[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] The Amazing Race 13, Episode 4

[Edward Hasbrouck]

This column with links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001553.html

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La Paz (Bolivia) - Auckland (New Zealand) - Te Puke (New Zealand)

After giving us a refresher course last week in how not to travel from sea 
level to high altitude, this week "The Amazing Race 13" reminded us yet 
again of how not to make your first attempt to drive on the opposite side 
of the road from what you are used to.

This time they didn't have to drive in Indian city traffic with its 
density and mix of pedestrians and motor vehicles with bicycles and freely 
wandering sacred cows. But the producers did everything else to maximize 
the likelihood of collisions: the racers were awakened at 1 a.m. in La Paz 
(after an afternoon and evening nap that was probably even less restful on 
account of the altitude, which usually disturbs one's sleep until one has 
acclimatized for several days), and arrived in New Zealand at 4 o'clock in 
the morning after more than 24 hours in transit, with only whatever sleep 
they got on the plane. Some people are much more able to sleep sitting up 
on planes and buses than others. Unfortunately, you rarely have a choice 
of day or night flights on long-haul routes, even if you aren't in a race: 
long flights typically operate at most once a day, and it's common for 
competing airlines to schedule their flights at as close to the same time 
of day as possible.

At least the drivers weren't alone. At first, the non-driving partners 
were pointing out when they were on the wrong side of the road (as we saw 
Toni tell Dallas, with a commendably motherly combination of promptness 
with lack of panic or insult) and reminding them, especially at 
intersections, "Make sure you stay on the left side of the road. Left 
side" (Aja to Ty). But by the end of the episode, a sleepless day later, 
the words from the back-seat navigators had changed to, "Hurry, hurry, 
hurry, hurry!" That's a big mistake, if a common one: It takes longer to 
fully internalize opposite-side driving than you think. After a few tense 
days without a head-on crash, it's tempting to relax. But the greatest 
danger, as in many other tasks that require continuous concentration and 
quick reactions (such as driving a motorcycle), is not right at the start 
of the learning curve, but at the point just a little later on when you 
begin to think you are "getting the hang of it" and let your guard down.

It takes weeks or months to retrain your instincts to drive on the 
opposite side, if you manage it at all. I didn't drive on the left until I 
was more than 40 years old, and I'm not sure it will ever feel as natural 
to me as it does to friends who travelled to, and drove extensively in, 
opposite-side-drive countries when they were younger and less set in their 
ways. Even after 10,000 kilometers in Australia earlier this year, I still 
needed my partner to keep reminding me as she gave directions, "Turn 
right, keeping to the left". I did the same when she was driving. After a 
month on the left-hand side of the road, including driving the length of 
the Stuart Highway across outback Australia from south to north (imagine a 
2-lane road with triple- and quadruple-trailer "road trains" of rocks from 
the uranium mine that's located nearby in a national park, wild kangaroos 
bounding across the road without warning, and a speed limit of 130 km/hour 
or just over 80 mph), we didn't usually need the reminder. It was hard for 
either of us to resist the temptation to say, "Stop saying that! I know!" 
But perhaps one time in 20 it was really helpful -- and as I've mentioned 
before, that's more often at complicated urban intersections than on open 
country roads where there is little temptation to cross the center line 
(if there's a line, which there isn't in much of the world).

One thing that helped us start out driving on the correct (left) side was 
that we had been in places where they drive on the left (Hong Kong, 
Singapore, and Malaysia) for a couple of weeks before we arrived in 
Australia, and had spent a couple more weeks in Australia (travelling by 
foot, public transit, and train) before we picked up our rental car. If 
you can, especially if you are already in a place where the drive on the 
"wrong" side, try to start thinking on the left (or the right, if you are 
coming for example from the U.K., Ireland, Japan, Australia, or New 
Zealand to North America or Continental Europe) well before you start 
trying to drive on the left. When you come to an intersection on foot, or 
in a vehicle someone else is driving, try to visualize, in advance, the 
path you would follow through the intersection if you were coming in 
different directions, turning left, or turning right. If that seems too 
hard, and you can't yet imagine what you would do, how do you think you 
will fare behind the wheel? Don't think, "I could never drive on the 
left". You'll learn. But take it slow and easy, and try to start preparing 
your mind at least a few days before you get behind the wheel.

The government of New Zealand provides some information for foreign 
visitors on What's different about driving in New Zealand? But it's 
limited, and exceptional. "The World Health Organisation has recognised 
that traffic collisions are the most frequent cause of death among 
travellers", but that fact is rarely called to tourists' attention. Even 
where there is vastly more academic interest in tourism research than 
there is in the USA, the literature on international tourists and road 
safety is limited. "To date there has been no empirical investigation of 
the problems experienced by visitors to Australia from right hand side of 
the road driving countries."

Sleep-deprived, jet-lagged, night racing on the wrong side of the road in 
unfamiliar rental cars isn't the only indication that the racers got too 
carried away by thoughts of the prize to make rational decisions about 
what risks to take. Despite fearing that she has broken her arm in a land 
sailing crash (imagine vehicles like iceboats, but on wheels on a paved 
track, beach, or dry lake instead of on runners on a frozen lake; like 
iceboats, land yachts are much faster than water-borne sailboats, up to 
100 km/h or 60 mph, with a world record of 187 km/h or well over 100 mph), 
Starr won't take time out for medical treatment. After the land-yacht 
task, she actually gets into the driver's seat and back on the highway 
before letting her brother and teammate Nick drive their rental car to the 
finish line of the episode -- still without getting her arm injury checked 
by a doctor.

It's one thing to "tough it out" and suffer temporary pain if no medical 
treatment is available. But neither a "must see" sight or site nor a 
chance at a million dollars is worth postponing or foregoing a side trip 
to a doctor or hospital for treatment that might reduce the likelihood of 
long-term pain, limitations on mobility, or other permanent damage, if 
treatment is available. Yes, there are places in the Fourth World (and 
some in the Second World, and even some really remote places in the First 
World) where there is no doctor , although you still might be able to find 
a medically-trained fellow tourist who could help. But that's the 
exception, and that's certainly not where Starr's accident happened on the 
outskirts of Auckland.

We'll find out next week if Starr's arm is really broken. Adrenalin is a 
powerful painkiller, and it's easy to underestimate a fresh injury. But 
prompt treatment can make all the difference in the long term, especially 
with certain types of injuries and illnesses including many broken bones. 
My partner was afraid to have her broken leg operated on in Ecuador. I was 
scared too when I got off the plane, expecting to meet her, and found that 
she was in surgery. We were disappointed and reluctant to cancel our plans 
for several weeks of trekking in the Andes. But if she hadn't agreed to 
emergency surgery before trying to come home, she might not be walking 
now. Ecuador is a Third World country, not a Fourth World one, and Quito 
is similar in many respects to La Paz: in major cities, even poor ones, 
there is medical care available for visitors and wealthy locals that is 
far better than no treatment at all.

I've heard from too many people who waited too long to seek treatment for 
travel injuries or illnesses, causing long-term or permanent damage that 
was much more costly and inconvenient than modifying their travel plans to 
see a doctor or get to a hospital would have been. The worst case is that 
you might "waste" some time and money, but the best case is that you might 
save yourself from much more prolonged and potentially serious problems.


----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
(4th edition 2007)
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