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Breaking Every Imaginable Traffic Law in Thailand

Posted: 15 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT

This post is part of the ongoing Sunday Travel Selection series. Every Sunday, a new travel story is featured. This month's theme is Breaking the Law. This week, Daniel Lawton is our selected contributor.

Bangkok Traffic. Pic by: Kristin Mancina

I am not sure if this is fear or not, I thought to myself, plunging through a maw of Chiang Mai traffic on a light-pink motorbike. I think it's more of a feeling of complete ineptness coupled with confusion.

On my left, two 15-year-old Thai girls dressed in school uniforms weaved into my lane, all the while chatting away on their cell phones. On my right, a woman honked at me, and I looked back to see that she had two children–both under ten–pressed between her and the throttle. Then, I felt a breeze at my back, and before I could flinch, a coal-black Honda 125 roared through a narrow crevice between my bike and a truck, leaving me in a dizzying stupor.

Welcome to driving a motorcycle in Thailand, a place where traffic laws cease to exist, where you're either snaking through traffic with reckless abandon or–according to the laws of the road–a cowardly putz.

When I rented my first motorcycle, I was undoubtedly the latter. I walked into Mr. Mechanic, the main motorcycle rental shop in Chiang Mai, and asked for the cheapest bike they had. That bike, as I should have expected, had a manual transmission, so after watching me sputter around for a few minutes the staff had mercy and gave me an automatic.

I had never ridden a motor scooter before, but after the initial harrowing moments, I was hooked. Not only did I revel in the feeling of the wind rushing against my face, but I also began to enjoy the fact that while on a motorcycle, I was seemingly immune from traffic laws.

Want to ride on the shoulder? Go for it. How about weaving through an entire line of stacked traffic and placing yourself at the front? Totally acceptable. Riding three abreast? Yes, do it. Passing someone in the same lane? Mandatory.

There were no rules and every day I became slightly more reckless. During Songkran, a Thai New Year's festival, where it is commonplace to throw water on perfect strangers, things hit a climax. While driving down the superhighway at 40 MPH, I was targeted by a teenager with a pressure washer. After he soaked me sufficiently, I drew the Super Soaker that I was carrying and clobbered him with a long stream of ice-cold water. It was a classic drive by and I loved every moment of it. I felt like a gun-toting Hell's Angel.

Each day, when I got on my bike, it was like stepping into a video game. I had no driver's license and no insurance, there were absolutely no rules that governed my conduct and the only possible consequence of my recklessness was physical injury.

At least, that was what I thought. Then, one day, when I walked down to my bike, I realized that I had forgot my helmet. Since I was only headed to the grocery store about a mile away, I decided it wasn't worth the trip back.

A minute later, as I slalomed my way through traffic, I saw a police officer in the middle of the road ahead. I noticed he had waived a number of bikers to the shoulder, and when I attempted to ride by, he corralled me as well.

"What's happening," I asked a fellow next to me. He spoke no English, but pointed to his head and mine.

For the last month, I had seen at least 50% of the drivers in Chiang Mai without helmets and hadn't witnessed a single ticket being issued, but it appeared that today I had landed smack-dab in the middle of a police round-up. I was given a ticket, with a fine of approximately $10, which I diligently paid the next day.

As I walked out of the police station, I realized that regardless of how lax law enforcement may appear in a foreign country, there is almost always a law that you are technically breaking. Then, I fired up my bike, neglected to signal with my blinker, weaved onto the shoulder, bombed past a rickshaw and sped away.

About the author

Dan Lawton is a freelance journalist. He blogs about travel and the outdoors @ Camping Gear Outlet.

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