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From The Age

One-way ticket to the next world

There's something about the Thais. The buddhist kingdom of Siam, from the crazy traffic of Bangkok to the regional towns like Chiang Mai and resorts like Phuket and Ko Samui, has always had an attraction for Australians in particular and Westerners in general.

It's the No.2 Asian destination for Australians behind Bali, the tiny Hindu island province of Indonesia. The locals of both destinations love the Aussies and the Aussies love the locals.

Both destinations also kill more Australians than most others on the planet.

In fact, Thailand is clearly the most dangerous place on earth for Australians to visit, according to figures supplied to Travellers' Check by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Though they don't separately list accidents and deaths by natural causes, a total of 105 Australians died in Thailand in 2008-09, while a further 175 were hospitalised.

Bali was only half as dangerous considering the greater number of Australians who travelled there (about 420,000, compared with about 380,000 who visited Thailand.) Fifty-eight Australians died in Indonesia and 191 more ended up in hospital.

But Indonesia is also listed as one of the world's most dangerous places for road traffic. In the two-week Idul Fitri (Ramadan) holiday period, which ended last Sunday, just on 600 people died on Indonesian roads.

In fact, Asia is the road deaths world capital, claiming nearly half of more than a million souls who die on the world's roads each year. Aside from Thailand and Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and China are shockers.

"Motorcycle accidents involving Australians are very common in South-East Asia, particularly in areas such as Bali, resort areas of Thailand and in Vietnam," the Government's smarttraveller.gov.au warns.

''Dangerous drivers in unsafe vehicles and ill-designed and poorly maintained roads make a lethal cocktail. Inadequate medical and emergency services, ineffective law enforcement and an often startling array of human and motorised traffic moving at different speeds add to the risks.''

On this blog in August, many young Australians complained that one of the main reasons they went overseas was to escape Australia's overregulation of their lives. I suspect some of them were talking about the "freedom" they have to ride around South-East Asia on the back of a motorbike without a helmet.

I'm sorry, but this is one case where I'm on the same side as the "nanny state".

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Yours truly,

Kan Win

P.S. Your should read the comments on this News Site about this topic

The replies all seem to be correct and objective that I saw, at least the 2 on the Vespa in the photo had plastic helmuts on.

Well we have to cull the buggers somehow....

So, what would they rather us do? Stay home and die of boredom!

Edited October 5, 200916 yr by BSJ