cybercafe to send email. Since we were soon to be completely out of reach for any communications with home, I sent ecards as well. The upcoming mountain trip would take us out of range for at least two weeks. Although I've been on many climbing trips, I usually have a satellite phone for remote trips... but they are illegal in the Indian Himalayas. Oh, by the way, so are GPS, per our guide! Not that progressive of the India Mountaineering Federation... actually the GPS ban poses an unnecessary safety risk.
We did a final gear sort... since we had originally planned to cache some of our unnecessary personal stuff at a hotel during the mountain trip, but due to logistics changes would not be passing back through Dehra Dun. Meditated. Slept.
At the airport in Delhi we had arranged for a driver. As you leave the arrival area, as at many airports, the hired-car drivers are lined up with signs displaying the names of their customers. But in Delhi, this is a SEA of people waving signs... hundreds of them. We didn't see our names on the first pass, so I doubled back to look again... no driver. This is actually comical, but Chris went around into the crowd of drivers looking for any taxi to take us to the hotel, and there next to him was OUR driver (he had been pushed out of the area since our flight was an hour late).
We wandered around on foot that afternoon... just getting familiar with the flow of life around that area of Delhi.
The next day, Dr. B. and I organized our gear and were ready to go on schedule at 9 AM. The drive to Dehradun (capital of Uttaranchal/Uttarkand) is about 180Km from Delhi - a 6-7 hour drive. The roads are two-lane. They handle everything from cows, animal drawn carts, bicycles, motos, scooters, cars, buses, trucks... it is quite a tangle. We saw three major accidents with trucks askew on the side of the road. No surprise. Driving on these roads is like a game of chicken... vehicles pull out to pass, honking their horns, and the oncoming guys flash their lights - and they squeeze past (most of the time). It is noisy and confusing... All of the trucks and motos (motorcycle engines with passenger compartments for 6-12) have ornaments, fancy paint jobs, and signs on the back that say, "Horn Please" and "Dipper at Night". This means, honk horn in daytime and flash brights at night to signal passing.
Dehradun is another overcrowded, noisy, dirty and low air quality city... it sits North of Rishikesh and Haridwar. It's a jumping-off point into the Himalayas.
We arrived in Dehra Dun (capital of Uttarkand) around 3PM. After getting settled into the room we took motos to visit both Hindu and Buddhist temples within a short drive; and also visited a cybercafe to send email. Since we were soon to be completely out of reach for any communications with home, I sent ecards as well. The upcoming mountain trip would take us out of range for at least two weeks. Although I've been on many climbing trips, I usually have a satellite phone for remote trips... but they are illegal in the Indian Himalayas. Oh, by the way, so are GPS, per our guide! Not that progressive of the India Mountaineering Federation... actually the GPS ban poses an unnecessary safety risk.
We did a final gear sort... since we had originally planned to cache some of our unnecessary personal stuff at a hotel during the mountain trip, but due to logistics changes would not be passing back through Dehra Dun. Meditated. Slept.
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