I live -about half a mile - outside a small rural Thai village in the North East.

 

I do a walk most days - on my  own - to get some exercise.  On my walk I notice that many Thais are NOT practising social distancing in any shape or form.     Old habits and how they have lived their lives in the past die hard.    Examples:   two or three people on a motor cycle,  sitting close together on the floor all eating with the same utensil from the same dish.   Living on the road out of the village I hear motor cycles and cars well after the supposed 8p.m curfew  The young are the worse.   Until they get some firm instructions that life is not as it always was and they have to comply in order to stop the spread of the virus, contagion will continue.   The vast majority are not wearing masks.   I emphasize this is just one small village but suspect it is common throughout the North  East, 

 

Surely it is up to the village headman to inform and instruct that such compliance is necessary.

Yes it is, now get on with it!

In the villages around where I live north of Chiang Mai, life goes on almost as normal too. Most don't wear masks. Market still operating as usual. Mom and pop shops all open. People still congregate.

 

Within families you can't expect social distancing to be followed and that includes multiple people on motorbikes and in cars of course.

 

Yet everyone is fully aware of the WuFlu and what is going on in the cities.

 

Are they all insane, or are they taking a measured view and just not panicking?