Things That Make You Go, Hmmm...

[Loz]

so if i was landing a plane in the dark and had someone flashing a strobe light in my direction and whistling loudly into my head set, i'd probably go, “hmmm!”. strongly when parking a car at night in thailand i feel the same way. why would standing where i'm trying to park a large car and doing the above be perceived as help?

[richard_smith237]

To our Condo Management my wife wrote a letter including excerpts from the Bangkok Post where in another area of town there are 'whistle free zones'...

Our Condo responded and now we don't have to listen to that annoying unnecessary sound all day long... We have a silly torch instead !

I don't get it at all. Noise for the sake of noise. If people cant reverse into a parking space without help what are they doing driving ? (rhetorical question, really please don't answer that !!!)

Also, why is that when parking it's the only Time that Thai's know how to use reverse ?

The only useful thing the parking attendants do is to be present just incase someone opens their door into yours, it makes people think about others property... hmmmm

[Moonrakers]

Mrs. 'Rakers insists of getting out of the car to help me every time.

She waves her hands frantically whilst giving me verbal instructions which, of course, I can't here as I am in the car. I started ignoring her doing this some time ago, something that I'm sure she still hasn't recognised, bless her.

Similarly with the whistle boys, I just ignore them. They still have to have the last word (or should that be whistle), though, as when I stop and pull the handbrake of my own accord they still blow their whistle to signal me to stop, bless 'em.

Edited October 31, 2010 by Moonrakers

[travelmann]

My daft theory. WE don't understand that one blow on the whistle means keep coming, two, straighten up, three stop, four, your doing it all wrong, five, l give up. Just a theory .

you forgot 6 "wow I gotta whistle"

[Kwasaki]

Nice one Loz but l just shut myself off from distractions and park my truck the way l always do, correctly !!

[phaethon]

I'm quietly confident that I was responsible for the banning of whistles from outside the Landmark, Nana. Confined to qaurters with combined flu and food poisoning I was spending the days either simultaneously sitting on the lavatory and throwing up into the bath or sleeping. Twenty one floors below and on the opposite side of the building, the moron out front with the whistle made sleep all but impossible. When I recovered enough to stray more than 5m from a bathroom I took it up with reception in no uncertain terms and to this day I can't pass the peaceful environs of the Landmark without a certain sense of achievement.

If you are in the vicinity of Pratunam I recommend going to see the short, fat whistler outside Platinum Mall, he is absolutely demented. Get up close, the look in his eyes is truly psychotic. One day, if you're lucky, you'll get to see him stroke out.

Raming Lodge in Chaing Mai - don't take a room in the rear of the building (in fact boycott the place completely) - another car park whistler out back who doesn't pay any attention whatsoever to being bellowed at from the third floor to "Shut the F*&^ up you noisy git!"

Then disaster struck. My building's security one day got himself a whistle The thing is the building has parking directly beneath and large ventilation holes in the floor of the central atrium so sound echoes up around the corridors. I noticed one day when I was down there that he was begging for tips from the more gullible parkers and peak time is right around my nap-time when people get back from school/work. I bitched long and hard about it to management and he went quiet... for a while...

A few months later he started again, relatively quietly, probably thinking whoever complained had by then moved on: He was testing the water. Things began to get louder until one day I cracked and arrived in a dishevelled, mid-nap state in the reception, filled out one of the new 'suggestion' slips with "Take security's whistle away!", and stuffed it into the box. Peace and quiet ever since. I have occasionally considered buying him one of those fluorescent traffic cop sticks out of misguided sympathy. He never helps me park my bicycle.

The building next door stopped whistling too, either because residents complained or they saw me videoing them...

Humble beginnings in my campaign for a peaceful Thailand, but a start at least. You're welcome.

Now, anyone got a strategy for doing away with those bloody farmers' trucks with the loud-hailers...?

[MJo]

and why the need to reverse into the parking space ?

I just park straight away in which ever way makes sense, usually driving straight to the space makes it easier to access the booth to load your groceries etc.

And it is good fun to see how they try to explain that you parked the "wrong" way and asking you to get back to the car and turn it around, when you just walk away smiling.

[geriatrickid]

There is a rear camera option now available on many vehicles. The whistle blowers may go the way of the lantern carriers that used to escort vehicles when the vehicles were horseless carriages.

[canuckamuck]

Humble beginnings in my campaign for a peaceful Thailand, but a start at least. You're welcome.

A thankless job i am sure, but the cause is noble. Carry on

[Loz]

There is a rear camera option now available on many vehicles. The whistle blowers may go the way of the lantern carriers that used to escort vehicles when the vehicles were horseless carriages.

The man who walked in front of the car with a red flag was there for public safety. When car's were declared safe with competent drivers, his job was axed.

The parking people are surplus to requirements. Why are they still here. I don't see them getting axed anytime soon. And I bet if you park over one of them, it be your pocket that gets lightened...

[canuckamuck]

Can you imagine the hearing damage a career whistler must have.

Oh what am I saying, most mall workers have to incur the same decibel levels from assorted stereos and the most horrible thing of all, the mobile PA system with someone screaming about noodles on sale or some such product.

I frequently walk out of stores if there is someone shrieking into a PA.

Not so hard to find what I need elsewhere.

Edited November 1, 2010 by canuckamuck

[PattayaParent]

and why the need to reverse into the parking space ?

I just park straight away in which ever way makes sense, usually driving straight to the space makes it easier to access the booth to load your groceries etc.

And it is good fun to see how they try to explain that you parked the "wrong" way and asking you to get back to the car and turn it around, when you just walk away smiling.

Agreed, I can park in a spot nose first and be off into the supermarket while others are pratting around making unsuccessful attempts to reverse park.

And the confusion that angled parking causes is riotous when they try to reverse the wrong way round!

[mca]

A couple of weeks ago I went to a grilled chicken restaurant and as it wasn't far off closing was the only car in the car park which was about the size of half a football pitch. Upon leaving the security bloke leapt of his plastic stool and did the usual torch flashing/arm waving/whistle blowing combo behind my car.

Mate it's a rather large completely empty car park devoid of any obstacles whatsoever and I'm reversing a Space Wagon not a Space Shuttle Crawler Transporter.

Edited November 1, 2010 by mca

[phaethon]

Mate it's a rather large completely empty car park devoid of any obstacles whatsoever and I'm reversing a Space Wagon not a Space Shuttle Crawler Transporter.

But you're a Farang - you can't drive properly, Thai style...

[Loz]

Another thing then!

parking on the side of the road but off the road. People tend to drive nose into the the spaces. I think this is questionable and I'll explain why. But first I will just say that people do the same in big carparks and it is also questionable there except I can see the point about loading into your boot.

You pull off the highway and swing straight into a harmless parking spot. But when you leave you have to reverse with your view often obscured by the vehicle next to you, into a highway with speeding vehicles you are taking some kind of risk.

Why not reverse into the parking spot off the highway where there is nothing moving and you can see everything around you? Then drive out with a clear view of all the obstacles.

And if you tell me I think too much I will make a smilie to depict when someone pulls your scrotum over your head and snaps it back like an elastic band!

Edited November 1, 2010 by Loz

[StreetCowboy]

Another thing then!

parking on the side of the road but off the road. People tend to drive nose into the the spaces. I think this is questionable and I'll explain why. But first I will just say that people do the same in big carparks and it is also questionable there except I can see the point about loading into your boot.

You pull off the highway and swing straight into a harmless parking spot. But when you leave you have to reverse with your view often obscured by the vehicle next to you, into a highway with speeding vehicles you are taking some kind of risk.

Why not reverse into the parking spot off the highway where there is nothing moving and you can see everything around you? Then drive out with a clear view of all the obstacles.

And if you tell me I think too much I will make a smilie to depict when someone pulls your scrotum over your head and snaps it back like an elastic band!

This has been discussed before.

Apparently in cold countries, its good form to park nose to the wall so that your exhaust does not make a black mark on the wall when warming the car up.

I grew up in a small market town, where angle parking was the norm - as it was in the city too, now I come to think of it, on most of the roads.

One drives in nose first since one has no choice when or where one finds a parking place, and can do so, without affecting the flow of traffic. When emerging, one emerges slowly, inching out, if one does not have a good view of approaching traffic, and oncoming cars can steer round you. Before you obstruct the flow of traffic, you should be able to see the apporaching traffic, and can choose when to reverse out fully, without inconveniencing others One can much more quickly reverse into the street than into the parking space, since the street is so much wider.

Hence why angle-parking is almost invariably laid out for driving in forwards, rather than reversing in.

SC

[Loz]

and another thing... when i order one coke in a restaurant, why do feel its ok to pour it as fast as possible and open a second without asking. if they did that with beer and one was driving, could get messy. and i know they do it with beer.

[Loz]

and another thing... when i order one coke in a restaurant, why do feel its ok to pour it as fast as possible and open a second without asking. if they did that with beer and one was driving, could get messy. and i know they do it with beer.

[dmax]

just give them their 2 minutes of blowing their whistles and shining their torches, makes them feel important for once in their lives

[mahtin]

just give them their 2 minutes of blowing their whistles and shining their torches, makes them feel important for once in their lives

Whistleblowers are useful on Chao Phraya Express boats, otherwise sinecures.