Driving in Thailand, not just Pattaya

[Eneukman 1]

Thai driver's are an absolute pleasure and delight after experiencing the horrid driver's in Brunei and worse yet in Kuala Lumpur.

omg - I'm going to KL next month for a couple of days.

 

For motorbikes, Saigon (I believe the locals still prefer to call it Saigon rather than Ho Chi Min) has to be one of the worst cities in the world. Looking out my hotel window (double glazed and I could still hear the bloody traffic noise ) at around 6.00 in the evening, I estimated that around 150 motor bikes were passing in ONE direction every minute.

 

The Lonely Planet guide book reckons that there are at least a million motor bikes in Saigon. I beg to differ. There are at least a million motor bikes on the road at any one moment in time!

 

Alan

[Gary 4,119]

I started driving in Thailand in 1991. Within the first week I decided that a person has to have a death wish to drive a motorcycle.

 

A farang friend of mine was the worst driver that I have ever seen. He was naturally afraid to start driving so the company elected me to ride with him the first few trips until he got acclimated. The very first morning there was an old lady pushing a cart along the highway. She had cardboard loaded on the cart. My friend came so close to her that he actually knocked the cardboard off her cart. I told him that he could either ride with me or get someone else to ride with him. YES, the company eventually paid for several accidents that he had.

 

I learned to drive Thai style fairly well and after I quit working for the Thai company I bought my first vehicle. It was a Suzuki Caribbean with big steel pipe bumpers. That worked great when I wanted to make a turn across traffic. The technique is to ease out until the oncoming cars no longer have room to get past.

 

One courageous Thai driver tried to pass between me and another car. He decided that the two lane was big enough to make into a four lane. (The two lane was already three lanes). He earned a crease all the way along the side of his shiny car. NO! I didn't stop, I just grinned at him and kept moving.

 

One night I was taking one of the Thai engineers home and a drunk was walking down the middle of the highway. I barely missed him. I was shook up a little but my Thai passenger wasn't the least bit nervous. He asked me what I would have done if I had hit the guy. I told him I would have stopped to help him. I was told to NEVER stop if I hit someone like that because the accident would be my fault and I would have to pay. Any pedestrian no matter how stupid has the right of way and any vehicle smaller than yours (motorcycle) also has the right of way. If you hit livestock on the road it is your fault and you will have to pay the farmer. That's the way it is and it also applies to the Thai drivers.