Hooning around Udaipur

Leigh was the first to experience Indian traffic first hand. I was somewhat scared to do so. You see, Indian traffic is quite unlike any traffic anywhere in the world. There's a very open interpretation of lanes, people don't use their mirrors (motorcyclists actually prefer to fold them in), constantly use their horn (meaning "i'm coming" or "get out of the way"), forget about helmets, and pretty much share the road with pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, rickshaws, carts, cars, buses, trucks, sacred cows, stray dogs, and the odd elephant or camel (complete with French tourist on top).
So when Leigh discovered the Indians' love affair with motorbikes, he hired his first scooter in Jaisalmer. From then he was hooked and I thought he was mad. Once in Udaipur he managed to convince me to hire one too and go hooning around. The practice run at Heera's motorcyle and bycicle hire - a couple of laps in the guy's 5x5-metre garage - wasn't the most confident display of riding ever seen, but Heera was happy to let me go out on the road in one of his automatic scooters.
After the first few minutes of downright fear, I discovered that Indian roads really represent the concept of organised chaos. It just seems to flow: everyone is so focused on dodging everything that it just works. You beep at pedestrians/cyclists, dodge them ever-so-slightly over to your right, if a bigger vehicle is trying to dodge you they will beep to let you know. Slow down for incoming rickshaws or sacred cows as they're fairly unpredictable, and you'll be right.
Ended up having a whale of a time riding around the residential areas of Udaipur and the local markets, where no gringos are in sight. Noticed that unlike anywhere else we've been in Rajasthan, there's a large amount of hot Indian chicks on scooters. The possibilities for decoration are endless: tiger-print seats, faux-fur seats, double or triple seats, hot pink bikes, spikes poking outwards from the wheels' axis, flags on ninja bikes, etc.
The makes and sizes are as varied too: there's anything from tiny Bajajs and Vespas, to the huge Hondas and Suzukis. But our favourite so far has been the Royal Enfield.
We're off to Mumbai today. I read in one of those lonely planet guides that the best way to get around is on a motorbike. Judging by Delhi traffic, I think I'll give it a miss, but you never know... anything is possible in India.