Welcome to Thailand 3/18

[dash riposki]

You're prone to encounter all sorts of beasts on the roads of Thailand. At least on this trip I've only run over one village chicken.


Here are a herd of Water Buffalo I saw on the road in Suwannaphum yesterday. The white pickup truck may be herding them, or they just could have met up and decided to walk down to the corner for a beer?

Then we have the native 'overtaker' beast.....

 

[Mozzie]

I guess they don't value their lives much over there.

 

[kamkar]

It do look like they assume stupid do not influence your karma account, but it do, all manner of stupid can rake up big negative karma points.
So killing yourself off as soon as you become conscious do not speed up your path to total enlightenment.

 

[dash riposki]

There's very little traffic law enforcement, and you are likely to be able to bribe the cops for real or imagined infractions.
If there is a threat of prosecution for serious traffic stuff, you can still buy your way out. One of the red bull heirs killed a cop while driving drunk, has been evading prosecution for years, even popping in/out of thailand at times. He's waiting out the statute of limitations on his various offenses, and he's already dodged a few.

If you try to follow one traffic death attempted prosecution story, you can get dizzy.

 

[dash riposki]

I threw a mobius in my bag and forgot about it until the last day I was there. I popped it in the rear window of the rental car and used a powerbank for power.
Here's a Hino truck on my butt in congested traffic. The slow lane is clogged with slower trucks. You can see a white pickup using the shoulder to pass, also.

 

[dash riposki]

My cell phone battery was terminal. I decided to do something I wouldn't do back home.....go to a mall on saturday morning. Google maps showed one with a large amount of electronic stores 2.3 KM away from our hotel in Udonthani. Here's the short 25 minute drive. Traffic wasn't really bad, and, of course, I could not find a replacement battery..

 

[dash riposki]

Redneck towing....Thai style. Looks like a chain inside a PVC pipe. I saw this several times.

 

[dash riposki]

And the final drive up to Phu Manorom, near Mukdahan.

All forward video is from a Yi.

 

[dash riposki]

The mobius in the back window on my last day....the rear footage is mostly from the Isaan region, NE Thailand.
No way to show how insane the traffic can be, and I took the rear cam out a few hours north of Bangkok, preparing to turn the rental car in at the airport.