It is fairly well known that Bangkok has bad traffic, but it is a different sort of traffic than I have ever experienced elsewhere. In Michigan if you are sitting in traffic it is probably due to either construction or an accident, unless it happens to be Memorial Day weekend and you're heading up north, or something like that. In Bangkok, traffic may be caused by the fact that it is Friday, or end of the month pay day, or because it just rained, but it is rarely due to an accident or road work.
Traffic jams in Bangkok are extremely frustrating for several reasons. First, it is quite likely that there is no way to change course and take a different route once you've set out. There isn't a back road I can take or a surface street that runs parallel. And along with that, there probably isn't an opportunity to turn around, or if there is, the turn around traffic is just as bad. It's also much much slower, as in really not moving at all.
Last night our entire staff headed to a nearby hotel for our annual Staff Banquet. The hotel is about 7.5km from the school, but it took us and hour and forty-five minutes to get there. We could have walked faster, if not for the dresses and heels. Once we knew how bad the traffic was, there was no going back. It was Friday, the last day of the month, and there had been a massive late afternoon storm: three strikes and we were most definitely out. And what really amazes me is that there doesn't appear to be a reason for any of it. It's not like you get to the front and see that they've moved everyone down to two lanes or that there's a stalled out car or something. It's just lanes and lane of bumper to bumper cars on an infuriating road system. Luckily last night I had great company in the car and everyone else was just as late for dinner as we were. Two years in Bangkok and it still catches me off guard when I forget to plan my life around the traffic. But now I sure understand why many people do!
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