Thai Driving, a life changing experience

I had to post something about the Thai culture of driving, because it is nothing like anything you would ever see in the states. Yellow lines are more like guidelines, pedestrians appear to be targets, and speed limits do not apply!

We have had some crazy experiences, like when our Chiang Mai guide for a day, Noi, would be running (2 second old) red lights while turning around and laughing at a joke he was telling us. Or the trip to Udon Thain by van, when we were passing people like there was some sort of bonus at the end. One time I was pretty sure we were playing chicken w/ oncoming traffic before swerving back into our lane at the last possible second. But my favorite was probably the van ride to the island, when our driver was on the phone in one hand, looking up a phone number in ANOTHER phone in his other hand, all while weaving in between lanes. I’m pretty sure we won the lotto by surviving that ride!

Oh and mopeds are as common as a BMW in Bellevue, shifting their way through traffic at their free will. Sometimes you will see a family of 4 riding together on ONE moped! We actually got to experience some moped driving on Ko Sumet, and that brings up the other weird part of the Thai driving… being on the LEFT side of the road.

The first night we rented the mopeds, we must have had them for about 5 minutes, and Abi was cruizin along… on the right side of the road, when another bike was coming at her. She kept going further right, while this guy kept going to his left. Don’t worry, everyone was ok, and Abi has not forgotten what side of the road to drive on since.

~Randall