Bangkok Life part 27

Driving it is the future. This week I broke my duck on driving in Thailand.

Because of my new found freedom, and the fact it was a long weekend I hired a car for the weekend. I hired a Toyota Vios which is the size of an old Ford Escort. The little 1.5 manual transmission car ha a bit of zip, but being as you never go very fast its a perfect car.
Any thoughts of abiding with the Highway Code should be forgot straight away. Flashing your light or sounding your horn means the opposite to the UK, it means your coming through, get out of the way. The roads are Freeways, so you can undertake and overtake at will. Unfortunately most Thai's dont seem to know what indicators are, so never use them. You will never be let into the flow of traffic and letting anyone into traffic means your not a true man! The first day I thought all Thai drivers were terrible, but then you have to realise that this is just a different style of driving.

On saturday we went to the Motor Show in Bangkok, there were the usual stands of new cars and loads of stands selling accessories. However the Thai's for some reason only charge a £1 to get in and the food was really cheap and good. I remember visiting the Motor Show at the NEC, £14 each to get in, £5 parking and £5 for a dry stale sandwich and a cup of dishwater. Anyway, without exception, every new car had a bevy of beautiful girls showing it off, these girls loved to have their photo taken. It made me want to buy the err, err, err I cant remember the make of car.

We also went to the coast on monday, most people were on holiday, it was Fathers Day, but more importantly The Anniversary of the Kings Accession. Thailand treat the King almost as a Demi-God, the respect is almost 100%, only a few kids who dont know better and will grow up one day, show disrespect. We took Nuch's Mum and Dad, grandma and two nephews to Bang Saen (Blog to follow shortly). Pleam, Nuchs two year old nephew as never seen the sea before, but he is fearless and literally dived in, which meant I had to jump in fully clothed to get him. He loved it.