Driving in LOS

[Spitfire]

I'm sure this must have been mentioned at some point but I going to have a rant and rave, due to recent happenings.

I drive a pickup and a motorbike and the standard of driving here is pathetic (not a revelation to most I'm sure).

However, I will share my observations:

-There is a highway code here, just nobody pays the blindest bit of notice.
-Thailand is not short of laws, just short of enforcement.
-I have lived here a while and still drive as if I was in Europe, which means being cautious or defensive, as the main thing is to get to your destination alive.
-Noticing the the type of driving skills that surround me and the decisions that the Thai drivers make, I have come to the conclusion that the following qualities exist in abundance and are the explanation for the useless standard of driving.

It can only be:
1. Apathy
2. Contempt
3. Stupidity

Maybe it's all three at the same time. When someone acts likes he/she got his/her driving license from a christmas cracker, I think that they are thinking the following sentence:

'I'm special, the rules don't apply to me, it doesn't matter, I'm higher than everyone else, it's not dangerous because it's me'.

Many have no tax, insurance, license etc and if you, as a foreigner are involved in an accident then the police often ask you to admit blame for the crash, even if plainly not your fault, because the Thai guy has no insurance and you have,so he can get his transport fixed for free!

I have to stop now, otherwise this will get to page 6 before anyone can answer.

I haven't even mentioned 'Scooter Boy' yet and his influence on the road through speed, sound and nasty shinney options on his hairdryer bike.

Would like to hear what others think and feel free to rant and rave, we've not had much of that lately.

[ste860]

i actually enjoy driving over here,i think its great fun and also makes you a better driver,because you need to be very alert,only thing that annoys me is the ammount of cars and bikes with no lights on at night

[lomuamart]

i actually enjoy driving over here,i think its great fun and also makes you a better driver,because you need to be very alert,only thing that annoys me is the ammount of cars and bikes with no lights on at night

Well, that's a different view on things - other than at night.
I'm not saying you're wrong - just different.

[norm]

Actually I find the traffic conditions in HH such that we don't go into town nearly as much. Use to go to the mall 4 or 5 times a week, now it is more like 3 times a month.

There are not only a lot more cars & motorcycles but the drivers seem to be much more inconsiderate of others. No one seems to think anything of double parking, blocking a whole lane while they run into a store for 10 minutes. What makes it worse is 30 mtrs down the road is a parking place.

Then blocking 2 or 3 lanes while they make a illegal U turn. Can't seem to turn any faster than 5km hr. It's like if they go real slow it is not their fault if there is a accident.

[buksida]

After driving in other areas of Thailand you'll see how bad Hua Hin is in comparison, maybe the populace are just a little more arrogant and inconsiderate behind the wheel here.

That said there are far worse places to be on the road ... Manila for one!

[SuperTonic]

I would say traffic has worsened in the last 2 years with more large cars but that said, I still manage to get around without major incident. There are certain things I now know to look out for, and while to the casual observer there are no rules, if you observe properly there are a complex set of unwritten rules, and once you know and understand them, you'll generally be ok.

[Vital Spark]

ste860: I would take my hat off to you if I had one... I seriously think that you may be in the minority with your love of driving in Thailand.

I used to love driving in the UK, and I'd use any excuse for a spin (metaphorically speaking) in a car. Here, however, I turn into a nervous wreck. I'll do anything to avoid driving into Hua Hin - it really isn't a pleasurable experience. Both Parahandy and I avoid driving at night - especially back to our place in the sticks - it's just too damned dangerous.

I agree with you Norm about the traffic in Hua Hin. We're now reducing our trips to once a month instead of weekly. Partly due to the cost of fuel, and partly due to the stress factor of finding a parking space, etc.

VS

[dtaai-maai]

As far as Hua Hin is concerned, I'd say it's just the quantity of bad drivers that's increased over the last couple of years - I don't think they're actually driving any worse.

Whenever I go anywhere I almost invariably drive myself. I've been driven up to Bkk a couple of times in a university minibus, but that was a pretty incident-free experience. Today, though, I had a real insight into the dark side of driving in Thailand. I was driven up to Bkk by a university driver in a souped up Toyota super-pickup that seemed to hit 150kph in about 3 secs. The driver (I'll call him Nigel - I've always liked the name) needed a pee break after 3 minutes, and bought himself an iced coffee. There was a compilation cd of crap farang soft rock playing, and he kept skipping tracks or going back to the previous one. When it finished he spent 5 minutes trying to find a radio station while doing 145 kph on the Samut SongKhram road. At that point I offered to find it for him, or preferably drive. He seemed to think I was kidding.

Nigel had a nasty habit of driving with his left hand while the right one was cleaning out his left ear. When it wasn't digging for potatoes it was drumming a rhythm on the back of the headrest - he must be a trad jazz fan, because I couldn't make out what the rhythm was supposed to be. Although the music was playing constantly, he had some kind of device surgically attached to his right ear (made me think of that sexy Star Trek droid lady with a telephone extension for a name), which is probably why his unoccupied right hand had to manoeuvre round to his left ear to keep itself occupied. It wasn't a hands free device, because on the 3 occasions he used his mobile while driving, it was always held to his left ear.

Nigel didn't always have much of an idea about what was going on around him, and when he did, it was usually the wrong idea. On a 3-lane road he wouldn't pass anything in the slow lane without indicating, flashing his lights, sounding his horn and braking first - now I'm all for a bit of caution but he was already in the outside lane anyway...

He was constantly on edge (but see coffee info coming up...), accelerating and braking unnecessarily, adjusting the steering minutely, but again unnecessarily, so that the ride was extraordinarily uncomfortable for a passenger. Long sweeping bends seemed to confuse him totally - he went storming into them, suddenly realised the road wasn't quite straight and appeared to lose all sense of where the he was and slam on the brakes. The sort of things that happen all the time on the roads here seemed to come as a huge surprise to him, causing him to make a sort of teeth-sucking tsk sound that I've only ever before heard from West Africans.

Nigel is obviously being overpaid, as he bought (and consumed) 3 iced coffees and a bottle of water in less than 5 hours there and back (including turnaround time and breaks). Needless to say, we had to make 3 pee stops...

He also seemed to have a bad back. Either that or he was suffering from a version of Tourette's Syndrome. Every now and then, just as I thought things seemed to be going a bit more smoothly and was starting to relax, he'd utter a weird grunt, and his upper body would jerk forwards as if he wanted to headbutt the steering wheel.

On the way back he developed a nasty case of the sniffles and had no tissues. That resulted in an even nastier case of the Thai 'hawk' process without the end result. Unfortunately I have a very easily triggered gag reflex, and this, frankly, is about the best way to trigger it. Especially when it's combined with a good nostril dig with stringy results. (Sheesh, I'm gagging as I type.)

There were a few other things I'd planned to mention, but I'm afraid I'm about to projectile vom... - spleeeeeeeursh

[Randy Cornhole]

Good god you made me feel squeamish just reading you post. (why haven't we got a puke emoticon?)
I'm one of those that sits right at the back constantly fingering rosery beads, bobbing my head and constantly muttering to myself. Funnily enough its at times like these that I remind myself that I haven't got a will...

[ste860]

that post above reminds me of every journey ive took in a mini bus ,hate them with a vengence,they are like nigel mansell on speed,scare the shit out of me,hence why i drive every where now

[huahindolly]

Great narrative dtaai-maai! You've rolled every bad driver I've had into a single personality, unfortunately for you it was ONE personality.

The biggest obstacle for me is that I'm driving on the wrong side of the road *in addition* to watching for drivers who ignore the rules of the road. The one saving grace is that people don't drive very fast, at least in town.

I, too, observe that there are some unwritten rules as to when it is your turn to wedge your vehicle into traffic. As I figure that out, it seems like driving is a little less scary.

HHD

[Hobiecat]

You guys have no idea. Try living in BKK for 3 years. That's where you learn to drive here. Im sitting in my office in a Middle Eastern country at the moment listening to the horns whaling and the tires screeching and dream of getting back to the slow paced hussle and bussle of HH.

[Spitfire]

Agree with those that mentioned that there are some unwritten rules, however, those ghostly rules don't fill me with confidence, considering who is being entrusted to get it right.

Liked the post lomuamart, made me laugh.

It is also true that there are other places that are worse like Manila or Indian cities etc.

I would also like to say that, since driving a car or bike here which has the speed dial in KMH rather than MPH, that a 100 kmh is only 60 mph but feels quite fast. In the UK, many, including myself, reguarly drive at 100 mph, which is 160 kmh. If you try 160 kmh here, if it's possible, then you would probably feel like the vehicle is going to split up into its constituant atoms.

Bit off topic but the point about going to the mall is true in most cities around Thailand, especially at the weekends, it's total chaos and seems to be getting worse. It has become the thing to do for many Thai families at the weekend. Maybe because there are not too many other things to do, free air-con, be seen shopping and gain 'face', etc, etc, who knows. Get there as it opens, get what you need and get the hell out!

[STEVE G]

the problem with driving in Hua Hin is not the other drivers, it's the lack of investment in infrastructure. I'm up in Nong ki at the moment and they've just finished making the main road six lanes with a frontage road as well, and that is for less than a quarter the traffic that Hua hin has.

[buksida]

Almost went head on into some idiot today that ran a red light on Petchkasem turning right as the flow of traffic was heading north through green.

Thought to myself "where are the cops when you need them" then ... "that was a cop".

What hope is there for the people when the police drive like idiots?