Basically it was my fault in that I had not tried to book the train from Agra to Dehli early enough and there were no seats. Our driver kindly asked around and found us a driver who was going back to Dehli empty and would take us. The fog was even worse and the first half of the journey really scary. It was a complete white-out and there was no way either Beloved or I would drive in similar conditions. Most of the journey was on a dual carriageway where each side had 3 lanes, a hard shoulder and a grass lane the width of a lane before the crash barrier. Driving on the inside lane I could see the crash barrier on the inside and central reservation but nothing beyond so that for much of the time it felt as though you were not on a dual carriageway and expected oncoming traffic to loom out of the fog. It is the rule that in those conditions one drives with the hazard lights on so when cars did their usual bending between traffic lane changing thing there was no chance of any indicators, not that they use them.
About 70 miles out of Dehli the fog cleared considerably and we could relax. Then just as we were coming up to Connaught Place about 2km from the hotel and stopped at traffic lights some idiot came up behind and ran into us. THe idiot appeared to "have drink taken" even though it was only one o' clock on Sunday. Still we were OK and when we managed to get it out of the compressed boot my insulin seemed to have survived too.
How the matter was settled was interesting. Our driver called the police. Beloved fell for his bike but he just calmed everybody down and didn't seem to have a breathaliser. Idiot disappeared for a bit and came back with a wadge of money he started distributing ti "witnesses". Our driver said he settled for about half the cost of the repair because if he took it through the police and court he may well find the case evaporated and he would get nothing and it would take ages and they may impound his car (which is his livelihood) as evidence.
About 70 miles out of Dehli the fog cleared considerably and we could relax. Then just as we were coming up to Connaught Place about 2km from the hotel and stopped at traffic lights some idiot came up behind and ran into us. THe idiot appeared to "have drink taken" even though it was only one o' clock on Sunday. Still we were OK and when we managed to get it out of the compressed boot my insulin seemed to have survived too.
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| The view from my window just after the RTA |
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| Our taxi |
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| Idiot's car |
How the matter was settled was interesting. Our driver called the police. Beloved fell for his bike but he just calmed everybody down and didn't seem to have a breathaliser. Idiot disappeared for a bit and came back with a wadge of money he started distributing ti "witnesses". Our driver said he settled for about half the cost of the repair because if he took it through the police and court he may well find the case evaporated and he would get nothing and it would take ages and they may impound his car (which is his livelihood) as evidence.
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| Idiot (blue suit waistcoat) and his passenger (red shirt) star distributing dosh. |
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| The police bike |
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