Easy but difficult

I am a man of preparation.  I tend to follow the old adage, "measure twice and cut once."  I always check all of my equipment many times over before going out on a camping trip, scuba diving, rock climbing, you name it.  Even before I go for a drive I have a habit of checking all the basic systems of the vehicle.  I'm trained in multiple forms of emergency rescue.  I know how to land a small airplane in an emergency.  Likewise, I read a lot.  I research everything I may need to know about an upcoming experience, be it a purchase, a class selection, or my next destination.  Thus, after talking to countless souls and reading an immeasurable amount of text on traveling to Thailand I was mortified to find myself caught off-guard upon encountering a major, nay, an essential fact about this country that every one of my sources had neglected to reveal: they drive on the left-hand side of the road.

Imagine now, if you will, my utmost fear upon getting off of the border-crossing bus in Nong Khai and attempting to cross the street.  I look to the left, see that all is clear and step off the curb.  As I turn my head to the right to check the next lane of traffic, my gaze is suddenly met by an all-too-near van coming right at me, horn blaring.  "Fucking idiot!," I think as the Thai driver swerves around me but returns to the left-hand side of the road.  Then I notice the orientation of all of the parked cars.  As a new stream of left-handed traffic passes by my paralyzed form, it dawns on me that I have been defeated.  Wrong-sided traffic has eluded all of my detection systems and breached my perimeter of preparedness.  Congratulations Thailand, you and your incorrect road rules have forced me to submit to you, the victor.  Here is my sword, my gun and badge, my white flag.  That said, you have my word that this will never happen again.  You have been warned, Alderney, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Caymans, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Macau, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Motserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Pakistan, Papau New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.