An informal poll was recently conducted to determine the two most dangerous things about Bangkok. According to the poll, the two most dangerous things were:

#1 Sidewalks

Walking in Bangkok can be very dangerous to your health. Besides inhaling the noxious air into your lungs, one must keep be very careful where you step. The sidewalks tend to be very narrow and in various states of disrepair. Watch out carefully for concrete protrusions, unexpected abutments in the pavements and raised saucers, which supposedly help in draining excess waters in case of a deluge. In addition, watch out for sleeping dogs. I have had several close calls while navigating down the Sukhumvit and near my hotel President Park on Sukhumvit Soi 22. When walking on the streets of Bangkok, I have learned to keep one eye on the sidewalk and one eye on oncoming pedestrians.

#2 Motorbike taxis

In order to beat the heavy traffic congestion in downtown Bangkok, hiring a motorbike taxi is very tempting. But if you watch carefully how most of these daredevils recklessly weave in and out of traffic at breakneck speeds, you will realize how dangerous a proposition this is. I have even seen some of these motorbike taxis ride on the sidewalk in order to avoid the congested street traffic. Believe me, you take your life in your hands when you ride a motorbike taxi. However, if you’d like to go that route, by all means make sure that that you are provided with a protective helmet.

Factoid: The leading cause of serious injury and death in Bangkok is the motorbike taxi.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 at 9:05 am and is filed under Humor, Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.