How We Get Around

Driving, that is...

Traffic in India is a disaster. And I had always assumed that the chaos wouldn't be quite as bad outside of town on the open road - but I was wrong. When we drove down to Ideal Beach Resort a few weeks ago we spent about an hour on a stretch of two lane "highway". The passing etiquette seemed to be that the smaller of the two vehicles careening towards each other drove off the side of the road to avoid a head on collision. And that's not an exaggeration - we went onto the dirt shoulder of the road at least five times.

Knowing all this, it follows that you don't just grab a car from the local rental agency and make your way around town. If you did manage to live, it would take you years to figure out how to get anywhere.

For us, that's where Premkumar, aka Prem, comes in. Prem works for a company that provides cars and drivers to people who are visiting Chennai, and we were lucky enough to end up with him as our full time driver for our stay.

As far as professional drivers go, he's pretty laid back. That translates into a pretty smooth ride which means less headaches and motion sickness. The more "typical" drivers in India that I've had are heavy on both the gas and the brake. It makes for a thrilling trip but long term it can get annoying.

The other thing we like about Prem is that the kids love him. Noah is excited to see him when he shows up in the morning, and has even ridden to work with me and back to the apartment with Prem to pick up Luanne and Micah. Pretty good for a kid who's deathly afraid of manequins. If he picks up Noah, Micah is right there whining with his arms in the air trying to get some attention.

The car he drives is a Ford Ikon, which is pretty close to the same thing as a Ford Focus with a diesel engine. The other option would be a Toyota Innova which is a little diesel SUV with 3rd row seating. It would be nice to have the extra room, but it costs more and we don't really need it.