Transport and travel in the developing world... so far

Right so, in getting here to writing this I must address that in mind, body and soul, from the greenhorned, wet eared Belrubit boy naught but a month ago who landed in Mumbai and huddled petrified in his hotel room, I am back to said city and the experience in that time has seen me come full circle. Im still wide-eyed, easily surprised and often wrung thorough a wrenching series of emotions when ever I see something that goes against all my worldly instincts, but instead of running away from them, like I may have done when I first started out, now Im prepared to take it on the chin, stare it in the face, soak up the experience and file it under... Ive never seen that happen in Cavan!.
A lot of the "take it on the chin, stare it in the face, soak up the experience" that a traveller "enjoys", and I use the word figuratively, pertains to travelling itself, be it walking though a city, town, village, patty field, over a hill, up a mountain or though a forest, its all the same, it gets you to and inside somewhere different... different, as long as you havent been there before, and seeing as this is my first time travelling, everything is new to me.
My only two cents in all of this is that to travel in a developing country like India or Nepal, as I have been for the past 5 to 6 weeks, one must completely ignore, disband and otherwise forget one's flimsy clutch to life and accept their ever impending mortality, which of course if often put to the test as you step of a curb or hurtle though a narrow street filled with traffic, the driver of the 3 wheeled shuddering tuk tuk singing at the top of his voice while the sound system (yes, sound system, lil boy racers in Ireland can f their subaru's) in the back which weighs prob as much as the damn tuk tuk and me and the driver blares out the latest Bollywood love song (they're always love songs), all the while I try to remember how to bless myself in a vain attempt at seeking divine intervention to slow the fecker down.
But where to start, it was the Taxi in Mumbai on the way to the hotel, I looked at him then thinking, this mad b'tard, they cant all be this bad. I now realise that they are all that bad... or good, depending how you look at ity, and this transcends international boundaries and proven in Nepal where, late for my as yet unknown-to-me delayed flight outta Kathmandu, the driver, with a baksheesh or bribe of an extra 50 rps/50c to hurry up, drove up onto the footpath and over took a lane of traffic on the left handside. Im not proud of what I paid the man to do, or am I proud of the sheer white terror I witnessed in peoples faces, funnily, others didnt seem to mind or notice all that much, but I made that delayed flight on time!
Tuk Tuks to, while there are no tuk tuks in Nepal, INdia more that makes up the quota I feel for the entire planet,in fact, Mumbai probably makes up the quota of Tuk tuks for the entire planet, but while the Marahashians are proud of how badly they drive their tuk tuks, those in Jaipur, north in Rajastan couldnt give a feck, as my driver one night demonstrated, driving down the narrowest of alleys and out, sidewards may I add into a fast flowing stream of traffic, slotting with such delicacy into a spot between a car and a bus, with so little space to spare that I could hear the driver of the bus roaring at my guy Bahchudd or sisterf'er!
On foot we all know the dangers of stepping out into traffic, though crossing mainstreet Cavan brings with it a damn sight bit more certaincy of success that say, main street Kathmandu or Delhi or anywhere that driving is practiced with those with suicidal tendancies and nerves of the toughest steel.
So by foot, by two wheels (mopheading in Goa), three, four, including buses which, in either country are an absolute experience, though in Nepal it is positively encouraged that you sit on the roof. In fact, when I went to visit Bandipur, this tiny quiet mountain top town halfways between Crapmandu and Pokhara where no vehicles are allowed enter, exiting the town I took a 4x4 jeep down in which there fitted me... and 30 others, two on the roof. Yes, 31 people, the Mahindra may only have 4 gears and drive like a cinder block on wheels but it can fit 31 people, and there was even room for more.
Now some may think that 290 is an odd number of wheels to stick on a car, not even the Monk has a limo that stretched but was I allude to are the trains, while there are none in Nepal to speak of, again INdia provides a prime example.
I was to write and entire epistle on the subject in itself but such is life and I have been enjoying myself way to much and had far too little internet time to be yabbering on about the smell, the crowdedness, the people, the smell, the cramped conditions, the smell, the insects, the smell, the distance to travel, the smell... oh, did I mention the smell.
Well, its not all that bad, my first experience of and INdian railway station came at Kochi on my way to Goa, queuing is a not of prime importance to Indians, nor is the basics of waiting your turn, so every ticket purchace, ever attempted entry to the platform and even the carraige can be and often is, a struggle. But a fun one, I dont know, as I dont read over what I write, whether what I have written has expressed the sheer elation of arriving in somewhere new, sure the means of getting there, especially in Nepal where Nepal time means you're gonna be late, can be frustrating but getting there is the goal, and looking back, the transport is what can quite often make the experience that much better and the trains, despite the smell bode for me some of my fondest memories.
FACT judging by their insistence to go up and over as opposed to around or even through/ across, there are not enough Civil engineers in Nepal
FACT while on a bus, when a person in Nepal gruffly shouts at you while holding a goat, he generally wants you to then hold his goat while he goes and gets another kicking and screaming goat and carries it onto the bus with him
FACT in India, the rules of the road are, there are no rules. Its very Mad Max return to the Thunderdrome but its a battle of wits and a battle for survival every time you turn a key in the ignition and take whatever your driving out on the open road.