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Thurmont
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It's been a few months since my wife and I returned from Phuket Thailand and it just dawned on me that I should have posted some pics of the locals and how they get around.
A little background... my wife is a professional wedding photographer. She was hired by a DFW couple to shoot their wedding in Phuket, Thailand. It wasn't my wife's first "destination wedding" as it's called but it was the farthest. Of course I was happy to volunteer to tag along as a bag boy and go-fer. We left the day after Christmas and returned about a week into the new year.
Most of the pictures below were taken as we were riding with the wedding party, 17 of us in all, in a full sized tour bus. Our guide told us that the city of Phuket has a mandatory helmet law but there's no law in the outlying areas of the island of Phuket. He pointed out we could get a sense of how close we were to the city by looking at the number of scooter riders wearing helmets or even having helmets with them on the bike. In the city, everyone was wearing a helmet. In what could be called the suburbs, some were wearing them but many had the helmet in basket on the handlebars. In the countryside... helmet?... we don't need any helmets.
Most of the scooters were in the 100-125cc range. The Honda Wave was very prevalent. Suzuki's and Yamaha's also had a strong presence. Other then the Honda motorcycle pictured below, we only saw 3 other full-sized bikes. They were Harleys and were being ridden in a wealthier section of the island.
Gas prices were about 35 bahts per liter. At the time, 35 bahts equaled a U.S. dollar so that comes out to be about $4/gallon. But factor in how much these people make per year and you can understand why they ride.
Thailand riders are SKILLED. They were riding in heavy traffic amongst buses and cars on narrow roads in the tropical heat while all along carrying luggage and/or riding 2,3, or 4 up. And the pictures below are during the best of times, these folks ride like this during the monsoon season! During our 2 weeks I only saw one accident. It appeared a rider clipped a park car and was sitting on the ground as our bus past. He appeared conscience and alert. A cop was standing over him with a radio calling an ambulance, I imagine. I can only assume he wasn't hurt too badly.
Without further delay here are the pictures.
A kid that's not getting much airflow during his ride...
Your mirrors can also be used as effective handles...
Ridin' four up...
Dad, mom, baby, and shopping bags. We also saw a family like this on another scooter on which the child was about 2 years old and the mom was feeding the kid with a baby bottle...
A good picture showing how folks ride single, triple, or even four at a time...
Riding crosses the generation gap. Young, old, and everyone in between ride. The youngest solo rider I saw was approximately 8 years old. He was riding at night in heavy traffic as we crossed over the mountain dividing the Karon Beach and Patong Beach areas...
In Phuket, cars are the minority...
And if you hadn't noticed by now, they drive on the left side of the road there...
A HUGE Honda motorcycle in the land of scooters...
A typical license plate...
And lastly, their anti-drunk driving campaign. Sure the translation isn't perfect but I get the point...
Ride safe all,
Wayne
A little background... my wife is a professional wedding photographer. She was hired by a DFW couple to shoot their wedding in Phuket, Thailand. It wasn't my wife's first "destination wedding" as it's called but it was the farthest. Of course I was happy to volunteer to tag along as a bag boy and go-fer. We left the day after Christmas and returned about a week into the new year.
Most of the pictures below were taken as we were riding with the wedding party, 17 of us in all, in a full sized tour bus. Our guide told us that the city of Phuket has a mandatory helmet law but there's no law in the outlying areas of the island of Phuket. He pointed out we could get a sense of how close we were to the city by looking at the number of scooter riders wearing helmets or even having helmets with them on the bike. In the city, everyone was wearing a helmet. In what could be called the suburbs, some were wearing them but many had the helmet in basket on the handlebars. In the countryside... helmet?... we don't need any helmets.
Most of the scooters were in the 100-125cc range. The Honda Wave was very prevalent. Suzuki's and Yamaha's also had a strong presence. Other then the Honda motorcycle pictured below, we only saw 3 other full-sized bikes. They were Harleys and were being ridden in a wealthier section of the island.
Gas prices were about 35 bahts per liter. At the time, 35 bahts equaled a U.S. dollar so that comes out to be about $4/gallon. But factor in how much these people make per year and you can understand why they ride.
Thailand riders are SKILLED. They were riding in heavy traffic amongst buses and cars on narrow roads in the tropical heat while all along carrying luggage and/or riding 2,3, or 4 up. And the pictures below are during the best of times, these folks ride like this during the monsoon season! During our 2 weeks I only saw one accident. It appeared a rider clipped a park car and was sitting on the ground as our bus past. He appeared conscience and alert. A cop was standing over him with a radio calling an ambulance, I imagine. I can only assume he wasn't hurt too badly.
Without further delay here are the pictures.
A kid that's not getting much airflow during his ride...
Your mirrors can also be used as effective handles...
Ridin' four up...
Dad, mom, baby, and shopping bags. We also saw a family like this on another scooter on which the child was about 2 years old and the mom was feeding the kid with a baby bottle...
A good picture showing how folks ride single, triple, or even four at a time...
Riding crosses the generation gap. Young, old, and everyone in between ride. The youngest solo rider I saw was approximately 8 years old. He was riding at night in heavy traffic as we crossed over the mountain dividing the Karon Beach and Patong Beach areas...
In Phuket, cars are the minority...
And if you hadn't noticed by now, they drive on the left side of the road there...
A HUGE Honda motorcycle in the land of scooters...
A typical license plate...
And lastly, their anti-drunk driving campaign. Sure the translation isn't perfect but I get the point...
Ride safe all,
Wayne
