My Thai son (28 years old) doesn't drive (hangover from a bad accident when he was a little boy) often takes his wife and small daughter on trips where the destination is only serviced by buses.

He has another strategy, they start the journey and if my son or his wife feels the driver is dangerous or not paying attention, then they get off at the next stop or politely ask for the bus to stop at the next town, and get off.

He's fortunate of course that he has enough funds to stay the night in a local hotel, pay for some alternate transport etc.

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My Thai son (28 years old) doesn't drive (hangover from a bad accident when he was a little boy) often takes his wife and small daughter on trips where the destination is only serviced by buses.

He has another strategy, they start the journey and if my son or his wife feels the driver is dangerous or not paying attention, then they get off at the next stop or politely ask for the bus to stop at the next town, and get off.

He's fortunate of course that he has enough funds to stay the night in a local hotel, pay for some alternate transport etc.

Probably a good strategy, unless they get on the next bus and the driver is bad, so stop at the next town, driver is even worse, so stop at the next town... kills a lot of time, but I suppose it's better than getting killed on one of those behemoths. Too many times I've gone (the other way) past a bus overtaking another bus, three abreast on a 2-way road. I thinks that's the scariest part of driving here, cuz if they're doing 100 and I'm doing 100, it's like hitting a wall at 200 kph. Did you see on tv all the bus accidents in BKK when there was all that rain? It appears the drivers don't know how to drive in the wet, either....sigh...killed a bunch of people that day.

My Thai son (28 years old) doesn't drive (hangover from a bad accident when he was a little boy) often takes his wife and small daughter on trips where the destination is only serviced by buses.

He has another strategy, they start the journey and if my son or his wife feels the driver is dangerous or not paying attention, then they get off at the next stop or politely ask for the bus to stop at the next town, and get off.

He's fortunate of course that he has enough funds to stay the night in a local hotel, pay for some alternate transport etc.

Probably a good strategy, unless they get on the next bus and the driver is bad, so stop at the next town, driver is even worse, so stop at the next town... kills a lot of time, but I suppose it's better than getting killed on one of those behemoths. Too many times I've gone (the other way) past a bus overtaking another bus, three abreast on a 2-way road. I thinks that's the scariest part of driving here, cuz if they're doing 100 and I'm doing 100, it's like hitting a wall at 200 kph. Did you see on tv all the bus accidents in BKK when there was all that rain? It appears the drivers don't know how to drive in the wet, either....sigh...killed a bunch of people that day.

Have to agree with OP here. That's my strategy, although when I lived in Phuket, the drivers were insane, especially the Visa Run company's. But all 16 busses I've taken from CM to BKK have been nice peacefull (train paced) slow going, with no crazieness at all. Though it is truly hit or miss.

Lithobid