June 21st, 2005 | The lowdown by Aliwyn Cole

The Tuktuk and Other Forms of Transport in Bangkok.

When you arrive in a new area, one of your first priorities is getting around. When I arrived in Bangkok, I had to find my way around the sprawling, smelly, noisy city, and then on to Bangsaen. I was determined to try as many modes of transport as possible, so here's what I learned:

In my opinion, the Tuktuks look like the auto equivalent of a sardine can, and don’t seem safe. However, everyone who comes to Thailand wants to try the tuktuk. The first time I used a tuktuk, I was taken on a twenty minute diversion round the driver’s friends’ tailors’ shops. At the third tailor's shop, I quickly decided I wasn’t interested and walked out, and my driver told me off for not looking at suits and ties for at least five minutes. I paid my 20 baht fare there and then and went for a coffee instead.

The next time, I made the mistake of asking for the driver’s advice. A friend was visiting me, and we wanted to go to a bar to have a drink, so we asked him to take us to a good bar. He dropped us off at a bar filled with women in short skirts and low tops, all lined up at the door waiting for clients to buy them a drink, and maybe more. The bar must have belonged to another friend.

The following week, when I first visited the island Koh Sichang, near Sri Racha, I realised (with a touch of dread, I’ll admit) that the only form of transport on the island was a big tuktuk. Because the island is made up of several steep hills, the vehicles must have bigger engines. The system works something like this: a driver meets you when you get off the boat, you agree on a price, and they remain your driver until you leave the island. Unlike the Bangkok tuktuk network, the driver here was very pleasant and reasonably priced.

Song Taos are the cheapest form of transport, and found in every small town and most cities on the mainland of Thailand. Basically, they are open-backed trucks, which drive along a set route and pick up passengers anywhere along that route. In Bangsaen, they're red and run between Bangsaen, Chonburi, and Sri Racha, and along Sukhumvit Road. A journey costs between 7 and 15 baht. Make sure you have small change, or they are likely to drive off quickly after short changing you. Because they're open-backed, the journey is very smelly, and not particularly healthy, especially for asthmatics.

Buses go pretty much anywhere, or somewhere very near everywhere at least. They are an inexpensive means of transport, and clean. However, patience may be required. If you have to be in the Town of Blog by 9 am sharp, then take a taxi.

The journey to Bangsaen takes about and hour and a half, and is air conditioned-if the air conditioner works. Every bus has a television and DVD player, and either Thai music videos or Thai slapstick comedy are played very loudly. Every bus has at least two bus boys, and sometimes as many as five. These are the cheeky blighters who jump off the bus while it's still moving and holler at pedestrians to get on the bus. I have met various characters over the last two years of riding on the buses. They love it when a foreigner takes the bus, and I have been chatted up, ripped off, and asked what I have bought at the shops if I have a shopping bag. Even though Thailand has a huge tourist industry, foreigners are still something of a novelty and the buses are where I feel it the most.

If you are a nervous passenger, then don’t board a motor bike taxi. They drive very fast, they nip in between cars, and they jump red lights. Helmets are only provided if the local police are patrolling the area. If you like to live life on the edge, then the motorbike taxis are an inexpensive and quick means of getting to where you want to go, especially in the congested cities of Bangkok and Pattaya.

Rickshaws are no longer a popular form of public transport. The bikes and carts are manned by old and weary-looking men. I rarely see passengers in the rickshaws. My rather large friend told me that when she took a rickshaw, she felt so sorry for the old man pulling it that she told him to sit in the back, and she cycled for the rest of the journey.