Drivers (by Cor)

Drivers - this is when you do not have your own car and need to get what we would call a taxi - except you "hire a car" to go to the airport, or shopping, or whatever. It's usually for several hours and quite reasonable $2-$3/hour. Except paying this several times per week gets to be a hassle.

We've now bought our own car, the Mahindra Scorpio, an "SUV" - quite nice, and soooo much better than trying to get the driver to come on time and get you where you need to go. Some people have their own cars AND a personal driver, not too expensive, $125 month (yes, for the whole month - he washes your car too and runs errands).

It's funny how you see a VERY small car with a chauffeur and the passenger in the back, just like in a limmo, except the car is one quarter the size of the limmo.

It's funny how after some months here now, a Honda City (smaller than a Civic) or Toyota Corolla actually look like large luxurious automobiles. A BMW (rare) or Benz looks absolutely extravagant - of course they cost 125% more here, due to import tarrifs.

Drivers come in all shapes and sizes (old, young, smart, s....d, etc). One thing they share; when you ask them "do you know how to get to place x or place y”, they all say say yes.

Well if they kindof mumble yes, they don’t know. Be careful.

What will happen is that they take off down the street and ask directions from people along the way. Of course most of those people answer very diligently, first pointing left and then right and then another way yet – all of this resulting in mass confusion and no clear directions. Eventually you do arrive at the address – most of the time, but almost always late.

Problem is that many streets do not have names, and very few streets have street names posted. And, of course we still dont always know how to get there either, so we dont know if the driver is guessing or not.

One exception, if you need to get to the airport they get you there on time, no matter what traffic jams they encounter - it's amazing.