Consequently, my Thai buzz wears off too soon and I start to grump about the half-assedness of day-to-day life here: the sooty-grimy exterior surfaces, hazardous walkways, crapping dogs, crummy products, indifferent workmanship ... man, this stuff is getting old.
One night walking to dinner, Lian and I navigate the too-narrow, crumbling sidewalk along Charonpratet Road near Anusan Market. In the dark we happen upon a tumbleweed-like tangle of thick, black wire that a utility crew simply left on the ground by a utility pole. Was it electrified? Who could tell? In America someone might get in big trouble for leaving a (possibly dangerous) mess like like that lying around. But Thais have a very different take, Lian informs me.
"Thai people think, 'You got two eye, why you not careful?'" she says, stepping around the tangle and over a broken concrete drain cover while avoiding the barbed-wire fence next to the sidewalk. "You can see have not safety."
Yeah, well ... I guess I'm tired of having to be super-ultra-extra cautious every time I step out the door, deliberating every footfall so as to avoid my own Kevin Ware moment.
I am ready to be back in the place where, if bad stuff happens, it really might be someone else's fault --someone who could be held legally liable. So people make an honest effort to do the right thing, the right way. Being a litigious society might have its upside.
---
Sorry for not blogging more this time around, but the adventure has sort of decelerated into domestic comedy. (Satisfying for me, lousy for pageviews.) BUT: I'm pretty sure that the next trip, sometime in the summer, will take us on the road again to Nasan and points south. Until then, I'll leave you with a happy shot from early February, on the beach at Hua Hin. We do have a good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment