Some believe believe Thais drive to haphazardly (see the woman weaving through traffic on a motorbike wearing an unfastened helmet, driving with one hand while talking on the phone and determinedly not looking in her mirrors, which at any rate are titled up so she can check her make-up on the go and thus are useless) because they believe Buddha will protect them from harm. Often Thai people wear Buddha amulets for protection. The rear seats in Bangkok taxis do not have seatbelts. I saw a great example of this belief in godly protection today when I got a taxi. The driver had adorned the dashboard with amulets, as many do, but this fellow had covered up the speed / rev / fuel display with amulets, to the extent that you could only see the speedometer between 90 and 120 km/h.
This was clearly the driver's comfort zone, because armed with our collection of amulets we blasted through Bangkok onto the expressway, making sure never to dip below 30km/h above the speed limit. Despite the driver's protective amulets, you know what? The bastard was wearing his seatbelt!
I won't be updating this blog any more - go to The Penang Blog to see my new and exciting Malaysia blog!
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