Speechless. Just... speechless.
There are days here in Bako when I feel like Jane Goodall out studying chimpanzees in the wild. Actually, that's not really fair...chimpanzees are smart.
Today's brainteaser? Stoplights.
The heavy rain the past few days has knocked out the stoplights at quite a few intersections. As anyone with a driver's license knows, this makes them effectively four-way stops. For you and me, this is just a minor inconvenience, no big deal. For the people of Bako? It's a fucking Rubik's cube.
Over the past year I've learned it's just best to stay home when possible. But yesterday I had to go pick up yet more paint. As I left our neighborhood I quickly approached a major intersection. There was a horrible back-up and I could see the stoplights flashing red up ahead. After several minutes I finally got close enough to observe the natives in all their stupid glory.
At the lines of the crosswalks sit eight cars, two facing in each direction.
Waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Waiting... for someone to make the first move.
Then all of a sudden, all eight lurch into the intersection at the same time, only to slam on the brakes once they realize everyone else did the same thing. They're all 5 or 10 feet into the intersection now. So they wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait... for someone to make the first move.
Then all of a sudden, all eight lurch further into the intersection, all at the same time... AGAIN.
Now they're all gridlocked in the center of the intersection and it takes several minutes for them to slowly sort themselves out.
The intersection clears.
Now it's time for the next eight contestants to do... THE EXACT SAME THING.
It take 10 minutes just to get through one intersection! Just so you can travel half a mile and do it all over again at the next major cross street!
A 5 minute trip to Lowe's ended up taking close to half an hour. Morons.
Honestly, I don't know how these people manage to dress themselves each morning, let alone operate machinery.
