This is what I face everyday on my way home from school.
Bangkok - City of Angels, place where Tom Yam originated from and also notorious for its traffic jams. After living here for so long, I have gotten quite used to the slow crawl of traffic. What makes it bearable is the fact that most of the drivers are fairly patient (you seldom hear honking) and drivers let you pass through or cut into their lanes. I guess if everyone figures they are in the same predicament, then hey, why sweat it.So what does one do in a traffic jam? Well, it depends on the jam itself. There are what I call 'everyday' jams. These are where traffic slows down because you have five lanes that suddenly converge into two.
Or you have the case of the neverending traffic light. Traffic lights here can last up to three - four minutes. Doesn't sound long, right? Wait till you are in desperate need of the loo, then it becomes and eternity. My friend's son has had to pee in the bottle because he couldn't hold it in. There was an incident where the driver of the car fell asleep whilst waiting for the light to change. Had to get a motorbike boy to knock on the window to wake her up.
Then you have the jams caused by the 'side parkers'. These are the people who park to one side of a road that is already too narrow for two cars to pass. Amazingly, no matter how tight the squeeze, you will emerge on the other side without anyone cursing or flipping you the bird.
Another aspect of the 'side parkers' are the taxis that will screech to a sudden stop to pick up a fare. My favourite is when the would be passenger has a 'conversation' with the taxi driver. I'm guessing that they are talking about destination or how to find a place. The beauty of this is both taxi and passenger will ignore the growing queue of cars behind them.
The ultimate traffic jam is one that is caused by a political protest. I was fortunate (?) to be caught in one last year. It took me more than two hours to reach my destination (I could have flown to Singapore during that time). Why did I not turn back you may ask? Problem is there is a point of no return and once you passed it, you are stuck, stuck, stuck.
So, based on all these different jams, the question is "what does one do?" Many take the time to groom themselves ie make up, combing hair. I think if hairdryers could be plugged in, they would be used. You can almost finish reading the newspapers. Many take cat naps. But my favourite of all, is you can have your breakfast/lunch/dinner while in the car.
5 comments:
ah, the infamous Bangkok traffic! I heard that drivers keep bottles in their cars for pee cos they can be stuck for 3 hrs at a go. I'd go bananas! So you can probably schedule entire meetings in the car huh? :D
Haha I love how it's once again food related with you. But the question is - are there vendors that will zip around to sell food ? So if you're feeling hungry while caught in a jam, you can just order right from your car.
Monica: you won't believe how much work my husband can do while stuck in traffic. I've arranged lunch dates, play dates etc
SM: Yes, I do love my food :) Yes, they do have vendors zipping around. My fave is the fried bananas.
Not playing a game of one-upmanship, but I think Moscow traffic is probably worse, not least because everything around you is so dreary plus no vendors zipping around to sell you food. I've gotten stuck for 2 hours to get to a place that's 10 min away on normal traffic. Our colleague once took 5 hours to get back from the airport, without traffic the journey should be less than 45 min.
My husband works on his laptop in the car. I work on Killer Sudoku or Kakuro to preserve my sanity.
Lilian: I've heard about Mocscow's horrendous traffic from a Russion mum. I think I'll probably have a mini workspace there so that I can go on FB and play Scrabble :)
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