Tourist Road Kill: Motorbikes

Family of Five out for dinner.
This is actually one of the rare times I have seen anyone wear a helmet...

Motorbikes to me in this country are unexplained phenomena.  My previous encounters with motorcycles consisted of the traditional “male under 25” with a sports bike, or the other extreme – an old dude on his classic Harley (with a matching leather jacket and long grey ponytail).  The minute I arrived in Bangkok however, it was tough to miss the overwhelming amount of motorbikes.  They zip in and out of lanes, traffic, buses and cars.  They cut off cars and pedestrians when making turns and seem to thoroughly enjoy hanging out in drivers’ blind spots.  I still to this day give my sister a hard time for wanting to date “bad boys” on motorbikes, and here I am in Thailand witnessing a totally different motorbike culture. 

This is the view from the Skytrain near my apartment:  Traffic jams in Bangkok encourage motorbikers to cut in and out of lanes and inch up as close to the front of the traffic as they can.

Family on their morning motorbike commute to school...

In Bangkok, entire families, Mom, Dad, and two kids, are all squished on ONE tiny motorbike.  I cannot believe my eyes!  Of course, none of them are wearing helmets and I explained to one of my Thai friends that in California, we call people (idiots) who don’t wear helmets “Organ donors” because they are signing themselves up for trouble.  She then lifts up her sweater and shows me a huge scar, encompassing her entire forearm.  She explained that she was in a motorbike accident two years ago and has matching scars on her upper arm, leg and thigh.  Two days earlier, in a conversation with my friend Jitt, she explained to me the reason she decided to become a nurse – she lost TWO brothers to motorbike accidents.  She said her younger brother was in an accident, broke just about every bone in his body, and bled to death right there on the highway.  She said if someone could have gotten to him or knew what to do to help him – he would have lived.  This was her motivation to put herself through nursing school. 

I am truly speechless.

I couldn't even count how many people were on this bike...
Eight I think?  No one wearing a helmet ofcourse and you can
tell from the picture - they are going FAST!