How I Survived driving a 4X4 SUV for the first time in an unknown Country
A tale of facing the unknowns and discovering the unseen after landing in a country for the first time assuming you’ll be driven by a local driver but the car rental company denies that and you find on the spot that you need to drive by your own for next one month
This was the end of winter in India when I had an official trip planned to a remote village North of Manchester where still it was the peak of winter.
Landing at the airport: After a very long flight from my previous flying standards, I reached at around 11 AM local time at Manchester airport. After the routine of collecting the baggage, I wanted immediately to rush to the hotel which I had booked in advance in the village where I had official engagements. So, I exited the airport and went to a bus stand near which was the only transport visible to me at that time there. Since I had also booked a car which was an SUV as suggested by earlier office colleagues due to road conditions, I wanted to reach that car-providing company which was near to the airport as per the maps I referred to before starting the trip.
Confusion of what to do: So, taking a bus was a quick resolution to reach their office, and then from there, I was anyway getting the car to travel to the final destination. As I had mailed them 2 days back about the time, I’ll reach so I didn’t feel the necessity to call them up after reaching the airport so I didn’t keep their phone number handy. The wind was too cold and tiny flairs of ice were falling dispersedly making the weather extremely cold even at noon. After 5 minutes of waiting at the bus stop suddenly, I realized that getting a local SIM card would be a good idea before boarding the bus.
Again, I went inside the airport and found a store selling the SIM card. Quickly the SIM card was activated and it started working immediately after inserting into the phone. I took out the phone number of the car company and told them about my whereabouts and they guided me to a location where they came to pick me up and took me to their office.
Knock-knock bad news: Now the series of surprises starts hereafter. I had booked the car with a driver and paid the extra sum also for that as per my understanding. But the lady at the billing counter explained to me that the extra amount was charged just for allowing the river to be accompanied and only I had to arrange for the driver at my own cost. This was a huge surprise and kind of a shock to me as I was dependent upon the driver to drive me for the next 150 km to reach the hotel in the destination village. Even after multiple requests, they said it is not in the policy to provide the driver and they can provide only a car to me. This was the moment of realization that I was in deep trouble as I’d never driven in any other country and that too the vehicle was an unknown SUV. Either I could waste time thinking and doing nothing leading to a spiral of black hole situation of where to stay and what to do now Or I could’ve thought of driving on my own with the help of GPS slowly and believing that this long distance can be travelled in small journeys. I took the latter one.
Wrong turn, GPS done: Left with no choice I took the keys after pretending to understand the terms and conditions of usage and return of the car. I started driving soon and to little consolation there was a GPS map in the car at the main display. I put the destination as the final arrival point and started driving the strong SUV. Since it was a very newly launched vehicle so there was another level of excitement about driving it but soon that excitement disappeared when I found that looking at GPS I took the diversion left of a tunnel instead of going through the tunnel. Now in an unknown country and city, I am alone on the wrong road and still away from my hotel by around 150 kms. Somehow maneuvering and crossing many turns and small roads I returned to the point near the car office from where I started. This was a great point of relaxation as now I know I was at the starting point.
Again, I started and in the bewilderment of the moment somehow again I took the same wrong diversion at the same point and became angry at myself. Then I thought that this was only the first location of multiple options to move through but surely there will be many more like this so how to choose and go through the right option. I looked at the watch, it was showing 2.15 pm and the Sun had already started losing its shine and mild darkness had begun to spread its wings on the slants of faraway visible mountains.
The Map is in your hand: Then an idea suddenly kicked inside my mind that I have a mobile also in which surely there will be Google map and which should work as now there is a local SIM inside. Thrilled with joy, I set the phone on the dashboard to see the screen put the destination hotel and started following it. I must say after that I faced no wrong diversion issues and felt a bit comfortable and sure of reaching the hotel well before evening and completely dark. All the vehicles were running past me at very high speed as being from India I had never seen cars or even trucks running at such a fast speed. I tried to increase my speed up to the maximum possible but still couldn’t match up to most of the running vehicles on that highway.
It was a great wonderful sight to see the roads covered with light snow. The mountains are laden with carpets of snow and reflect sunlight like a mirror making the drive more convenient than expected. There were stopping points on the highway where I could park my car and take a break to remove the fatigue arising out of constant driving. On the way I kept eating the snacks and sweets I brought from my home as felt too hungry since the last good meal taken had well 10–12 hours before.
Final destination, just before the end: Soon glimpses of scattered small houses and animals started appearing and I got the sense that now the destination village would be somewhere nearby. Google Maps was showing 18 minutes still left to arrive so I assumed it’s still 20–25 km away. After a few minutes, the map signaled to take a left exit, though the name written on the direction board was of another village but I trusted the map signal and took the exit. To my pleasant surprise, I saw a few people walking on the side walkways and a series of houses made in ancient style made the visuals more comforting. Finally, at around 5 pm I reached my hotel and went inside quickly where the receptionist lady helped me do a quick check and the day ended well after early challenges.
I learned a lot from this whole journey after landing at the airport, to list these down,
- Keep all the contact numbers of taxi service providers, hotels, and contact persons handy in a small slip within your easy reach all the time
- Carry some food items always which will be a critical fallback if no formal food break is taken
- In any visiting country other than your own, take a SIM card inside the airport itself before proceeding to exit
- Call up every service provider like taxi, hotel, or any other in advance even just for a courtesy call to ascertain that your understanding of the services and packages is same as the actual
- Always follow a map preferably from Google but it’s a good idea to get help from locals and even to note down all important vectors and pointers if the on-road travel is too long
- Keep some extra time in hand which always helps in case you are missing something or taking longer time in any on-the-way activity
In the end, this journey taught me a lot about practical dos and don’ts, all of which we should care about extensively while traveling to another country and driving on our own there to travel countryside.
