Udon Driving

[Spot]

Last trip in LOS I drove around 3500kms in Thailand and it was my first time driving there although I had ridden motorcycles there a bit. Have to agree with TG having no sense of direction or location, upon picking up the car my first drive was into Bangkok CBD to visit my TG younger sister, so it was a fast learning experience for me. My TG said she knows where to go, so off we go into traffic towards din daeng where her sister lives, soon found out she has know idea where her sister lives and after driving around for an hour and a half asking people along the way, I tell her to call her sister and ask her, she calls and talks to her and gets of the phone and says her sister doesn't know where she lives. 55555 after driving around for another 40mins we find her sisters place.

From then on I used my iPhone maps to find my way everywhere in Thailand and the TG to translate the Thai signs to me. The iPhone worked well in the country side but was a little slow to use in Bangkok due to the buildings and overpasses etc and losing the Gps signal.

Didn't take me long to get use to road rules, well more accurately the complete lack of them. I still have no idea what the speed limit is in most of Thailand, but just drove to what I felt was safe, but not as fast as the crazy drivers.

Never had any problems with the police and I was stop most days four or five times a day at various road blocks. I was only asked for my licence once when taking my TG brothers to the local disco but her brothers had a chat with the officer and he let us on our way. After he let us go the TG said he wanted to see my licence and her brother talked him out of it she then said we were lucky her brother talked him out of it as I would have been in big trouble. I said why I have a licence and then she hits me an says "why you not speak to me" Thai logic at work 5555. Would have also helped if they where speaking Thai, but it was all done in Khmer so I had no idea what they were saying.

I got very use to driving there and actually prefer it to driving in Australia.

Other thing I learnt was not to get so drunk that you leave the car keys around for your TG drunk brother to take and then crash your rental car.##

What Fionn said... I preferred it to kill or be killed in NSW and Vic...

100 kph on major roads and then drive to the conditions... Thank christ I never had cruise control..... way more relaxed.... and safe....

 

[Moo Uaon]

Just an example of road rage Thai style.
Best keep your nose clean while behind the wheel here.

Phuket NEWS: Russian shot in Phuket beachfront drive-by

 

[Moo Uaon]

Geez,wouldn`t believe it but a bit of a situation tonight.

Took the clan into the local Isaan bbq buffet for a feed out back of Nakhon Nowhere.
It`s a few dozen k`s there and back so it`s well after dark on the way back. Not far from home there`s a pack of young kids (GF says 12-14yr olds) on MB`s slowed when they saw our car coming and about 4 of them slow and double back behind and followed.I picked this up immediately as being a bit predatory and just slowed to the pace and tried to keep well away from them travelling very slowly by now for a few minutes wondering what`s going to happen.

GF`s brother was in the back and by now had caught on to what was happening and stood up and was shouting at them and waving his arm and they would have plainly heard and seen him as we had slowed and they weren`t far away.
Suddenly they took off like startled rabbits,didn`t look around....gone in no time.

The GF`s brother is ex army and known as the local gun maker and apparently told them who he was and to fcuk off or he`d shoot 555

Gotta have ya wits about you sometimes...and a loaded local!

 

[Quarky]

Geez,wouldn`t believe it but a bit of a situation tonight.

Took the clan into the local Isaan bbq buffet for a feed out back of Nakhon Nowhere.
It`s a few dozen k`s there and back so it`s well after dark on the way back. Not far from home there`s a pack of young kids (GF says 12-14yr olds) on MB`s slowed when they saw our car coming and about 4 of them slow and double back behind and followed.I picked this up immediately as being a bit predatory and just slowed to the pace and tried to keep well away from them travelling very slowly by now for a few minutes wondering what`s going to happen.

GF`s brother was in the back and by now had caught on to what was happening and stood up and was shouting at them and waving his arm and they would have plainly heard and seen him as we had slowed and they weren`t far away.
Suddenly they took off like startled rabbits,didn`t look around....gone in time.

The GF`s brother is ex army and known as the local gun maker and apparently told them who he was and to fcuk off or he`d shoot 555

Gotta have ya wits about you sometimes...and a loaded local!

I'd make sure you record him yelling that... and play it loudly next time you hit trouble... :grinner:

 

[josho]

Geez,wouldn`t believe it but a bit of a situation tonight.

Took the clan into the local Isaan bbq buffet for a feed out back of Nakhon Nowhere.
It`s a few dozen k`s there and back so it`s well after dark on the way back. Not far from home there`s a pack of young kids (GF says 12-14yr olds) on MB`s slowed when they saw our car coming and about 4 of them slow and double back behind and followed.I picked this up immediately as being a bit predatory and just slowed to the pace and tried to keep well away from them travelling very slowly by now for a few minutes wondering what`s going to happen.

GF`s brother was in the back and by now had caught on to what was happening and stood up and was shouting at them and waving his arm and they would have plainly heard and seen him as we had slowed and they weren`t far away.
Suddenly they took off like startled rabbits,didn`t look around....gone in no time.

The GF`s brother is ex army and known as the local gun maker and apparently told them who he was and to fcuk off or he`d shoot 555

Gotta have ya wits about you sometimes...and a loaded local!

that's pretty full on, what were the kids trying to do exactly you think ?

 

[Moo Uaon]

^ they seem to think they were just making nuisances of themselves.

Would have handled it differently if alone though.

 

[matto]

hey guys,
Looking to rent a car this up coming trip in december. Since i left it a bit late, lek car rental is booked out.. So i will be looking to hire from the airport (which is a bit more expensive)
I am looking at either a 2 seater ute or a 5 seater sedan (both around the same price)

Ok my question is my gf wants to take her family out with us to temples sight seeing etc. We will be staying in Bueng Kan. I know i see Thais doing this alot but is it legal/ok to drive around with the family in the back of the ute?
My other option is the sedan, but will only have 3 seats left so someone in the family will have to miss out.

 

[Norabunga]

If you hire a ute, It will almost certainly have a small bench seat behind the two 'proper' seats. Can easily squeeze 3 or 4 family members in there although they often prefer to sit in the back of utes.
I have no idea about the legality. The BIB certainly won't care but you will probably have big problems if you crash and people get hurt (or worse).
Pretty sure the hire company agreements I've seen stipulate no more passengers than there are seatbelts.

 

[Chob]

My advice would be to hire the cheapest small car for you and tg , and toyota commuter with driver for a couple of family day outings . They seat 14 and would run at about 1500.

 

[Zablive]

Somewhere not too far from every village will be a mini-van driver - I agree with Chob.
You will be surprised how rapidly your "extended family" expands when there's a free trip on offer.
I planned on taking the "family" from Sa Kaeow direct south to Laem Singh beach (the other one) on the gulf coast near Chantaburi.
We had two cars - but once they heard we were going to the seaside (none had ever been) we finished up with a minivan as well and two more bungalows!.

But to see the joy on their faces with waves hitting their legs was worth every satang.

 

[Chob]

Addit:
I am not sure you are allowed to drive a minibus anyway.
And Zab is right about all the extra passengers ''appearing". 555

 

[Moo Uaon]

I got this one from UT airport...



through Car Rental Udon Thani - Airport - Cheap Car Hire Udon Thani - Airport - ArgusRentals.com and ThaiRentaCar...would do the job.

Best to check as some of the car rental pickups have a carryboy cover on the back and may be unsuitable for carrying the outlaws :evil:

 

[Chob]

How did the Toyota compare to the Chev Colorado Moo ?

 

[Moo Uaon]

The Vigo was about 5 years about 60k k`s newer than mine,basic model without the central locking,power windows and centre console also 2.5L turbo.

It`s a great car to drive,probably better than the Chev but a bit lacking in the engine comparatively.

 

[matto]

Cheers for the advise , i just booked a small toyota good enough to get us to the village.
This will be my first time driving in Thailand so no doubt we will get lost 555 looks pretty straight forward on google maps though.
We will just hire a van if the extended family want wants to join us on a outing.

 

[RakThai]

Cheers for the advise , i just booked a small toyota good enough to get us to the village.
This will be my first time driving in Thailand so no doubt we will get lost 555 looks pretty straight forward on google maps though.
We will just hire a van if the extended family want wants to join us on a outing.

If your sense of direction is similar to your location... Think you are lost already..555

 

[Moo Uaon]

Some interesting developments on the driving front...

Over 300 arrested and fined for texting and talking while driving

Hopefully they'll start fining the idiots that talk on their phone when riding their bikes and not just in Bangkok!

Be on the lookout for falling cranes too.

1 dead 5 injured as crane falls on two minivans on Pattaya Highway 7 | Pattaya One – Pattaya News

 

[Chob]

They text while they ride around here ... then sit bored for hours looking at the bush ... then get on a scoot and get dressed and sms agin while they ride ...particularly LBs.

 

[Moo Uaon]

 

[Moo Uaon]

Had a quite bizarre trip in the car today.

Whilst driving along the road to CR i came up behind a latest model Toyota Camry with a late model Police pickup in front with lights flashing and siren being used when they came across slower traffic in front of them.This was through the mountains and National Park.
I seem to drive a bit faster than most and find it easy to overtake...so these two were holding me up a little but didn't dare overtake.....a steady 100k's/hr or thereabouts was ok.
All the cars,trucks and buses were pulling over and letting them pass and i just tacked on and followed them and everyone let me pass before they pulled out again.
I've seen motorcades with Elvis and the Queen as well as the Prince before so knew it wasn't any of them.

Now we were out of the mountains and into the first smallish village there were MiB stationed at the major side streets stopping traffic from pulling out in front of them. I was still behind and the MiB were saluting the escort car and the VIP Camry.....and me 555 as we wizzed past,not having to slow i could see them squinting trying to look at me as they were saluting.

Continued on along the road to CR doing a fairly steady 100k's/hr.....going good with all the side roads blocked and traffic peeling off to the side to let us through,plenty more cops along the way saluting 555

Must have gone about 50 k's like this now and came to another decent size town and we had to slow down as the cops stopped some traffic in front of us and waved for us to go around them.

Well i wasn't pushing my luck as the one in the middle of the road would have spotted it was a farang so i didn't follow and was quite happy to have a couple of cars between me and the VIP car then...phew 55

About 10k's up the road they pulled off at a checkpoint were there was some ranking looking officials waiting to greet them.
I could finally put the foot down and make up some time 555

Quite bizarre.... even for here!!