Tag: roads

Worst Traffic in the World?

M's Adventures
A tourist bus in the souk.

I went to Egypt to see the treasured outpost of the Roman Empire. But, I also went because I wanted to see the traffic. Is that weird? Yes, and thank you. I had heard people say that the traffic in Cairo is the worst in the world. I have been in LA, Dhaka, Lima, Bogota, New Delhi, and NY traffic. Of all those places, I still vote that Dhaka has the worst traffic. Could Cairo take the crown?

Blocks of ice for sale blocking the Cairo traffic.

Yes, it can. The reason is that the traffic in Cairo is lethal. Cairo is much bigger than Dhaka and there are many roads where one can gain a great amount of speed, thus making traffic accidents more likely to be lethal.

A pick up point in front of the mosque. It was a calm day.

So, I would have to agree that Cairo has the worst traffic, but Dhaka has possibly the most interesting? In Dhaka one saw all kinds of things in traffic, from half a million rickshaws to elephants.

Widening Roads in Kathmandu

M's Adventures

The road to progress is a half house?
Houses sliced in half line one of the streets of Kathmandu.

Nepal is the crossroads to Shangri-la — Tibet. Kathmandu apparently comes from the word for crossroads. They are widening the roads to Shangri-la. This has resulted in the buildings being cut down the middle. These buildings remind me of the Hans Christian Andersen story about a half-chick who could not find his place in the world until he became (spoiler alert) a weather vane perched atop a house. Perhaps these half houses are indicators of the same thing on the roof of the world.

Half houses huddled together along the road.
Half houses huddled together along the road.