Driving

Driving in Pohnpei is both very simple and extremely difficult. Simple because the speed limit is a maximum of 25 mph (40km/h) and there is one main ring road. Driving on the 'wrong' side of the road is easy as there are no traffic lights (just traffic police in white gloves for the rush half hour) , no multiple lanes, no roundabouts and no high pressure decisions. You simply cruise along. In theory.

In actual fact driving here is not dissimilar to playing a video game. Obstacles spring in front of you with alarming velocity and regularity, and seem to be targeting you in particular.

Pedestrians walk up to 4 abreast on the road. There is no footpath, so some road walking is understandable. But there is only enough room on the road for 2 cars to pass one another. So if a car is coming in the opposite direction, as a driver you have to:

a) stop
b) nudge / kill them
c) run into the car coming the other way.

I still haven't figured out the preferred method.

The roads are very windy, so you never know what's around the corner. Never know, but can usually bank on the fact that a taxi is overtaking another car at speed on a blind corner and will clean you up if you don't have the reflexes of Annakin Skywalker (and sometimes even if you do).

I could really take to this crazy new sport except for the fact that a lot of the pedestrians are children, from age 3. I think it's wonderful to live in a place where kiddies are free to roam and enjoy themselves, but I live in constant fear of hitting one of them. No one else seems overly concerned. They seem to have no problems giving pedestrians a nudge, and speed up for dogs. I'm sure there is an order to all this I can't discern, but....

There is also an enthusiastic, even joyful, approach to disregarding road rules. Drivers just pull out (if you see a car on the side of the road, just wait. It will invariably stay there until you get really close, then pull out. It makes for a fun passenger game). People park in the middle of the road, or stop to let people in and out of the car whilst covering both lanes. It's kind of cool. And also scary.
Jo