Thai driving

Whether it is on the bus, in a songthaew or some other mode of transport there is a certain level of risk involved that you wouldnt get back home. For example, I got the bus to and from Chiang Mai recently and it had two doors, one at the front and one at the rear. For the whole journey these were wide open and people were sleeping on their seats nearby. It could have been so simple to slip off the chair and fall out. But of course they dont think about that here in Thailand. They are much more carefree and dont spend time agonising over what might be, they just get on with it. Songthaews are covered pickups with a gap in the back to climb in (see above) so you could also fall out of this as i nearly did going up Doi Suthep! After that you have the motorbikes (mostly mopeds really) which most people have. There are some kids in my first year (M1) class who drive them to school which is kind of scary. Of course you will never see anyone wearing a helmet (though i have seen them used as kind of baskets) and usually there are 3 or 4 people packed onto a bike, each clinging to each other to stay on. Unthinkable in Western society.

Then of course are the fabled tuk-tuks (see image below). These are essentially 3 wheel bikes with a driving seat and space in the back for n amount of passengers (n being how ambitious the driver is at that point in time). These guys think they own the place, big enough to bully bikes out of the way and small enough to nip in between cars and vans (pronounced wans) they are quite good at elbowing their way to the front of a queue whenever traffic is stopped. They also have the added advantage of being completely open so you can enjoy the scenery and toxic fumes of the place you are in. This is especially bad in Bangkok as it is smothered in fumes, i felt a little light-headed after my first tuk-tuk journey in that city.

On top of all this you have the Thai driving style. This basically means do whatever the hell you want on the road. Want to jump two lanes and get down a side road? Go for it! Sure the cars in the lanes you are crossing have brakes for a reason right? They also have a tendency to drive in the middle of the road (especially on corners), overtake in crazy places (on corners again) but they do blare their horns to warn oncoming traffic they are doing something stupid! If you are on a motorbike you have to have your senses about you to cope with all this as well as the complimentary random lane changing for no reason (they basically weave across the road for the craic) because if you dont then you get an earful of carhorn or hit. This of course means you have the bikes weaving crazily across the road, if only to avoid the cars. I once saw a car in Chiang Mai turn to go into a car park from the middle lane of a big road and almost take out a bike because the idiot never looked to see was anyone in the inside lane! Fortunately this biker was obviously used to this type of thing as he just veered wildly, almost fell off and kept going without batting an eye.

During any of these journeys it is every person for themselves. If you cant hold on then you are going to have an unpleasant journey. Seat belts are non-existent except maybe in actual cars or minibuses (wans). This is a country remember where you pack as much stuff or as many people onto a small area as possible. Seatbelts restrict this so they just get taken out. Most of the time vehicles will be overcrowded (i think i have a different interpretation of overcrowded than thais) so you just grab whatever is to hand and hold on (like the dart at rush hour except twice as bad).

Anyway i got my bicycle this week finally so i have a bit more freedom and can take a few trips outside of the town without relying on public transport. Its a piece of junk, frankly, but the brakes work (sort of) so it should do the job. I'm sure the sight of a farang on a bicycle is bound to cause some accidents due to people staring at me while driving and so not looking where they are going but hey that's not my problem! Hopefully i dont get taken out by one of them trying to get a closer look though :)