On transport...

I often think you can learn a lot about a country by the modes of transport they employ. Vehicles that are used can reflect a way of thinking for that group of people.

(Sweeping generalisation alert)

Example: In the west, public transport is shunned by the vast majority of people. We sit in the private little bubble of our cars blinkered to what is going on around us, watching the outside world pass by like so much T.V. Also, we only really engage with strangers if we have to; we don’t like people we don’t know. So we only use public transport if we can’t drive or if we live in a city and there’s too much traffic to make driving practical.

Wide use of mass transport can be seen to reflect the sense of collectivism present in a lot of non-western countries. People there actually talk to each other. Families ride the buses and coaches for hours to go to a market or the wedding of a distant relative who lives on the other side of the country. Going on the bus or the train is an event in itself. Of course it does come down to money for a lot of people: cars are too expensive to run for many. In the west, most people are fortunate enough to earn a decent wage, so we drive cars. You can see this dichotomy in the ubiquity of motorbikes in the countries I visited: they’re much cheaper than cars and the more relaxed traffic rules mean you can take your whole family on a bike, (the most people I saw on one bike was five, I’m sure this has been beaten) or goods to/from the market, or carry furniture (yep!). Furthermore, you’re connected to that journey you make: you get the smell of everything; it’s actual scenery, things passing by you; not the other way round. That’s the road whizzing by inches from your feet.

Or failing that, you use an ox and cart or bicycle, or if you’re hardcore you walk.

Point is, people there seem to be more practical. If something does the job, why consider anything else? If you can get into town to buy goods on your ox and cart, why do you need a motorbike? If you can carry people around on your motorbike, why do you need a car? We seem to look at it the other way; if I can do it in my car, why walk or take the bus? Not wanting to sound preachy: I drive, probably way too much. But seeing the way other countries do things definitely makes you question the way you do them back home.