Traffic in Bangkok Thailand
September 23, 2007
Bangkok traffic is the worst traffic you will ever see and if you ever get stuck going across town at 5:30 in the afternoon on a Friday you’ll be glad to get back to New York or London or Los Angeles because these places will seem like a quick dash around the suburbs compared to what Bangkok can throw at you.
The traffic in Bangkok is the stuff that legends are made of. Imagine waking up at 4am so you can be off to the office by 5am and arrive near 6am and then wait for 2 hours because your office doesn’t open until 8am. This is commonplace in Bangkok as is the fleets of cars lining up outside schools as early as 5:30am with bleary eyed mothers watching over their seemingly still sleeping children. Anything to avoid the rush or rather the gridlock of rush hour.
Rode tid mak mak the Thai’s will tell you. It means “traffic is bad, very bad”, but that is normal for Bangkok. I once came out to Silom Road at 1:30 in the morning to see taxi’s lined up in both directions as far as the eye could see. What city has grid lock at 1:30am? And what looked like a short trip from Khao San Road to our hotel across the bridge in the Pinklao district regularly took up to an hour after 1:00am. Just a few miles and on the outer perimeter of Bangkok to be sure, but still a major undertaking at any hour of the day or night.
And yet even so Thai’s continue to buy cars because they are status symbols. The Thai government has a 100-300% tariff on auto’s which means a Toyota Corolla (or something similar) will cost up to $35,000. It hasn’t stopped car buying in the least. I can tell how important they are to Thai’s especially younger Thai’s as a status symbol by listening to Golf and her friends. Even though the public transport in Bangkok is faster and so much cheaper they all want the status that a car exudes.
Personally I would rather spend $0.25 to get across town on a bus (scary) or ferry or the Bangkok BTS or even spring a whole $1.00 for a taxi, but I think I will end up falling prey to the need to increase our status when we move back to Thailand. I may even end up driving the beast, but I don’t think I will have the same patience that the Thai’s have on the road. Maybe I need to cultivate the mai bpen rai attitude so common in Thailand. Why have a stroke over something you can’t change? Rode tid mak mak. Mai bpen rai…
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Personally I’d rather get the hell away from Bangkok! Man, I don’t know how people do it… My g/f worked there a total of one week and I finally asked her to stop the insanity… she was waking up at 4:30 to get ready to go by 5 to get to work by 7, and coming home from work at 9 sometimes 11 if asked to work overtime without pay as they all are asked to do sometimes. It’s so crazy. Bangkok sucks for me, though I’ve already done the big city living with 3 years in NYC. Wasn’t fun then, isn’t fun now… Why work in Bangkok? Likely people come here to relax more than what they’re able to in their own countries - and yet they work in BKK… huh? my2c. Vern
Since I’ve not had to actually “work” at a regular job I’m not sure how people do it either. I know I would never have the patience for that traffic when I need to be somewhere at a certain time. Thai’s of course seem to think nothing of being 15 minutes or even two hours late somewhere so I think that is why Thai’s don’t mind. Of course it helps if you live close to work as well. My wife worked at BNH hospital and was able to get to and from work in about 10 minutes.
The biggest benefit in my mind to living in Bangkok is the depth of opportunity and experiences available. There is also the energy of the city and the diversity of people. As long as you’re able to get away from Bangkok occasionally to recharge then all’s good.
That being said, when I finally retire I will definitely not be living in Bangkok. One place in Tak near the in-laws and one somewhere beachy and I’ll be in heaven.
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