Night Riding On A Motocy

Motor scooters and small cycles are far more prevalent in many parts of Thailand than cars. You see them everywhere, and I mean everywhere: parking lots, streets, sois, sidewalks, walking paths, lobbys, front yards, back yards, fields – hell, I’ve even seen one parked inside of a laundromat. They’re cheaper and easier than a car to buy, fuel, maintain, park and navigate through the inexplicable maze that is Thai traffic.

They provide, however, next to no protection for the people driving or riding on them, (and I’ve personally seen a family of six piled aboard a single scooter) unless you consider a shirt, shorts and flip-flops to be “protective gear”.

Granted, there is a helmet law in place and you do see many people wearing them, but what good’s a helmet if an alarming percentage of your body’s been grated like parmesan cheese along the road after you’ve hit an immovable object at a combined speed of 50 miles per hour?

Coming back from a late dinner a bit south of Jomtien a few weeks ago I was looking out into the near-darkness along the road and chatting with my friend when I heard somewhere relatively close behind us the loud, concussive sound of a collision. No horns, no squealing of brakes, just the loud, low "WHUMP" of the impact. Being a good American (we can be such voyeurs) I craned my neck around to see what had happened, but only thought I saw a motorcycle on its side. My friend, both hands on the wheel, never even broke stride in the story he was telling me when I heard the noise.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, interrupting him "That was an accident back there. Aren't you supposed to stop and offer assistance?" "Maybe," he said, and then allowed "Yes, we're supposed to, but what could I do?" "Well, you're a doctor, for a start," I began, but he cut me off, saying "I don't have my bag with me, and if it was a motorcycle it's almost always just a matter for the coroner to clean up." Not judgmental, not flip - just being realistic, I suppose.

It did, however, make me think back to the previous night when, against my better judgment, I’d climbed onto the back of a friend's motocy and allowed him to drive my weary frame back to my room to sleep. A friend of mine had been killed on his motorcycle back some 40 years ago, and since then I'd only allowed myself to be on one of the contraptions two other times. I was, you might say, more than a little spooked.

Toey was sober, alert and a careful driver, but I'm amply aware it's the people who aren't who'll get you. However, figuring "in for a penny, in for a pound" I took out my little FlipHD recorder and filmed a couple of clips along the way, holding the camera out to my left. He seemed relieved that I'd abandoned the death grip I'd had on his kidneys when he first pulled out into the traffic on Second Road, and truthfully it was rather exhilarating... but not something I'm likely to repeat any time soon.

Here's one of the two clips I made that night while scooting through some of the lesser streets of Pattaya: