The Art of Traffic
Known to foreigners as baht buses, songtauw serve as Pattaya’s primary means of public transportation. These modified pick-up trucks run a proscribed route through the city, and you can flag any one down and ride it through all the major streets.
The name songtauw refers to the two benches running lengthwise in the bed of the pickup. Passengers sit on the benches covered by a metal awning that is wired with several doorbells. When you are ready to get off you simply push the button and a bell rings in the cabin of the truck. The driver pulls over to the side of the street and you put 10 baht into his hand- about 30 cents.
I go to my practice teaching job at Pattaya Memorial Hospital at 3:30 in the afternoon. The baht buses that come by are going downtown filled with uniformed kids just out of school, hookers just woken up and still adjusting their makeup, and sweaty old expats heading down to the beach for an early happy hour. I do my best to flag down one that is almost full but not quite. If you pick the right one, all the seats will be taken. The only option then is to cling to the back, standing on the metal bar that old women use to step up into the truck. And if the ride is meant to be a truly great one, the songtauw will have a metal rail that wraps around its sides and back. Then you can lean against it and feel like the traffic is all around you.
There is an art to pretending that the Brownian motion of Pattaya traffic does not promise a collision at each blink. I am learning this composure from a girl who rides sidesaddle on the back of a moped, holding a cell phone to her boyfriend’s ear while he drives. And I discovered from the street vendors who run back and forth across the busiest streets, pick your line and hold to it, and traffic will work around you.
So when I’m leaning off the back of the baht bus, watching the pavement under my shoes and the roiling wake of mopeds behind me, I can now lean back against the railing, canted against the movement of the truck, and rest my hands behind my head in a picture of calm. I’m not in the full lotus position but I think of Buddha anyway, the standout example of composure around these parts.
The name songtauw refers to the two benches running lengthwise in the bed of the pickup. Passengers sit on the benches covered by a metal awning that is wired with several doorbells. When you are ready to get off you simply push the button and a bell rings in the cabin of the truck. The driver pulls over to the side of the street and you put 10 baht into his hand- about 30 cents.
I go to my practice teaching job at Pattaya Memorial Hospital at 3:30 in the afternoon. The baht buses that come by are going downtown filled with uniformed kids just out of school, hookers just woken up and still adjusting their makeup, and sweaty old expats heading down to the beach for an early happy hour. I do my best to flag down one that is almost full but not quite. If you pick the right one, all the seats will be taken. The only option then is to cling to the back, standing on the metal bar that old women use to step up into the truck. And if the ride is meant to be a truly great one, the songtauw will have a metal rail that wraps around its sides and back. Then you can lean against it and feel like the traffic is all around you.
There is an art to pretending that the Brownian motion of Pattaya traffic does not promise a collision at each blink. I am learning this composure from a girl who rides sidesaddle on the back of a moped, holding a cell phone to her boyfriend’s ear while he drives. And I discovered from the street vendors who run back and forth across the busiest streets, pick your line and hold to it, and traffic will work around you.
So when I’m leaning off the back of the baht bus, watching the pavement under my shoes and the roiling wake of mopeds behind me, I can now lean back against the railing, canted against the movement of the truck, and rest my hands behind my head in a picture of calm. I’m not in the full lotus position but I think of Buddha anyway, the standout example of composure around these parts.
posted by DMF at 2:44 AM
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