Essentials for Motorbikes in Phuket

Off to the market with mom

 
Shortly after arrival, we needed to get transportation and then learn how to operate a motor vehicle on the opposite side of the road to what we had been accustomed. On Monday we decided that we need to have transportation, but also to get my named added to the house lease, as you cannot do much of anything here unless you have a work permit or on a lease agreement. Clive had come earlier and arranged the house. That was fine, but if I wanted to open a bank account or buy a vehicle I needed to be on the lease. The house agency is about 3 KM away and we began a walk, looking for a tuk-tuk or a motorcycle taxi. They are on the roads frequently and you simply waive or better yet as they approach you from behind they toot their horn and if you want them you simply wave them over and negotiate the fee. The first one was a motorcycle taxi so Clive suggested that I take that one and he get another, but the rider insisted he could take both of us. Picture the two of us perched on the back seat of a Honda 100 cc motorbike. The driver managed to get us there, I was amazed I did not have graze marks on my butt from the overhang of sitting on the back, with Clive pushed between me and the driver, but 100 Baht later there we were.


Finished with the lease adjustment, we headed to the Honda shop, on foot this time, a few hundred meters away. One hour later, we drove off the lot on our new Scoopy-i 110 cc motorbikes. Many of you have seen the picture on Facebook. I will be issuing a special photo edition later this month with the photos in them for those non-facebook people.
The motorbike purchase was indicative of most purchases here. You go in, pick what you want and they get it ready for you as you wait in air conditioning, with coffee, juice, water and some places even beer and the television, magazines and newspapers. It was, I must say even better than going to the Mercedes dealer in Canada.

So we scoopy’ed back home in style. As a special promotion (they are always special promotions everywhere), we got the helmets, a nice jacket and the bikes for w very very good price. We were also issued with our new vehicle license plates, which are red with white writing. Every new driver gets these for 3 months before you get a permanent white plate with black letters. In order to buy them, you have to be on a long stay visa and you have to have local address, which I do. So both bikes are in my name. I also required approval from the immigration department, which can be done after purchase. I love my Scoopy and after 10 days I am at 300 KM. The rules of the road are quite a bit different here. Firstly many people do not wear helmets, although the police are cracking down on that. When I say helmet it is a very loose phrase. The best ones are the plastic construction hats, or the baseball batter helmets. There does not seem to be anything about having them strapped on, but on the head works. I am amazed at how many farang (non-Thai-mostly white people) scoot along in nothing but shorts and sun glasses. Oh, maybe some flip-flops. A very unpleasant sight to see the 200+ pound people giggling along the roadway. As you may know the road driving here is on the left hand side. Something I was a bit leery about when I first started to ride, thinking I may forget and go the the right side. But that has not happened. After a few days, you realize that the left side is a general guideline. While there are accidents, they tend to be mostly late at night, when the possibility of running into another motorcycle, without head or tail lights, a pedestrian, a vendor sidecar motorbike or a bicycle, none of them with any markers or lights, has kept us close to home after dark anyway.

When you ride a motorbike, you always pull to the front of the line at a traffic light. There you will be joined by many many other bikes. they all congregate in front of the cars and trucks and most traffic lights have a electronic clock that says how long this light will be red or green. Normally at the 3 second light for red, the bikes begin to cross the roadway, by the time the cars have a full on green light the bikes are well along the roadway. They have solid white lines that are about one or two  motor bikes wide, and that is where the motor bikes normally ride. However it is not uncommon to find a motor bike coming towards you in the same lane. The same can be said for left hand turns. When proceeding through and intersection, you are wise to leave space for the motor bikes that are entering your road, as the proceed when safe seems to be a guide for tourists. The second common sign of potential trouble is illuminated by the 7-11 sign at what appears to be every 1000 meters. Yesterday we went through a side street that was anchored Starbucks style, with a 7-11 on each corner of either end of the street There are ALWAYS lots of motor bikes coming and going from 7-11. In fact you can usually find a place to park your motor bike there, just try to navigate through them to get inside the store. It is also not uncommon for a few cars to be double parked and the motor bikes whip in and out through the space left between the double parked cars. Amazingly though it all seems to flow. I am so happy my friend Casey taught me to ride and I took the proper courses for motorcycles, as all of those skills help to keep me alert, aware and anticipating what may come. The big challenge and subject of discussion was to attend Songkram. As you may have read in my New Year e-mail, there would be lots of water throwing. Riding a motor bike in that condition, with what I have just described could be a challenge. But ride we did, and yes we got very very wet. Clive even got scented powder thrown on him. We simply expected that we would get doused, and by the time we headed out, the hiding spots were fairly clear as evidenced by the large wet spaces on the roads, we simply braced. The shock was to find out if the water was hot, warm or ice cold. We tried all three. Sometimes from the backs of pickup trucks with a full load of water pistol totting people, who had  very large water tanks to restock on the run with. Sometimes with buckets or bowls from between parked cars. All in good fun. We made a wrong turn in the town of Phuket and had to rerun a street where they had gotten us once. On the return they got both of us three times each.

There are motorcycle shops everywhere. In Phuket town there are three Honda dealers in the same city block. They have large gas stations here and on market night, they have reserved bike lanes at one gas station where you get in the line, open your tank and walk through the line-up. Get filled, pay the cashier and drive away. They move at a very efficient rate. If you mis the gas station, there are people who sell gasoline by the whiskey bottle for 30 Baht, off of card tables in front of their homes. I saw that the refill gas containers at the gas station can vary, but tend to be the clear plastic  3 litre water jug. And if that fails, there are self-serve vending machines in various places, where you pull off, put your bank note in and fill up. Gas here today for regular unleaded is selling for about 70 cents CDN a litre at the large chain gas stations.


As for service, there are literally hundreds of places to get your bike serviced, get a new tube or accessorize, from the local night market, to upscale retail chains. My favourite scene yet, has been the very large white man in a pair of lycra shorts and flip flops riding a scooter that was decked out from front to back, including the over sized seat in a “Hello Kitty” motif. I have lived in fear tat Clive would follow-through on his threat to accessorize me the same way.

The people at the department of transport would be in shock to see the various motorbikes here. I have decided that seeing people with the kick-stand fully extended going down the road is normal. No head or tail light? no problem. Mirrors seem to be for the passenger to fix their face while chatting side saddle on the back. And the lack of self-canceling signal lights, can be an issue especially if you have followed someone for 2 KM and they suddenly turn the opposite direction of the indicator light.

I have to go back to BC in a few weeks and then a road trip to Saskatchewan. I have told Clive I am actually afraid that if I drive there like they do here, and I am driving to the local norm, I may have no licence by the time I get back here plus a large number of fines when the RCMP catch me.

Last evening I was out for a while and got into a police road check. Unlike what we see in BC, there had to have been 100 police officers and they cordon the highway to one lane both directions. I think there must have been over 100 motorbikes sitting by the side of the road as traffic tickets were handed out for no helmets. The clue to the road block was the sudden slowing of the motorbikes ahead of me as they zipped off the road down side streets or parked, in hopes of waiting out the police roadblock. On the news today I heard that because of Songkran the number of deaths and injuries was very high and that the police had one of the highest revenue generating days this year. The fine system is a bit complicated. We live in the city of Chalong, but travel to the cities of Phuket or Kata/Karon. The fines which can be paid on the spot or at the police station later, are not the same rate in each city, so an infraction in Phuket may cost you 300 Baht and in Chalong it may be 200.

In the few weeks we have been here, I have not seen an actual Police car as we would expect at home. But you do see lots of them on 110 cc motorbikes., identifiable by the uniform and gold helmets and the long brown leather riding boots.

Motorbikes are an essential mode of transport here. To see more than one person on a motorbike is common, to see three or more is also not unusual. The kids here have all sort fo ways to ride with mom and dad. Jam a plastic seat between the handlebars and the front fo the seat, and it sits one. If, like ours there is a floorboard space, then they stand and hold the handlebars. This is not limited to children however. The number of dogs that ride with the owner is also routine business. The prize has to go the the visitor to the neighbour, who’s picture I posted to my facebook page. The dog, the size of Byron, rides by sitting perfectly on the back of the seat. Lap dogs if there are floorboards sit on the floor boards and poke their heads out around the front forks, instead of like at home where the dogs sticks his head out the window. Or the best one, is the dog in the backpack or grocery cloth sack whit the head hanging out by the riders lap. Byron is most curious about the going for a ride on the back seat, and I am expecting to find Clive out training him.