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Photo: A common sight in Thailand What's On This Page? |
Thailand - Random Thoughts Page 2
However, most general building is done by bands of roving construction workers from Isaan and other poor parts of the country. They arrive with lots of corrugated iron and the first thing they do is set up a camp on the building site where they will live. These camps are basic, to say the least, but none of the workers I've spoken to seem bothered. The workers consist of entire family groups and it is common to see a lot of children running around. There are also the usual stray dogs, of course, and plenty of chickens which cluck around or are kept in large cages on the ground and killed for food when required.
Watching them work is interesting. When they start a job it looks a real mess with straggly bits of wood holding everything in place. However, the end result is always very good and on quite a few occasions the workmanship has really impressed me. Their pay for doing such hard work and living in such basic conditions is disgraceful. Unskilled labourers might get Bt150 a day and skilled ones Bt250 a day. This is one of the reasons why I get so angry in places like Phuket where there is so much greed and tuk-tuk drivers charge a minimum Bt100 fare. For starters I don't like getting ripped off but it also makes me bitter that they get money so easily when other Thais have to do many hours of back-breaking work to earn the same amount. They get away with it only because stupid farangs let them get away with it and this in turn makes me angry at the ignorant tourists.
For some time now there has been a construction gang living next door to my apartment building. I walk past every day and they all know me now. I have become a bit of a celebrity with the kids there who run over and huddle round when they see me.
Farangs, whether they deserve it or not (and most don't), are given quite an elevated social position in Thailand because they have (or are perceived to have) money. A few words, a friendly smile and even a photograph - if they are willing to be photographed - goes a long way to break down the silly social barrier and is normally very much appreciated.
Thailand is a Buddhist country so the system of dates does not adhere to an event in the Christian calendar. The Thai calendar started 543 years before the Christian one so they are 543 years ahead. The Western year 2000 was the Thai year 2543. Western dates are recognised but any official documentation normally only shows the Thai date. It's a handy thing to know if trying to confirm the age of your bar girl from her identity card. The time is weird too and is based (loosely) around a six-hour system. I say loosely because every Thai I speak to gives me a slightly different version. 1am until 5am is expressed one way, 6am until 11am another, 1pm until 6pm is different again, and 7pm until 11pm is different yet again. There are separate expressions for midnight and noon that are totally unrelated to other times (but then again this applies to the West too as I've used those expressions in this sentence). Thais do understand the 24 hour clock, which is less confusing, but it is not commonly used. Thailand is 7 hours ahead of GMT and does not observe Daylight Saving Time (DST). Being near to the equator the hours of daylight change very little throughout the year so DST isn't necessary. Even though Thailand is on basically the same longitude as Malaysia and Singapore it is an hour behind. Those two countries are 8 hours ahead of GMT. When you cross the border from Malaysia to Thailand you gain an hour. Neighbouring Cambodia and Laos share the same time zone with Thailand (GMT +7) but Myanmar is slightly different being 6:30 hours ahead of GMT. Holidays and festivals are normally based on the lunar year which means they fall on different Gregorian dates each year. Confusing, eh? Welcome to Thailand.
Otherwise known as pyramid selling, I have some fairly strong views about this type of business model. Pyramid schemes are a well known scam and are illegal in most countries. Direct marketing is basically a pyramid scheme but with a product involved which then makes it legal. Direct marketing is huge in Thailand with companies like Amway doing a huge amount of business. The sales line for new recruits is always about how much money they can make but the money comes from signing up more recruits rather than selling products. They are always told about individuals who have made a fortune through direct marketing and these individuals are wheeled into recruiting seminars where they are treated like gods. At a hotel I stayed in one time in Nakhon Sri Thammarat there was a big direct marketing seminar going on with hundreds of people involved. The product was Korean ginseng. It so happened that a good friend of mine had been caught up in the same scheme and I was getting quite worried about her because she apparently believed the lies she was being told. The truth of the matter is that only a very few people right at the top of the pyramid make any money. The poor suckers down the bottom spend a fortune on shoddy products and marketing material (which they have to pay for) and sell a few things to their friends and families who feel sorry for them. I was surprised at how much direct selling goes on in Thailand but there are reasons. Firstly, Thais like doing business by word of mouth through people they know. If a friend is selling something they are more inclined to buy. Secondly, Thais generally are not as sceptical and cynical as people like me. As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as a get-rich-quick scheme. My first reaction is that of complete scepticism and to change my mind takes a lot of convincing. The Thais on the other hand are not that cynical. They trust other people more and give others the benefit of the doubt. In some ways it is nice because they come across as much nicer, friendlier people when you first meet whereas I am the opposite. I am wary of strangers until I have proof they are honest. The downside is that many are quite naive and are likely to get taken in by crooks. Evidence of that is seen every time there is a Thai election.
Anyone with access difficulties couldn't live in the building where I live as there is no lift and no rooms on the ground floor. In Hat Yai there is barely five yards of unbroken, level pavement anywhere. There are large, open storm drains everywhere and lots of steps to negotiate. Even where it would be possible to use a wheelchair you will find parked motorbikes, cars, food stalls, rubbish, building material and whatever else blocking the way. Crossing the street for a disabled person would be almost impossible. I am slowing down a bit with age but still fairly nimble, yet getting across certain roads is always an ordeal. Drivers turn on red lights as a matter of course with no consideration for pedestrians whatsoever. The poor guy on crutches in the photo could negotiate steps and avoid holes but his path was blocked by the red motorcycle. It was moved by the owner just before I took the photo so he could get through. It seems incredibly inconsiderate but people think nothing of completely blocking the pavement. I expect that big hotels in Bangkok, especially if they are part of a Western hotel chain, cater sufficiently for the disabled but that doesn't help them outside of the hotel. Public transport also doesn't cater for wheelchairs.
Genuine discounts and promotions are very rare in Thailand. Occasionally I've bought CDs at great prices but it is unusual. Everything has a set price and that price will not normally be reduced even if the goods aren't moving, the bottom has fallen out of the market, or if there has been a major economic crisis. The best example I can think of is the high-rise apartment building near to me which was built in 1997 just before the Asian financial crisis. Thailand's economy had been going crazy for years and prices for everything were over-inflated. Everyone was trying to jump on the gravy train by investing in property and business and the banks made loans very easy. Prices for the apartments were high to reflect the overheated market but just as they were about to go on sale the economy crashed. The Baht was devalued by about 40%, many Thais were bankrupted and people were selling their possessions in car-boot sales to try to raise some money. Despite all this, the apartment prices remained the same. Consequently they remained unsold and as I write - nine years later - many are still unsold. It's a nice building but now has a ghost-like quality. Just one lift is used and plans to open shops and a laundry, etc., were abandoned. It seems a bit crazy but Thais will not discount. If anything, they will raise prices if business is bad to make up for the shortfall. The shops in tourist areas of Thailand that advertise 30% to 70% discounts are doing no such thing. They have constant, year-round 'sales' for goods that have never been sold at the higher price. This is due to a complete lack of any consumer laws and, to be blunt, lies. In the UK, if goods are advertised at a sale price they must have been on sale at a higher price for a certain period of time. This is not the case in Thailand. It doesn't matter if something is advertised with a 70% or a 99% discount, it was never on sale at the higher price. The shops are also crafty. I didn't fully realise this until I spent a fair amount of time looking around for a notebook PC for my girlfriend. I became familiar with prices of certain models and also familiar with Thai sales techniques. Most places showed prices without VAT included so it was necessary to add on 7% to the price. One place I found was advertising a 'special deal' where no VAT was payable but their price was higher than the other place - by about 7%. All they had done was add on the VAT price but advertise the product with a higher base price and claim they weren't charging for VAT. Another place had a 'special promotion' where they included a 'free' printer but all they had actually done was raise the base price by the cost of the printer. None of these 'discounts', 'deals' or promotions were genuine; they were just sales tricks. If you do try to negotiate a genuine discount it will be laughably small or you will just meet a dead end in the negotiations. I have tried to haggle for discounts and after a lot of negotiating been offered Bt10 or Bt20 on something that costs several hundred. Big deal. One of my favourites was the shirt that cost Bt450 and was offered with a 10% artificial discount which wasn't really a discount; they had just increased the real price and then reduced it again in the form of a 'discount'. This actually happened to me and I'm not making it up. They told me it was Bt450 but with the 10% discount it would only cost Bt405. I said, "OK, I'll give you Bt400." There was a flat refusal. Just for a bit of a laugh I tried pushing it to see how far I could get. What happens though, if you put Thais in a position where they feel uncomfortable or they just don't know what to do, they stop all communication. This is what happened. The shop assistants completely stopped talking to me and wouldn't even look at me. The more I tried to get them to agree a flat Bt400 the more they just stared into space doing their best to ignore eye contact with the awkward farang. And all for the sake of Bt5. They were happy to give me the standard 'artificial' discount but when I tried to negotiate a real discount of just Bt5 I got nowhere. They were quite happy apparently for me to walk out of the shop and to lose the sale altogether rather than to give me a Bt5 discount. The bottom line is that prices are generally cheap in Thailand so you actually get good deals anyway. If you buy something and you consider you paid a good price then you should feel happy because you got a deal. I just wish they would stop the silly pretence of making out they are offering special deals when they are doing no such thing.
Wearing a seat belt is a bit tricky though while holding a chicken. Then again, changing gear while still managing to steer the car one-handed with a hen on your lap is also tricky. Never mind, this is Thailand. Want to know how to get me upset? Just raise the subject of road deaths and driving in Thailand. OK, I can already hear the comments about me being a miserable old git. The way the Thais drive is a bit of fun, isn't it? We all get fed up with the strict traffic laws back in the West and it's great being able to do what you want to do on the roads. And besides, the Thais know what they are doing, don't they? You were in Thailand for a three week vacation, rented a motorbike the whole time and you didn't see one accident. What's the problem? I used to think a little bit like that until I started spending a lot of time in Thailand. If you haven't seen many accidents in Thailand you just haven't been there long enough. The next few photos are of yet another accident I was unfortunate enough to witness in Thailand. I was walking along and heard the girl scream as a sawng-thaew backed out from a side road into her path and she realised she couldn't avoid hitting it. In the UK his manoeuvre would be illegal, and it probably is in Thailand too, but no one obeys traffic laws. I can walk out of my apartment and see traffic laws being broken within five minutes. A split second after the scream I heard the sound of the impact. She survived at least but I don't know if there will be any permanent damage. She was wearing a crash helmet but didn't have it strapped on so it was as good as useless. Many Thais do the same thing. Because they are wearing a helmet they avoid being fined but they completely miss the point. The helmet isn't to stop them getting fined, it is to protect their fragile skulls when they have an accident. In the three weeks prior to witnessing this accident I saw the aftermath of two other accidents. Groups of people were gathered at the scenes and in both cases I saw young Thai males walking around dazed clutching their heads. They had not been wearing helmets, of course. I also bumped into a motorcycle taxi friend who I hadn't seen for a while. He showed me his back which was badly bruised and grazed from where he had been hit by a drunken pickup truck driver who drove off. He was OK, albeit a bit shaken up, and it cost him Bt4,500 to get his bike fixed. That's quite a lot of Bt20 fares.
Whenever a large number of people are killed by one tragic event there is an enormous outpouring of public sympathy, such as the December 2004 Tsunami or if a disaster occurs at a sports stadium. We hear lots of rhetoric from politicians about what they are doing to prevent such a terrible thing happening again. Why then is nothing, or very little, done about thousands of people being killed on the roads every year? Each year more people die on Thailand's roads than were killed in Thailand by the Tsunami and this is an ongoing situation which is getting worse. Is is socially acceptable? Is it because the people who die are deemed to be responsible for their own actions? In the Buddhist way of thinking is it just because of bad karma that people died and were their deaths therefore unavoidable? Is what is contained in this link really an appropriate way to prevent road accidents?
Statistics can be represented in different ways, some more meaningful than others. Per 100,000 of the population, 20.9 people die in Thailand per year on the road, making it 'safer' than Greece, Brazil and Portugal. The figure for England and Wales is 6.2 and for the USA 14.7 but I don't think these statistics paint a true story. Another way of looking at the road death statistics is more interesting (this is from the web too). The length of road over which you can expect to see one road fatality annually is approximately:
Thailand: 5.2 km Now, if that isn't scary, I don't know what is but 5.2 km isn't exactly a huge distance. Do you still think the way Thais drive is a bit of a laugh?
The main arterial roads in Malaysia are very good and not dissimilar to those in Europe and North America. The car to motorbike ratio appears to be about the same as in Europe and drivers are quite responsible. As you cross the border by road into Thailand there is a stark difference. For starters, hundreds of motorbikes suddenly appear and outnumber other vehicles. For one moment you have to think what side of the road they drive on in Thailand as oncoming motorbikes pass you on both sides of the road, often with two, three or four people on board. At this point I normally notice that the driver of the vehicle I am in adopts a Thai driving style in order to survive.
The photo shows what I mean. This road in Bangkok is one way (supposedly). If crossing the road on the side the photo was taken it should only be necessary to look right. However, a constant stream of motorcycle taxis roar (and roar is no exaggeration) from a side road against the flow of the traffic to pick up passengers. I almost got hit as I stepped from the pavement to cross the road because I didn't look both ways. I am told that the minimum age for riding a motorbike is 15 and for a car, 18. However, I regularly see very young kids of 12 or 13 - sometimes even younger - riding bikes with their mates on the back. There is a driving test apparently which consists of three parts - a sight test, a written test and an actual driving test.
The written test consists of 20 multiple choice questions with a pass mark of 17. I am informed that the questions aren't particularly difficult. If a candidate fails the written test they can retake it within 7 days. The final part of the test, which actually involves some driving, seems to consist of a few basic manoeuvres such as parallel parking and hill starts. This takes place on a piece of private ground and not on a public road and therefore does not involve any other vehicles. If the candidate passes they are then let loose on the roads of Thailand where they do their best to survive the mayhem. I have never seen any driving school cars. I am told that driving schools do exist but, like the driving test, most tuition is carried out on private ground well away from the lunatics on the roads. This is understandable to some extent but it hardly prepares drivers for what they will face when they eventually take to the road.
Talking to another farang expat one day, he asked me if I had experienced any form of culture shock since I began living in Thailand. I hadn't really, and neither had he. But then we started talking about the driving and it was the one thing that neither of us could get used to. Someone had suggested to him that Thai roads should be treated not as roads, but as rivers. In rivers there are areas of still-water, fast flowing currents and eddies where currents go against the natural flow of the river. When navigating a river you can't fight against the currents but instead you literally have to go with the flow. Thai roads should be treated the same way. If traffic is flowing quickly, the technique is just to go with it and don't worry about minor things such as red lights or pedestrians. Possibly the worst thing you can do as a driver in Thailand is start to obey traffic laws. Stopping at red lights because they have only just turned red will probably result in you being rear-ended. I will get on to some specifics later but in general terms there is no concept of 'defensive driving'. I was taught to drive defensively and what this means (if you haven't heard the term) is to try to anticipate every eventuality. If driving along a road with parked cars, always expect a child to walk out into the road from in between the parked cars. If you are about to overtake, always expect the car you are passing to pull out because the driver hasn't seen you. 999 times out of a thousand what you anticipate never happens but on the very rare occasion when it does you are ready. This is defensive driving. Thais 'think' completely differently. If the road ahead is empty, regardless of parked cars or any other potential hazards, they just open up the throttle as wide as it will go and travel as quickly as possible. Traffic lights are only obeyed if drivers want to go straight ahead (and that's not even always the case). There are sometimes signs displayed that turning left on a red light is OK if caution is used but Thai drivers who want to turn left at a light use no caution, even if there are pedestrians trying to cross. I have seen them go straight on, turn right and pull U-turns at red lights without even blinking an eye. Some traffic light junctions have pedestrian crossing signals but when the green man illuminates you cross the road at your own peril. Pedestrian crossings exist in some places but they are a waste of white paint as traffic never stops for pedestrians. It doesn't matter where pedestrians try to cross they just have to try to avoid getting hit. There is a strict pecking order in place on Thai roads. At the top are very large vehicles such as cement mixer trucks and passenger coaches. These do what they want and it is up to other road users to get out of the way. With equivalent sized vehicles the more expensive cars get priority so a Mercedes would be considered more important than a Toyota, for example.
At the bottom of the pile are the two categories that I normally fall into - pedestrians and pedal cyclists. When walking around or trying to ride a bike you just feel as if you are a target, especially for aggressive pickup drivers with sinister blacked-out windows. I should point out that pickup trucks are extremely popular in Thailand just as they are in the United States. This pecking order should help you to ascertain who has the right of way. In civilised countries cars wanting to join a main road from a side road give way to cars already on the main road but this isn't necessary in Thailand if you are driving a large vehicle. If you are in charge of a small vehicle you should expect larger vehicles to cut you up constantly. Trying to ride a push bike around leaves me totally exasperated. This business of road priority extends to overtaking. Large buses will overtake at great speed on narrow roads and of course will have to do so on the wrong side of the road. It is then up to oncoming vehicles to give way because they are smaller, even though the idiot driving the bus is on the wrong side of the road. Motorcyclists are a law unto themselves and do whatever they like. If it is quicker to drive on the pavement they will. If they want to turn right, 100 yards ahead but the road is clear now, they move over to the wrong side of the road. Their fear is that if they wait until they actually arrive at the junction before turning right there might be oncoming traffic and they would then have to stop for a few seconds which of course would be a complete disaster. Motorcyclists turning left or right from a side road into a main road rarely stop. They just turn into the main road (often without looking), hoping there won't be anything in their path, and then try to merge into the traffic. When they do this while turning right they sometimes have to drive along the wrong side of the road for some time, passing oncoming vehicles on the wrong side, before they can 'merge' back into the traffic on the left-hand side of the road. I was very nearly involved in an accident on the back of a motorcycle taxi due to this. Drivers never let anyone in and play a constant bluffing game. Vehicles waiting to pull out bluff that they are coming out thus trying to force other drivers to let them in. The other drivers bluff that they aren't going to let them in by pretending not to stop. Occasionally there are one too many bluffs or double-bluffs and a collision occurs.
What's more, is that I have seen a lot of cars with TVs switched on when just the driver is in the car. And yes, it goes without saying, they do watch TV as they drive along. That's when they aren't sending SMS messages on their mobile phones. I know these devices exist everywhere in the world but I am pretty sure that in civilised countries they only display a picture when the vehicle is stationary. Not in Thailand. At times I have stood and observed cross road junctions. I have been reminded of motorbike display teams where two lines of motorbikes following each other very closely cross each other at 90 degrees with bikes going through the gaps. It can be quite entertaining as an observer but actually the reality of the situation is far from amusing. TV programmes in the UK and US showing real footage from traffic cameras of lunatic driving have become popular in recent years. TV producers wanting something really crazy should come and set up their cameras in Thailand for a while. There is no lane discipline. As I said before, one objective is not to stop. If a lane is blocked, cars and motorbikes just move to another lane. What I notice a lot is they rarely use their mirrors when doing this, especially motorbikes. Mirrors are just for checking hair and makeup. It is left up to the vehicles behind who are being cut up not to hit the vehicle which has just cut them up. Lanes get blocked frequently. Cars just park in the slow lane if it is convenient for them. The other hazard is sawng-thaews and tuk-tuks who stop frequently (and very suddenly) to drop off and pick up passengers. As a passenger I am never relaxed. The Thais don't suffer from the same anxieties but just accept everything as normal. Well, I guess to them it is normal as most have not seen anything else. A major problem is young males full of hormones riding motorbikes. Give a teenage kid a motorbike and what will he do? Drive it sensibly and show consideration to other road users or drive it as fast as he possibly can as if he is on a race track? Any guesses? For many young Thai males their motorbikes are not a means of transport but a form of entertainment. Just as I used to go cycling as a youngster, they get together with their friends and race their motorbikes around town. The bikes (mostly of the Honda Wave variety) wouldn't win any Isle of Man TTs but they're not slow either. I understand all of this. I am a male and once upon a time I was a young male. I have driven quickly in my time, owned two Porsches, and understand the fun of driving fast. This is nature and young males are the same around the world. There are a few differences in Thailand though. Parental control prevented me from having a motorbike when I was at that reckless age and my brain wasn't functioning properly due to an overload of testosterone. By the time I could afford to own a Porsche I had matured a little. What I don't see in Thailand is parents stopping their very young sons from riding bikes or any kind of parental control. The other huge difference in Thailand is enforcement of the law (or lack of it, to be more precise). A young driver going crazy in Europe or the United States will be caught sooner or later. If the cops don't get him the speed cameras will. But in Thailand there is hardly any enforcement of road traffic laws to speak of. During public holidays the police do some checking for drunk drivers but for much of the rest of the time anything goes. The laws exist but if they aren't enforced what is the point of having any? Some of the laws are strange too. Why is it the law in some provinces for drivers of motorbikes to wear crash helmets but not their passengers? This makes me even angrier at those times when I get a motorbike taxi and the guy drives like a lunatic. He's got a crash helmet so if his reckless driving involves us in an accident I am likely to come off a lot worse than he does. The fact that motorbike passengers who aren't required to wear helmets don't wear helmets is just so 'Thai'. There is no apparent understanding what the benefit of wearing a crash helmet might actually be. Many parents ride around with their youngsters on board and in the event of an accident the kids wouldn't stand a chance. I know of only one responsible mother who makes her daughter wear a helmet on the bike. While walking around one day I saw a discarded crash helmet but unfortunately didn't have my camera on me to get a shot. It looked as if it had been worn by someone involved in quite a nasty accident. One side was completely caved in. I didn't see the accident and don't know what the outcome was but hopefully the wearer of the helmet survived. Without it, his head would have been caved in instead and he would have died instantly. This is why people wear crash helmets in other countries and this is why Thailand has laws but Thais just don't see it that way. They begrudgingly wear them when they have to just to escape getting fined and for no other reason. And then there are the cultural issues. I was chatting to a student of mine about all this. He is a mature, very intelligent Thai man studying for a PhD. His view is that it is not up to normal people to tell youngsters what to do and what not to do. Further, if an older person is doing something stupid, such as driving while drunk, it is not appropriate to tell an older person what to do because of the respect that is given to older people in Thai culture. His view is that the police should be enforcing the laws but the problem is they don't. This is a very typical Thai attitude. No one interferes because if they do so they may be thought badly of - 'greng jai'. They want the authorities to enforce the law but that doesn't happen. The bottom line then is that nothing changes and the carnage continues. The situation is totally out of hand but nothing is done. Politicians pay a little lip service occasionally and some cartoon style signs might be erected at traffic junctions to encourage safer driving but nothing actually changes. Why should politicians bother campaigning or taking action to make the roads safer? It won't make them richer or win them any political capital so there is no point. I am no longer surprised at seeing lots of motorbike accidents on Thai roads. Due to the way the Thais drive it is highly predictable. What does surprise me though is the Thai attitude that motorbikes aren't dangerous. This is incredible. I avoid using motorbikes but occasionally I find myself having to. Sometimes I am forced to take motorcycle taxis as there are no alternative transport options. Sometimes a Thai friend wants to take me somewhere and I ask how we are getting there. "On my motorbike," I am told. I make my feelings known only to be told, "Don't worry, it's not dangerous." The World Health Organisation's 2004 world report on road traffic injury prevention reported that Thai hospitals noted 75-80% of road traffic injuries and 70-90% of road traffic deaths were among users of two-wheeled motorised vehicles. Not dangerous? The Thais themselves see accidents all the times, they have probably been involved in accidents in the past and they know lots of people who have been injured or killed on motorbikes. Why then this denial that riding a motorbike is dangerous? Or is it just me? Am I overly paranoid about an issue that isn't really a problem? It would appear not. Insurance companies operating in Thailand take a similar view and treat riding a motorbike as they would any dangerous sport such as hang gliding or scuba diving. If you read the fine print on a medical insurance policy in Thailand you will find several clauses and payout limits if an injury is the result of a motorbike accident. A professor at the university campus where I work told me that on average they lose three or four students in motorbike accidents every year. That's just one campus of one university. He said the victims are normally new students. It's such an unnecessary waste of life.
They get sent out to collect corpses and then presumably they make the funeral arrangements. What I didn't realise for a long time is that the drivers have cameras and they photograph the bodies at the scene of the accident. These photographs are displayed publicly on large notice boards. It doesn't make for pleasant viewing and with death being a taboo subject in the West it is unlikely that such a display would exist in Western countries. Mangled bodies are shown exactly as they were found at the accident scenes. Faces have been ripped off and bodies have been disembowelled; there is blood everywhere. There are a few car accidents but the vast majority of victims were on motorbikes. (There are also quite a few photos of victims of the 26th December 2004 Tsunami). The expressionless faces of the corpses are a little different to the grinning teenagers who ride around like maniacs with no regard for their own or other people's lives. Viewing such boards should be compulsory for everyone riding a motorbike in Thailand. Nothing else seems to slow them down but a look at the possible consequences might.
I have no intention of buying a car in Thailand but occasionally I like to rent one. I always thought that my UK license was good enough and it had never come into question when renting cars. The last time I rented a car though I read through the contract and found out that effectively I was driving without a license. Had the car been involved in an accident, or been stolen, I would have received a very large bill. Ideas about responsibility and liability are different in Thailand to most other countries. In other countries where I have rented cars they have taken great care to make sure everything is in order before handing over the keys. In Thailand it has been a case of handing over the money and being given the keys straight away with hardly a question. Thailand requires foreign drivers to have an International Driving Permit (IDP). I had no previous experience of acquiring one and thought I could just apply for some kind of international driving license from the UK DVLA which would be good for driving anywhere. When I started to investigate, it wasn't that easy. IDPs are not a permanent license but a permit that only lasts for three months. They are available through motoring organisations in the UK such as the AA or RAC, and the countries in which you wish to drive need to be specified. That is fine for someone visiting Thailand for a short time who wants to drive but it wasn't suitable for me living in the country. There seemed to be only one solution and that was to acquire a Thai driving license. The first thing I did was speak with a Thai friend and I'm glad I did. Although I can speak a little Thai I would not have managed the process on my own. The Ministry of Transport is a government department that doesn't deal with many foreigners. In the building I went to there wasn't a letter of English written anywhere and not a word spoken. With a Thai helping me, the process wasn't too bad but it was quite typical. The first visit was just a fact-finding mission and I had prepared myself for several repeat visits. It actually took three, which isn't bad. On the first visit I was told what was required. Copies of my passport and work permit, two small photos, a copy of my UK driving license with a translation into Thai from an authorised translator, and a letter from the Department of Immigration stating that I lived in Thailand. The copies and photos were easy enough and getting my driving license translated cost Bt300. Visits to the Department of Immigration are never straightforward. For the first time I was told that I need to report every 90 days to register where I am living. Despite all my dealings with them in the past getting visas, no one had ever made this clear before. They also told me that my landlord needed to supply some kind of Residency Registration form. However, the people where I stay knew nothing of this and no one asked again. It took a while but Immigration prepared a letter for me and there was no charge. Having got everything together I returned to the Department of Transportation (with my Thai friend). We presented my paperwork only to be told there was a form to fill in - no problem - but also that I needed to do some tests and I couldn't do them now so I would have to return again. We returned for a third time, having completed the form, ready for me to do the tests. At first they didn't seem to want to help me but my friend pleaded and they agreed. I was led to a room containing the test equipment. Everything was explained - in Thai - and I caught about 5% of what was said. The first test was to measure my reaction time. Under the desk were two pedals. Pushing the accelerator lit a green light and when it turned red I had to hit the brake. My reaction time was measured and was OK apparently. The second test was a standard colour-blindness test consisting of a large disc with lots of red, green and yellow blobs. As the woman pointed at different blobs I had to tell her what colour they were. The third test was quite interesting. About four meters in front of me was a large wooden box with a small window at the front. Inside were two posts. The one on the right was stationary and the one on the left traversed backwards and forwards. I could control the front to back position of the left post by using two buttons. The idea is to line up the two posts so they are side-by-side. It's basically to test spatial awareness and it needs your two eyes and one brain to be working properly in order to judge space in three dimensions. Nothing was said but I must have passed the tests. The next step was to go to lots of different windows in a particular sequence to finish the process. At one window I had to pay my fee which was only Bt105. After waiting for about 30 minutes my new Thai license arrived. It is valid for one year. The Thais tell me that their first license is valid for a year also but the second one is valid for a long time. I'm not sure if this will apply to me. If I'm still in Thailand next year and wish to renew my license I will find out. The license itself is just a piece of flimsy paper but there are lots of places in Thailand offering a lamination service. I got mine laminated, the guy took his time, did a great job and charged me Bt7.
Last updated: 21st October 2010
The electrical sockets have 'D' shaped holes that accept round or flat pins in the live and neutral connections. The earth connection is a round pin but many appliances are not earthed, and thus many sockets do not have an earth connection. The two photos here show the different types of plugs and sockets available in Thailand. Two-pin sockets lacking an earth connection can cause problems. Firstly, if the plug on your appliance has an earth pin, it won't physically fit. Secondly, if you use an adapter to connect to a two-pin socket, your appliance won't be grounded. I have used a laptop this way and the result was a lot of small, but uncomfortable, electric shocks through the keyboard.
The house that I moved into had a serious lack of electrical outlets and so I paid an electrician to install more. I insisted they were all three-pin earthed outlets. I think he would have done it this way anyway, but I wanted to make sure. Be aware that many extension cords sold may have three-pin sockets, but the plug only has two pins. You can therefore physically connect three-pin appliances with these cords but they won't be earthed. Since my first visits to Thailand, the electricity supply seems to have become more stable. There are occasional power cuts - especially during fierce electrical storms - but generally I have very few problems. If you use a laptop computer that has a working battery, you already have a built-in Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS). This can be very useful in areas that suffer from power cuts.
When arriving in Thailand from Singapore (as I've done many times) there are two things I tend to notice about Thailand straight away. The first thing is that little building maintenance such as external painting is carried out. New buildings look fine when they are first built, but once the paint goes bad very few places are repainted. The other thing I notice is the amount of wires everywhere.
Some places are a complete mess and if one pole was to fall down for any reason it would create chaos. Putting everything back to how it was would be a nightmare task. The way Thais work on live cables here is quite scary and would terrify people doing similar work in the developed world. Larger cities around Thailand have started programmes to bury ugly electricity cables underground. This was done in central Hat Yai in 2007 and the work made a huge improvement. It's just a shame that the old methods still prevail outside of the city centre.
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