We landed in Bali last night around 7pm, picked up our rental car, and decided to stay in Kuta for the night since we had to wait until morning to pick up Andrew’s new work laptop (and we weren’t comfortable driving the entire vertical distance of the island for the first time in the dark.) As we got into the car, we realized that the driver’s wheel was on the opposite side from our cars at home, and as we started driving, we then learned that we also had to drive on the opposite side of the road.
Hmmm…
We purposely rented an automatic so that both of us could drive, since we are planning to entertain several friends and family while we are here for the month and Andrew begins his new job today from abroad. But when we saw our new driving apparatus last night, we thought it would be best if Andrew took it for a spin first.
We made it to the hotel in one piece last night, but today was quite the adventure. We hit a van, a motorcycle and a water truck, all in the span of 6 hours. It should be known that Andrew is a fabulous driver (so much better than I am), but the spacial dimensions are all off when you are on the opposite side of the car, and the roads here are so. so. narrow. And windy as hell.
And that’s not even considering the fact that the island is full of motorbikes (like much of Asia) who do not follow traffic rules in any way. They pass on the right and left. They pass into our lane when coming from the opposite direction. They stop with no notice and are constantly changing speed.
I’m supposed to practice driving tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for us. We are in for a wild ride in the coming month!
