Willy
Bangkok is famous for it's traffic. The concept of driving in Thailand is one that filled me with dread, as anyone who has been must surely testify. Whilst the roads are all marked in to nice lanes, nobody takes any notice of them - and five lanes of traffic on a three lane road is not uncommon.

Getting around in such traffic can be a nightmare, particularly during the busier parts of the day. Anyway, leaving my tailors we got in to a Tuk Tuk and asked him to take us to the hotel which we booked as part of our flights deal. Rucksack's in hand, and looking exactly how you'd imagine someone who had just spent seven hours travelling by ferry and bus in 40 degree heat might look we set off across the city.

For those of you who don't know, a Tuk Tuk is a sort of vespa based rickshaw, with space for two people plus bags behind a driver in on a sort of motorised tricycle with a roof. Having haggled our price we set off into the manic congestion.

Despite repeated pleading by our driver that it was a long way, and we were some how screwing him over with the low price he agreed to, we stuck firmly to the negotiated figure. So when he asked if we wanted to see "willy" we were slightly taken aback. He promptly bounced the clutch and launched the Tuk Tuk onto it's rear wheels, thereby performing a wheelie, and scaring the crap out of both of us, before continuing to zig-zag his way through the streets, and bitch about how far it was. (We later worked out he'd gone up and down the side roads to lengthen the journey rather than take the direct route!)

After what seemed like an age he suddenly he turned off the road, into the drive of a very plush hotel, with taxis and limousines lining the drive, he picked his way between them before we scrambled out and hauled our sweaty bodies and bags into the plush air-conditioned reception. You could almost feel the building turning its nose up at our arrival.
- posted by Paul @ 4:39 pm