Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Classic Thailand

This is Thailand for a few reasons:

  1. The pink shirts - Pink is a revered colour in Thailand...it is supposed to represent good health, after His Majesty the King wore the colour coming out of hospital one Tuesday. Thus, most Thai's wear the colour each Tuesday.
  2. The sawngthaew - Like a ute with a cover, the sawngthaew usually carries people around their neighbourhood...you just flag it and jump on. Our local one drives us to our BTS for a flat rate of 6 baht (20c). This one is today being used to transport motorbikes.
  3. Motorbikes - There are bloody hundreds of thousands of them here in Thailand.
  4. The blokes standing around not doing much - There are bloody hundreds of thousands of them here in Thailand.
  5. The disregard for common sense and safety - Whilst I have now become accustomed to seeing random things like this that defy OH&S standards, strangely in Thailand is kind of all works with anarchic fluidity.

2 comments:

Mum said...

Does one need a licence to ride a motor bike there? Or could you just hop on one without the international riders qualifications.

Belly said...

Technically, yes. My travel insurance is void if I ride and I'm not licenced in Australia (or have an international drivers licence).

For a Thai, again, technically yes. It's Thailand, so THB5000 can get you out of most situations. They rarely get pulled over, so it's one of those laws here that is in place so they can get you if they want, but don't usually enforce it.

The Government has actually just enacted two new motorbike laws - firstly that you can't talk on your mobile whilst riding, and secondly riders must wear a helmet. It's probably something more for BKK, as many rural people are likely too poor to afford either of the two.