July 11, 2004

Seatbelts? We have Allah!

Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

Forget terrorism. Forget street crime. Forget the water. By far the most dangerous thing you can do when travelling is get in to a vehicle to travel from one town to another. Unfortunately, I do more of that than anything else.

The trip from Karakol to Bishkek, along the shores of Lake Issyk-kul, was particularly memorable. No seat-belts in the car (of course). The driver keeping at a fixed 120 km/hr regardless of towns, villages, or other traffic. And best of all, every time we passed a cemetary he would make the Muslim gesture for blessing, taking both hands off the wheel and passing them slowly over his face. The irony that in doing this we may soon be joining the folks in the cemetary was, unfortunately, lost.

Posted by David at July 11, 2004 07:26 PM