Outsiders mock Bangkok’s gridlock as we weep in agony
“Thai traffic jams are definitely one of the wonders of the modern world,” says Hong Kong Standard’s Nury Vittachi in his Friday “Dissident Diary” column.
Writing from Thailand, he offers a tongue-in-cheek look at Bangkok’s traffic situation, making light of our daily woes with such observations as this: “To pass the time, I stared through the windows of the cars around me. No one was stressed out, or angry, or honking at the lack of movement. People were asleep or watching television or having baths. Many drivers had equipped their cars with everything they need to live independently for days, maybe months. Vehicles had snack cabinets, toilets, fridges, music systems, showers, swimming pools, basement table-tennis rooms, lap-dancing clubs, golf courses, and so on.”
If only that were true. We don’t even want to attempt to calculate the lost hours spent sitting in Bangkok traffic. All those moments we’ll never have back again. Moments we could have spent watching Lin Ping the panda’s reality show from the comfort of our living room.
And Mr. Vittachi is definitely on to something when he notes that only the rich are stupid enough to endure the gridlock. Many of our city’s wealthier set would far rather simmer in traffic than hop aboard a BTS or MRT car with the rest of us.
But hey, sometimes the traffic is unavoidable. We're hoping Google Maps’s new transport platform will help us navigate around such snarls when we don't have the option of walking or riding the rails.
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