Dead Fast: Bangkok Motorbike Taxis

Bangkok’s motorbike taxis provide the quickest – and most dangerous – way to get around the traffic chaos of the frenetic Big Mango

I found myself thinking, almost idly, “If we hit something now, we’re dead”.

It’s a thought I find myself thinking almost every day, virtually every time I get on a motorbike taxi. Bangkok’s traffic is the archetypal gridlock nightmare, a bumper-to-bumper car chain of idling engines and choking fumes, all topped off with heat that makes a car’s occupant feel like they’re under a magnifying glass. Here the motorbike taxi is king: it’s cheap, it’s efficient, and if you want to get anywhere by road in less than an hour, it’s your only real option. It’s a common sight to see glammed-up office girls expertly riding sidesiddle on the back of a bike, high heels skimming just above the ground as their driver screams down a soi.

Catching a lift on a bike pillion is so common, and used for the shortest journies to beat the heat, that helmets for passengers are almost non-existent. Whilst this is undeniably dangerous, there’s also something undeniably thrilling about riding on the back of a bike bareheaded. The wind in your hair, the unrestricted sights and sounds of the streets tearing by, and – this is going to sound a bit weird – the exhilaration of watching your driver beat the traffic. Bangkok’s bike taxis are incredibly skilled at reading the situation around them, deftly swerving, stopping and accelerating at just the right moments to avoid pedestrians, opening car doors, cross-flow traffic and god knows what else in the maelstrom of obstacles that constitutes Bangkok traffic. But everytime I get on one, that thought almost always pops into my head at some point as we’re speeding down Sukhumvit having just mounted the pavement and skidded to a near-stop to avoid a stray dog.

I hope my mum doesn’t read this.

(I originally wrote this back in May 2005. I’ve since stopped using motorbike taxis because the risk really is just too much. But your mileage may vary…)

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