MAY 5, 13 .. BE SAFE ! ? .. GIVE ME A BREAK ..
This is ‘yet-another-chapter’ in the .. BE SAFE ! ? .. series.
It is Sunday .. 5 May 2013. I am back in Kodaikanal about to leave tomorrow evening by all-night bus for Chennai .. by India Railway for Agra and New Delhi .. then by air flight(s) to Hong Kong .. Chicago .. and lastly up-to Anchorge.
Do I want? Do l need? To break-my-neck today?
I was stepping forward to photograph the below scene here in Kodaikanal this morning ..
WHEN ! .. I came so very VERY close to falling down-the-hill to ‘join-the-scenery’ that it really spooked me.
Look casually at the below photo.
NOTHING MUCH TO SEE IS THERE?
Now look at the below two photos .. study the shaft of my ‘Zilla Cane and see what the problem was!
My boot had slipped-under this INVISIBLE piece of barbed-wire about two (2) inches off the ground and I WAS-ON-MY-WAY down-the-hill when I ‘caught myself’ with my ‘Zilla Cane.
Do you want a close-call? This was a CLOSE-CALL !
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On this trip .. for the first time ever in my 22+ year history traveling here in India .. I have done more full sized bus .. mini-bus and automobile travel than I have ever done before. My mode of travel is the India Railway System. The highways are so very dangerous.
Below is the automobile that I traveled from Kodaikanal to Munnar and returned in.
The seats in the far rear are very undesirable. Patti .. do you see what I mean about them being uncomfortable.
Who do you think WINS if the above automobile runs head-on-into the below truck(s) or bus?
Going to Munnar last Wednesday was a day-light trip. Returning yesterday it was partially day-light (3 hours) and partially night-time (2 hours). The worst road was the climb up the mountain to Kodaikanal in-the-dark-of-night with the constant on-coming traffic! We also had about one hour of rain. I was sitting beside our driver .. up front .. in the suicide seat. The on-coming (being much taller vehicles) truck and bus headlights were right-in-our-eyes.
HOW DO YOU BE SAFE ! ?
My driver had driven from Kodaikanal to Munnar in the early day .. 9AM to 3PM .. then he drove back .. 4PM to 9PM .. and we made one and only one rest stop returning. Let-me-tell-you-all it was a ‘white-knuckle’ ride for me. However .. even though I worried about his fatigue-factor .. I much preferred my driver last night than last Wednesday.
Quick aside. Last Wednesday .. the day-light trip .. I wanted to be on the left side of the car. And I was settled on the left side behind the front seats until we picked up our last two passengers. The young man politely asked if he could sit on the left side in my seat in the rear. I declined. He asked again. I smiled and declined again. Then he said .. “I get car sick and I vomit. I need to be on the left side in case I need to hang-my-head out to vomit.” I said .. “Hang your head out the right side.” He said .. “On coming traffic on the right side could kill me!” I said (yielding my left-side seat) “I see your point.”
Thinking to myself .. “This is one great con-job on your part to get yourself into MY left-side seat!”
THEN THE POOR LAD BEGAN to BINGE-VOMIT! We must have stopped five or six times to accommodate him.
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On our way last Wednesday we stopped to see the Silver Falls water falls here on the out-skirts of Kodaikanal. NOT dangerous but they ‘fit-in’ here.
FRANKLY I DON’T KNOW how-on-earth you can BE SAFE ! ? all the time here in India.
I’ll sign off as .. Today I ‘dodged-a-bullet’ Cap
- MAY 4, 13 (2/2) .. THOUGHTS ON MUNNAR AND ON INDIA ..
- MAY 6, 13 .. TID-BITS AS I LEAVE KODAIKANAL ..