You better watch your step

In this land you take your life in your hands every time you walk out the door.

"Maybe another country cars look out for you. In Thailand, you look out for cars," Lian warns me about local drivers. "People go-go-go, not safety." Pedestrian injuries (and worse) are a brutal fact of life here, but no one seems to do very much about it -- certainly not the local government that's supposedly charged with building and maintaining sidewalks, which are almost universally half-assed, crumbling death traps cluttered with commerce. And dog poop.

I was so encouraged to see brand-new concrete walkways being built on either side of the street leading to Rimping Market, the western-style grocery store nearby. Awright! No more slogging through the roadside muck, constantly glancing back to avoid getting whomped from behind. Because now I would have a smooth, safe, unobstructed path to-- wha?

Rude sign, you are going down!

I mean, just look at this stupid darn thing! What kind of horse's patoot posts a freestanding advertisement that actually blocks the entire sidewalk? I am lugging two bags of groceries, otherwise I would simply chuck it off to one side. (But next time ...)

Grumbling, I step down to the street and make my way past a pack of not-friendly dogs, yet another pedestrian hazard in Thailand. A shopkeeper comes out and shoos away the growling curs as I continue on.

Head-bangin' sign.

Eyes on my footing, I step back up to the sidewalk and BAM! gouge my forehead into the sharp metal corner of a sign that some other pedestrian-hating entrepreneur has mounted with a 5-1/2 foot clearance. Amazingly I make it home without any further calamity or bodily harm. But I am a bloody, perspiring mess.

Nurse Lian breaks out the alcohol and iodine, ouch-ouch-ouch. "Isn't there someone I can complain to about this?" I ask as she treats the gash. "Maybe the city, or the police, or ..."

"Police don't care," she shrugs. "Nobody care."

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This is what passes for construction scaffolding in these parts. It looks like something Gilligan and the Skipper might have lashed together. Maybe it's safer than it looks, but I kind of doubt it.

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Sorry, this is as much excitement as I've had since we got back from the south. Basically it's been work, eat, sleep and not much else.  Hmm, maybe I need to get out for a walk ...