Search This Blog

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Wild Wild West

A song that I used to like to dance to when I was much much younger and went to dance clubs instead of nodding off about the time most people are getting ready to go out, was The Wild Wild West by the Escape Club. There are times that song bounces around my head, especially when I go out motorbike riding, and especially during the high tourist season, such as now.

There is a real sense of lawlessness and the tales of the wild untamed west in North America must be how it feels for the tourists. Indeed many times, I wondered if there were actually laws here, let alone enforced. I meet the tourists who try to hide their open bottle of beer on the sidewalk, when it is legal to carry and drink it here. I have often said that if you want it you can find it or buy it. I find that the expats who seem to rant on in the local comments section of the English language papers, seem to have lots to say about law and order. It is usually about the laws they don't like having enforced, such as drunk driving and wearing of helmets or having a valid driver licence. After a period of time, you begin to think that the westerners who come to visit, get caught up in the loose approach to law and order, and soon they are drunk driving, not wearing helmets and generally driving in ways they would never even dare to dream of doing back home. But for some reason they feel that they can do whatever they want, so they do. I get some enjoyment, I must admit, when they do run into a roadblock and the traffic fines begin to pile up.