Blog - India 2012 #4: Decorated trucks
India 2012 #4: Decorated trucks
On October 10, after a 2-night stay in Jaipur, we took a "Volvo bus" to get back to Delhi. It was booked with help from our hotel through the bus system's official site, and we chose one leaving at 2pm, the right time for us, and the site said "Volvo bus+LCD+Pantry". According to the hotel's guy this meant there would be a LCD monitor and a corner with some food, it also cost an extra Rs. 100 for that. We got on the bus: no TV, no food (all buses we took provided a free water bottle though)... so we asked the guys sitting in front of us, they said "yes this is the Volvo LCD Pantry!" Seems like it's normal. :)
On the long way to Delhi I started noticing many orange trucks on the highway. All looked very similar except for different logos on the sides, not just company logos bus also repetitive paintings of cows, lotus flowers, Indian flags, "All India Permit" logos, etc. All trucks have a random selection of these predefined icons.
Also, on the back of almost all trucks are messages like "Blow Horn", "Please Horn", "Keep Distance" to remind the driver behind of Indian trucking manners. Indeed klaxxons are used almost non-stop, to inform that one wants to pass the truck in front, but maybe also to keep each other from falling asleep? Some trucks are also very decorated. This all made it captivating to watch trucks for most of the long way to Delhi.
It was also interesting that bus passengers in India aren't as quiet as the ones in Japan (these can be as quiet as a library). In India people talk a lot! The two guys in front of us even talked non-stop for some 7 hours, until they saw the lights of Delhi and watched in awe.
This ride made me a bit obsessed with these trucks and I ended up getting a T-shirt and a mug cup of them. :) This neat embroidered T-shirt by Play Clan also has a description printed on the inside.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 23:45 | Tweet
|