Riding bikes in the USA without safety gear is referred to as being called a “squid”, there are many websites devoted to exposing the posers on the roads that ride with t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops & of course no gloves or helmets!
Ok, I’ve lived in Thailand for quite a few years now & yes, according to the rules above I’m a Squid but I do always wear a helmet & sometimes shoes for longer rides! Squid talk aside.
The thing I want to talk about is a new practice of whole families hiring ONE scooter & riding with one or more young children onboard. Admittedly this has been witnessed for years in small numbers & by a very small percentage of tourists . It was kind of frowned upon but quite rare to see & normally used for very localized short trips of I suppose necessity or laziness in most cases.
With the explosion of Russian tourists in Phuket this highly dangerous & illegal practice of wobbling around on a scooter with a family of farang children wedged between mum & dad can be seen on a daily basis.
They don’t know the rules of Thai roads or the subtle way in which Thai’s & tourists actually manage to drive fairly safely together. Most have never riden a scooter before (this is obvious to see) & are used to driving on the other side of the road in their home countries!!! Accidentally killing a whole family is not something anyone should have to live with or even witness on the street & the negative effect on the tourism industry will not be good when splashed over the world news tv stations & papers. The spin would be how dangerous our roads are & not how stupid the family was.
Phuket is not a small quiet Island of sandy dirt tracks leading to deserted beaches from remote villas! Ok, it has plenty of quiet remote places but not where cheap holiday packages are sold. It is pretty built up in the tourist areas with fast roads, buses, lorries, trucks, mini-buses, coaches & many Thai’s riding fast scooters & food sidecars doing all sorts of unexpected things & of course the usual foreign (farang) tourists renting small motorbikes, big powerful bikes & cars, all add to this crazy cocktail of road madness. Let's not forget that the over loading of an underpowered & usually poorly maintained rental scooter is not very clever either. They are really built for one person with an a small pillion rider NOT a four person family of large westoners!
Holiday insurance does not cover motorbike accidents in most cases, your holiday rep will warn you of this at your 1st day hotel meeting . The super basic 3rd party cover included with the road tax will only cover the damage to the other vehicle, the idiot family on the scooter get nothing for example. Fully comprehensive 1st class insurance (never supplied with cheap scooter rentals) would only cover the driver & ONE passenger NOT a whole family on-board. Forgot to mention the absence of a international valid bike license could cause real problems with a serious accident investigation!! Some blame must go on the poor public bus services & crazy high priced tuk tuks on Phuket & the fact that Thai families can be seen riding bikes three or four up everywhere & the police don't stop them! Well, most Thai families can't afford a car & that's how they do things in their own country etc. Tourists should know better, can you imagine seeing a family wobbling around the streets of London, new York or Paris on a tiny uninsured scooter in bikins & flip-flops even if it was legal....lol 555
What we don’t want or need is Russian families pulling out onto busy roads looking in the wrong direction or wobbling or stalling in the middle of fast lanes with three or sometimes four family members on one scooter. Very stupid & irresponsible…..go & do it somewhere else or stop it now.
These two idiot parents over took me on a blind corner!
Very over loaded scooter action.
Mum looks fantastic in her matching helmet/dress ensemble...Oh and a young child with no helmet...oops!
dad is working on his tan in the middle of a busy road with kid on-board!
Family of squids in a hurry to get somewhere. Hospital maybe?
I see about 10+ families a day in high season doing this & maybe 1 or 2 a day in low season. They travel for up to 30kms to the airport, zoo, aquarium, shopping centers with picnics & many shopping bags onboard on 3 lane fast busy roads, not just local beach roads. I've even seen a family of squids hurtling up the steep mountain dirt track to Big Budha statue with dad riding with one hand drinking a bottle of beer at 60+kmh, with mum smoking a cigarette in one hand & talking on a cell phone with the other & two small children sandwiched between them.......unbeleivable!!
It's very hard taking these pictures while driving, as a camera is not easy to use when I see a stupid families of squids riding towards me at speed. So here are a few pictures that I managed to take of this ridiculous new phenomenon in Phuket. Feel free to add any pictures to this thread of idiots on scooters or any stories or thinking on this subject.
Happy & Safe riding folks :thumbup:
Ok, I’ve lived in Thailand for quite a few years now & yes, according to the rules above I’m a Squid but I do always wear a helmet & sometimes shoes for longer rides! Squid talk aside.
The thing I want to talk about is a new practice of whole families hiring ONE scooter & riding with one or more young children onboard. Admittedly this has been witnessed for years in small numbers & by a very small percentage of tourists . It was kind of frowned upon but quite rare to see & normally used for very localized short trips of I suppose necessity or laziness in most cases.
With the explosion of Russian tourists in Phuket this highly dangerous & illegal practice of wobbling around on a scooter with a family of farang children wedged between mum & dad can be seen on a daily basis.
They don’t know the rules of Thai roads or the subtle way in which Thai’s & tourists actually manage to drive fairly safely together. Most have never riden a scooter before (this is obvious to see) & are used to driving on the other side of the road in their home countries!!! Accidentally killing a whole family is not something anyone should have to live with or even witness on the street & the negative effect on the tourism industry will not be good when splashed over the world news tv stations & papers. The spin would be how dangerous our roads are & not how stupid the family was.
Phuket is not a small quiet Island of sandy dirt tracks leading to deserted beaches from remote villas! Ok, it has plenty of quiet remote places but not where cheap holiday packages are sold. It is pretty built up in the tourist areas with fast roads, buses, lorries, trucks, mini-buses, coaches & many Thai’s riding fast scooters & food sidecars doing all sorts of unexpected things & of course the usual foreign (farang) tourists renting small motorbikes, big powerful bikes & cars, all add to this crazy cocktail of road madness. Let's not forget that the over loading of an underpowered & usually poorly maintained rental scooter is not very clever either. They are really built for one person with an a small pillion rider NOT a four person family of large westoners!
Holiday insurance does not cover motorbike accidents in most cases, your holiday rep will warn you of this at your 1st day hotel meeting . The super basic 3rd party cover included with the road tax will only cover the damage to the other vehicle, the idiot family on the scooter get nothing for example. Fully comprehensive 1st class insurance (never supplied with cheap scooter rentals) would only cover the driver & ONE passenger NOT a whole family on-board. Forgot to mention the absence of a international valid bike license could cause real problems with a serious accident investigation!! Some blame must go on the poor public bus services & crazy high priced tuk tuks on Phuket & the fact that Thai families can be seen riding bikes three or four up everywhere & the police don't stop them! Well, most Thai families can't afford a car & that's how they do things in their own country etc. Tourists should know better, can you imagine seeing a family wobbling around the streets of London, new York or Paris on a tiny uninsured scooter in bikins & flip-flops even if it was legal....lol 555
What we don’t want or need is Russian families pulling out onto busy roads looking in the wrong direction or wobbling or stalling in the middle of fast lanes with three or sometimes four family members on one scooter. Very stupid & irresponsible…..go & do it somewhere else or stop it now.
These two idiot parents over took me on a blind corner!
Very over loaded scooter action.
Mum looks fantastic in her matching helmet/dress ensemble...Oh and a young child with no helmet...oops!
dad is working on his tan in the middle of a busy road with kid on-board!
Family of squids in a hurry to get somewhere. Hospital maybe?
I see about 10+ families a day in high season doing this & maybe 1 or 2 a day in low season. They travel for up to 30kms to the airport, zoo, aquarium, shopping centers with picnics & many shopping bags onboard on 3 lane fast busy roads, not just local beach roads. I've even seen a family of squids hurtling up the steep mountain dirt track to Big Budha statue with dad riding with one hand drinking a bottle of beer at 60+kmh, with mum smoking a cigarette in one hand & talking on a cell phone with the other & two small children sandwiched between them.......unbeleivable!!
It's very hard taking these pictures while driving, as a camera is not easy to use when I see a stupid families of squids riding towards me at speed. So here are a few pictures that I managed to take of this ridiculous new phenomenon in Phuket. Feel free to add any pictures to this thread of idiots on scooters or any stories or thinking on this subject.
Happy & Safe riding folks :thumbup:
