roads

Last week it was machines. This week: roads. I did a round-trip to Phnom Penh yesterday, spending 11 hours sitting in taxis (2am-7am; 1pm-7pm....kinda mad!). Anyway, on the return journey, a couple of the guys stopped talking about cars & girls for a few minutes and talked about roads instead.

A: This section of road is really bad...not like in developed countries. In Vietnam, the roads are wide and smooth and fast.
B: I don't know about Vietnam, but in Thailand the roads are smooth and fast... and there are clear road rules.
A: Huh? Well, do people actually follow the rules.
B: Yes! They do!
A: In Vietnam, they don't just have intersections, they have bridges. You're driving down a highway and come to an intersection with another road but you don't even have to stop- you just go up over a bridge and continue.
B: In Bangkok, half of the city is bridges! You drive from one place to another and you hardly touch the ground!
A: Hmmm... it's kinda like that in Vietnam too. And another thing: even the small roads are sealed. Everyone drives straight out of their house onto a sealed road.
B: Uh-huh. Same in Thailand. In developed countries, they hardly know what a sealed road is.

I will try to remember this convo next time I'm driving in Sydney, fighting with a few million other drivers for a little patch of the wide, sealed, smooth road...