I first went to Thailand in 1997 and immediately fell in love with the country. Thailand at that time to me was mysterious and exotic, full of potentials and pitfalls.
Fast forward to 2010 and here I am after 13 years and many trips to the LOS sharing, with the help of my 
Traffic in Bangkok Thailand
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 $3.00 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.
Don’t they have trains or something in their area? I have been to Bangkok for a week but only experienced being stuck in traffic one evening… It is not as bad as traffic in India.
The fast way around Bangkok at busy time of day is motor bike taxi. Not the safest but the fastest it’s actually a thrill.HA,HA,Ha Do it at your own risk.
I think, from experience of both places, the traffic in Manila is worse than Bangkok, but agree it can be pretty horrendous. I would never contemplate driving a car in Bangkok. The Skytrain, metro and riverboat, with the occasional late night taxi, serve my needs pretty well. It must be hard for those less well off Bangkokians who live far from the skytrain/metro. Riding an unairconditioned bus in grindingly slow traffic for a couple of hours every day must be hard.
Today I received an email questioning the validity of this article and while I can’t post the original email because I haven’t gotten permission from the author I did want to post my response.
“Thanks for taking the time to respond to me. I’m not certain that the piece is truly rubbish as Bangkok has for years been decried as one of the worst cities in the world for traffic jams. I have to admit that I haven’t been in a traffic jam in central London or Manila, however I have been in traffic jams in New York, Washington, Houston and Los Angeles in the U.S. as well as Mumbai, New Dehli and Chennai in India, Tokyo and Moscow. Obviously almost any article on traffic is going to be subjective based on the writers experience and since Thailand Musings is my personal blog it contains my opinions. I can back it up with a bit of research though. Here’s another article with Bangkok claiming the #4 spot (Manila is #12 and London is #13) http://allworldcars.com/wordpress/?p=11866
And here’s a more scientific study done by IBM called the “Commuter Pain Index” http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/07/02/worlds-worst-traffic/
Unfortunately it doesn’t include Bangkok in the study, but you can see that London falls towards the middle of the pack. Both Moscow and New Dehli are in the top 10 and I can assure you that based on my experience traffic in Bangkok is just as bad as in these two cities. Ultimately it’s difficult to ascertain the truth anyway since the study is based on driver perceptions which are known to be notoriously unrealistic in many cases. The perception of traffic can be quite different based on so many factors that a study done based on perceptions cannot be considered a black and white truth.
In any case, I’m glad you prompted me to dig a bit deeper, but I stand by my original article and I suppose we will have to agree to disagree. Thanks again for the challenging email.”
Steve your post on Bangkok’s traffic has convinced me even more that Thailand’s capital is not for me. I must admit the few times I have passed through Bangkok I haven’t encountered any major hold-ups.
The Thais status symbol motor, even in the villages this is true, possibly just as much. Many of the pick up trucks barely get the dust off them with their twice weekly ride to the local town.