Chapter 23: Thailand

It is not unusual to see 4 kids a mom and a sack of rice piled onto a motor bike. Safety has a different standard in these borders. Children as young as 7 are seen speeding past on motor bikes. Moms run errands with their infant strapped (sometimes not…just holding on) to the front of the bike. Pick-up trucks are not only loaded with hay and materials, but sometimes dozens of kids and/or workers. At first, it was a system shock..cringing each time a motor bike ran past, but now I’m used to it…even the other day on my way to the market- 6 students on one bike. It was plugging along and it’s rims scraped the road’s surface, but they managed to make it there and back in one piece. In Chang Mai, after a few drinks at a Thai night club with friends, we hailed a tuktuk (tiny cart with 3 wheels and a motor) and fit 6 people on this (two holding onto the sides of the driver hanging out the sides, 3 crammed in the back, and one literally sprawled across our laps. Good thing we were a bit tipsy at the time, or else it would not have been comfortable. It takes me back to the days on New York and DC, when cab drivers would be hesitant to even put four in the back seat. Unless they were corrupt and you slipped them more cash, most would only drive the allotted 4 (so we would all have seatbelts that we would in turn, not wear). When Brittany Spears made national news and went to courts for her baby driving stunt (for those of you who don’t remember- baby Spears rode shotgun on Brittany’s lap) I wonder if those pictures made it here. I’d assume it didn’t get much press…because here, it’s just the way things work.

Dogs…There is quite the dog problem here. No one gets them fixed (bob barker would be quite upset) which you can imagine leads to a country overpopulated with stray dogs. Most aren’t vicious, many are sick, and none have the loving dog personalities we find from our canine best friends at home. Im assuming it is due to the heat and lack of nutrition that they are quite subdued- sleep all day, in the sun, not moving an inch as you walk past. At night there seems to be quite the dog melody, that I assume one only hears in the quietness of the country. Simultaneously late at night, all the dogs break out in a chorus, howling…it’s so loud it sometimes wakes me up at night if I already dozed off. It is exactly like One Hundred and One Dalmatians style…like their planning their attack and their plans to take over the country side. It’s kind of creepy at night, and I find myself checking the locks

ps I truely enjoy all your comments.  keep em comin
pps i thought i posted this a while back…oops

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 12:16 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.