My story began when I discovered myself as a passenger in my entire life. I have encountered many things from using transportation in Bangkok. Some said the destination does not important than your journey. As a Bangkokian since I was born, I can tell that really matters in every single thing. I spend at least for one hour for going to school across the province. It is part of my daily routine. Meeting lovely dust and hot sunny in Thailand, it likes a raining in my armpits. Regardless of smell, I appreciated our world having a Roll-on stick. So it’s time to show the literal tactics of using transportation in Thailand like an expert.
Bike taxi, the first thing to know about them is the man in the orange sweater found at almost every Soi. They came with two of wheels. They can serve you best if you’re in hurry or in case you’re too lazy to walk. You can tell them when you’re rush.
My story began when I going to be late for school.
I decided to call one of them and said to a driver whose face kind of drowsy in the morning
"Bro I’m in hurry, please quickly"
…Just only one sentence that can literally ruin my life. I swore to the God after I said that for 20 seconds.
I would not say that again. At that moment, I thought to myself about my dog.
‘Diggy if I can’t feed you this evening I’m sorry cause I’m going to die.’
Right now, you can imagine 100 Kilometer per hour; motorbike was driving through of other cars’ straits.
Probably Bangkok Post Newspaper tomorrow will come up with new headline.
‘Falling Motorbike Took Legs from Poor Girl’ I though and held motorbike’s handle tightly.
After that I arrived the destination safely with messy hair, I also forgot my soul in that bike.
Next step, I will tell you more about motorbike. In case, you wear a skirt you should balance your body. If you are a new beginner, you might have a bit concern about the direction. If you are a tourist or do not live around here, the tricky drivers will have a radar to catch. And they may charge you to pay more the normal price. I have practical tricks for the beginners. First, do not ask how much it cost if you don’t know the price. You should keep calm, stay cool and give them a banknote around fifty baht. When you reached the way, most of the drivers will ask last time when you came how much did you pay? My suggestion is to keep acting like you know and say lower price. For me, if I literally have no idea about the prices, I usually said: “I can't remember but it’s not more than thirty baht.” And it always works for me.
Number two, a taxi, easiest found in hub town. Thais taxi very fond of foreign tourists. They always prefer foreigner more than ‘ME’ who has the same nationality with them. And sometimes they rejected the customer with the reason of traffic jam or he doesn’t want to go that way. From these, I think that taxi driver job considering as a freelance job because they have a freedom to make a decision to welcome the passenger or not. When I really need them, the taxi will appear inopposite lane. But when we don’t want to take them, tons of taxi is line up in front of me. At this point, I quite not understand the life that much.
From my experiences, I classified them into three types. First, the normal one, they did not talk too much just sit down and drive. I smile automatically because this is my favorite type. I loved silent and looked at the view on the road that are a tree, a concrete pole, a bird or an inflation of my city. Second is the talkative one. Typical for me, I usually late for something for 20 minutes and I ran down the stairs, hop in a taxi, and give a Nazi wave for a taxi, and bump into a driver who very talkative.
After I told the destination for a while the driver asked with a relaxing tone.
“What do you up to today then?”
Sometime when I don't want to interact with people, I usually take a long suffering sigh
"It was good” I replied.
“What are you doing right now? How about your work” He kept continuing.
“I’m a student.” I replied shortly.
Yeah, this is a little conversation. It might lead to the political issue or something annoyed like complaint rudely about traffic or anything they want to say. It's not my attitude problem but sometimes it's literally just a laziness to talk.
So I was avoided sometimes by pretending to be a deftblind person.
By the way, Thai taxi gives something realistic to me. Let me give you an example, if you travel in Thailand and turn on the radio, basically you will listen to the same catchy tunes. But if you want to feel the real 'Thais' what do Thais people are actually listening to, you will know that when you get in a taxi. Again as a freelance driver, they will not ask what you willing to listen or not. You cannot ask for turn down or turn off. This is the great moment to enjoy listening to that country music or whatever that he offers to you to hear. The driver perhaps sang along without the care of how awkward he made. But if I pretend saying nothing, it would be more awkward.
So I decided to make a small talk with him with a curious tone not be sarcastic!
"Your voice is not bad! Why don’t you be a single?" I interrupted with a decent smile.
"I'm a country man you know?" muttered sadly driver "have no chance like others” continued driver “But when I was a young I had auditioned before.."
From this situation, I can guess the dramatic story will start in 3 2 1
After heard and knew his story, I realized that I should not have started the conversation. However, I understand him he might drive for all day long and might feel lonely. It's not too bad if you want to have a small talk with them for killing the time.
Somehow the unexpected things might happen. One day I took a taxi came back home, the driver said okay as usual. But on the way to my home, he parked the car to the gas station.
He only left one word to me.
Thai bus has a small side, crowded bus bumped along the limited space. My hands were sodden with sweat from holding the old metal railings; my feet felt like doing hip-hop dance all the time due to the bus bumped and break immediately. During the red light, our driver can shout directly next to another bus. As you know, Thailand is one of the horrible traffic jam countries in the world. Honestly, my country has 200 seconds for red light, while green light is 15 seconds. That’s why they always have a little chit chat with other drivers while the listeners are all the passengers.
“Hey, don’t forget tonight is going to have a big match!” said driver 1.
Another driver answered clearly “I can’t wait, it much be a great game” he continued “I heard that last match Messy seemed to hurt his knee.”
“Ugh it’s too bad!” grumbled driver 2. Suddenly, the green light appeared on the pole “got to go see you” and he ejected the bus quickly.
“After you!” shouted after driver 1
From this real situation that I faced, I think you can see the function of the power of communication without any boundary. However, the driver functions are more than that. Thai driver realized how the importance of breakfast, so they shouted to buy soybean milk or an iced coffee via footpath during being in the red light. As we cannot predict future, so is the bus likewise.
Thailand also has a ‘free bus’. People with a low budget will love to join, because ‘it’s free’. Despite waiting them was such a long time, people willing to wait. As well as, some number of the free bus is very hard to find. It’s like a rare Pokémon like Miw II, or if you have never watch Pokémon. Let’s try the new one like the Horcrux in Harry Potter.
The bus might be surprisingly scared for one who did not get into it. But the bus for me is the thing that I’m very familiar with since I was young I always took a bus to travel because my mom didn’t want to drive. So I was an expert since I was in kindergarten.
When you get on the bus, if you’re lucky to have a seat you will feel free from the natural breeze touched your cheeks gently. However, don’t forget this is Bangkok where is the land of a smile like a shining bright sun with 100-degree Celsius on the floor. If you read until here don’t get me wrong, I have some great times on the bus. Although the bus is an unfavorable activity for many people, they are hot temperature, crowded plus the air pollution. I prefer taking a bus in especially in dusk time, due to the bad points above is totally inverted. There is few people and wind blowing. Your hair will blow followed the breezy wind. The sun goes down toward the tall buildings creating a vivid yet cozy light. It’s such a great time to take a selfie or play your own music video with your favorite song. If you’re a brokenhearted one, your tears may shed unbelievably!
Last transportation, that I willing to present is BTS or Sky train. You can take them to the hub largest mall. Siam is the busiest station because of its links to every main streets and companies. When I was a kid I fancy taking sky train very much. However the one problem about sky trains that I have been so confused for more than ten years. I didn’t understand why sky train used the card but subway used the coins as a ticket. Buying one ticket in BTS might be a hard time, the tickets machine cannot be received the banknote, that’s why you have to exchange a banknote to be coins before and then bring those coins buying a card. It’s sound very complicated and confused, isn’t it? Whereas subway ticket can buy tickets with coins and banks. It's struggling for those who didn’t bring coins like me, so I have to queue up long lines for exchanging coins. And then I queued up again to purchase a ticket.
Anyway, BTS also teaches me a lot, like how to wear the right outfit. In the past, I used to have a colossal idiot on fashion like a collapse of fashion. So I don’t know why at that time I'm so obsessed with black color. I think it’s really cool.
You may have a question “Do I am an Emo or a punk?”
I honestly said “No but I just think it was cool.”
But now I realized how sadly I am and I look very like a bin bag with a tiny weird green hairpin on my bang.
At this point, BTS gave me a taste of fashion because I saw many styles of many people’s wear. Especially in teenager. After learning from a collapse experience, I can apply that simple fashion and get a better dressing. It can say that I know how to dress without irritating other eyes.
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