Re: Travel Part 3: Destination Unknown
Bahrain: Roads are wide and pristine and there's almost never an issue with weather/visibility. Every stoplight is a drag race and if you have a car that is slow (I had a 4-cylinder Corolla with maybe 120 HP) you hated being in the front as everyone would ride your *** to within an inch. Other than that it was relatively fine.
Philippines especially Manila: Triple lane changes, almost no usage of signals, right/left-hand turns from 2-3 lanes away, they think driving slowly makes it ok to not look before changing lanes or entering traffic, bus drivers think they're Mario effing Andretti, Jeepneys, trikes, scooters all think they're faster than you when they're not, they don't care how slow they're going they will not give way and even will try to block you even if they know they're going slower because they do not like to be 2nd, 3-lane intersections become 5 lanes on the regular, pedestrians be ****ed..., I can't enough how much I hate it. Funny thing is they will get uppity if you honk at them for driving like an idiot. They just think that if they want to go they can go and you need to accept it. Funny thing is as bad as it is in Manila they're probably not even Top 10 globally for the worst.
Mumbai: Manila x5
Bangkok: Used to be nearly as bad as Manila but the addition of a subway and a skytrain system has helped immensely from when I first visited in 1996. People still drive too fast in precarious places for my liking and they have their moments of changing lanes without looking, but it's improved.
Vietnam: I think I read a stat somewhere that more people die on the roads in Vietnam per year than die from disease and it's the leading cause of death for those under the age of 30.
Nigeria: New cars there have speed inhibitors because they're just fu**ing insane.
Rome: I swear every car in Rome has dents/scratches and going the wrong way down a one-way was so very common.