Road rage always seemed to me a pretty childish thing, something I’d never secumb to. Over the last week however I’ve been getting closer to the line. All over the Kuta, Legian, Seminyak area, larger roadworks are going, creating bottlenecks on 2 lane streets. This backs traffic up to the previous junction, which blocks the junction (Jl. Seminyak & Jl. Dhyana Pura perfect example). Add onto this roads blocked for ceremonies, looney police blocking a whole right turn, when only one lane needs to be blocked etc. and you have a lunatic asylum of gridlock. The other afternoon, after driving all day, it took us 45 minutes ot get from Kerobokan to my house in Seminyak.
A few nights ago I ‘popped’, when a local deliberately scratched the SUV and flipped me off. I chased him down the street and pushed him over his bike. Thank goodness I don’t do that kind of silly stuff very often, but man, traffic can get to, you! My usual strategy for dealing with traffic in Bali, is to keep my eyes peeled, be open to giving way, drive carefully and not pull stupid stunts. This has worked for me and as long as I’m not in a hurry, or am feeling the pressure to get somewhere, I can poodle along quite happilly. Observations about driving on this last 3 day trip. We hired a nicer new SUV, which had better power, speed, AC, but the visibility was hampered by the 2 thick struts holding the windsheild and the rear tire holder, mounted on the door, made reversing visibility harder.
