The other day I was waiting for Anchali on the side of a busy four lane road in Chiang Mai. While eating an orange I watched traffic for fun and excitement…no shortage of comedy and terror! The highlight was a ridiculous U-turn. A large, new silver truck with tinted windows pulled in off the road in front of me, though kept enough of the vehicle’s back in the road to block a lane. Traffic went around the truck for a few minutes, and then it moved…backwards! While completely blocking a lane and almost going into the other lane, it backed up enough to turn around and then quickly pulled out into the road horizontally. It was trying to do a U-turn but the opposite lane was too busy, so the truck was stopped in the middle of the road blocking two lanes. Traffic piled up quickly, including two buses and even a policeman on a motorbike. They waited for a bit, then the bus started to honk. The truck finally had a small opening and dashed into the traffic of the other lane, almost taking out a few motorbikes. It then quickly parked (blocking a lane of course) in front of 7-Eleven. The door opens…and out comes a young women calm and relaxed. Mai pen rai. Unfortunately Anchali showed up before I could see what she bought at 7-Eleven…

On a sort of related traffic fun note, today on the way to play tennis a motorbike (little one) flew past us going around 90 km/h. The driver had one hand on the throttle and the other hand on top his head holding his helmet on…because he did not fasten the chinstrap!