Hello all.

Just to share my experience driving in Thailand. I went to Krabi last CNY. I got there over land i.e. by driving. It was a short trip but heck was it left indelible impression on me? It sure did!

First up - the bad thing. Thai immigration at Sadao (Bkt Kayu Hitam – BKH - counterpart) was inefficient with such a weird checking process. After breezing thru BKH M’sian checkpoint, what I encountered at Sadao was a surprise and disappointing at the same time (this was my first foray into Thai). I had to park my car and queue up to the immigration booth. To make matter worst, a couple of buses had just unloaded their passengers so there I was with my family behind a long queue. To cut a long story short, I spent 1 hour (that’s right 1 FREAKIN HOUR! ) before I finally passed that damned place. (a ‘hang’ computer system added 20 minutes to the waiting… duh). I kept on thinking why can’t they have a drive thru checking just like Malaysia and Singapore?

Okay much can be said about Sadao immigration and sad to say most of them are unpleasant (the experience was repeated on my way back) but that’s not the reason why I write this piece. As much as I was disappointed by archaic and stupid Thai immigration procedures, I am truly impressed by their road condition. After being fed with gomen’s propaganda all these years about M’sia having ‘the best road’ in SEA, I expected pocked mark, bumpy and narrow roads all the way to Krabi.

I was totally wrong (and no doubt cheated)! The roads were wide and smooth with nary a pot hole! Trust me I’d driven about 1,000km inside Thai during this trip (distance from BKH to Krabi was abt 350km, on the way back I diverted to Songkhla) and I did not find, much less hit one darn hole! Uneven patched works yes but no holes. That my friend is saying a lot as a M’sian accustomed to broken stretch of cratered passages M’sian gomen passed as roads. I also noticed that apart from the wide lane, the roads also have a sizeable emergency lane which constantly exist almost the whole length of my journey (except the hilly part before Trang).

Regardless of whether you take the highway (with two lanes on each direction) or the ‘country road’, both are of the same qualities i.e. smooth wide lane tarmac with substantial emergency lane and yes without potholes. I dare say that the qualities of these roads are even better than our tolled h/way. And the best part was it was absolutely TOLL FREE!

Perhaps this explain why Thai has lower accidents than us (I don’t have the stats but our gomen keep on saying ours are among the highest in the world? Another cheat?) because their drivers can concentrate on the road ahead watching for traffic as opposed to us who juggle looking up (to the traffic) and down (locating - and hopefully avoiding because too many – holes).

Also make me wonder why do we pay toll (which keep on increasing) but got crappy bombed-out killer roads?

being cheated huh.. let's vote for change... no to corrupt, no to expensive petrol & car...

ya. thai roads are cool.

as for immigration, i went in via padang besar in perlis. no wait, no problem.

We can vote for a change but given 'phantom' (money politics) voters, which has been going on 4 years, we will still get back d same old shit. sigh......

Guess, we better be prepared for a rise in cost of living again, when d elections are done.

petrol price for sure gonna increase.. after that all barang start to increase.. always barang naik.. and same old trick "our petrol price still the cheapest in the region" ....

Hehe.. on that part I'd made a financially fatal mistake of not having a full tank on entry. The price of petrol is 290 Baht for RON91 and 320 Baht for RON95 per litre (exchange rate RM1 = 10 Baht). Almost cry paying 1600 Baht for 55 litres of petrol .



Yup next time will try Pdg Besar to go to Phuket.

you have tpo go thru that huge sugar cane farm before you reach pdg besar. it's quick a nice scenic area if you arent rushing.

the area is called Chuping...its one huge sugar cane plantation and as you said, the view is nice and it makes for one relaxing drive.

it's relaxing when it's not flooding.

Let us teach the government that we voter have power to change government. Do we want to consider Pak Lah as our PM again, sleeping PM, never seen any picture of our former PM sleeping though.

Been there long time ago. Yeap beautiful scenery. From afar when you are at higher part of the stretch you can see the area like a meadow - mcm kat luar negeri. The thing missing is the sheep

Second installment of the Thai drive. In my earlier post, I mentioned a few times about the sizeable emergency lane on Thai roads. My multiple mention of it is because I cannot emphasise enough the importance of its existence. What I gather from my driving stint there was that this extra piece of tarmac served as a very useful tool that contributed to the safe and pleasant drive in that country. Remember that the lane itself is wide thus couple that with the emergency lane on the side it gives motorist a big margin of error.

Now I’ll be a bit rash to call for such thing to be built on our roads knowing some nutters would be using it to perfect their left overtaking maneuver. But in the Tom Yam Land, significant numbers of their drivers are actually courteous enough to give way by moving aside to the emergency lane when they see you closing in from behind hence you don’t really need to get over to the other side to overtake. And (get this) they do the same when overtaking vehicles from the opposite direction couldn’t get back to their lane in time. The ‘offending’ vehicle simply flashes its light. No dramatics (horn blaring, fist punching, finger gestures or four letter word shouting) at all. My point here is not so much of Thai drivers’ attitude but the existence of such good roads certainly reduces chances of accidents. And if you feel kind enough, you can actually emulate the good aspect of Thai drivers because you have the choice to move aside to that wide emergency lane.

Now moving to another subject – road upgrade/repair. How often that when we face road upgrade/works we wish we could have taken different road? Why? Because the temporary detour road is - most often than not - normally rotten beyond word. By me saying that, it would be a dead giveaway on how stress-free it is to encounter road works in the land of Nasi Goreng Pattaya. You can maintain normal speed on their detours because from my experience, the only things lacking were the painted lines. And they don’t use that red/white plastics barricades too which in M’sian road works existed by the thousands (no doubt contributing to the cost). And during my journey, I don’t see ‘unfinished’ road works – they are either normal useable roads or stretches under construction with workers seen working on them. In our beloved country, they are so many unfinished roads but look as if they’re done because you don’t see anyone working on them anymore. Don’t believe me? Just go to Kapar. That road has been like that - uneven tarmac with protruding manholes and yes that ubiquitous red/white barricades all over the stretch - for so many moons.

I’m still not really over with my grouse on potholes so let me indulge in it a lil bit more. Siamese favor 4x4 over sedans. On the hindsight it’s ironic. With their tar McAdam so smooth, why should they sport such an ungainly (to me la) barn stormers? They should enjoy their marvelous roads with low riding sport sedans shod with 18 inch (at least!) wheels and 30 series on four corners. On the other hand, more of us should use 4x4 given the sorry state of our roads. Reflecting on this, sporting big wheels with low profile tires may induce heart break and financial ruin in this country. What’s with bent rims, broken air dam/skirts and damaged suspension. Still, consider yourself lucky if that are the only mishaps befalling you because the worst that could have happen is losing your life trying hard to avoid that humongous hole sitting pretty just before a bend in the dead of night on an unlit stretch of moonscape our authority pass off as road.

Now that would be really tragic.

With that in mind, marilah mengundi.

Agree.
In Malaysia there are three lanes.

One is the fast lane.
Second is the medium fast lane.
The third is forever-digging lane....



(saw from Kee's world cartoon)