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Driving in Thailand is not only safe and easy, but it also allows
you to get away from the regular tourist trails and to go off exploring
on your own. Quite a few of the travel articles that I have written for bangkok-daytrips.com are about places
which are not served by normal local transport. Or, if they are, you
will have to take a combination of different transportation methods.
Renting a car while on holiday just makes everything a lot easier when
talking about getting from point A to point B. The only problem, is
that the price of petrol has gone up so much these days which makes
long road trips relatively expensive. It now costs us about 31 baht per
litre compared to 15 baht when I first started to do these road trips
in Thailand. I used to get plenty of change from a 1,000 baht note when
I filled up. But, not any longer. It is quite often cheaper to go by
train or bus. It can even sometimes be cheaper to fly. But then, you
wouldn't have any transport when you get to your destination. I really
like the flexibility of having my own transport. I also like the
journey to get there as that is often half the adventure.
Finding good maps in Thailand is always a problem. It is true that
they are certainly getting better compared to say ten years ago,
however, you will find that there is very little detail which makes it
hard to find some of the out of the way places. On most of my road
trips I take just two books. The first is "Thailand Road Atlas"
published by Lotus Image Advertising for 350 baht. This also has
detailed maps of all the main cities in each of the 76 provinces. I
also like that it has road distance guides and also samples of routes
to take for the major destinations. My new favourite map book is
"Thailand Delux Atlas" published by Thinknet for 550 baht. It has more
detail which means that smaller roads are included. It also has more
city maps which are useful to find hotels. Both of these map books are
bilingual which helps when you need to ask a Thai person for
directions. However, I have learned from experience, that a lot of Thai
people cannot read maps. Which might also explain why good maps are
hard to find.
Another good planner these days is the computer and Internet. You
can buy CD-Roms by Thinknet that quite often give more detail than
their print versions. Their "Road Map of Thailand" is often useful for
me to find places that are not found on print versions. You can search
in both English or Thai. You can also, for example, see a list of all
temples for a particular province. It has a built in ruler that helps
work out distances and so therefore travel times. You can also add
notes to the map and then print it out for when you are on the road.
They also have more detailed CD-ROM maps for particular areas such as
Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. I also find Google Maps on the
Internet useful as they have recently updated the maps of Thailand so
that it has both Thai and English place names. You can also view a
hybrid version which shows both satellite and road maps combined. This
makes it easier to mark the exact location of places that you want to
visit. You can then print these out. However, not all areas in Thailand
have satellite pictures yet. If you visit my ThailandPhotoMap.com website you will get an idea of how useful this can be.
I think I have done my fair share of backpacking over the years.
Travelling across Asia with only what you can carry on your back
teaches you some valuable life lessons. For a start, it shows that you
can really survive on the basic necessities of life. Anything else in
life is just excess baggage. However, those days are gone and I am now
what you could perhaps call the "lazy backpacker". This is because when
I go backpacking, I now go by car and I take everything including the
kitchen sink. Well, maybe not quite, but it is near enough. As well as
all the maps, I also take half a dozen different guidebooks. Then there
is the camera equipment, chargers and laptop which is all necessary for
me to write and process the pictures as I go along. I learned the hard
way not to leave all the work for when I get back home. In a short five
day road trip I just finished, I took about 3,000 pictures. I also have
an Internet phone as I need to keep in touch wherever I am.
Depending on where I am going and who with, it is sometimes a good
idea to take snacks and drinks as well as eating utensils. You never
know when you might need them. I even take a kettle so that I can have
a cup of coffee in the morning or some Mama pot noodles. On some
occasions, like beach holidays, I have even taken a hot plate so that I
can cook some basic meals for everyone. It is nice having the
flexibility if food is not available or it is really expensive due to
being a major tourist area. These days, I always make sure that I have
my portable DVD player and a stack of new movies. I don't always use
it, but it is nice to have on days when we might be trapped in hotel
rooms due to rain storms. Books and magazines like Readers Digest are
also good.
Another advantage of driving is that you don't need to worry so much
where you will be staying each night. I don't think that I have ever
booked a hotel room while travelling in Thailand. That is not to say I
can always find a room on the first try. But, with my car, I can easily
just drive to the next hotel. Lonely Planet is usually quite good for
finding hotels or I might resort to my map book to help find locations
in a town that have a high density of places to stay. However,
sometimes I just use my eyes. I don't always stay in guesthouses these
days as they are not always good value for money. Granted, you will
always get a cheap price for bunk beds, shared bathrooms and a ceiling
fan. However, if you ask for air-conditioning, they often just double
the price for exactly the same room. One guesthouse I tried the other
day wanted 600 baht for a room with air. It was a very basic room with
a bed and no other furniture. I went around the corner to a hotel and
they had a room with air for only 400 baht. This included cable t.v.
and a fridge with two complimentary bottles of cold water. On top of
that, breakfast was included in the price.
The main reason I like guesthouses is that it is a great place to
share stories with other people. In my backpacking days I always found
it invaluable to meet people going the opposite direction. Hotels are
more solitary as you stay in your room and there is no communal area
where you can meet other travellers. However, a good reason that I like
hotels is the security. With so much equipment, I want to decrease the
chance of someone sneaking into my room in the middle of the night
while I am sleeping. Before check-in at a hotel, I always ask them if I
can see the room first. Here I not only check to see if the shower and
air-conditioning works, but I also check to see if there is a lock on
the inside of the door and if the window locks are working. You will be
surprised the number of hotels where the windows cannot be locked or
even shut properly. I also always look for off-street parking for my
car.
PART TWO
Thailand has a large network of roads that take you to just about
anywhere. The vast majority are paved roads in good reasonable
condition. We drive on the left here which is useful for people who
come from say the UK or Australia. Road distances are in kilometers
which is obviously great for metric countries. The main highways
connecting the provinces have two to four lanes on each side giving you
fast access. On these highways, you will find that all of the roads
signs are bilingual. This not only means that places names are written
in Roman characters, but warning signs are often translated into
English too. Anyway, most warning signs have pictures that are familiar
or are easier enough to work out. The only problem I sometimes have
with the direction signs is that the Roman letters are often a lot
smaller than the Thai characters. Which might mean that sometimes you
will have to check out the Thai first. They also often put them at
confusing places which makes it ambiguous where you have to turn off.
Sometimes they put it before a minor road that you shouldn’t go down or
just after the road that you should! But, you get used to that.
Off the main highway you will only find one or two lanes on each
side. You will still find bilingual directions signs though this is not
always guaranteed. If the place you are intending on visiting is not
very popular with international tourists, then you might need to
consider making a note of the Thai characters for the place name.
However, I have driven by many large signs in English and Thai for
tourist attractions that turn out to be very small and insignificant.
And so, for the majority of your trip, you shouldn't face much problem
with the language at all.
Once you are on the road, you will need to make sure that you always
have enough petrol to get you around! Filling up is very easy though I
would recommend that you always you use the main brand name petrol
stations. Although I have had no problems, I have heard stories from
other people of petrol being watered down or the attendant not
resetting the counter of the pump to zero before filling up. This means
that you pay for the previous person and for yourself. But, in all the
years that I have been driving in Thailand, I have never experienced
such a problem. If you are renting a car, you will need to ask them
what petrol it takes. It can get a bit confusing as there are so many
different kinds. For myself, I am now using "gasohol 95". You don't
fill it up yourself as there are attendants that do it for you. When
they come around to your window, just tell them what petrol you want
and how much. You can either say "dtem tang" which means "fill it up"
or how much you want to pay, like "neung pun" for 1000 baht. They will
also often ask if you want a receipt. In Thai they will say something
like "rub bai set". I usually say yes.
You will find that not all petrol stations are the same. Some I go
to also clean your windscreen without asking and also take out any
trash you might have. There is also no problem to ask them to check the
tyre pressure for you and this service won't cost you any extra.
Another reason to go to the big brand name petrol stations are the
shops and other facilities. When you are on the road, it is often a
good place to stop for a break. Maybe have a can of ice coffee or a
meal if you are hungry. Their toilet facilities are also very good and
clean. Though you will mainly find Asian style squat toilets. You will
see petrol stations every where, but as a general rule, I never use the
smaller ones. So, keep your tank topped up whenever you get the
opportunity or just before you about to leave a main highway. It is a
good idea to work out as soon as you can your petrol consumption. It is
easy to work out a rough estimate. Fill up your tank and reset the
distance counter. Then, the next time you fill up, make a note of how
many litres was needed to fill the tank and how many kilometres you
travelled. Then just divide distance by litres to find out how far you
can go on one litre. Obviously this will vary with your speed and
terrain.
Driving in cities like Bangkok can be nerve racking for the most
experienced of drivers. It takes time getting used to it. One thing you
should know is that it is every man for himself on the road. That
includes pedestrians. Don't stop at pedestrian crossings because the
car behind you won't expect you to do that. He will probably just
overtake you and then as you are blocking his view of the pedestrian,
he will probably run them down. The same goes for lights that are
changing to red. Think twice before you prepare to stop for a red
light. The car behind you is probably speeding up and won't realize
that you are going to stop. I have had several cars nearly hit me from
behind even when I slowed down gradually. Their eyes were on the lights
and not me. Then again, you need to be aware that the people going the
other way will be watching your lights turning red and not for their
lights going to green. You will find that they often start coming
before they get a green light. Motorcycles are the worst. They often
don't take any notice of red lights and you will also find that they
drive down the road on the wrong way facing oncoming traffic.
Don't get me wrong, Thailand is not a lawless country. There are
policemen. However, in places like Bangkok you will only see them in
their air-conditioned police boxes at major intersections. These guys
ride motorcycles and so you won't see any police chases in the city.
For most of the time, they set up road blocks just for motorcycles.
They check to see if they have licenses, registration and are wearing
helmets. But, they also stop motorists for traffic violations. Though
not as often as I would like. Many drivers are very dangerous. Like
changing lanes without signaling or going into the left lane to do an
illegal u-turn. I have actually been stopped twice by police in
Bangkok. Once for going through a red traffic light (I was confused
where the line was to stop) and once for going the wrong way down a one
way street (Bangkok has some roads where only buses are allowed to go).
Both times they asked for a bribe but I insisted on getting a ticket.
On the inter city roads, you will sometimes see highway police cars.
They don't drive around that much as they don't always have enough
money for petrol. I usually see them parked by the side of the roads
pulling over trucks for some violation. You will also sometimes find
police checkpoints on the main highways. In particular in the north and
border areas. Some of these are unmanned. But others you will have to
pass through slowly. I usually find it a good idea not to make eye
contact. That lessens the chance of them pulling you over. That is a
good rule for when travelling as sometimes officials cannot be bothered
to try and attract the attention of a foreigner. If you do get pulled
over, they will probably ask to see your driver's license first. An
international license is fine if you are a tourist. They may also want
to see your passport. It might be a good idea to have some one hundred
baht notes handy. I don't normally condone bribing, but there was one
time when I was pulled over by what I can only call highway robbers.
They said that I was speeding even though they had no speed gun.. I
wasn't the only person as they were stopping all the cars behind me
too. They could tell from my number plates that I was out of state. So,
they said that they could make it easy for me and allow me to pay the
fine on the spot. The alternative was to go to the police station the
following day. As I was on holiday and in the middle of no-where, I
felt I had no choice. So I gave them 200 baht.
Having said all of that, driving in Thailand is safe and I have
never experienced any major problems. It is very rewarding so do
consider for the next time you are on holiday in Thailand. But make
sure you read the rental contract properly before you sign it. Find out
about liability and how much the insurance really covers during an
accident. On most days I pass cars that have been involved in an
accident so don’t make the mistake in thinking that it won’t happen to
you. If you feel that you are not up to driving yourself, then you can
always hire a car that also comes with a driver!
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