Comparatively, gas prices aren't cheap in Thailand. Oh, sure - the add-on tax rates aren't as high as some places, but overall income isn't as high for most who have to pay to fill the tanks of motor scooters, trucks and personal vehicles, either.
This leads to some "creative" uses of space, as we saw in Thursday's post where the over-sized load was being held in place by whoever it was that drew the short straw that day. A lack of time probably enters into the mix with these decisions too, of course; my friend explained it was probably a long drive from where the bundles on the truck above were purchased (near Bangkok, he surmised) up into the North where they'd land, and that's why they were piled almost twice as high as the truck itself.
It swayed side to side a good 20 degrees as it sailed along the highway, looking somewhat like a sailboat on a lake, and I was glad when we were safely past it. It would have made me seasick, that's for sure - but at least there weren't several people perched on top of it like there are in the photo below: with the guy in the middle snoozing it could just as easily have gone into the "Sleeping" series!
two great photos.. the top one gets more interesting when it's enlarged. There's a lot of very professional looking rope tying holding that cargo in place. I think those tubular things might be a kind of mattress. Obviously they aren't very heavy.. but I can't figure why they weren't opened.. and stacked up flat. They don't look like anything that's intended to be that shape.. they look like they've been rolled and tied.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom photo again displays lots of intricate rope tying that's holding their vertical menagerie in place. The sleeping guy sort of lets us know that the load doesn't shift in an alarming or dangerous way.. but if that's another guy on top.. yikes ! he's got a hell of a view.