The thing about "moto" (motorbike) taxis is that they're never boring. Take my ride today, for instance. Haggling for a few minutes with the driver went something like this:
Driver: 120 baht
Me: what? No... Too much!
D: it's very far!
M: it's only 2 km!
D: So many traffic! Not high price. Thailand price, farang price, same same! (translation: I'm not charging you more because you're a tourist. I'd charge a Thai person the same.)
We finally agreed on a price and I hopped on, just as it started raining. I put my messenger bag between us and held on to my shopping bags with one hand while clinging desperately to the bike with the other hand.
My amazement at Thailand's motorbike culture was reinforced over the next twenty minutes, starting when the driver gestured at me to duck so that the tree we were about to drive under didn't decapitate me. We drove on the wrong side of the street for awhile, cut off countless cars, ran red lights, drove on the sidewalk, almost hit two pedestrians, and drove in made-up "lanes" with so little space between us and the cars that had I not tucked my knees in, they'd have been touching cars on both sides. Oh, and he talked on his phone for part of the drive! The part of this that is truly fascinating to me is that every bit of it was normal.
Aside from that, I did some shopping, rode a river taxi, got two massages (that's right... TWO. It's been a long week), ate a lot, and had to bribe a taxi driver to take me back to my hotel (it's far enough from the city that many drivers aren't willing to go that far). Just another day in Bangkok...
