The city is large, but it isn't planned or well-maintained.
The traffic is as wild and crazy as you've heard. Giant buses, compact cars, and 3-wheeled auto-rickshaws (autos), motorcycles, bikers, pedestrians, and animals weave around without the constraint of road markings, speed limits, stop signs, or even a clear notion of right-of-way. Size definitely matters -- large vehicles behave as they wish while smaller vehicles are free to swerve around them on either side at any time, but receive no consideration. blinkers aren't meaningful - most notification about intent to or interest in passing (or just reminder that someone is present) is communicated via horn. Large trucks all have "Sound Horn" written on the back. It's a constant din. Generally you drive on the left here, but even that is flexible. There is no notion of tail-gating, cutting someone off, right-of-way, or first-in-first-out -- aggression is tolerated and pays dividends, at the cost of risk. Most vehicles have well-abused side panels, and many dogs limp.
Large roads with nice medians have massive potholes - sometimes 8" deep and 10' across. The already chaotic traffic is further complicated as drivers swerve to avoid them. Rather than any speed limit or policing, there are large speed humps (not bumps -- they're about a foot tall over a 4 foot range). In the day you can see them, or other cars hitting them, but at night they're very surprising.
I've ridden in a car (a compact car taxi), a taxi (a compact minivan), two autos (3-wheeled with about a 4'x6' footprint), and a cheap city bus. There are several different city bus systems -- you can take the red buses if you want air conditioning and a seat, but the blue bus will take you across the city for only 23R (just under 40 cents). The autos are fun if you don't value your life, or are able to assume that the driver has done this enough that even his most reckless maneuvers and agitated honking are acceptable.
Sidewalks are a whimsical mix of pre-fab masonry blocks, rough-cut granite, concrete, and macadam. They are uneven, holding pools of water after rain, sudden steps up or down, and frequent unguarded open pits 4' deep to mud chutes where run-off water goes. Occasionally trees or powerlines hang low over the sidewalk requiring one to duck. Walking requires attention in the day and is perilous at night. Aside from the sidewalks themselves, there are carts, dogs, parked bikes, kiosks, food stalls, garbage heaps, stray dogs, the occasional large cow, and many many people milling around.
Those power lines sometimes hang down to waist level, only to rise again where they're propped by trees. Sometimes one end is severed and just lying on the ground. The junction boxes where they come down to power light poles are open, and the individual wires are twisted and taped together, poking out of the boxes like gnarled fingers. Power at my place seems pretty consistent, but there are many generators around the city. The electrical outlets are different than the US or Europe. I got a nifty universal adapter.
The traffic is as wild and crazy as you've heard. Giant buses, compact cars, and 3-wheeled auto-rickshaws (autos), motorcycles, bikers, pedestrians, and animals weave around without the constraint of road markings, speed limits, stop signs, or even a clear notion of right-of-way. Size definitely matters -- large vehicles behave as they wish while smaller vehicles are free to swerve around them on either side at any time, but receive no consideration. blinkers aren't meaningful - most notification about intent to or interest in passing (or just reminder that someone is present) is communicated via horn. Large trucks all have "Sound Horn" written on the back. It's a constant din. Generally you drive on the left here, but even that is flexible. There is no notion of tail-gating, cutting someone off, right-of-way, or first-in-first-out -- aggression is tolerated and pays dividends, at the cost of risk. Most vehicles have well-abused side panels, and many dogs limp.
Large roads with nice medians have massive potholes - sometimes 8" deep and 10' across. The already chaotic traffic is further complicated as drivers swerve to avoid them. Rather than any speed limit or policing, there are large speed humps (not bumps -- they're about a foot tall over a 4 foot range). In the day you can see them, or other cars hitting them, but at night they're very surprising.
I've ridden in a car (a compact car taxi), a taxi (a compact minivan), two autos (3-wheeled with about a 4'x6' footprint), and a cheap city bus. There are several different city bus systems -- you can take the red buses if you want air conditioning and a seat, but the blue bus will take you across the city for only 23R (just under 40 cents). The autos are fun if you don't value your life, or are able to assume that the driver has done this enough that even his most reckless maneuvers and agitated honking are acceptable.
Sidewalks are a whimsical mix of pre-fab masonry blocks, rough-cut granite, concrete, and macadam. They are uneven, holding pools of water after rain, sudden steps up or down, and frequent unguarded open pits 4' deep to mud chutes where run-off water goes. Occasionally trees or powerlines hang low over the sidewalk requiring one to duck. Walking requires attention in the day and is perilous at night. Aside from the sidewalks themselves, there are carts, dogs, parked bikes, kiosks, food stalls, garbage heaps, stray dogs, the occasional large cow, and many many people milling around.
Those power lines sometimes hang down to waist level, only to rise again where they're propped by trees. Sometimes one end is severed and just lying on the ground. The junction boxes where they come down to power light poles are open, and the individual wires are twisted and taped together, poking out of the boxes like gnarled fingers. Power at my place seems pretty consistent, but there are many generators around the city. The electrical outlets are different than the US or Europe. I got a nifty universal adapter.
Construction is everywhere. Large and small (sometimes 3-wheeled) trucks overloaded with wood, steel, sand, and people shuttle between construction sites and supply yards. The construction sites have people, often frail women, carrying bags of cement to mixers, and bowls of mixed wet concrete up hand-made ladders to upper levels of bamboo and stick scaffolding. There are some cranes. There's an odd dissonance between fancy plate glass windowed buildings and the lashed-together branches surrounding them as they're built.
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