Fun in Thailand

dash riposki

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Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
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Location
Nong Khai
Country
Thailand
Dash Cam
too many
Watch the family riding on the motorbike on the left, rear passenger has helmet and light blue shirt. Baby on her left is facing outward. 4 people on the bike, kind of normal. The kids go flying in any mishap. Toward the end of the video we approach a market area, with a lot of double parkers and in/out traffic. The pickup ahead has a left turn on, waiting for some traffic to clear, but the motorbike just plows through.





(I'm not dead, just been in various black holes since I retired in Mid June, finally made it to Thailand a few days ago)
 
Welcome back.

You drive there? Language and diving on left doesn't present problems?
 
Glad to see you're back among the active. (y)
 
Welcome back.

You drive there? Language and diving on left doesn't present problems?


Honking, fingers, and angry drivers exiting the car with guns is kind of universal. You eventually figure out the machete part on your own. :)

Driving here is very dangerous. Highway laws are not really enforced much, common sense or fear of death doesn't seem to apply on the roads, here.

I have a long term visa so will be here a few years at least. I have a rental car for another week while I run legal errands, hope to purchase a vehicle soon.............preferably armored.
 
Here's a truck that missed a turn, and decided backing up through an intersection was the smart thing to do. (I think that is what happened)
Watch for the truck going from left, to right. This is kind of major intersection not totally busy at this time, the nearby mall is not open yet. :)



 
Changed the title and will post stuff in the same thread.

Here's the first thing I saw leaving my hotel, yesterday morning.


Notice the Mailman texting? Thats a Thai post mail motorbike.

mail.JPG




The city I'm in has a population of about 200,000, but you're still prone to see water buffalo. There are two tethered to graze in a small park near a friends house in the 'suburbs'.




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You always need to expect to find vehicles of any type to be coming from any direction, legal, or not. One 'u turn' I have to use a handful of times a day always has people coming the wrong way, which means they were driving the wrong way on the service road, usually intentionally, to start with.
If they do this because they entered the road a few blocks away, and getting to someplace physically close, but across the highway, would mean a 1 km or more trip to do it the 'right way'.

 
well how else do you get that text saying your parcel will be delivered in 30 minutes. :)
 
I'm cooking my butt off, but see a lot of people wearing jackets and sweaters in 95F temps, like the mailman.
 
I left the bangkok airport around 0100 on Friday in a rental car. Did my usual 'lost in Bangkok' routine, for one hour, and arrived at my destination at 1000. So this is a normal outcome for a 8 hour drive in Thailand. :)
Somehow I grabbed the wrong mobius, so the date/time wasn't set, and this is the mobius I usually use for a rear cam since the audio sucks.
In this length of drive it's common to run into many police checkpoints, up to 7-8. This trip I only ran into two, and both seemed to be concentrating on trucks.


I wish the cops would check trucks for stuff like this. (Noticed the passenger side window covered with stickers.)




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I'm serious, I've seen truck windshields in thailand covered up with stickers like that.
 
Guess how many sardines in this can and win a special prize!!!!!




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This is common, also. Look closely on top of the large truck on the service road on the left, and find the two passengers on top of the cargo.








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I've seen those same two water buffalo in that neighborhood before, and one time, somebody leading them down the street. Today they appeared to be wandering free through the neighborhood to graze, and stopped by for a bite in the empty lots near my friends house. I introduced myself, but they weren't impressed.




 
Some moderate rain and some very minor standing water in places .. This is what rental pickup trucks are made for.






When the rain slacked off the local officials came around the neighborhood to spray for mosquitos. It was kind of interesting they stopped by my friends elderly mothers house to warn her to stay inside.
We were leaving the area and I started to turn into the street the yellow truck is seen exiting, saw the yellow truck a block away, and in a cloud of insecticide fog. I assumed it was doing the spraying? I backed up, and waited, when It passed me, I drove on, then we see the real sprayer. Notice his use of respiratory protection. :)



 
Spot the little dog riding on the back of a motorbike, far left.



This is pretty typical. The man riding the motorbike on the left is holding a large plastic tub with his left hand, has no tail or stop light, but has a headlight. (and no helmet)

 
If dog fall off and get injured, it will be dinner tomorrow :D
 
Thailand seems to be another world ....... and endless source dashcam videos.
 
Thailand and i guess Vietnam, traffic there seen to be a real world free for all
 
I'm in a city of around 400,000 population, have been staying in a nice hotel for $13 US a night, while looking for a long term rental place in specific area of the outskirts. 95 percent of the time I haven't wandered out of 5 mile radius in the car. I still see something every time I crank the car up and drive a few blocks. If I go out at night the number of motorbikes with burned out taillights kind of pops out. the windows on the rental car are deeply tinted, and my eyes are old, I don't need the challenge of figuring out what that dark mass on the road ahead is at night. I thought about setting up a charitable group and standing on the side of the road with a few tools and a box of light bulbs and fixing the damn motorbike lights for free.

Here's a cop stopping traffic at a U-turn for a 'VIP Motorcade'. You see these more often near big cities. minor officials going somewhere.

 
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