cooked Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) I mean, after living here for a year or two, overcoming the initial shock horror of motorbikes, trucks, minibus drivers and the rest, you sort of settle down into survival mode. I do 100Km a day, starting off on country roads, dogs, school buses, children and insane bike riders, get onto the main highway and start dealing with trucks driving on the right, motorbikes, and then go through 4 sets of traffic lights and motorbike riders. I know that something has happened to me as this is no longer a white knuckle job, just the occasional English lesson for our 7 year old, which was what I was doing back home. I also saw four trucks and one bus (16 dead, 33 young girls injured) off the road yesterday on a 6 hour trip and took it like a Thai, except I didn't continue on down that mountain road like a maniac as some guys did. I should be back in Europe this summer and will be hiring a car. What are my chances do you think, will I get arrested after 20 Km? What experiences have you had? corrected accident stats Edited March 3, 2014 by cooked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morakot Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I'm sure you'll be just fine. Sit back and enjoy the ride... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bino Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 It takes about 10 minutes to get used to being on the other side of the road again. What takes longer is to remember the rules of courtesy, yellow lights, crosswalks, four way stops, school zones, speed limits, etc and stop driving like an <deleted> - which goes out the window and is almost mandatory in Thailand. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Great post. You will have to change your driving style. Be prepared to confront a lot more road rage back home. You need to obey the rules a lot more. It is easy to get into a way of thinking here that traffic laws are optional. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitawatWatawit Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Eight years ago went home, bought a van and daughter and self hit the road for several weeks. Daughter was studying for her driver's licence at the time - yeah, I know what you're thinking, a strange concept, studying for a DL. Anyway, because of that, she saved me from being thrown into the slammer as a menace to society. I had completely forgotten local driving strictures. I got abused several times by other drivers, and lectured dozens of times by daughter in the first few days. There were no serious problems, but there could have been. One of the funny things about it was that when I got back to Thailand, I started driving even more carefully, like back home. I didn't revert (well, not as much) to my old Thai style of driving - that's the "damn the torpedoes" style. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsxrnz Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Great post. You will have to change your driving style. Be prepared to confront a lot more road rage back home. You need to obey the rules a lot more. It is easy to get into a way of thinking here that traffic laws are optional. Last time I was home I was literally 10 seconds out of the car hire firm yard before a raging Kiwi driver decided that my attempted merge was his territory and I got a long blast on the horn and a raised middle finger from him. There was space and time to merge a semi-trailer in Thailand terms, but the 50 metres he had just wasn't enough for him. I hate driving at home. Traffic moves like treacle. The icing on the cake was getting a ticket for doing 1klm above the speed limit. Nazi cops everywhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooked Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 I'm sure you'll be just fine. Sit back and enjoy the ride... .. done that one many times, but a bit slower. You always finish up behind a Dutch guy that has never seen a bend or a hill in his life - quite a few get fined every year for not pulling over now and then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooked Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 It takes about 10 minutes to get used to being on the other side of the road again. What takes longer is to remember the rules of courtesy, yellow lights, crosswalks, four way stops, school zones, speed limits, etc and stop driving like an arsehol_e - which goes out the window and is almost mandatory in Thailand. I have been changing from LHD to RHD for this last 40 years or so, I don't see a problem there. I must admit that I miss being able to get out of the car and hit people at traffic lights (not that I ever did this, it's just the knowledge that I could) without getting the BIB, the guy's family plus my wife on to my case. Mostly I enjoy the smooth give and take of driving in Thailand, even in Bangkok although you have to be a bit more determined there. but I imagine that I will be the guy on the receiving end at traffic lights in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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