Is this the end of Indi-Bindi?

Even if you haven't a clue what "indi-bindi" means, you've got to feel a little upset that something with such a wonderful moniker is almost no more. According to the sign below, it is forbidden except at designated  spots.  "Indi-bindi" sounds good, it's a phrase foreigners pick up easily and slips off the tongue with satisfaction. But we've got to get used to a life without "indi-bindi".

"Attention Passengers! Indi-Bindi is forbidden except at bus-stops"

For the uninitiated, 'indi'  means 'got off' and bindi means 'got on' but it is so much more than the sum of these words.  For the purpose of explanation, I'll concentrate on the Bodrum peninsula, but the transport system I'm about to describe is nationwide.  You wouldn't believe it to look at Turkey now, but when I first arrived in the early 80s, very few people had cars; they didn't need them as public transport was well developed. Coaches for intercity journeys and jeeps for village to Bodrum trips. (It's still well developed - but now everyone wants a car) . The jeeps gave way to minibuses that operated on the same "dolmuş" system.  The minibuses waited in the centre of each village until every seat was filled and then they set off to Bodrum. As they pottered along anyone could get on or off as they pleased.  If you were waiting by the side of the road the accepted sign  that you wished to board was to stick out an arm horizontally in front and waggle your fingers up and down.  If you wanted to get off, you yelled at the driver and he slammed on the brakes.  'Dolmuş' means 'filled' and quite often lived up to that name.  I was once on a 12 seater heading to Bitez, with 23 heads on board when the driver spied a police road block ahead, swung the wheel to the right and took us bumping, yelling and swearing over 500 metres of rocky field before he swung back on to the main road nonchalantly ignoring the complaints of his bruised cargo.  It could never happen these days as the main road is totally lined with shops. Such a manoeuvre would take the bus straight into a supermarket aisle or shopping mall fountain.

Fast forward 30 years and the dolmuş system is alive and well but operating under rigid regulation. For a start, there are many more routes and minibuses - so many that I can't see how a living can be made except in July and August.  There is a timetable ! An anathema to the last century's drivers.  Even if the bus only has 2 passengers, that bus has to leave.  And to add insult to injury, passengers can't be picked up or dropped off willy-nilly en route, they have to stand at bus shelters  i.e. no indi-bindi.   In the old days, a driver would spy a potential customer ahead and drive like a maniac to overtake the two buses in front so that he could screech to a halt to collect the now very intimidated (if foreign) potential fare in front of the competition.  This practice has now been outlawed.  All well and good you may say - surely this is an organised system?   But if we'd wanted to live in an orderly country, we would have moved to Switzerland.
I watched a confused octogenarian trying to flag down a minibus in the centre of Bodrum as the drivers whizzed past.  A couple helpfully yelled out that he had to walk to the bus stop which was 100m ahead which he eventually did, but I felt his bafflement and the question "when did dolmuş stop picking up people?" hung in the air.
Luckily for me - "indi-bind" is still the rule in our village, at least until the bus hits the main road and we actually now have a service to Bodrum from the end of our road.  6 TL (roughly 2 quid) gets you the 35 kms to Bodrum (4TL if you travel regularly). I reckon our village is about 20 years behind Bodrum so we should enjoy our indi-bindi while we've got it.

p.s. I've always thought it should be 'bindi-indi' because surely you have to get on before you can get off.