One of my big fears I decided to conquer this year was driving a motorbike in Thailand. If you’ve followed past stories, you know I was in an accident … or two. I would liken driving in Thailand to juggling swords. Pretty much every time I do it… I almost die.
Seriously.
In one day of driving to and from the school I work at, I encounter nearly every form of demise in a variety of all shapes and sizes. People drive on the opposite side of the road here, drive head on at you from either side of the road, and you are constantly dodging dogs, children, monks, tuk-tuks, other motorbikes, super-sized trucks, and paving equipment.
Right now, they are doing some construction. A minor inconvenience of six to twenty foot ditches are running alongside the road with absolutely no warning or boundaries. I call this part of my drive “The Graveyard”. But somehow, even through the mayhem, I still make it to my destination unscathed, every day.
Most of these steps can also be applied to Life…
I’m slightly humored that this new event has brought about some valuable lessons I’m applying to more than just driving, and I hope they can help you, or at least make you laugh…
1. Have someone show you the ropes… or at least the brakes
When in doubt, get someone to help. My friend Hilton took me out to drive on my first day. I was hoping to go for a gentle ride around slow and straight roads. What I got instead was a very real taste of what it is like to drive in Thailand.
We went down very windy roads, dirt and gravel roads, practiced skidding emergency stops, sped through a pack of wild attack dogs, then onto a road covered with paving equipment, spraying water trucks and slippery oiled asphalt chunks. The traffic was down to one lane and oncoming traffic squeezed us up against the six inch shoulder. Once that event was complete, back to a dirt road where geese proceeded to rear up and nearly attack us.
That night, it rained, and I was sure I had seen it all. Even though I hoped for a more gentle introduction to riding, I realized that I would need to be comfortable in each of those situations, and inevitably they got me through my first week of driving where I needed to use each skill I learned in my training.
2. Assume everyone around you is going to do something stupid
Not to be a pessimist but I’ve discovered something that has made me much more happy. I now assume that people around me are going to do something stupid. On the road, or in life, people are typically looking out for number one, and you are not it. Really, some days as I am weaving in and out of Songtows (trucks that act as busses), motorbikes piled high with people and dogs, and ruthless truck drivers, I realize it is a miracle that we are all able to make it to our destinations alive. If I assume we’re all just a bunch of fuck-ups trying to get to our destination, life and driving becomes a lot more bearable.
3. Don’t worry about what’s behind you, or you’ll crash
If I’m too worried about what is happening behind me, I start to get very overwhelmed and miss what I should be looking at: what’s happening right in front of me. Driving here is scary because trucks move at a much faster speed behind you and can invariably push you off the road if you aren’t paying attention. But, I’m learning more and more to ignore them, take my time, and claim my space.
4. Change your speed when you need to
I recently read some statistics about how many traffic fatalities there are a year. He made an excellent point of showing the relationships between speeding up and fatalities. Obviously, the faster you go, the longer it takes to stop. This is something important to keep in mind in life, as well as driving.
That said, oftentimes it is important to speed up. I’ve gotten out of many near-catastrophes by speeding up and getting around the situation. Being able to read the situation helps, and knowing how to change and adapt will get you around turns, ups and downs, and out of dangerous situations fast.
5. Claim your space and own it
This is a very exciting concept for me. I’ve never really “owned” the space around me. When you drive here, you very much have to own your space, or you will get run over. I imagine it must be like being a quarterback and picking your path and going balls-out around and past obstacles. At the stoplights, you might have twenty or thirty motorbikes lined up with you and when it is “Go Time”, you’ve got to claim that space and go for it.
6. And as Teacher Bill says, “When all else fails, and the road gets rocky, hold on to that Som’Bitch and keep on driving!”
There are so many times I want to Stop Driving. The road is dusty and gravely (or wet!), the turn too tight, or a big-monster-truck-with-wheels-bigger-than-life cuts so close that I can smell the brake fluid. My natural reaction is that I want to stop. But I can’t.
So I take a deep breath, grip my handles tighter, and make it through. Every time, I’ve lived, and every time, I get just a little bit tougher. I’m learning more and more to sit through uncomfortable situations rather than trying to avoid them—and what do you know?—I’m getting better at dealing with them, too!!
Hope this finds you well and here are some pictures of my epic journey….
