Bangkok transportation

There are very few bicycles in Bangkok (but much more in the rural areas). The streets are too packed and are clogged with motorists. There *are* a lot of motorcycles, either attached to a tuk-tuk, have a fruit stand as a sidecar, or have a regular sidecar as a sidercar. They are mostly small with thin tires and look almost like scooters. On the street, you will often see many men grouped together with yellow mesh vests indicating they are taxis.

I was also surprised to see that the cars are full-sized. I'm kind of surprised the cars wouldn't be smaller like Japan or Europe due to the price of gas. They are mostly Hondas and Toyotas as far as I can tell. The Honda Fit (I want) is called "Jazz" here.

Walking in all of this can be a challenge. The sidewalks are small so often I'm partway in the road but I don't feel unsafe. No one wants to hit anyone else, it's just that the amount of air between me and something else is smaller than in the states.

No one stops for pedestrians unless they are going to hit you. This means that if you are waiting at the side of the road for traffic to stop and let you through, you will be waiting a long time. It's better to wait for a small gap or slowdown and then confidently cross looking in all directions. It's not quite as bad at major intersections which have pedestrian lights (a green man that's animated is for "go").

The blocks are *massive* which makes it very confusing to read a map. You see that something is only a few blocks away but when you start to walk it, you realize it is very far away still. The size of the buildings adds to this illusion. They are huge and wide which means that even from far away, they seem closer than they really are.

Luckly, there is a decent subway system and skytrain that can get you around to most areas of Bangkok. For the skytrain, you can get a ticket that you slide through an entry stall (like BaRT) and for the subway, you can buy a magnetized token. When you enter a stall using the token, you actually tap it on a certain area to tell the machine to read it. I like that you have to tap it. It's like putting your quarters down on a arcade video game to "reserve your play"

It's pretty smoggy overall but the humidity also makes the air seem thicker and heavier.