Do Thais have contests on who can blow their whistle the longest and the loudest?

I was having a pleasant lunch with a friend here today and I couldn't help but notice a whistle that kept blowing continuously for the 40 minutes we were there. I would have expected the parking attendent would have run out of air by then. It was non stop and just like a tree full of sparrows in the evening. I didn't really mind because I've learned to tune out all the constant noise that is part of cities in Thailand. I just thought it was amusing that the parking attendent felt is was his duty to continuously blow his whistle. There just wasn't that much traffic to make in necessary.

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "Parking attendants and their whistles?" I don't think I've ever seen any other Thai person with a whistle.

Give a Thai man a whistle and he has a job.

The whistle empowers them, it makes them feel important.

If Thais ever learn how to back up or parallel park, there will be a lot of unemployed guys with whistles and vests that say "police."

There is a security guard at Siam BTS station on duty in the evening who could not blow his whistle any louder or longer even if assisted with a compressed air canister. Complete nutcase.

There is a security guard at Siam BTS station on duty in the evening who could not blow his whistle any louder or longer even if assisted with an compressed air canister. Complete nutcase.

I could believe it, but this parking attendent today would give the guy a run for his money. I just don't know where he got the strength to do all that blowing. I get puffed just trying to blow up one balloon.

Caught the Ferry earlier this week ... great use of the whistle as communication between the driver and the gofor ... customer relation officer.

Distinctive tones and sound duration depending on what needed to be communicated.

But, in relation to gofor traffic moderation assistant ... I understand the OP ... 100%

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You want to be in Samsung shipyard here in Pusan, Korea.

Standing by a new drill ship getting built and the number of guys with whistles is incredible. They would give your parking guy a run

Getting told how to drive and park by someone that's never driven a car. It's especially great when they walk straight out infront of you in the road to let their customers out. Maybe they should at least be taught the concept of braking distances first.

Maybe this is why Flo Rida is such a hit in the clubs here?

Maybe this is why Flo Rida is such a hit in the clubs here?

I think that has more to do with the hot babes and that hunk of a black dude with the tattoos, than the whistles.

You want to be in Samsung shipyard here in Pusan, Korea.

Standing by a new drill ship getting built and the number of guys with whistles is incredible. They would give your parking guy a run

And the icecream truck sirens on all the cranes. That does your head in after a while.

I've met a few Thais who can blow their whistles all night long. Does that count?

And there is absolutely no consistency to their whistle commands....they blow to tell you to stop and then blow to tell you to go. I just ignore them and do it my way.

Give a Thai man a whistle and he has a job.

Or a uniform for that matter.

I have found that I park faster than ever before. My goal is to be in the space with the engine off before they are within whistling distance. I have had one whistle at me even after that point though.

All this said they are 10 times worse in India. I have seen a man blowing a whistle at 2am in a quiet seaside village for a car parking in an empty car park!

Some people like whistle blowers.

The question is have you ever been to a park place with NO Parking attendants and no whistles?

A local market I go to a few times a week, parking is marked out about 140 parking spaces........ often just sit and watch in amazement people trying to park.. would appear so many have a problem as to witch way to turn the wheel when reversing, mostly females, appears the younger they are and the smaller the car the more difficult it becomes, saying females and there cars as most of the males drive pickup around here but yes even some of them will take 6 or more attempts in there pickups to get into a space which can be done in 1 or max 2.

And there is absolutely no consistency to their whistle commands....they blow to tell you to stop and then blow to tell you to go. I just ignore them and do it my way.

My wife tells me that they have a different sound for stop and go...but like you I ignore them, especially when he tries to be really helpful by doing a circular motion with his hand to let me know which way I should be turning the steering wheel - when seen in the rearview mirror this gets my vote for the most unhelpful help ever.

Its called "spacial awareness"

Any where out side of the U.S. and Western/Northern Europe it does not exist. The latest generation there struggle with this concept also.

The car parking problem is the extreme indicator of this.

Join a queue and have hordes of others cram up your arse - they also go into a dead faint at the thought of you leaving more than 18 inches in front of you. You get ushered to move up. The queue does not go any quicker.

Get on a plane and watch morons trying to fit a large pull along travel bag in the over head locker that wont fit no matter which way you turn it. Then the bloody stewardess joins in and trys all the permutations before dragging it off to a locker some where else.

They never had as children the tub with the square cube, a triangle, a 2 inch round peg and the appropriate holes in the top to drop them through. They have never done a Jig Saw puzzle in their life so cannot match not only shapes but colours as well. They have no concept of how to use a map or even how map reading works even if they do down load GPS "apps" onto their latest iPhone. Give them a compass and they have no idea what is going on or why the red pointer stays in one place.

No idea how to even roughly guess how big a room is in square meters, how large a table top/work top/door/ window is in inches or mm with out a tape measure. And then still get it totally wrong when they deliver the finished products.

Do they care that they do not even have a fraction of these skills ? Do they want a Fallang to tell them how things really work? Not a jot my friends....

The list goes on and on and on and then you give an adult with the mental capacity of an 8 year old a whistle.............

I have often wondered how many whistles have to be surgically removed over the course of a year.

Samui airport takes some beating; Taxi's & minibusses come & go as they please with little or no direction from the man with the whistle. Cars, particularly Mercedes or BMW are also treated with caution, while the remainder get whistled on a sliding scale depending on make of car & status of driver. As soon as the man with the whistle establishes that the car is "normal" (ie not a Merc or BMW) & driven by a ferang, in goes the whistle & his arms start waving like an olympic swimmer..........

I pretend not to notice & have a bit of a chuckle at the ever increasing volume & being called a <****> in semaphore:)

Let's not forget the ones at the fill-up stations. Have you ever seen them trying to save face because you've decided to go to a different pump, and so they then pretend that that's the one they were trying to get you to go to?

I didn't mean this topic to be a knock on Thailand. I just thought it amusing. However, I sometimes wish I could rent a big, black Mercedes with tinted windows for a day, and I'd add a couple of little official looking flags in the back for good measure. Then I'd drive around town just to see what preferential treatment I received.

I didn't mean this topic to be a knock on Thailand. I just thought it amusing. However, I sometimes wish I could rent a big, black Mercedes with tinted windows for a day, and I'd add a couple of little official looking flags in the back for good measure. Then I'd drive around town just to see what preferential treatment I received.

I once watched in awe as a whistler tried in vain to get a gleaming new BMW, with black windows, into a substantial space. Lots of cars waiting. THe Beemer would lurch-brake--turn-non-moving tires back and forth--lurch-brake. After a full three minutes, the whistler, after patiently encouraging and directing, threw his hands up, stepped in front of the BMW, and waved him on, all while vigorously blowing his whistle. The Beemer honked just as vigorously. But Whistler prevailed, although I thought he might swallow his tool if not for the lanyard.

http://www.quietbangkok.org/?page_id=386

The quiet Bangkok group has substantially reduced the number of whistles in downtown Bangkok. My soi is quiet thanks to them!

http://www.quietbangkok.org/?page_id=6

Whistle free zone campaign. I was at the training of security guards on how to use a light baton instead of a whistle. Good fun!

I thought it was therapy to stop mouth breathing.