Driving in Thailand

I'm really glad that I started driving. Although its sometimes nice having a driver when it comes to parking, I really prefer the freedom go somewhere when I need to without waiting for someone to show up. Sometimes I would be waiting at the house while the driver was "stuck in traffic" or whatever excuse he had.

Driving here presents some challenges over driving in U.S. Here you drive on the left instead of the right side of the road. Well, most of the traffic drives on the left side of the road. You'll see motorcycles sometimes driving the wrong way in order to avoid a long u-turn.

The prevalence of u-turns is a bit different. Most roads of consequence here have built in u-turns. I think that's in large part because larger roads are divided highways. If you want to go to a place on the other side of the road, you don't turn against traffic to get there, you drive to a u-turn, turn around, and drive back to your destination. It can make for longer trips. That store you want might be right across the street, but if the u-turn is a mile away, you are going to drive two miles to get there.

Road signs can often present a challenge. Most of them have both English and Thai, but certainly not all of them. Even when you have the English letters, the way things are spelled might not correspond to how you think they are pronounced. For example, a major road near here is named Chaeng Wattana. Its actually pronounced more like Jang Wattana. In fact its spelled differently on different road signs. I've seen the following derivations:

- Chaeng Wattana
- Chaeng Watthana
- Chaing Wattana
- Jang Wattana

Driver's here are fairly aggressive. They have no compunction against pulling out in front of you, and once one does, others will often follow in their tail. Hey, you are already slowed down, right? Before you pull out in front of someone though, remember this, if they flash their lights, it means that they are NOT going to slow down. Yeah, if you think that nice person is flashing you to go ahead and enter, you might get an unpleasant surprise.

On smaller streets, you'll often have people parked on the side with their car, motorcycle or vending cart. On a two lane road, this will often mean that you need to stop in order to allow other traffic to pass. The same thing is when you encounter bicycles or even pedestrians. Hey, its not like there is room on the sidewalk for pedestrians.

Another challenge is just the sheer size of Bangkok. It has a population larger than Chicago, and is layed out in a less than intuitive manner. It takes a while to learn your way around. Tim often calls Top or Tham to get directions, usually on the fly.

So while driving in Bangkok is not nearly as pleasant as driving in Cincinnati, I'm glad I'm doing it.