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Published: August 1st 2010
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For the very first time
Both a little scared, neither one prepared... Sara and her bike. Every country has it’s own rules of the road, and so you almost have to re-learn how to drive with each new place. For me here in Thailand, this was especially true as the main mode of transportation is motorbike. My first weekend here was spent renting my little 150cc automatic bike from the friendly people at Mr. Mechanic and then learning how to drive it. This was made more complicated by the fact that they drive on the left and that the traffic is constant. I found the principle to be the same as in Europe, the “you watch my back, I watch yours”, as opposed to the “be aware of everyone” driving ideal in the states. If someone goes in front of you, that is your problem, because they don’t really look first. Don’t look, just go. They’ll stop, maybe honk, but if you wait for openings you are never going to get anywhere. I rather like it. It’s like driving in a video game, you only know what’s in front of you, if you want to merge, you merge and who ever might be coming up in that lane needs to be ready for that. On a bike,
Yay!
I did it! it’s even more fun because you weave through the cars. At the lights, the bikes are regularly breezing through the lanes of traffic to get as close to the front as possible. This means that every time a light changes, a herd of bikes is always the first to go.
Since I learned to drive last week, I have already taken the super highway, woven my way through traffic and had my first accident. It was one of those incidents that was just going to happen. I was driving down a small, narrow street (soi) kind of lost because it was the first time I ever drove home from work alone. Because I was lost, I was not driving very fast at all. There was a white car parked on the side of the street, right on the corner of where another little street ran into mine. Because of this, I did not see the bike coming out from said little soi until they were maybe 5 feet in front of me. In the states, it would be their problem for turning and cutting me off because they don’t look before zooming out. Here, it is my problem for
Bikes bikes everywhere...
This is the parking lot at the Robinson's Airport plaza... bikes as far as the eye can see. not seeing them. I slammed the breaks, and my bike slid out from under me on the soaking pavement, still very wet from the massive thunderstorm that had ended about 10 minutes ago. The bike went down and so did I, a group of Thai’s ran out to see if I was ok. Quite shaken and dirty, I used the opportunity to pull out my map and ask them to show me where exactly I was, all the while repeating “mai ben drai” (it’s ok) to the perpetrator, who looked as though he felt pretty bad for zooming out in front of me like that. All in all, I ended up with 2 or 3 dime-size bruises and a pea-sized piece of flesh missing from my hip. The bike was fine and my clothes were dirty, but un-torn. Got back up, back on the bike and zoomed off back home. After a shower and an alcohol swab, things were back to normal. Karissa said that she had her accident in exactly the same way, coming home when someone zoomed out from one of the little soi’s with only enough space to leave slamming on the breaks as the only option. Ah well, now I know and am (hopefully) the wiser for it. In the mean time, I will continue to drive as crazy as everybody else. No use being sane and stuck in traffic, right?
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I Love Thailand.
Hi. I plan to go to Phuket Thailand soon and i dont want to rent a motor bike, it can be problem for me or you thats for sure be careful. I stay her http://www.phuketguesthouse.co.cc/ Take care and drive careful.