I need to tell you about the traffic. It is a real hoot. It is kind of like survival of the fittest except it is the survival of the biggest. Here is how it works. He who is biggest has the right of way. Stop signs are optional. Red lights are optional. Intersections with Traffic cops are semioptional. Center lines and lanes mean nothing. No one uses directional signals. Busses and big trucks have the right of way followed by cars then the autos (three wheeled covered rickshaw outfits with 2 cycle engines). Then come the motorcycles. They are all 150CC or smaller. Then bicycles and pushed carts, followed pedestrians. You cross a street at your own risk. And I do mean risk. All of the drivers drive with one foot on the brake and their thumb on the horn.. It seems that it is alright to do anything at all if you are honking your horn. We came really close to having a head on collision with a big bus that was charging down on us at a high rate of speed in our lane while blasting away on the horn. Our auto driver waited till the las possible moment to leave the road and let the bus pass. That is just a normal occurance around here. When traffic actually gets stopped at a big intersection, which doesn't happen very often, Everyone jockies for position. You will have 8 or ten vehicles side by side on a two lane road with everyone gunning their engines waiting for the light to change. However they don't wait as soon as the other traffic gets the yellow light they charge forward blowing their horns. The funny thing is nobody gets upset. It is just who is biggest and can get there first. Very very few accidents. I think that anyone who can drive here could drive anywhere, indianapolis 500, New York City or even Salt Lake.
Obviously it's one of the most impressive things to us. It's just so different!! Everytime we walk down the street we marvel that we don't see an accident! Or more so......we don't understand why all the people walking on the road don't get ran over!!! It is crazy to witness.
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