Abridged & Published in Chiang Mai CityLife Magazine – January 2003

A Level Playing Field – Part 1

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 27 November 2002

I’d been almost 24 hours on the move. Then my aircraft fell through a winter like cloudscape and the view changed to a patch work of greens, browns, and greys, with similarly coloured ribbons snaking their ways between the patches.  As the descent continued the ribbons turned into rivers, canals, and roads, with occasional ant-like shadows scurrying along them, and the patchwork came into focus as fields, ponds, buildings, and car parks.

After ten minutes, the dominant greens eroded into grey rectangles of concrete or tarmac encircling rows of buildings; some high, some low, each cluster appearing as a uniform group, each group different to it’s neighbour.  No façade of common features or styles appeared, modern building materials volunteered as the national symbol of the country I was entering.

Suddenly, shining out from the midst of modernity came the flash of sunlight on yellow metal, and the golden spire of an upturned ice cream cone caught my eye amidst snow-white buildings with red and green, tiled roofs.  “Ah”, thought I, “it looks like the right corner of the planet”, my eye moved overhead to the monitor displaying our flight path, which until then could have been propaganda by the guys from the Kremlin.

Yes, I was flying Aeroflot, and admit the service was better than expected.  Using modern, western build aircraft, economy class had more legroom and seat width than most airlines’ business class; the Russian flag carrier also allowed smoking all the way from Heathrow to Bangkok.  We came via Moscow Chermenteyov, where the money exchanges were shut, and every shopping or dining outlet accepted only US dollars and refused UK Sterling – but that was over three years ago, and things may have changed now.

Exiting the aircraft, I emerged into air-conditioned sterility and received only the briefest whiff of unfamiliar smells.  Where was my “slap you in the face and suffocate you” humidity and heat?  Where were the brain baffling aromas and odours, which proved I was not just on another continent, but on the other side of the world? Immigration worried me back then – what if they refused me entry and U-turned me?  Could I handle another 24 hours travelling back?  They were polite and efficient, the usual “purpose of visit” questions for someone with a pre-arranged visa, then customs who were more than worrying.

I’d read the customs declarations cards, had spent two months reading everything on the Thai government’s excellent websites.  I knew I was over the legal “one camera and five films” – did it make me an international criminal and contraband smuggler to be immediately deported?  I’d made my choice and had to chance my two cameras and ten films.  My first “Mai pen rai” waved me through without question.

The most harrowing ordeal at Don Muang was navigating an overloaded baggage trolley, over a kilometre from International to Domestic, whilst evading taxi touts, in order to arrive at the official kiosk.  I’d decided to travel from the airport to the hotel by air-con taxi.  It was when waiting for the car that the strange smells and humidity hit me, and I deja-vue’d to my arrival in Central America twenty years earlier when I stepped off a “big white budgie” for the first time.  These, and what happened next, were my first impressions of Thailand.

After agreeing the price to Pattaya (Baht 1,000), and loading the baggage, I was starting to believe I was in the correct country, when my first experience of Thai driving skills – between the Domestic terminal and the expressway on-ramp, convinced me of it.

The idiocy of the truck that carved us up made the taxi driver ask me for a cigarette – something no other taxi driver has done since; ergo, it was a seriously close shave.  It set my opinion of Thai driving logic (and skills) from that moment on.  An opinion that has never changed, and maybe never will, which is why I was pleased recently to read that various government agencies have combined to combat the unlicensed driver problem in Chiangmai.

Over 50% of motorcyclists in the city have no licence, and never attended driver training or testing, stated various agencies holding road shows and training days around the city on December 7th.2002.   That these coincided with “Big Bike Week” is to be applauded as clever thinking.  The presence of the house-priced cycles attracted wannabe big bikers and teenage tyros to the driver training and testing stands.  Maybe some inroads will be made into 2001’s two million injured or killed on the Kingdom’s roads, of which 80% were reported as motorcyclists.

Everyone knows regulation without enforcement doesn’t work, and that the police are underpaid, probably also under motivated when it comes to moving traffic offence prosecution.  Thus taking the correction back to the root of the problem may help.  Drivers need trained, by competent and licensed trainers, not by also unqualified or unlicensed family members.  This is most true with local car drivers.

Driving a bike in Chiangmai, narrow escapes and near misses happen many times a day, almost always caused by car drivers – normally in new, expensive, flashy models (or songthaews – but they’re a lost cause).  Owners of expensive cars usually get my message to back off via a Paddington Bear “hard stare”, which says, “You cannot do enough damage to my bike to make the repairs more expensive than those to just one panel of your car.”  It works, most of the time.

As expatriates, we all know these and the other traffic problems, which intrude on the enjoyment of living in Thailand’s northern capital.  What do the tourists think?  The following data is part of a survey of 67 random tourists interviewed by my students.

• 32 of the interviewees were first time visitors
• 19 were 2nd time visitors
• the other 16 ranged from 3rd to 14th visit.

It is significant that 51 (76%) were 1st or 2nd time arrivals; three years ago this would have been 50% according to Immigration Department website figures.

Are fewer people returning, or are we just getting increased “newbies” on top of the same returnees?  It begs further analysis.

It is important to recognise that the interviewers were Thai students – normally we could expect tourists to avoid negativity (out of politeness) in this situation, that they did not should be a sobering lesson to all who drive in the city.  The interviews were conducted in the first week of December 2002, coinciding with Big Bike Week, Nimmanhemin Road Fair, Chiangmai Food Festival, and several other lesser events.

Some interviewees gave more than one answer to each open question; but all gave personal opinions.  A multi-choice answer was supplied only for the “footpaths & crossings better or worse” question.

Question 1 – If you have visited Chiangmai before, do you feel that travelling around the city is now easier or more difficult?

• Easier (18)
• Same (3)
• More difficult (11).

All who said it was easier were 2nd time visitors, due to remembering city routes from their first visit, or now being comfortable using songthaews.  However, almost everyone interviewed (57) stated traffic levels, and almost a third (20) that driving standards, made them uncomfortable when moving around the city.

Question 2 – What aspect of travelling in the city annoys you the most?

• Volume of traffic / traffic jam (39)
• Air pollution from vehicles (14)
• Poor driving skills (10)
• Dual pricing for Thais & foreigners (8)
• Cost is expensive (5)
• Noisy vehicles / motorcycles (5)
• No opinion (5)
• Not enough English direction signs (3)
• Weather / heat & humidity (3)
• Poor public transport (2)
• Frequency of accidents (1).

Allowing for people giving more than one opinion, almost everyone showed degrees of concern about traffic conditions in the city.  The next significant group of complaints revolved around dual and over pricing.  On that, respondents came from the Americas, Europe, and East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan).  Reactions are therefore global.

Question 3 – Which one thing should be done most to improve travelling around Chiangmai?

• Traffic management / traffic laws enforcement (20)
• Improve public transport options (12)
• Improve city appearance / conserve traditional northern features (11)
• Improve city cleanliness (11)
• Improve air / noise pollution (8)
• Create pedestrian streets / safety systems (5)
• No opinion (5)
• Move traffic out of inner city (4)
• Improve street lighting / direction signs (4)
• Create bicycle paths closed to motor vehicles (1)

Allowing for multiple opinions, most answers related to the use of Chiangmai’s roads, especially forcing drivers to stop at pedestrian crossings, and to obey one-way systems.

Question 4 – Are Chiangmai’s footpaths & road crossings better or worse than those in your own city?

• Footpaths = Better (3), same (11), worse (53) (in Chiangmai)
• Crossings = Better (1), same (6), worse (60) (in Chiangmai)

No further comment required.

Question 5 – What do you think should be done to make the footpaths & crossings better in Chiangmai?

Footpaths

• Repair, improve width, and/or surface, make safer to use (13)
• Clean & tidy them (10)
• Better signs (4)
• Clear of obstructions (3)
• Repaint (2)
• Increase pedestrian-only areas (2).

Crossings

• Make drivers stop for pedestrians (23)
• Install pedestrian controlled traffic lights (14)
• Improve design/visibility of crossing (12)
• Improve penalty enforcement against drivers (6)
• Increase number of crossings (5).
• No opinion (6)

The primary concern was for pedestrian safety in answers to this open question – many expressed extreme worry that drivers did not stop for pedestrians using (or wanting to use) crossings.  This left many feeling unsafe when crossing the road.  A similar topic emerged concerning footpaths; most visitors felt uncomfortable using them, as obstructions or surface damage forced pedestrians onto the road.  Several asked why so many vehicles use footpaths instead of the roads when bypassing traffic jams.

The above data set is only one section of a larger questionnaire.

In these few questions, I believe that solid evidence can be interpreted as to one reason why our repeat visitor numbers appear to be falling – tourists feel less safe than previously when moving around Chiangmai.  Personal safety worries about terrorists have impacts on numbers travelling – the same worries about in-city travelling will influence new arrivals and returnees.

Thailand has fully suitable traffic laws already, now tourists state they need enforced.  Clearing of vehicles from footpaths is needed, drivers need trained and licensed to operate their vehicles safely, non-complying drivers should be prosecuted and punished, and polluting vehicles removed from the roads.  Such is the summary of tourist opinion.

Our existing public transport options need improved – where are the large “standard fare” stickers, in Thai and English, which were previously inside every songthaew?  How can a tourist know if a red pick-up is licensed, and authorised, or not?  Should we introduce meters for tuk tuks?  Before improvements occur, do we have to wait for an unlicensed vehicle’s driver to attack a tourist (Don Muang style), or for an outraged passenger, feeling cheated, to beat a tuk tuk driver into hospital?

A vehicle, like a gun, is harmless – unless a human decides to use it.  Western countries and cities have had a century to mature with motor vehicles.  For Thailand, mass vehicle ownership arrived much more recently, and has swamped both the country and it’s ability to adjust to the new order on the roads.  Gone are the days when a galloping, sentient animal was the fastest transport.  Motor vehicles do not yet have eyes and brains to help them avoid hitting each other, I sometimes wonder if the drivers do.

Yet, we must ask if all of these “faults” are reasons we choose to visit, or live in, a culture different from our own.  Should visitors to the kingdom, as tourists or expatriates, impose their home country standards on another’s sovereign state, homogenising the far-flung and exotic destinations that draw us from the apron strings of our own societies, just so that we can be “at home, away from home”?

Does such “civilising” and “playing field levelling” not come at a price?

Do all parties volunteer to pay it?

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Level Playing Field Series
Part 1 – Moving About in a Home Away From Home
Part 2 – What to do in a Home Away From Home