Courtesy On The Road (And Sidewalk)

A slice of the morning commute activity at the Victory Monument roundabout in Bangkok

While watching drivers in foreign countries - especially countries where there may not be as much emphasis put onto, say, learning to drive properly before being granted a license - it's easy to fall into the trap of saying "Jeez, the drivers here are nuts" without giving some credit where credit is due; especially when we momentarily forget the drivers we have to deal with back home.

I took the lead photo today one morning while people watching during a morning commute around one of Bangkok' busier transit hubs - Victory Monument- as I've done more than a few mornings .

I have no way of knowing how many people pass through this area in any 24 hour period during the working week. It's not only a BTS station, it's also one of the main points in that part of the city to catch transit buses and vans, bound for almost all points of the compass, so I'm going to guess hundreds of thousands per day, give or take a few bus loads. Two friends of mine pass through this area regularly on their way to and from work. One catches a van to a spot by Don Muang airport from an area beneath the elevated walkway there. 

A quieter moment at Victory Monument, with the elevated walkway to the BTS on the left.

While this constant flow of humanity moves through the area at ground level and on elevated walkways, it moves with a purpose, and in an orderly fashion. I just rode the BTS around a couple of mornings, stopping to look around at several of the busier transfer stations and I couldn't help but feel somewhat like just another living cell, being carried along by the current through the veins and arteries of the city. I'd compare it to walking around through MBK Mall, but in all honesty that's more like being in an ant farm - and another story for another day.

While it's not often safe to make generalizations I'd venture to say the people you'd encounter on a walk through a commute rush in Bangkok are - by and large - polite. It's not a matter of them having all day to get where they're supposed to be, but there's a more resigned (if you will) attitude; something along the lines of "we all have to get someplace... let's just cooperate and get there". Call it a facet of the "mai pen rai" attitude that can often make things run more smoothly or whatever you wish, but it's a help.

Can you tell this photo was taken on a Monday morning before yellow shirts took on the implication of being a political statement?

Even on the sidewalks and assorted walkways people seem to be aware of what's going on around them, most of the time. In the USA too many - especially in urban and busy suburban areas - are so wrapped in our own little worlds that a sense of entitlement sours many of our social skills. That's not as dangerous while on foot, but when you're sailing along in four thousand pounds of over-sized land whale it puts everyone around you at peril.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not saying the Thai are good drivers - I've more than a few times seen cars and tuk tuks actually driven on the sidewalk, for example - or even that the majority of them behind the wheel of a car (or the handles of a motor scooter) know the true rules of the road, but there's less of what I call the "Me First" mentality in evidence. Maybe it's that they don't want their cars or motocy dinged up, but I'd say there's less "pushiness" going on, overall.

[Disclaimer: Yes, I'm well aware that many countries in Asia have no idea of what "line up and wait in an orderly fashion" means (that's queue, to some of you), but that's not quite the same thing.]

Unless it's a farang driving you're not as likely to hear a prolonged blast of a car horn there; a short beep or two to indicate something basic usually does the trick. Here in the US people lay on their horns as though each extra few seconds gets them a rebate of some sort on their auto insurance premiums. It's too bad we couldn't learn a little from the Thai about patience. I guess that's the observation today.

Maybe we could teach them something about sidewalks being more for pedestrians at the same time.

An Unusual Commute Moment In Bangkok

A short clip to share with you today that was found on a drive I didn't think existed any more. It was taken one morning a few years back while walking a friend to catch his ride to work from the Victory Monument area. It was before I started using an HD device, so it'a a little grainy.

Normally this area is an absolute zoo by 07:30, but when the signal lights align just right there are some slower pockets - although the dull roar of the trucks, buses, cars and scooters is always there.

Christmas Traffic At MBK

Another over-booked day for me. My apologies to those who prefer to read rather than look, but I don't have a story for you today. Let's shoot for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here's a shot of the commute traffic at the "festive" MBK intersection at Christmas time. Although the lights of Santa in his sleigh being pulled by a reindeer (near the center of the image) are stationary they may still seem to have the lead in rush hour traffic there some days!

Bangkok's BTS Skytrain: Tickets

It's been a while since the last part of the BTS Skytrain series, so here's part three. If you're just joining us or hadn't seen the first couple, here are the links to the introduction and overview and statistics and stairs posts. For other BTS-related posts you can always click on the "BTS" link under Labels in the right-hand column, too.

In the last post I mentioned how often you're likely to be faced with a few flights of stairs, and I only mention it again because there are precious few (only four) stations with elevators, so you need to be aware of this if you have any disabilities that would prevent you from climbing or decending them. By my counts it can easily be 70 to 80 stair steps from street level to the boarding platform. Some of the busier stations will have escalators going up, but most do not. I'm repeating a previously posted photo below to again illustrate the level of the street, walkways, stations and passenger boarding levels.

However, unless you absolutely can't take your time and climb I urge you to ride the Skytrain as often as possible, for a variety of reasons; it's dependable, it's cheap, it's air conditioned, it's fast, it saves you hours of time sitting in a taxi and it provides excellent opportunities to people watch. Oh - I forgot one more important thing: almost ALL of the signage is in Thai and English. I know that's not much of a comfort if you speak French,German or Swedish, but if you've gotten this far it's a safe bet you speak enough English to be having a fine time so far, right? You'll be fine.

Once you've reached the station level itself you'll see a scene like the top photo today. The people queuing up are waiting to put their 5- and 10-baht coins into the ticket machines, of which there are usually at least two or three. If you find you don't have coins you can walk over to the ticket widow (in the middle of the picture) and easily either change Thai currency into coins or buy a multi-ride card.

No cash at all on you? There are ATMs within a few steps of the ticket office. Be advised that there are transaction fees (in the neighborhood of 100 or 150 baht) and always be careful of entering your pin number if there's a chance of someone seeing what you're entering.

I invariably buy the 30 day adult Smartpass card and then pass it along to a friend before I leave. They're available for 20, 30 or 40 trips and cost 440, 600 and 800 baht, respectively. If you're planning a full day of use you can purchase single day unlimited ride tickets for 120 baht.

Simply purchasing a single-ride ticket is easy. As an example, to the right of the actual ticket machine in the vertical image above is a route map. In it we're at the Ratchathewi station, highlighted on that map by a yellow "you are here" dot. Look at the map, find the station you wish to go to, and note the number in the circle next to it.

For example, if you want to go to the Jatujak Weekend Market, you'd be going to the Mo Chit station at the Northern end of the Sukhumvit line, noted on the map with a "5". At the top of the map you'll see fare information, with a cost below the range of station numbers, charged by distance traveled. Below the 5 you'll see the fare is 30 baht.

Even simpler, just punch the "5" button on the vending machine itself (area 1 in the photo), and it'll tell you how much you need to put into it (area 2), counting it down on the screen as you insert coins, until it pops a ticket out of the slot (area 3). Remember to take your change if the machine drops any into the bin (area 4).

Again, remember to note the end of the line station name for the line you'll be riding, as this is how you'll know which side of the tracks to be climbing up to once you're through the entrance gates. From the example above you'd be looking for the sign saying "Mo Chit", with an arrow pointing to the stairway. If you went up the stairs on the other side you'd find yourself waiting for a train that would take you to the On Nut station. If you're like me, you don't want to have to go back down (and then up) any more stairs than you have to and you learn this lesson quickly!

Take your ticket, insert it into the automated gates, enter the station officially and head up the (hopefully correct) stairs to the boarding platform.

Trains arrive frequently, and if you get tired of admiring the city views there are plenty of video monitors showing commercials for everything from upcoming movies to food items to skin whitening creams. It's a hoot, if you can stay far enough away from a speaker because they're loud.

When the train arrives, note the lines on the platform and stand to the side of the doors as they open to allow exiting passengers to disembark before you board the train, find a seat or a spot to lean and enjoy the ride!

I didn't take the video clip below, but it's a great overview of today's post.

Bangkok's BTS Skytrain: Statistics And Stairs

A Skytrain with the usual ads on the side walls and windows

The 35* BTS Skytrains run over 475 trips daily on a regular schedule - from 06:00 to midnight, seven days a week. During peak hours they're absolutely standing room only, but if you can avoid those times there's usually a place to sit. There are 37 and a quarter miles (60Km) of track between the Sukhumvit and Silom lines - including the new stops across the Chao Phraya river - with extensions in the works as I write this.

The fares run between 10 and 40 baht per trip, depending on the distance you plan to travel, and while that probably seems cheap to most of us it's still more than many there can afford and they take the buses that operate in a far wider web throughout the city. What I mean is you don't see many vegetable vendors riding the BTS. Sometimes the buses or motorcyle taxis can be more convenient, too - depending on where in the huge metropolis you're going.

Night ride on a Skytrain

The cars are 10 and a half feet (3.2M) wide and 71 and a half feet (21.8M) long. The BTS website claims each train of three cars can carry 1,000 passengers, and estimates that each of those trains keeps 800 cars off the road. As jammed as the streets of Bangkok are, that's worthwhile. While I can't vouch for their statistics, I can be sure that they're always there for me within a few minutes of my arrival at the boarding platform - quiet, clean and cool.

Being more out of shape than I'd like the only bothersome part for me are the stairs. Lots of them, over the course of a single ride. It doesn't seem like a lot at first glance, but on a warmer day when I'm trying to get where I'm going without perspiring through my shirt it's more than I like, and I'm always pleased to see escalators going up at some of the higher-traffic stations, like the one to the left.

On average I'd estimate it to be between 30 to 40 stairs from street level up to the ticketing and gate level, and then another 40-plus up to the boarding level.

Once while heading back home at the end of a long day I'd stood looking up one of these stairways and said to myself (but out loud) "Stairs? AGAIN?" and my friend hasn't let me forget it since. Hardly a time passes that he doesn't repeat that same exclamation of disbelief when we head up to a station.

Invariably I catch myself hurrying up the fool stairs just in time to hear the cautionary beep before the doors close and see the train pull out, but mai pen rai - there's always something of interest to see from the platform while waiting for the next train. It's rarely more than a few minutes.

Looking down the stairs from a boarding platform level

You'll notice there's advertising throughout the terminals as well as on the trains themselves. Stairways in high traffic stations have them on the fronts of each step, as you can see here. Trains have them on the solid sides and as screens on the windows, as in the header photo today. Flat panel video screens run continual commercials for movies, TV shows, personal care products, food and beverages - just like you'd see at home. For the first few days they're entertaining; after a while they become background noise... again, just like at home. Same, same - but different!

Security guard - there are BTS and outside services used

It's a very rare day when you don't see a security guard (or three) while entering or leaving a station. Often at the entry gates and almost certainly on the boarding platform, making sure people behave and stay behind the yellow warning lines along the walkways at the edge of the track troughs. They don't employ people to shove people into the trains as in other parts of Asia, but instead will blow a whistle when too many try to crowd themselves in.

I notice we didn't get to all I'd intended to include today, but I hope you'll forgive me for wandering off track when I write about Thailand. There's so much to share, and part of the fun for me is the journey. Hopefully it is for you, too. NEXT installment we'll try to cover stations and areas.

* All of the statistics in today's post are as of they appear today on the BTS site.

Firemen vs Downtown Bangkok Traffic

It makes me cringe when I hear sirens anywhere in Bangkok, especially during the peak morning and afternoon traffic windows. While I give the Thai credit for understanding the need to move out of the way of emergency vehicles on their errands of mercy, if you've been in the more congested areas of Bangkok you know that sometimes there simply isn't spare room to allow them easy passage.

Emergencies overall tend to be a race against time; often a game of mere minutes. I know that if it were the building I was inside of it certainly would be.

From my window I heard a faint siren approaching along the street below and watched as a small plume of smoke become the larger black billowing tower above, rising above the 80+ story Baiyoke Tower, the single siren joined from other directions by several more. I couldn't help but wonder what they were dealing with traffic-wise during lunch hour, and made the same wish I do back home when I hear sirens: that it's only property damage and nobody's severely injured.

This fire was mentioned on the news later that afternoon, and I'd gotten my wish.

Morning Riverboat Commuting In Bangkok

I've stayed a few times at the Asia Hotel on Thanon Phaya Thai in the Ratchathewi area, not because it's an especially nice or reasonably priced place, but since it's attached to the Ratchathewi BTS station it was handy getting to the places I'd wanted to see at the time. We'll address the pluses and minuses of the hotel itself another time, but the areas within walking distance alone make it a nice starting point for the day. Some of my fondest memories of early morning walks have begun and ended at the Asia.

One nearby point of interest - if you're a people watcher like I am - is the Saphan Hua Chang Pier area, about five minutes from the hotel and just below where Phaya Thai humps over the klong (canal) below on its way to the big shopping malls. I think mornings are best, primarily because it's not anywhere near as hot and humid as afternoons, but either commute window is fun to observe.

You can watch from the sidewalk at the street side above or go down the stairs on either side of the canal to see things at an everyday level. There are multiple food carts and stands with any number of fragrant, delicious aromas drifting past you, the coffee carts, the small sit-down eateries - many with only a half-dozen plastic chairs, news stands - and, of course, the hundreds of Thai themselves, scurrying along to work, school or wherever.

The klong riverboats are a show unto themselves; an efficient and quick way to get from point A to point B for a mere pittance. My friend who writes the fine blog Rice Queen Diary did a post a little over a month ago (here) showing how you could catch a riverboat at this very stop and take it to Wat Saket, a temple I've sadly missed - so far. Next trip, for sure.

I'll post some pictures of this station described above soon, but here today are two clips from December 2008 showing the riverboats stopping at this pier. The one at the top is a longer one, showing the active jockeying they do during a morning rush hour, and the one below from dock lever, giving you an idea of how fleet of foot you need to be if you intend to stay out of the - let's just say fragrant - klong itself while hopping on or off the boats.

At some point I'll tell the story of how I ended up halfway between those two points while visiting near the Grand Palace one day. I still have the scar on my shin to back the story up, but I'll spare you that.

Night Photos, Part 3: The BTS

The Bangkok Transit System (or BTS) starts around dawn and ends at 11:00pm (23:00). Late in the evening the stations are pretty quiet places where you can steal some comparatively quiet moments if you time it right. The header photo today was taken near closing time at Sala Daeng where I'd just come from a welcome end-of-the-day foot massage.

I love to stop and gaze down from the passenger loading platform to the streets, parks, shopping malls and residential areas - and have, frequently. The station guards are more relaxed when they don't have people bunched up at the loading and unloading points and no one to blast a short whistle trill at when they stray over the yellow safety line. The 7-11 above is one of two right near the Chong Nonsi station.

The folks inside the trains are (understandably) usually tired and quiet at that hour, too: making the final push toward home, family and maybe a late snack before showering and bedtime. The train was rounding a curve in the shot above, giving you a slightly different view into the car ahead of us.

Above is a view down Naratiwat Road, showing the East side of the Chong Nonsi station and the same 7-11 store down below. On the other side of the station and down the street just a few dozen steps is one of my favorite places to stay in Bangkok: the Om Yim Lodge - a place long overdue for a review. With luck I can make that happen tomorrow.

Sleeping, Part 3

It’s been a month since the last “Sleeping” post so let’s take another look at that today, shall we? For anyone wanting to catch up, the first batch is here and the second is here; but in a nutshell, the Thai are blessed with a gift for being able to sleep almost any time, anywhere. It’s a gift I’ve envied any number of times.

I had an ideal vantage point along a heavily traveled commute route one morning when the “start and stop” traffic was far more “stop” than “start” and I was allowed the luxury of time to make use of my zoom lens from my perch on the 11th floor.

The young man at the top must have been a little uncomfortable being wedged where he was; his head on a water cooler pillow and his back resting on the wheel well... but he seemed sound asleep. The Che Guevara belt buckle he’s sporting and the two stickers on the pickup’s windows are indicative of how far-reaching an idea can be over time; and a reminder of Thai politics still being an unsettled mess today.

The six guys in the photo below don’t look all that comfy, either, but they’re a nice example of how relaxed people can be about casual physical contact there. Note the legs over the belly, the head on the shoulder and another in the co-worker’s lap. I suspect most guys here would be far too “macho” to allow any such camaraderie, but that’s their loss.

One last image from that morning’s commute and an idea for a sleep mask I just might try sometime. I suspect the man modeling it is striking a familiar pose to some readers, too, but it would be indelicate to mention names.

Motorcycle Taxi Safety (Or Not)

Back in high school a friend of mine pulled his Vespa out of the student parking lot and got knocked through the air by a woman in one of those big 60’s land yachts. He never stood a chance, and probably wouldn’t have even if he was wearing a helmet. As I stood there dumbstruck the next morning, looking at the remnants of his blood not yet fully washed away I decided I’d probably never ride on one ever again.

Fast forward to 2005, and I’m out for the afternoon with the charmed offspring of a fairly well-off family in Bangkok. By “well off” I mean they owned the hotel I was staying in, he had a personal bodyguard and his biggest decision that day was whether he’d pick me up in his BMW or his Mercedes; that kind of “well off”.

He knew most of the motocy drivers outside his family’s walled compound and picked one for me that he assured me would get my sweaty self to one of the family restaurants for dinner unscathed. After dinner he assured me he’d have one of the hotel limos pick me up to take me back for the night. He said with the traffic as it was the cycles were the only way to get there in any reasonable timeframe. For some reason I didn’t consider the hundreds of other drivers we’d be jockeying for position with along the way and got on, my friend on another just behind us.

Had it not been that I would’ve been embarrassed to wet the back of the driver’s trousers I may well have peed my pants. Helmet or no helmet, this was a hell of a lot more risky than I’d bargained for, and as I tried re-learning to trust leaning with the bike while he zig-zagged his way along I was reminded of my decision some 40 years before.

I’d often been surprised at the devil-may-care attitude of cycle riders there but since that day I’ve paid closer attention to the hordes of people who evidently take the “if it’s your time, it’s your time” thing to heart. While on elevated walkways over intersections at commute time I like to watch the cycles filter their way to the front of the pack of four-wheel commuters at a red light, listening to the whine of their engines revving when the light changes and they rush out ahead of the cars and trucks.



Although I did hear one (mentioned in an earlier post on accidents) fortunately so far I haven’t witnessed an accident involving one of these cyclists, but I suppose that time will come. Evidence of past “road rash” is a fairly common sight on people and I’m surprised at the number of folks who have helmets but don’t wear them. It’s not all that much of a fine if you’re caught without it – usually about 100Bt – but I should think there’s a certain amount of inconvenience to trying to get around without a portion of your head.

One of my early friends there needed a loan for the down payment on a cycle to get him from his rural home to work and school, and to my knowledge kept his side of the agreement to wear at least his helmet to protect him while he paid the bank and myself back… but I still worried about him.

I suppose life’s full of choices, and I didn’t always think all that far ahead when I was their age, either. Ah, the invincibility of youth!