Scenes from the road

Aside from the reckless and irresponsible driving, I am often amused by sights I see while driving in Palmas.

A strategically placed phone box.

A while ago I was driving down a one way, 3 lane highway. Common sense would suggest it was 2 lanes, but I knew it was 3 lanes (no lanes painted of course) because you can squeeze 3 cars together on it and still have millimetres between the cars (definition of 3 lanes here). The sunset in front of me made everything silhouetted but I managed to make out the scene ahead.

On the right, 3 pedestrians and a wobbling cyclist, backs to the traffic, strolling 4 abreast in the inside lane, happily taking up an entire lane of traffic. 

On the left, a guy cycling towards us, wobbling of course. The reason for his wobbling was that (as I found out at the last second) he was balancing a 2.5 metre pole on his handlebars, width-ways, thus taking up the entire outside lane (the fast lane). I managed to squeeze through between them in the middle lane and drive off into the sunset and nobody thought twice about it.

Knowing how many bad drivers, drunk drivers and Whatsapping drivers there are, pedestrians seem as reckless with their lives as the drivers.

Shortly before that I had been overtaken by a motorbike, driving with a large backpack on his lap and a phone in his hand. His passenger had a very young baby in his arms.

Another day I spotted a cyclist cycling happily along, with a toddler sat on his shoulders and grabbing hold of his ears for safety.

I recently saw a young mother driving a motorbike with a 5 year old child in the front of her. Who had control of the bike? The kid, speeding up and down and driving recklessly down the street. Another day, I woman in high heels riding a motorbike with handlebars full of shopping, the woman wobbling as she clearly struggled to control the bike.

It's common here to carry four people on a motorbike, typically the driver, his wife and two kids. Alternatively, a couple of cases of beer, as I saw not long ago.

Another strategically placed phone box

It’s a challenge driving here, but it would be an even bigger challenge to not have a car. Reliance on public transport or lifts is not an option when punctuality is important in your daily routine and not important in anyone elses. As a result, while our car was being repaired following the accidents previously mentioned, I had to take a couple of taxis. Both nice, chatty drivers, we discussed drink driving versus taking a taxi. Their opinion is that in other cities, taxis are more common, but drink driving is still very common here in Palmas. It remains a provincial town.

Both drivers got confused at 2 different points in the city (one driving the wrong way down a one way road) – if local taxi drivers don’t understand the system then it makes me feel better when I don’t. Neither used seat belts. One of them had a screen on his dashboard showing live TV – why should a driving job mean you should be away from your soap operas? One of them gave me a discount, rounding the trip down to the nearest $10RS. Getting around in Palmas is full of surprises, but this was the only welcome surprise I have experienced so far.