Taxis

Yesterday (Monday) was a lazy afternoon for me, in the evening I played again but it was a bridge too far, I only won 50% of games as I was feeling stiff and tired from the previous day. I did meet a good group of guys though, we went for a meal together afterwards and they helped with lots of local information.

I wish I could drive here... actually I am allowed to but the driving over here is simply unbelievable, worse than any country that I've visited. Road lines mean nothing, in London you have to push out to get into some roads or you would wait for ever but here it is on a completely different scale............. cars from all sides trying to force their way into traffic, I must say though that they are good at it as I haven't seen anyone have a bump yet. Also amazing to me is that no-one gets upset by all this, if you pushed in and cut people up like that in the UK drivers would at the very minimum blow their horn at you and sometimes do a lot worse than that.
Over here it just seems to be a way of life and no-one is bothered by it.

There is so much blowing of horns here in traffic but it is used as a warning system, it's to say I'm overtaking you on this/that side so watch out, or I'm coming through that little space regardless if I can or not etc etc..........

Taxi drivers are a law unto themselves, their vehicles would never get to an MOT station never mind pass the test, so many are just rust buckets and they drive as they know that and don't care, private cars just keep out of their way. When you hail a cab and the traffic is busy they just say to you that they want 100 pesos and no meter, I've tried to be forceful and refuse every time but when you have been refused by every cab and you want to get home, eventually you just give in and agree, the thing is 100 pesos is just over a pound, (normal fare is 50 pesos) nothing I know but you have to at least try to have principals.

I spent an interesting hour or so last night around 1 am drinking a beer outside, there is so much free entertainment here, there was a guy with wheels on his head (and brake lights !) and he was walking upside down on his head, up and down one of the traffic lanes for an hour !!! There were people walking past with carts with mattresses and their children on them, people trying to sell me flowers, so many people doing so many different things and all after 1am. Noticeably no drunks and no bad behaviour, better than Uxbridge on most nights.