{"id":628,"date":"2015-06-30T23:17:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T23:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=628"},"modified":"2015-07-03T12:21:04","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T12:21:04","slug":"need-an-escape-from-australias-nanny-state-try-south-east-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=628","title":{"rendered":"Need an escape from Australia\u2019s nanny state? Try South-East Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"escape\"<\/a>Each country is so distinct, so memorable, but there are certain inalienable similarities. The air is one.<\/p>\n

Humid, smothering, balmy, and usually overlaid with tones of open drain.<\/p>\n

Delicious.<\/p>\n

That smell becomes inextricably linked with the delights of the region. Dense greenery, denser cities. Cheap beer, cheaper local liquor, smiling people, outlandish vehicles, and oh-god-please-don\u2019t-stop \u2026 the food.<\/p>\n

These are countries where you see building scaffolding made of haphazard bamboo, where electrical wiring clumps in nests atop wonky poles, where refrigeration is a luxury and occupational health and safety is optional.<\/p>\n

Sure, the big cities have Louis Vuitton and consumer bling, but venture out and you can find places where you can lob a grenade just for the hell of it, buy magic mushroom pizzas on the side of the road, or eat a half-hatched duck out of the shell and follow it up with a shot of snake\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n

Ferchrissakes, you can even ride a bike without a helmet, that\u2019s how close to anarchy they are.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s wild, dirty fun. With good food and bad toilets.<\/p>\n

Singapore is a glorious, multifaceted city-state, but when you step into the air it\u2019s missing the open drain smell.<\/p>\n

Because Singapore is clean, organised. One might almost say regimented.<\/p>\n

In many ways it\u2019s more like a city in Australia than a city in Asia, which isn\u2019t a terrible thing. But the beer\u2019s not cheap.<\/p>\n

Walk around the leafy boulevards and you\u2019ll notice people waiting patiently at pedestrian crossings, with no cars in sight. Or motorbikes or tuk tuks, for that matter.<\/p>\n

In the Botanic Gardens, perfectly parallel lines of Tai Chi types form. Graceful if slightly wizened synchronised swimmers, unfurling their limbs through the wet air. They look sweet, and totally obedient.<\/p>\n

Energetic Lorna Jane-clad locals diligently pick up after their dogs, the greenery is topiaried and trimmed to perfection, and all late-night debauchery seems to be confined to the infamous Four Floors of Whores in the Orchard Towers.<\/p>\n

And did I mention the beer?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking at a menu that\u2019s cheekily asking for $15 for a Tiger. In Hanoi you can perch on a comically small stool and drink a Bia Hoi for about 20 cents.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago a Deutsche Bank report found Australia was the third most expensive place on Earth to buy booze \u2014 beaten only by France and Singapore. It\u2019s a sin tax thing.<\/p>\n

Singapore\u2019s different to its neighbours. It\u2019s regulated. Long hair, tattoos and chewing gum are no longer banned, but there is still a surfeit of rules. On his visit there this week Prime Minister Tony Abbott said \u2014 somewhat wistfully \u2014 that in many ways Singapore is more \u2018disciplined\u2019 than Australia. It\u2019s certainly more disciplined than most of its neighbours.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s baffling to the brain, which is used to these hot humid places being somewhat lawless. As though discipline gets washed away when sweat streams through cleft and cranny.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why SE Asia is so appealing to tourists, Australians included, escaping from their claustrophobically overregulated nations.<\/p>\n

The only solution to every micro problem in Australia is to slap a regulation on it. It\u2019s nigh farcical that in South Australia it took a nine-month trial to convince the government people could stand up and have a drink at the same time without falling over and glassing themselves in the head.<\/p>\n

To be fair, that scenario may well have happened, but that doesn\u2019t mean the rest of humanity has to suffer for one nincompoop\u2019s mashed noggin.<\/p>\n

Every rule, every law, every regulation should have a proper justification. They shouldn\u2019t just be bandied about. They should be proportionate responses to legitimate issues.<\/p>\n

Somewhere on the spectrum between Singapore and the slums is a sweet spot.<\/p>\n

Where you don\u2019t die of sepsis from bad sanitation or rabies from poor dog control. Where you don\u2019t fall through holes in the footpath and the gutters aren\u2019t full of rubbish. A spot where not only can you afford to buy a beer, but you\u2019re allowed to drink it standing up or perched precariously on a stool.<\/p>\n

Where the atmosphere is not oppressive and smothering, but tends towards temperate.
\nSource: Daily Telegraph<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each country is so distinct, so memorable, but there are certain inalienable similarities. The air…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[17,21,13,5,9,2],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",650,366,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",640,360,false],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",650,366,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",650,366,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",650,366,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",650,366,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/escape.png",480,270,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Uncategorized","tag_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}