Natural Order

It’s a funny thing being in a foreign place, the natural instinct is to draw comparisons to that which is familiar. One thing that always crosses my mind is transportation, how we get from A to B? From and American perspective, both public and private transportation is far more controlled than the rest of the world. Stay on your side of the line..in your lane, don’t speed, use your signals. Everyone in the world has somewhere to go but we all get there in very different ways. On the ride to and from work it is not out of the ordinary to come across a bicycle with a flatbed carrying a top-heavy load nearly three times the height of the bike. A personal favorite is observing the creativity of scooter and rickshaw drivers. The way in which they so calmly hop over a median into on coming traffic for a quick u-turn. Also the food vendor who was just ahead of us in the middle lane flipping the food as he drove, walked I mean. Throw incessant honking in the mix, the occasional against traffic scooter sprint, busses unloading in the middle of the road and cow crossings. All this and I still feel not the slightest bit of angst in a car or rickshaw. It is as if an unwritten rule exists. The bigger vehicle always has the right of way. It’s logical, the smaller you are the more likely of receiving the brunt of any accident. At the risk of bodily harm you simply concede to the larger waiting out a transport lesser to yours.