Long tails

It is amazing to be close to the water again in Thailand. Besides the beaches, with massive untouched coral heads swarming with wrasses and parrotfish just 10 yards off shore, the best part had to be the little fishing skiffs that act as boat taxis, called "long tails" for the long propeller shaft sticking out the back of the wooden transom. Basically this is a10 foot long shaft with a stainless steel ceiling fan attached to the end. Kind of looks like something out of a Saw movie. Docking doesn't get more complicated than driving the boat up onto the beach, and you hop out. I imagine someone trying to run a taxi service with one of these things back on the New Jersey shore... 3 things: 1) fighting with insurance company to see if possible to get insurance policy, 2) initial success followed by 3) public outrage at passenger or passerby being maimed by open propeller blade that should have never been allowed in the first place, even though accident was not result of boatman's negligence.

It's funny the relationship that developed-worlders maintain with the developing world. You stay in a place like this for a short-enough time that you're able to romanticize the dingy parts and the danger, they make the place more appealing, when you know that thr locals must experience this place in a very different way. In conversations over dinner with fellow travelers you deride the litigiousness of places like the US and wish people would just take it easy. Then you get back to said developed country and with a change of location comes a change of perspective.