I needed to be “intoxicated” when I was a passenger in my chauffeur-driven ride in the Chinese city of Canton, which I visited for work.
Because I had to numb my senses and delay the shock of seeing other cars coming headlong at me. Because I saw too many close shaves with drivers who took sudden shortcuts to avoid making a U-turn further down the road. Because I had to dull my hearing assaulted by the constant cacophony of horns, which Canton drivers used incredibly regularly, often as a substitute to brakes!
In fact, my driver had his thumb permanently positioned on the horn button – he pressed it every 30 seconds or so. When another car cut into his lane, he blasted the horn before he braked – if he slowed down at all. When the car in front was hogging the lane, he horned even before coming within two car-lengths of the vehicle and continued the tirade as he went from one bumper to another, with the brakes employed only at the absolute last moment.
But amid all the chaos, I was surprised to observe the absence of any hostility within this apparent traffic battlefield. The horn was invoked as quickly as the episode was forgotten. When a driver passed another whom he had just horned, there was none of that staring, cursing or finger-pointing that I tend to see in Singapore. In fact, it was almost as if the incident never happened in the first place.
Maybe it was my “intoxication” that caused this attention deficit of sorts in Canton. 
