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Published: March 29th 2017
When setting out on this big trip, I think a lot of people assumed that diseases such as malaria were our biggest risk factor. While diseases and access to decent medical care are a concern, I think our biggest risk factor is road accidents. At home, Kyla and Jakey have the latest and greatest child safety seats complete with safe cell technology etc etc. Here in the third world, however, things are very different. We are in countries where families of two adults and up to three kids travel on a single motorbike, where people ride on the roof of buses, and where people hang off the edge of speeding trains. If you asked for a child car seat I'm pretty sure they'd look at you as if you'd just stepped off the moon!
In the past, these scary road adventures were part and parcel of the trip. There really wasn't much you could do about it other than sit back and pray. Now things are different. We have two little people that we are responsible for. Our biggest way to combat this is to limit travel days. Not only are travel days much more arduous with littles,
but they are some of the most risky times. When we do need to travel long distances we have often rented our own car and driver. With four of us, it often doesn't work out much more expensive, but we are more in control than if we were on a crowded minivan. We can ask to stop for bathroom breaks whenever the kids need to go and, more importantly, we have a say in how fast (or not) the driver goes. On our recent two-hour trip from Krabi airport to Ko Lanta island we were very glad that we'd paid a bit more to hire our own driver. About an hour into the trip, Jake fell asleep lying face down across me on the back seat and I suddenly felt a warm patch growing on my leg. Yep, he'd peed on me in his sleep! I was so glad that we were able to stop and change his clothes rather than being stuck on a minivan with twelve other people!
Once we are at our destination, we try to limit transportation by making the location of our accommodation a priority. No vehicles = no risk of road
accidents. However, short trips inevitably need to happen. Most foreigners rent motorbikes but we have a strict no-motorbike policy. Instead we take tuk tuks in Thailand, or tricycles in The Philippines. Each country (and region) has its own version, but they are basically a metal cage attached to the side of a motorbike. Maybe not state-of-the-art transport, but they get us around. So far we have been pretty lucky, having no incidents or near misses, that is until today. Today we had to "fire" two tuk tuk drivers in a row!
It was an errand day. We had to go about 5km into town to stock up on supplies, calling at several pharmacies and minimarts. When we were ready to come home, we hailed a tuk tuk. An older driver pulled over. We asked him to take us home to our guesthouse, but stop at a dentist along the way and wait while we made an appointment. We agreed on a price and got in. I don't know why, but I had a bad feeling about him. I felt guilty about age-discrimination so just tried to ignore it, but Scott later told me that he had the
same feeling. So off we went, nice and slowly but not necessarily surely. When we got to the Lanta Dente clinic he pulled across the road and crashed straight into a high curb with a jolt. We were all fine, but we quickly paid him the money and scrambled out, telling him he didn't need to drive us any further.
Now for round two!
After making our dental appointment (don't worry, mum, it's just for a cleaning. Nothing wrong!) we hailed another tuk tuk. This time it was a young guy who was very friendly and chatty, pointing out his tattoo studio and telling us how he drives a tuk tuk whenever he's not busy inking someone up. The problem was that he was too friendly and was constantly turning around to fuss Kyla and Jakey, veering to the side of the road as he did. We asked him twice to stop and pay attention to the road, but he still continued to do it. Scott yelled at him to pull over and we jumped out and paid him his money and told him why we'd got out. He seemed not to understand at
Thai tricycle.
We love it when the driver has their kid on board. They're the safest drivers!all! Luckily we happened to have got out right outside a Greek restaurant I'd been eyeing up since we were here at Christmas. It was 12:00 noon, so the perfect time for a yummy Greek lunch.
After lunch it was round three!
Third time lucky. This driver got us home without us freaking out so we gave him a decent tip. It cost us about three times what it should have to get home, but at least it didn't cost us our lives! Now that we have stocked up on supplies for a while, we can walk everywhere and avoid our biggest danger. Welcome to the third world! ?
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Where did you get your driver's licence?
A reasonable question when at home but one wondered but not asked in our travels. How many can you fit on a moped? How many can you squeeze on the roof of a truck, bus or carriage? Will the driver watch the road or you? Ah the joy of the risks of transport in third world countries! Great blog. Be safe so you can enjoy!