This item is really for the “newbies”. When you first arrive in Thailand, the traffic appears to be completely chaotic. At every intersection there appears to be a motorcycle lying on its side with a crowd of onlookers surrounding some bloodied rider and/or pillion passenger. Cars, buses and trucks thunder by at speeds unchecked, and the sheer traffic volume far exceeds that you are used to.
With 80 percent of road deaths being from motorcycle drivers, one of the common questions I get asked by new arrivals is, “Do you really drive in this traffic?” This type of query is given even more weight when you find that many multinational companies operating in Thailand do not allow their ex-pats to drive and insist on providing Thai drivers. It then becomes quite a surprise when I inform the awestruck newbie that I do drive, only cars! Those questioners who know of my motor racing background then retort, “Yes, it’s OK for you as you are used to danger and reckless driving, but what about the ordinary folk?”
Firstly, I should point out that in motor racing there are old drivers and bold drivers, but no old, bold drivers! Racing drivers are far from reckless.
Despite what you might expect in this reputedly peace-loving country, Thai drivers are actually quite aggressive. Four lanes on a highway can filter down into one with aggressive barging. Three lanes can get down into two without the traffic even appearing to slow, taking over the room then take over the soft shoulder.
Of course there is one very different aspect to driving that has to be got used to very quickly, and that is the ubiquitous motorcycle. Typical of Asian cities, motorcycles are family transport, delivery vehicles and the ideal commuter chariot. I am waiting for some enterprising motorcycle manufacturer to begin advertising their new 125 cc step-through as, “The ideal motorcycle for a family of five”. Don’t laugh, five on a motorcycle is commonplace, in fact you can buy an extra little saddle seat which fits in front of the main seat and is used for small children (who hang onto the rear vision mirrors), or the family dog, which just takes its chances. Mind you, a large percentage of the family pooches travel in the wire basket carrier at the front, cleverly blocking the headlights at night.
I could go on for days about the motorcycles. There is a saying here which goes, “You know you’ve been in Thailand too long when you look both ways before crossing a one-way street!” Motorcycle riders will just happily ride against the flow of traffic and smile and bob their head (usually helmetless) to say “Thank you” as they thread their way through and across your bows. Motorcycles will also just poke their front wheels into an oncoming stream of cars until it is either stop and let them out (because there is always many more than just one of them), or run into them or into the oncoming traffic.
In the mornings, the motorcycles are people carriers. Some are driven by the school children themselves, all looking as if they are only 10 years old, but are probably at least 13.
But back to driving here as a farang. There are some ‘rules’ of the road which have to be understood. For example, when the approaching vehicle flashes its lights at you, this does not mean ‘after you’. It means, ‘I am coming through’. More than one new driver has been surprised in this way. There is another seemingly uniquely Thai system in which when you are crossing an intersection you turn on the hazard lights. Perhaps it is a hazardous situation crossing an intersection (it probably is) but I have not seen this anywhere else, and I still get confused by it as you wonder whether the vehicle is turning right or left or going straight on.
Newbie, take care and have insurance.
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