Thursday 21 November 2013

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.

28 comments:

  1. 'Indi-Bindi' - just trips off the tongue brilliantly, shame it will be no more. How's this for another great phrase 'Popty Ping' is microwave oven in Welsh!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want a Popty Ping! Never will the word "microwave" pass my lips again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I too want a Popty Ping!

    They are putting a stop in Indi-Bindi here too.
    We don't have the dolmus system...but have collectivo buses which stop at all points on the route - and at some points well off them on occasion.
    The transport ministry has decided that this causes traffic chaos - clearly a monopoly of the transport ministry - and has banned the practice.
    Which in my own case means I have to leg it halfway through the town rather than being dropped off at the Post Office....and means that bus drivers have had to find a new way of having their packed lunches delivered to them en route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We already have traffic chaos - I don't think anything could make it worse.

      Delete
  4. still 'indi-bidi-ing' down out neck of the woods (not that I'm there at the moment) - must just be those puffed-up and poncified touristic municipalities. loved this Annie - gave me quite a lift and fed my need to be home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like Bodrum's attempts to end indi-bindi are set to fail. The people want it.

      Delete
  5. I do not want a popty ping, though I do like the word. I don't like the machines...

    I think we still have indi bindi here though there are rival dolmuş companies who have some sort of 'arrangement' which means that certain dolmuşlar will not pick you up on certain routes. It does puzzle people not 'in the know' when one apparently empty dolmuş sails past and, ten minutes later, a much fuller one stops for you. I'm pretty sure they still have indi bindi in Kuşadası and İzmir as, when on the bike, we have to watch out for predictably erratic dolmuş behaviour.

    I've also always wondered why there is a specific fare for those who get off the dolmuş then get back on it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a popty ping but very rarely use it. Now I know it's called a popty ping, I will make more of an effort to bring it into conversations

      Delete
  6. We loved the whole indi-bindi thing in Bodrum, Annie, particularly on and around Turgetreis Caddesi - actually, around the whole peninsula. And when we managed to get the cheaper non-infidel/local fares on the dolmus we were made up. When people ask me what I miss most about Turkey, I usually say the dolmus trips. Knocks spots off the tube. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now indi-bindi on the tube would be a bit risky

      Delete
  7. Loved this one, B to B, particularly since we love all forms of collective transport and to prove it, have been delighted and terrorized by all of them. Loved the "if we had wanted to live in an orderly country, we would have moved to Switzerland." Perhaps you could replace "orderly" with "boring".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't want to offend any Swiss - or Swedes who also have a very "orderly" country.

      Delete
  8. Over 20 years ago when dolmuses came in all shapes and sizes I needed to get my moped to Milas (an hour away from Bodrum), I took it to the bus station and, without anyone batting an eyelid, it was loaded onto a dolmus (inside) at great inconvenience to the passengers but nobody minded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we took half a motorbike once too. I now wonder if I can take the dog on a dolmus, which is a bit silly as I often used to share a seat with a sheep.

      Delete
  9. I thought this was going to be about self-publishing - "Indi-bindi" sounds like a fancy publisher for indie novelists :-) I love this concept of hopping on and ff the bus - it means that you don't see people legging it down the road behing a bus in the hope of overtaking it before it arrives at the bus stop. I do feel sorry for the older generation -old habits die hard, and they should be allowed to get on and off the bus as close as possible to their home if it's on the route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must remember this name in case I ever take up publishing. According to a friend on Facebook - indi bindi is still flourishing when there are no traffic cops in sight

      Delete
  10. A real shame. We loved the whole hop on/hop off experience and never missed not having a car. Some of the expats around us thought we were mad and one or two couldn't bear the thought of travelling on a dolly - but then, they couldn't bear the thought of travelling on public transport anywhere! When in Rome, I say!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've taken to dolly riding recently, now we have a service from our village. I'd forgotten what fun it is and how many people you meet.

      Delete
  11. Sorry to hear this, use indi-bindi all the time when I am in Turkey - they still do in Istanbul - hope they may come back. Selamlar, Ozlem

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should start a campaign to fight the indi bindi ban

      Delete
  12. I remember living in London when the double decker buses had the platform at the back allowing you to hop on and off the bus as soon as it slowed down enough to allow you to leap without fear of injury. You took your life in your hands when the bus was idling in a traffic jam and accelerated just as you'd got one foot on the plate.

    Unfortunate that we can't Indi-bindi anymore on the Bodrum Peninsula. I suppose this is what they call progress!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think if you tried to jump off a bus now you'd get run over by a cyclist.

      Delete
  13. Another great tradition regulated out of existence. :-( I doubt the Lancashire country buses of my childhood would qualify as true indi-bindi, but they were at least good about dropping us off at the top of our lane, which wasn't an official stop. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think our village is even further behind yours and I'm pretty sure indi bindi will continue here for the rest of my life. And as for going off route, they do it all the time for those with heavy sacks of fertiliser, cement, shopping and the odd sheep, not to mention going off to the back roads of Milas to pick up hardware, crates of drinks for the village shop..and of course a stop at the petrol ofis to fill up containers with petrol. I love the dolmus and the drivers...so accommodating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you don't lose your indi-bindi. It seems a shame that Bodrum authorities want to ban it.

      Delete
  15. Indi-bindi is a wonderful word - it is the first time I heard it! But it is also a great system; ours are not strictly dolmuses because they set off at strict times but they definitely indi-bindi on the way. The driver will often get off the bus to help old ladies carry bags of shopping right up to the house. İndi-bindi-ing would certainly be sorely missed here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment Vicky - I look forward to your blog.

      Delete