Hair Raising Driving

[tartempion]

Drove into Udon Thani town yesterday afternoon.

How many motorbikes can you load into a pick-up?

Saw two pick-us in front of me, each loaded with 3? motorbikes, saw them sticking out, oh two more sticking out on the richt hand side, oh, two more sticking out on the left side also.

Ok, makes you smile once you get used to see all the crap on the roads.

Then 1km later I saw 6 cows grazing peacefully on the strip of grass on the middle of the Sakhon Nakhon-Udon highway.

A few hours later on my way back in the dark only one cow still grazing there, the 5 others made it safely to Northen side of the highway.

"en passant", noted 5 motorbikes withouth red backlight the first few kms out of town, lost the count later on.

When their motorbike breaks down they will have it repaired, not so with broken bulbs. They will drive on for many years to come. Not to mention the slow unlit samlors, bycicles and total lightless motorbikes. It must be fun to drive without lights on a highway

I also wonder why do they REMOVE both mirrors on their bikes? Must be fashion to do so?

I also wonder why don't they look left/right to see if a truck or car is coming when they come from a small soi onto a main road? I still have no clue.

Ah, between Nong Han (40kms East of Udon) and 10kms from town they are building a new 4 lane highway. It's almost finished now. They are in the process of renovating the old 2 lane side. Traffic situation changes all the time within the same day: all cars on old lanes, all cars on new lanes, 4 lanes open to circulation...

So on the way home I was driving in total dartkness on a section with 4 lanes open, no lighting, no paintings on the tarmac. Beware when overtaking, a car might come your way in the wrong direction.

Isn't it beautifull to see cars with headlights on on 4 lanes driving in both directions on all lanes?

Sure one must understand that a car coming from a village road and hitting the highway takes the wrong 2 lanes since there is no provision for the driver to CROSS the highway. And why would he drive some kms in the wrong direction for him to make a U-turn to get into the right direction? Even if there WERE provision for him to cross the highway it's surely easier to just take the wrong lanes and find a place to move to the right side somewhere down the road

Not surprisingly I saw the first accident in the dark, a pick-up upside-down stuck in the dirth between the 2x2 lanes.

Maybe he DID try to get onto the right side of the highway?

[MISTERBONK]

TIT

This is Thailand!

All their friends and family members can be injured or killed, but they will still drive as they have always done as if they are the only ones on the road!

[sgunn65]

I can answer your question about the wing mirrors. The young lads in Bangkok remove them because they think it will better the drag factor and make them go faster. It certainly makes them die faster!!!

Before I moved I lived in Sapansoong Bangkok. It is a muslim area and the local herd of cattle is an everyday site wandering up and down Krungtepkreetha Road or just hanging out chewing the cud at the local market. They have no sense of traffic rules (well they are Thai cattle) but you soon get used to it.

[Thaising]

For foreigner living upcountry is best not to drive during this festive period, few year ago one of my friend was driving in Khon Khen province town to enjoys the fun of water splashing, but end up with some drunken motorcyclists chasing after him for causing one of the gang member motorcycle to lose balance and nearly hitting into the sewage drain, and for that reason he was threaten with wooden bat and beer bottle if no compensation is make, luckily his brother in-law were with him to settle this awful incident and yet he still has to pay for his safety to get out of that place. He was very angry with the extortion and I told him he's lucky to came back in piece.

Let wait after the songkran festival are over and you will see the exact total road fatalities.

[micksterbs]

I can answer your question about the wing mirrors. The young lads in Bangkok remove them because they think it will better the drag factor and make them go faster. It certainly makes them die faster!!!

Before I moved I lived in Sapansoong Bangkok. It is a muslim area and the local herd of cattle is an everyday site wandering up and down Krungtepkreetha Road or just hanging out chewing the cud at the local market. They have no sense of traffic rules (well they are Thai cattle) but you soon get used to it.

Also, quite often the mirrors are damaged in minor accidents or just if the bike gets knocked over outside the 7-11, etc. But they're not going to spend vital beer/lottery/ciggy money on a new mirror, are they? Anyway, the mirrors are hardly ever pointing at the traffic behind but aimed at the rider's face for checking make-up, hair, or for acne search-and-destroy missions while waiting at the traffic lights.

[Eric1949]

Drove into Udon Thani town yesterday afternoon.

How many motorbikes can you load into a pick-up?

Saw two pick-us in front of me, each loaded with 3? motorbikes, saw them sticking out, oh two more sticking out on the richt hand side, oh, two more sticking out on the left side also.

Ok, makes you smile once you get used to see all the crap on the roads.

Then 1km later I saw 6 cows grazing peacefully on the strip of grass on the middle of the Sakhon Nakhon-Udon highway.

A few hours later on my way back in the dark only one cow still grazing there, the 5 others made it safely to Northen side of the highway.

"en passant", noted 5 motorbikes withouth red backlight the first few kms out of town, lost the count later on.

When their motorbike breaks down they will have it repaired, not so with broken bulbs. They will drive on for many years to come. Not to mention the slow unlit samlors, bycicles and total lightless motorbikes. It must be fun to drive without lights on a highway

I also wonder why do they REMOVE both mirrors on their bikes? Must be fashion to do so?

I also wonder why don't they look left/right to see if a truck or car is coming when they come from a small soi onto a main road? I still have no clue.

Ah, between Nong Han (40kms East of Udon) and 10kms from town they are building a new 4 lane highway. It's almost finished now. They are in the process of renovating the old 2 lane side. Traffic situation changes all the time within the same day: all cars on old lanes, all cars on new lanes, 4 lanes open to circulation...

So on the way home I was driving in total dartkness on a section with 4 lanes open, no lighting, no paintings on the tarmac. Beware when overtaking, a car might come your way in the wrong direction.

Isn't it beautifull to see cars with headlights on on 4 lanes driving in both directions on all lanes?

Sure one must understand that a car coming from a village road and hitting the highway takes the wrong 2 lanes since there is no provision for the driver to CROSS the highway. And why would he drive some kms in the wrong direction for him to make a U-turn to get into the right direction? Even if there WERE provision for him to cross the highway it's surely easier to just take the wrong lanes and find a place to move to the right side somewhere down the road

Not surprisingly I saw the first accident in the dark, a pick-up upside-down stuck in the dirth between the 2x2 lanes.

Maybe he DID try to get onto the right side of the highway?

Good to see the Thais acting normally in Issan as well. Nice to see we havn't got the monopoly in Mui.

[kmart]

Ah, the Festival of Lemmings is almost upon us once again.

I will use next week's death toll stats for auspicious lottery numbers.

[goldfish]

I can answer your question about the wing mirrors. The young lads in Bangkok remove them because they think it will better the drag factor and make them go faster.

Tell them it will improve their drag factor if they remove their head as well. Lets face it, they're not using them anyway

[Nignoy]

Lots of funny driving habits in thailand, some are really scary I know,but wait till you get overtaken at highspeed by a souped up mitsubishi Colt saloon, 7 passengers plus driver , 2 fellas surfin on the roof and 3 in the open Boot throwing beercans at the vehicles they pass Guess what they crashed only 5 got killed, 1 of the passengers actually tried to sue the driver of a car that stopped, for making them wait for the police and the ambulance and not taking them to hospital.But this was not Thailand Nignoy

[Zeid]

believe it or not,

leaving this January driving from south nongbua to udonthani, an 85km ride, including the wife the 1 month old baby and me there where 17 people in a Mazda pickup truck,

so 15 came along for the ride, to say goodbye, i was happy to have so many, but the driver did not help as SHE was zooming between cars just to make it to the airport, as the first guy forgot he had to pick us up and ended up leaving the night before to Bangkok.

after this 85km ride in the back, the ride in the airplane was very comfortable.