Minoil,
I have similiar sentiments about riding a motor bike in my adopted country as you did in the Himalayas, regardless of how dangerous it is.
In Australia, I rode for a short while when young, but have avoided them ever since for safety reasons. I normally drive Volvos, but should also add that they can be a steal of a buy on the secondhand market. My last S80 cost only 3k on ebay, and is by far the most superior car I've ever driven. I should mention ever since driving Volvo's, I've never had so many other vehicles pull out in front of me. Makes their safety all a bit pointless.
But back to bikes and not looking behind, here in Vietnam there are some very unusual driving practices. The lack of using mirrors is the least of them. When it comes to not looking, the Vietnamese NEVER look to see if anything is coming before they pull out on a road, whether it be from a terminating road, their driveway, or any other scenario that should warrant a glance. Why look left when you are turning right?
Consider here my trading: don't look left before buying.
I could go on about their driving habits but don't want to reveal more of my trading style
. However, I'm stupified by the scenario described above. How can a society develop such a dangerous culture, afterall, 30 fatalities a day should be enough to warrant introspection. But no, fatalism thrives, and the bike poulation grows at a phenonemal rate as the middle class grows. 40 million bikes in a population of 93M. That's a bike for every able body.
I've given this plenty of consideration as I'm a safety nut-case, but yet to get to the bottom of it. But here are two presuppositions for my analysis. Fatalism is core to their spirituality, and seems consistent regardless if you are of the majority Buddhist Faith, one of the 10M practicing Catholics, or one of the very few card carrying communists. Culture transcends religion at times, and as an example, 400 years of Catholicism has not brought home the message that one has a duty to look after oneself as best as possible.
Enter here the haters: What, Catholicism you say, they're all rapists, bla bla bla, how can you talk of safety.........
Hopefully not too many of these types here.
Secondly, East Asian culture in general, as conservative as it is when it comes to the human body, does not hold privacy as sacred as we do in the west. Related to this are the memes when in a crowd: Pushing is natural, and most frustratingly, queues don't exist.
My theory regarding not looking before pulling out on a road is based on these habits. To clarify the point, in a crowded supermarket, others will just push their trolley across your path, or stop in your buy zone without hesitation.
I can see how a little thing like not looking left before pulling out to the right, has developed. As for any introspection, fatalism is too powerful, believe it or not, and as the Socialist State doesn't allow the teaching of philosophy, they'll never learn what Plato meant when he suggested that right and wrong can't come from culture, as in the case he considered if a society decided to eat all their children.
Regardless, I live in my bike here and ride faster than most. But my mirrors are set, and my horn blasts at every corner. My trading has improved, probably believe that my next trade may be my last.
When in Rome.
