The roads in Kathmandu

I do not understand how anyone who ventures onto the roads of Kathmandu lives to tell the tale.  Between the cars, bases, trucks, motorbikes, cyclists and pedestrians (for whom there are no pavements), it's total chaos, not helped by the almost total lack of traffic lights or road markings.  For someone so used to a city planned of a grid system, the layout here is highly confusing.  I don't think there's a straight road in the city.  Many of those that look straight on the map (which only has a fraction of the streets on it anyway) really comprise of sharp twists and turns.  Baluwatar, the area I'm staying in, is particularly maze-like.  Some streets now have names but that's a relatively recent invention and lots of people don't know them yet.  And even if you do manage to avoid getting knocked down or totally lost, there's still the impending feeling that you're only seconds away from getting lung cancer.

So, riding the bike that I've just bought is going to be interesting.