There were actually a few quick rain showers today and it was cloudier than the previous days this week. I actually used the windshield wipers on purpose.
Driving is better and better, easier and easier. Not to say that it is “easy”. Everything I know about sitting on the left side of the car and driving on the right side of the road is slowly (very slowly) being rewired.
I don’t know how to convey how intense the driving is. The roads are narrow and the whole sense of the width of the vehicle driving while sitting on the right side of the car is totally off, which is tricky when driving on the left side of the road. I keep looking right to look in the rear view mirror, but it’s still in the middle of the car, which means looking left. Left hand turns are easy and the right hand turns are the hard ones, it being necessary to watch for oncoming traffic. And, the round abouts go clockwise (left). The gear shift is still in the middle of the vehicle (thankfully, it’s an automatic), but the wipers are where I am used to having the turn signal and the turn signal lever is where I am used to having the wipers. So, the first day (and many subsequent ones) I used the lever for the wipers to signal turning.
Linda said “It’s not raining” and later in the day “It’s still not raining” and now it has become one of the mottos during our drives.
The day Linda took a turn at the wheel the curb jumped out a time or two resulting in the wheel looking like this.
Wheel after intersecting with two curbs
Sometimes there are curbs, other times these huge gutters, feet deep. Rarely are there lines in the middle or on the sides of the road and the locals put the pedal to the metal. The real heart stopper is when the big buses or trucks are in the oncoming traffic. I don’t know which is harder; being the driver or the passenger.
The day we went to Animal Flower Cave, as a bus approached on a narrow road I pulled to the left as far as I could go into the vegetation, stopped the car, clenched the steering as tight as I possibly could, and closed my eyes hard. Everything worked out.
Look at me! Parking on the sidewalk like a local.