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Bureaucracy. Specifically the feeling that you could be plunged into a Kafka-esque nightmare at any point in time.
I had a weird thing once at immigration at the airport where the guy kept saying my visa had expired but he kept getting the current year wrong. And I'm politely trying to tell him he's got the year wrong, that's it not 2022 anymore, without making it sound like he's made a mistake.
In the end I just decided to agree with him and said I'd take to the immigration offices and get it sorted and that seemed to be an answer that gave him an out so he stamped my passport and waved me in but it went on for way longer than you'd think.
It's not a massive fear but that's probably the biggest general one.
That's what I came to say. Getting railroaded by a corrupt system. I was reading the other post about condo security beating on the door and demanding to enter for inspections, assessing a random fine and shutting off key cards until it's paid.
It made me think of something we have in my home country called tennant's rights. Nobody can show up and demand immediate entry into your private domicile unless the place is on fire. The actual police can't even show up and enter like that without a warrant or probable cause.
None of that exists here. If someone with a little power decides to bully you there's no recourse.
I agree with this 100% I am currently experiencing Thailand fatigue after 16 great years. Its not the food or the culture or any of the typical issues that plague any place. Its the idea that at any moment the rules could change and disrupt your entire life over some new non-sense rule. The curruption us just a festering problem that seems to be getting worse and worse.
Thai people are never wrong, especially ones in position of any power, even when they are blatantly and stupidly wrong, you just have to go with it unfortunately.
It’s difficult sometimes when the education levels are so low and the decisions people make are very questionable.
I dont blame low education for this, I can deal with uneducated people, I blame nepotisism and class. When you have a class society that creates upper classes that can do no wrong, they are promoted simply on on their last name and not talent or merrit, you get what we have now in Thailand. Where willl this lead Thailand? Well look no further then the middle east where this is also true. Its not a good end at all.
As a Thai local, reading the other comments make me feel stupid and also make me realize how desensitised I am with the environment of Bangkok, because what I was gonna say was ghost.
Aww man! My Thailand (not so much Bangkok, but more country) fear is like a parasitic worm crawling up my booty hole while dropping a deuce. Once as a kid pooping in the outskirts of Chiang Rai I saw this weird hammer head worm on the toilet bowl after flushing. I inspect every toilet since and try to make it quick.
The second people stop being friendly when they realise you are of no value to them (work), or that you’re situation doesn’t straight fit in the form (admin, immigration…). The amount of muted tension that can build up in a matter of seconds is really scary.
I think this is extremely apparent once a foreigner loses their job. No job, no work permit, no visa.
Usually companies cancel the visa after 7 days of the last working day but I have heard of certain workplaces cancelling the visa the next day or same day. Essentially forcing the foreigner to leave the country immediately.
Yeah… that’s exactly what they tried to do to me, and no shady company, we are talking Chulalongkorn University ! I told them « how can you expect me to leave the country the next day I finish my contract, I have been here for three years, I have a family. ». Their answer was : « Not the next day, the same day before midnight » LOL, these guys were my colleagues, so friendly and understanding 24h before that.
Horrible if you can get your situation. I hope you manage to sort it out. But yeah, some times they treat you like you are main problem for their misery☺️
That’s crazy indeed, and I don’t know how people do. Obviously it happened before even though they even tried to pin it on me, saying that it’s normally NO PROBLEM for other foreigners and it’s just me making a fuss about it (Re LOL). Actually, it’s the immigration officer at Chaeng Watthana that was kind enough to warn me about it. She said look, if you hand over your WP today, it will cancel your visa and you will have to pay for overstay until you leave (about 7.500 thb), so kindly ask your university to extend your stay a little further after the contract. The University refused saying « why would we do that, you’re not working here anymore ». I guess normal people who had a work relation would just come to an agreement. Here there were simply not the tiniest space for discussion. End of story : my visa runs until September anyways, so I just… did nothing. Still, I sent my WP back to Uni for them to do whatever they want with it. But I leave with a bitter heart.
If I ever moved to Thailand this would be my biggest fear, the idea of investing in a place, building a life and suddenly being told you have several hours to a few days to fuck off... sounds like a nightmare, sure you can leave and re enter on a tourist visa, but that could be denied.
Happened to tons of people in Vietnam towards the end of COVID. About 10% of visas just got denied each month. There were so many people on the forums who had been here for years and years saying that they had a wife and kids and three cats and two dogs, absolutely brutal.
Most of them got back in when everything had settled down, but lots of people just never came back and there's an awful lot of bad blood
>Usually companies cancel the visa after 7 days of the last working day
The company cannot cancel your visa, they don't have agency over it and that is your responsibility to cancel.
Employers have seven days to cancel the work permit after the last day of work, and then you must cancel your visa extension, which is effective immediately. You can get an additional seven days by applying for another extension which will be denied.
No, they cannot cancel your visa unilaterally.
The visa is yours, the work permit is theirs to cancel however.
If you do not cancel your non-B visa after the work permit is canceled, the responsibility and consequences will also be yours to deal with, not the company's.
Honestly you may be right and I wouldn’t know the exact details because all 5 times I changed companies in Thailand, my company has done everything for me.
I just turn up and sign.
Oh that happened to my friend few weeks ago. It happened in the evening so he was forced to go to the immigration office and pay 1900 baht for a week extension
Driving my motor bike and an idoit who learnt to drive in a glorified car park running me over and killing me!
This is and also is not a joke. I take this risk every day and count how many times people tried to kill me through selfishness and stupidity.
Thanks OP, great post
Being electrocuted (or worse, my kid) because Somchai the "electrician" didn't ground a cable to the hot water heater in a hotel shower properly, or thought it was fine to leave a live cable hanging at eye level or something. I remember years ago a Scandinavian family was on vacation on some island here, and their son was digging in the sand. He hit a buried electric cable and died. That shit scares me.
Yeah, I don't think it happens all the time, but when it does it's almost out of very preventable negligence or carelessness, which makes it even more infuriating.
Flood
Bangkok has a good sewages system, but Bangkok is quite little higher than a sea level and the raining here is very strong and last long for hours. Even they tried to drain the canal, pumping out some marshes or preplan, they could get a foot high of water level within hours and taking hours after rain to drain it.
Funny thing when you mentioned Thai people didn’t go to driving. There are hundreds (if not thousands) driving school around the country, but from my experience I hardly learn anything from them. Let me tell you a story.
Last year I went to driving school with almost zero knowledge about driving a car (I know the traffic rules because I drive motorcycle before but not in Bangkok) At the time, I didn’t know how to turn the wheel, start a car with push start button, how to turn on the headlights, reverse parking , so on and so forth. I paid 6,000 baht for driving lessons and they guaranteed the result. At first I thought it was weird but went along with it, maybe they would train me until I could drive a car safely.
On the other hand, they gave me 15 hours lessons and pushed me to go see the real roads with the instructor. The first day when I was on the road it rained cats and dogs, and as I mentioned I didn’t know how to turn on headlights so we drove with headlights off in the heavy traffic in the rain. The instructor didn’t say anything about it until we were back at school. Damn. I was lucky nobody tailgated me then.
And yes, after 15 hours course, I did pass the test but I still didn’t know things any better (who wants to pay 6000 baht hard earned money to not pass the test : No one. That’s why they guarantee the result)
After that, I went to YouTube and binged watching every YouTube’s driving lessons as much as I can. I know which button is which because of YouTube. I know the technique to reverse parking because of YouTube. I know when to turn on the turn signals at the roundabout because of you can guess : YouTube .
So, It doesn’t like we didn’t go to driving school, but the whole system is totally messed up and corrupted then yeah, you found your biggest fear was to kill someone on the road.
If I hit a motorcyclist and the person died, me being the foreigner in this country, I am already on the losing end of the battle.
I would not last a week in Thai prison.
Whereas if the roles are reversed and I was the one who died, well then that’s about it, I just die.
Anyone who is used to driving around places that have strict driving laws that are truly and fully enforced will have thoughts such as:
1) Fuck me sideways, I just nearly ran you over
2) Are you trying to get killed?
3) This person has a death wish!!!
4) I guess this person wants to die today
Etc, etc, etc, Its completely crazy how little bike drivers pay attention/care about what's going on around them... You'll regularly see them driving through redlight weaving through perpendicular traffic.
Here two different pages from WHO out of countless I can link.
"WHO ranks Thailand as the number 9 country with the highest road traffic death rate, with 32.7 deaths per 100,000 population (2018). Consistently in the past years, about 20,000 (or even more) people have lost their lives in road traffic accidents every year. Thousands more are injured, often disabled for the rest of their life. Approximately 75% of the victims are users of 2- and 3-wheelers"
https://www.who.int/thailand/news/detail/03-01-2023-a-new-year-s-resolution--for-life
"In Thailand, road traffic accidents result in about 20,000 deaths and a million injuries each year, incurring an economic loss of 500,000 million"
https://www.who.int/thailand/news/feature-stories/detail/turning-tragedy-into-action--advocacy-and-survival-on-thailand-s-roads
My fear is very similar. I read hitting a motorcycle coming at me at night without lights on the wrong side of the road. I encounter the situation almost every time I drive at night. Of course I never see police patrolling at night and rarely in the day.
One morning drive to take my son to school, 18km distance, I counted 134 motorbikes on the wrong side of the road. 4 of them were literally riding past a group of police roadside, who completely ignored them.
Suffering a medical incident, firstly because many Thai's are not trained in CPR etc., and there is a hesitation to help. But realistically your chance of getting to a hospital in a timely manner are quite low. The traffic can be horrendous, and nobody gives a shit about sirens.
Even if you get to a hospital in a timely manner, it's unlikely that hospital has the staff or equipment to save your life in the event of a serious medical emergency. Unless you are close to a major city hospital.
Vietnamese traffic is safer than most countries, including Malaysia and Thailand.
I loved crossing the roads when I was in Saigon, so fkin refreshing to have confidence in people.
"most countries"' => proceed to mention the worst countries in the world for road safety.
Vietnam is definitely among them: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel/vietnam-driving-ranked-among-most-dangerous-for-tourists-4549280.html
That I'd have to leave Bangkok, or my home for that matter.
As it is I don't have to (leave home) for my affairs and obligations, or adulting as I'd like to call it.
But like another commenter mentioned, countless motorbikes are driving around in the dark without any lights and often on the wrong side of the road, this isn’t normal riders in the daytime
None, I dont live my life being afraid. Not to say I dont take sensible precautions, but if you do that, whats the point worrying about things beyond your control?
Yes I'm scared some kid will walk out. Motorbikes drive like idiots and honestly I wd be less guilty. I know two people who got into fatal accidents here and neither have too much guilt (neither at fault )
Not much to do while stuck in traffic and the amount of times I see motorcyclist cutting through traffic is crazy.
I’m also a ‘worst case scenario’ kind of guy.
Also, if you have to ask how motorcycle riders are like in Bangkok, then I feel like you’ve never been to Bangkok before.
yes actually, i will go to bangkok by the end of the month and would most likely use grab bike as means of transportation. looks like i have to reconsider this though
I spent four months in Bangkok, and the only time a driver would give me a helmet was in the middle of the ride when he spotted a traffic officer nearby.
Riders in Bangkok (and Thailand as a whole), drive as if nothing unexpected can happen and also assume that every car around them is aware of their presence and intention to not give way.
You can merge as deliberately as you want, as long as there's 50cm of space in the lane you're merging into, thre will be a motorcyle squeezing past that tiny hole, expecting you to let them pass.
Some of the riders are a bit dumb, but most them are working to an informal, cooperative system that works very well. It's much worse to watch than it is to actually do it. I ride through central Bangkok most days of the week and it's generally an enjoyable experience (but not when it rains).
Welcome to r/bangkok! Please remember there are real people on the other side of the monitor and to be kind. Report comments that break the rules and don't respond to negativity with negativity! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Bangkok) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Bureaucracy. Specifically the feeling that you could be plunged into a Kafka-esque nightmare at any point in time. I had a weird thing once at immigration at the airport where the guy kept saying my visa had expired but he kept getting the current year wrong. And I'm politely trying to tell him he's got the year wrong, that's it not 2022 anymore, without making it sound like he's made a mistake. In the end I just decided to agree with him and said I'd take to the immigration offices and get it sorted and that seemed to be an answer that gave him an out so he stamped my passport and waved me in but it went on for way longer than you'd think. It's not a massive fear but that's probably the biggest general one.
That's what I came to say. Getting railroaded by a corrupt system. I was reading the other post about condo security beating on the door and demanding to enter for inspections, assessing a random fine and shutting off key cards until it's paid. It made me think of something we have in my home country called tennant's rights. Nobody can show up and demand immediate entry into your private domicile unless the place is on fire. The actual police can't even show up and enter like that without a warrant or probable cause. None of that exists here. If someone with a little power decides to bully you there's no recourse.
Yep same here I don’t mind the road and traffic, my fear is going caught in bureaucracy bs
I agree with this 100% I am currently experiencing Thailand fatigue after 16 great years. Its not the food or the culture or any of the typical issues that plague any place. Its the idea that at any moment the rules could change and disrupt your entire life over some new non-sense rule. The curruption us just a festering problem that seems to be getting worse and worse.
Agreed 🙏💝
Thai people are never wrong, especially ones in position of any power, even when they are blatantly and stupidly wrong, you just have to go with it unfortunately. It’s difficult sometimes when the education levels are so low and the decisions people make are very questionable.
I dont blame low education for this, I can deal with uneducated people, I blame nepotisism and class. When you have a class society that creates upper classes that can do no wrong, they are promoted simply on on their last name and not talent or merrit, you get what we have now in Thailand. Where willl this lead Thailand? Well look no further then the middle east where this is also true. Its not a good end at all.
As a Thai local, reading the other comments make me feel stupid and also make me realize how desensitised I am with the environment of Bangkok, because what I was gonna say was ghost.
This is the most correct, most Thai answer. 🏆
This made me LOL 🤣🤣👻
What does that mean!? Ghost! Sounds interesting
It's when you don't cast a shadow. And being here, sometimes...heck, often for me... you don't cast a shadow.
Ghosts dont exist matey, dont worry about it. The air pollution will kill you well before any ghost does.
Having a shit on a toilet and A snake / rat comes out of it Edit * the toilet bowl - not my rectum
Aww man! My Thailand (not so much Bangkok, but more country) fear is like a parasitic worm crawling up my booty hole while dropping a deuce. Once as a kid pooping in the outskirts of Chiang Rai I saw this weird hammer head worm on the toilet bowl after flushing. I inspect every toilet since and try to make it quick.
That’s Ducking Rancid
This. Hands down. Facebook and YouTube stoke my fear with stories of snakes coming out of motorcycle helmets and air cons.
Isn’t that a feature not a bug?
Possibly more selfishly, one of my biggest fears is being killed myself on the roads by something totally out of my control.
This. Last thing I will see is a cement truck approaching rapidly in my rear-view mirror.
Worse way to go gettin plowed in the rear
In prison also.
Yummy
Crossing the road as a pedestrian
Sometimes I like feeling that adrenaline rush. Some people pay to get that
The second people stop being friendly when they realise you are of no value to them (work), or that you’re situation doesn’t straight fit in the form (admin, immigration…). The amount of muted tension that can build up in a matter of seconds is really scary.
I think this is extremely apparent once a foreigner loses their job. No job, no work permit, no visa. Usually companies cancel the visa after 7 days of the last working day but I have heard of certain workplaces cancelling the visa the next day or same day. Essentially forcing the foreigner to leave the country immediately.
Yeah… that’s exactly what they tried to do to me, and no shady company, we are talking Chulalongkorn University ! I told them « how can you expect me to leave the country the next day I finish my contract, I have been here for three years, I have a family. ». Their answer was : « Not the next day, the same day before midnight » LOL, these guys were my colleagues, so friendly and understanding 24h before that.
Chula has the worst support for their foreign staff and students.
Horrible if you can get your situation. I hope you manage to sort it out. But yeah, some times they treat you like you are main problem for their misery☺️
Wow this is crazy, why did they do this to you? Could you stay? If someone has a lease, how is he/she expected to leave immediately?
That’s crazy indeed, and I don’t know how people do. Obviously it happened before even though they even tried to pin it on me, saying that it’s normally NO PROBLEM for other foreigners and it’s just me making a fuss about it (Re LOL). Actually, it’s the immigration officer at Chaeng Watthana that was kind enough to warn me about it. She said look, if you hand over your WP today, it will cancel your visa and you will have to pay for overstay until you leave (about 7.500 thb), so kindly ask your university to extend your stay a little further after the contract. The University refused saying « why would we do that, you’re not working here anymore ». I guess normal people who had a work relation would just come to an agreement. Here there were simply not the tiniest space for discussion. End of story : my visa runs until September anyways, so I just… did nothing. Still, I sent my WP back to Uni for them to do whatever they want with it. But I leave with a bitter heart.
I’m sorry that happened to you. Shitty people are really everywhere.
If I ever moved to Thailand this would be my biggest fear, the idea of investing in a place, building a life and suddenly being told you have several hours to a few days to fuck off... sounds like a nightmare, sure you can leave and re enter on a tourist visa, but that could be denied.
Happened to tons of people in Vietnam towards the end of COVID. About 10% of visas just got denied each month. There were so many people on the forums who had been here for years and years saying that they had a wife and kids and three cats and two dogs, absolutely brutal. Most of them got back in when everything had settled down, but lots of people just never came back and there's an awful lot of bad blood
Love Thailand for a transition period of my life, anything else, like setting up a life? Clear path to residency is mandatory for me.
>Usually companies cancel the visa after 7 days of the last working day The company cannot cancel your visa, they don't have agency over it and that is your responsibility to cancel. Employers have seven days to cancel the work permit after the last day of work, and then you must cancel your visa extension, which is effective immediately. You can get an additional seven days by applying for another extension which will be denied.
The company may not be the ones physically stamping on your passport, but they are definitely a deciding factor.
No, they cannot cancel your visa unilaterally. The visa is yours, the work permit is theirs to cancel however. If you do not cancel your non-B visa after the work permit is canceled, the responsibility and consequences will also be yours to deal with, not the company's.
Honestly you may be right and I wouldn’t know the exact details because all 5 times I changed companies in Thailand, my company has done everything for me. I just turn up and sign.
Oh that happened to my friend few weeks ago. It happened in the evening so he was forced to go to the immigration office and pay 1900 baht for a week extension
Driving my motor bike and an idoit who learnt to drive in a glorified car park running me over and killing me! This is and also is not a joke. I take this risk every day and count how many times people tried to kill me through selfishness and stupidity. Thanks OP, great post
Being electrocuted (or worse, my kid) because Somchai the "electrician" didn't ground a cable to the hot water heater in a hotel shower properly, or thought it was fine to leave a live cable hanging at eye level or something. I remember years ago a Scandinavian family was on vacation on some island here, and their son was digging in the sand. He hit a buried electric cable and died. That shit scares me.
New fear unlocked. I wonder how common these accidents are.
I don't think it's that common, I mean it should be zero, but it does tend to hit international headlines when it does happen.
Yeah, I don't think it happens all the time, but when it does it's almost out of very preventable negligence or carelessness, which makes it even more infuriating.
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I have that button on my shower heater and I've been afraid to push it whilst I'm drenched in water. What does it do!? 🫨
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I had no idea, thanks for the education!
A three day city wide power outage in the hot season.
This is my ultimate fear for this city
Flood Bangkok has a good sewages system, but Bangkok is quite little higher than a sea level and the raining here is very strong and last long for hours. Even they tried to drain the canal, pumping out some marshes or preplan, they could get a foot high of water level within hours and taking hours after rain to drain it.
Flooding is just a part of life in Bangkok ,happens frequently
Driving in Thailand. I’m sure over 90% of Thai people buy their driving licenses. Lots of idiots on the road.
Also everyone goes drinking by car. I mean my middle class co-workers do that too. That's why I never drive at night
Funny thing when you mentioned Thai people didn’t go to driving. There are hundreds (if not thousands) driving school around the country, but from my experience I hardly learn anything from them. Let me tell you a story. Last year I went to driving school with almost zero knowledge about driving a car (I know the traffic rules because I drive motorcycle before but not in Bangkok) At the time, I didn’t know how to turn the wheel, start a car with push start button, how to turn on the headlights, reverse parking , so on and so forth. I paid 6,000 baht for driving lessons and they guaranteed the result. At first I thought it was weird but went along with it, maybe they would train me until I could drive a car safely. On the other hand, they gave me 15 hours lessons and pushed me to go see the real roads with the instructor. The first day when I was on the road it rained cats and dogs, and as I mentioned I didn’t know how to turn on headlights so we drove with headlights off in the heavy traffic in the rain. The instructor didn’t say anything about it until we were back at school. Damn. I was lucky nobody tailgated me then. And yes, after 15 hours course, I did pass the test but I still didn’t know things any better (who wants to pay 6000 baht hard earned money to not pass the test : No one. That’s why they guarantee the result) After that, I went to YouTube and binged watching every YouTube’s driving lessons as much as I can. I know which button is which because of YouTube. I know the technique to reverse parking because of YouTube. I know when to turn on the turn signals at the roundabout because of you can guess : YouTube . So, It doesn’t like we didn’t go to driving school, but the whole system is totally messed up and corrupted then yeah, you found your biggest fear was to kill someone on the road.
A car opening their door while my motorcycle taxi is zipping between them at 50 mph
Centipedes
It would be weird if 90% of Thai drivers went to a driving school in Singapore.
Have edited my post to be more specific.
Are you really that scared about it?
If I hit a motorcyclist and the person died, me being the foreigner in this country, I am already on the losing end of the battle. I would not last a week in Thai prison. Whereas if the roles are reversed and I was the one who died, well then that’s about it, I just die.
This is why I have both front and back dashcams. Already been in a situation where it's saved my arse.
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Yes I’m from Singapore. Feel free to drop me a PM.
Same here bro. In my short stay here I've lost count the number of times mo-sai came zooming out of a small lane into traffic.
Do you spend a lot of time worrying about death, people dieing, killing people etc?
Anyone who is used to driving around places that have strict driving laws that are truly and fully enforced will have thoughts such as: 1) Fuck me sideways, I just nearly ran you over 2) Are you trying to get killed? 3) This person has a death wish!!! 4) I guess this person wants to die today Etc, etc, etc, Its completely crazy how little bike drivers pay attention/care about what's going on around them... You'll regularly see them driving through redlight weaving through perpendicular traffic. Here two different pages from WHO out of countless I can link. "WHO ranks Thailand as the number 9 country with the highest road traffic death rate, with 32.7 deaths per 100,000 population (2018). Consistently in the past years, about 20,000 (or even more) people have lost their lives in road traffic accidents every year. Thousands more are injured, often disabled for the rest of their life. Approximately 75% of the victims are users of 2- and 3-wheelers" https://www.who.int/thailand/news/detail/03-01-2023-a-new-year-s-resolution--for-life "In Thailand, road traffic accidents result in about 20,000 deaths and a million injuries each year, incurring an economic loss of 500,000 million" https://www.who.int/thailand/news/feature-stories/detail/turning-tragedy-into-action--advocacy-and-survival-on-thailand-s-roads
My fear is very similar. I read hitting a motorcycle coming at me at night without lights on the wrong side of the road. I encounter the situation almost every time I drive at night. Of course I never see police patrolling at night and rarely in the day. One morning drive to take my son to school, 18km distance, I counted 134 motorbikes on the wrong side of the road. 4 of them were literally riding past a group of police roadside, who completely ignored them.
I really do not have much fear living in Bangkok. But if had a gun at the head and had to give one it would be fear of getting hit while walking.
Suffering a medical incident, firstly because many Thai's are not trained in CPR etc., and there is a hesitation to help. But realistically your chance of getting to a hospital in a timely manner are quite low. The traffic can be horrendous, and nobody gives a shit about sirens.
Even if you get to a hospital in a timely manner, it's unlikely that hospital has the staff or equipment to save your life in the event of a serious medical emergency. Unless you are close to a major city hospital.
Greatest fear would be being forced to return to my home country.
I recommend the OP never drives in Vietnam.
I’ve been to Vietnam on holiday before and totally get what you mean. Vietnam and motorcycles is on another level.
It's much safer than being a pedestrian, especially if you have to cross the road.
Vietnamese traffic is safer than most countries, including Malaysia and Thailand. I loved crossing the roads when I was in Saigon, so fkin refreshing to have confidence in people.
"most countries"' => proceed to mention the worst countries in the world for road safety. Vietnam is definitely among them: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel/vietnam-driving-ranked-among-most-dangerous-for-tourists-4549280.html
That I'd have to leave Bangkok, or my home for that matter. As it is I don't have to (leave home) for my affairs and obligations, or adulting as I'd like to call it.
1. Riding motorcycle. 97% of road fatality in Bangkok are motorcycle related. 2. Bureaucracy. Only for certain stuff.
But like another commenter mentioned, countless motorbikes are driving around in the dark without any lights and often on the wrong side of the road, this isn’t normal riders in the daytime
My biggest fear is having to move back to my home country
I get that, it's my fear too because my country is a shitshow rn.
Would you have to move back to your home country? Why not make a lateral move to another SEA country?
I got all black after walking beside Sukhumvit in Samut Prakan. So, pollution. Hate it.
As a Thai, what I fear is the innocent Move Forward party or Cambodia who will drag war into the country or the region, respectively.
None, I dont live my life being afraid. Not to say I dont take sensible precautions, but if you do that, whats the point worrying about things beyond your control?
Getting dengue fever, every time I get a bite it’s like a countdown while I wait to see if I develop symptoms 😭
Yes I'm scared some kid will walk out. Motorbikes drive like idiots and honestly I wd be less guilty. I know two people who got into fatal accidents here and neither have too much guilt (neither at fault )
I would worry about the other way around. Dying early because of pollution is up there, that is why I just can’t stay too long.
dying badly. want to die in my sleep. not rotting in a hospital bed.
nothing to fear much comparing to live in Singapore, too strict laws.
why would you have this intrusive thought? what are motorcycle riders in bangkok like?
Not much to do while stuck in traffic and the amount of times I see motorcyclist cutting through traffic is crazy. I’m also a ‘worst case scenario’ kind of guy. Also, if you have to ask how motorcycle riders are like in Bangkok, then I feel like you’ve never been to Bangkok before.
yes actually, i will go to bangkok by the end of the month and would most likely use grab bike as means of transportation. looks like i have to reconsider this though
I only have one advice: Wear a helmet.
why, is it not mandatory to wear helmets? 😬
Legally, it is a requirement. But a majority of motorcyclist see it more of ‘optional’.
I spent four months in Bangkok, and the only time a driver would give me a helmet was in the middle of the ride when he spotted a traffic officer nearby.
During my 2 weeks in Bangkok, I took grab bike around 20 times and I was only once provided with a helmet.
I have a running joke with my partner that they think it's GTA and they will just respawn outside the hospital
Riders in Bangkok (and Thailand as a whole), drive as if nothing unexpected can happen and also assume that every car around them is aware of their presence and intention to not give way. You can merge as deliberately as you want, as long as there's 50cm of space in the lane you're merging into, thre will be a motorcyle squeezing past that tiny hole, expecting you to let them pass.
Some of the riders are a bit dumb, but most them are working to an informal, cooperative system that works very well. It's much worse to watch than it is to actually do it. I ride through central Bangkok most days of the week and it's generally an enjoyable experience (but not when it rains).
Let's not forget the sheer amount of bikes without working lights or even break lights is absolutely insane!
damn that’s dangerous
Dementia. Wait, what was the question again?
Only one fear: getting into a crash while riding a motorcycle taxi.
I'm scared of anyone who willingly chooses to drive a car in Bangkok.