Along with some luggage...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1188853/Room-How-cars-delivered-Afghanistan.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1188853/Room-How-cars-delivered-Afghanistan.html)
Now THAT is trusting the structural integrity of the roof...
wild .... ;D
KT,
You may be on to something!
David just lost a tire on his toad and it tore up a fender, not to worry if its up top... ;D
Cliff
They look like indestructible Mercedes 0302, exactly what I rode in when I was there in 1977 (before the Soviets and the Taliban wrecked what had been a beautiful country). Most of them still have their original German writing on the sides and even their German destination signs.
Between Herat and Kabul our bus had (only) two punctures, so because there is no roadside assistance program all the passengers (even the women in their burkahs) were enlisted to help. With no jacks how would you change a front tire (twice)? Easy. Everyone pushes on the side of the bus, rocking it until the helper boy can wedge some large rocks under the axle. Then, to give clearance under the flat tire, dig a hole in the road, swap the wheel/tire with one of the spares, sort of fill up the hole in the road, rock the bus again to allow the boy to get the rocks out from underneath, done. This happened twice, in the middle of the night, and seemed to be quite normal as nobody was too surprised.
Everyone should spend some time traveling in developing countries to appreciate just how good we have things here. Riding on the roofs of buses makes Greyhound look like luxury. At least you can see everything more easily, can jump off if a crash is imminent, is much cooler, and can help counter-balance the bus by leaning off the side if the bus is leaning over too much, like on a sailing yacht. I had to do that in Nepal on an old Tata bus driving up the dry(ish) riverbed of the Marsiyangdi river - the tires actually had patches bolted to their sidewalls, and a small boy was given the task of jamming rocks under the wheels to stop us rolling back on the steepest sections. I think we did the entire four hour trip in just crawler and first gears. Fun.
John, back in the lap of luxury
.
John,
Nice remembrance. It's too bad that we don't have some of those disposable little boys.
John,
Thanks for the story. I have never been in a country like that (other than mexico).
I enjoyed the read.
God bless,
John
What are the blue rag things hanging on the rear bus? I wonder how they get the cars up there?
Tee Hee! Do ya reckon those rigs might be just a little top-heavy?? :)
Dennis
Wow! How could that NOT tip over? Buses have a tendency to lean without that kind of a load on them!