NO! You can't drive yourself!!!

Due to the ‘straggly’ nature of the original Goa Exam schedule, local hero Chris had kindly taken it upon himself (well he is ‘The Boss’) to rearrange things so that 5 fairly ‘sparse’ days {wed – sun} and a ½ day workshop on monday were converted into 3 full days {wed – fri} and the ½ day w’shop on saturday afternoon, leaving Sunday and monday as ‘rest days’. Brilliant!

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When I enquired about the possibility of hiring a car, it took Chris a moment to realise that I was actually considering DRIVING MYSELF!!!
When the penny dropped, he threw up his hands in horror and declared that ‘on no account’ should I consider doing this, and that he would physically restrain me if I even so much as considered it! It was far too risky – even though they drive on the same side, and even if I could cope with completely random Indian driving habits and customs, I would have no control over the other chap. So if there was an ‘incident’, it could get very tricky.

Bribery is commonplace here (even if not obvious to the outsider) and the police are deemed to be at the top of the ‘pile’. A significant contributory factor to the apparently crazy, random, road “sense” here is the fact that to get a licence you ‘pay’ a bribe to the appropriate ‘licence-walla’ and presto! You’re a driver ☺

This may make the average Brit feel most jealous and aggrieved when we consider the investment necessary to get roadworthy in the UK – but hang on – just think about it! With no ‘test’ and no awareness of any ‘Highway Code’ or rules & regs, zillions of untrained herberts are catapulted onto the road network without a care in the world for roadcraft, etiquette or anything beyond the desire to get where they want to go.

Once I understood this, I could slowly begin to understand why they drive the way they do and why it is unlikely to ever change! The snowball has started to roll, and it ain’t gonna stop! No lane discipline, no giving way, no overtaking on the outside only, basically no rules.

As little as 10-15 years ago, road travel consisted primarily (believe it or not) of bullock carts, Ambassadors [we know them as Morris Oxfords] and Fiats [used as the black & yellow taxis that proliferate everywhere] and hand carts.
Since then, foreign manufacturers have entered the country and there has been an absolute explosion of cars and motorcycles.

Once they became available, everybody wanted one, most of them seem to have succeeded, and now the roads are jammed solid pretty much all of the time in all of the cities.