Day thirty-one – I took a tuk tuk…

…a phrase which makes me laugh every time I say or write it.  Which just shows what a simple mind I have.  And how easily I laugh.

The majority of the day I  spent writing.  As well as (still) trying to catch up with this blog (which takes me straight back to diary-writing during our trip long ago, I have been trying to complete a workable script for R4J.  I do have an already much shortened version to work on on my laptop,it iit is still something I created way back, but it is still too flowery, too poetic, too archaic, too… well, too Shakespearean.  It is going to be translated into Nepali, and not by a Nepalese poet, but by the students, line by line, so it needs to be pretty clear English in the first place.  And I know that some would say that taking the poetry out of Shakespeare rather destroys the point, but needs must.  As with Double Trouble in Ethiopia last year, it is the story we are focusing on.

It was provi ng a more difficult and time-consuming process than I had imagined, however.  But now, at last, it was done!

I took a tuk tuk (ha!) to Aparna’s in the afternoon, and managed it without her (remote) assistance… mainly because she did not answer my call.  Fortunately, I had a cheery driver, prepared to listen to my general directions – straight, turn left, I would tell him when to stop.  Fine.  And he proved chatty, as king me a couple of questions: “Was I a Christian?”  “Sort of.”  He laughed.  But he would keep turning round to talk to me, which was a little alarming.  Eyes on the road!  Especially in Nepal, where all road-users did unpredictable things.  Plus there were cows!

I thought I would recognise the place where I had to get out… but I didn’t, and we had to turn round and come back.  , I took a bit of a guess, and luckily it was just the right place.  The usual pleasant stroll – stopped to talk to some ladies, dressed all in yellow, for another festival – my, they do  have a lot! – took their picture.  They recognised me from the dancing we had done with them weeks back… but I suppose I am quite distinctive.

For the return journey, it proved remarkably difficult to find a tuk tuk back, as they were all packed to the hilt, with goods and or people.  But while we were waiting there, there was the most tremendous crash from the other side of the road: two motor-bikes in collision, apparently.  I am amazed I haven’t seen such before, the way the bikes weave through traffic.  It was remarkable how quickly it attracted a crowd.  We had been standing on the side of a pretty abandoned road, not many people about, but with the accident, they came running.  And not to help, I don’t think, but to look.  It made for a pretty big deal.

A policeman turned up (though he3 didn’t look like a policeman, a hi-vis tabard being the extent of his visible authority.  And a loud piercing whistle, which seemed to send at least some of the bystanders on their way.  When he returned, (alongside another guy who was in a uniform, but more military in appearance) it proved fortunate for us, for when a tuk-tuk appeared which was very very slightly less packed, he waved it down.

But there really wasn’t any room in it.  There were three guys, each with a large suitcase, as well as a huge sack of flour or something.  But one got out, I somehow wriggled myself over the cases – there was nowhere for my feet to go, so they were sort of more or less in one companion’s lap, the bloke somehow half-squeezed himself back in.  And we were off.

I had no idea how I was going to get out, but luckily that problem was solved for me, for they all got out first, and I had the luxury of a tuk tuk to myself.  Only very briefly; we were nearly there.  And then the driver had no change, so I let him keep it, and said goodnight.

This gives me the chance to talk about tuk tuks in Dhangardhi, which are absolutely the workhorses of the transportation system here, carrying everyone (and pretty much everything.)  There are a few battered buses, but they seem to be more long-distance, and as I have said, no taxis (still only seen the one, and that because we used it.)

Then tuk tuks’ primary role is as shared taxi.  I did think it a bit of a cheek when first people climbed aboard with me, but it is not just acceptable, but the norm.  I have always wondered how shared taxis work, since surely everyone wants to go different places, but in Dhangardhi there aren’t too many choices, and the driver indicates if he is going straight along one of the main roads, or turning.

They can be either electric or petrol, but they all sound as though they are about to conk out at any minute, with the engine straining, and they vary in how battered they are, whether they have metal guard rails or just bits of rope, whether the driver has a windscreen or not.  I don’t think it makes any difference to the price – they are all very cheap – and people do not seem to me to worry too much about the condition.

Some are faster than others, and go speeding past – I always seem to be in a slow one – and they can be driven by men and women (again, I don’t think people care either way.) But I think there are some very smart, highly-decorated ones, the equivalent of limos, with dressed-up ladies inside.

There are seats for four, two benches facing each other, but can accommodate more, somehow (as today), and sometimes a passenger sits alongside the driver, but I think that technically this is not allowed, and when officials are about, they get off, walk a bit, then get back on again when the official is out of sight.

And they do seem to be able to take anything; often piles of cartons or sacks, building materials, once a motor-scooter I saw wedged in the back.  And what they carry can stick out every which way – sideways, longways, out through the roof.

They are huge fun, very cheap, and I wish we had them… but health and safety would never allow them in the UK, and that’s probably as it should be.  Why should all the world be the same?  Vive la difference.