Posted by PAUL on Monday, 26. October 1998 at 17:22 Bali Time:
In Reply to: Has anyone rented a car for self drive? posted by Liz on Monday, 26. October 1998 at 11:12 Bali Time:
Liz I have been to Bali many times and for years I was terrified about driving.
I now either drive or take the motorbike (the later much better during peak hour) and I find it much more relaxing and less stressful than driving around Melbourne(where I come from)
Basically the rule of thumb is go with the flow of the traffic. Use the horn for what it was designed for; an indicator/warning device, as the Balinese use it. Use when overtaking or going around a blind corner. Getting from a minor road onto a major road. Well you can do what I did at first and sit at the intersection and wait and wait until you realise that you are going to wait there forever. So slowly edge your way out and with your arm out the window and wave in an up/down motion and you can easyt get into the traffic.
For your first attempt, go early in the morning and sus out where you want to go. Because if you don't know where you are going and trying to look for signs (there are thousands of them) in your first attempt at driving then you will be stressed as anything. Once you know where you are going and you have got the hang of the way they all drive you will soon start to realise that they are very patient and courteous. For mine, they are so much better driviers than where I come from.
I used to always say that if you could pick up all the balinese drivers in peak hour around Kuta and swap them with the peak hour Melbourne drivers it would be an interesting excersize. I would bet that if we from melbourne were driving in those conditions there would be punch-up every second corner.
You will soon learn how good a drivers they are! Especially if you take into consideration the amount of vehicles on such narrow underdeveloped roads.
I define Balinese traffic as:
"SYNCRONISED SWIMMING ON WHEELS"
Best of luck
P.S. don't speed!
Regards
PAUL