How do you get around?

The reassuring thing about traveling in a new city is that you can always check your handy map by the street signs. And, with the likes of GoogleEarth and their succinct directions, how could you ever get lost?

Uh, well, what if there are no street signs, winding, congested roads, and cabbies who don't speak English or understand your Hindi and are possibly illiterate? (like the cabbie in Mumbai who couldn't understand us and wouldn't look when we pointed at a map-- and eventually had to drop us a bit far from our destination at Mumbai Central train station, as this seemed to be all he could understand)

Oh, then you must be in India. So, like any other process here, it will be a little slower (like molasses), a little more foggy (like pea soup) and definitely scrambled (like a heap of eggs). Scrambled pea molasses soup? ewwww.

For the most part, we hail a taxi or an auto-rickshaw, which is a cool 3-wheeler that looks more like a carnival ride than a reliable means of transport. Here is the process: first, you hail a driver and them where you're going. If you're a tourist, the price is automatically inflated by 500%, and sometimes you have to walk away from a few before you can find one who will agree to charge something reasonable or use the meter. Then they navigate the city streets as if they are on speed, blind, deaf and unable to brake. Actually, I am pretty sure that when they want to brake, they just hit the gas instead. Eh, its a pedal, what's the diff? (in spite of this, I have so far seen zero accidents. They are actually incredibly skilled!)

So let's say that somehow, through the grace of Ganesh, you get to your desired location. Now you have to pay. If they actually used the meter as promised: in Mumbai, the number on the meter has nothing to do with what you pay. They state the price, and if you're a native you know if that is good or not, and if you're not you say "book!" until they roll their eyes (or wobble their head) and take out the laminated chart that indicates how to translate the meter into the rupees you pay. In Hyderabad, if the meter starts on 10.00 when you get in, you ask for the chart. if it started on 12, you pay what it says. But make sure the meter isn't, uh, rolling a little too fast, as some are known to do.

This morning I needed to go just a few kilometers in the auto. I asked the driver how much and he stated, "50 rupees". This, I knew, was outrageous, and indicated thusly. He smiled sheepishly, did the Indian head bobble and said, "ok ok, just checking". This is a typical reaction-- one guy laughed good naturedly after Bartley and I refused to pay him an extra Rs 10 he demanded for no reason. Bargaining is all in good fun, and they are amused that I won't be, um, taken for a ride.