Just been to Sri Lanka, beautiful place, beautiful people, no big deal, lots of people do. Absolutely blown away by the antics on the roads, most of the bikes are scooters, saw the odd 150cc bikes and a couple of KTMs but generally scooters. They all wear helmets which is a good start considering most of them are wearing a sarong and flip flops, we saw a family of five on one scooter more than once, with dad wearing the helmet of course. There's the other issue, tuk tuks, a law unto themselves, mostly unwritten laws, best count was seven and the driver, sometimes overloaded with goods, quite staggering, the state buses driven like Ferraris, lorries and coaches complete the scene, obviously the stray dogs and old people with brollies with a complete disregard for their safety and not forgetting a stray elephant or two. Beeping is recommended along with flashing lights but not in an aggressive way, more courtious and informative, we didn't see one roadrage incident the whole time. The real worry was to see our coach overtake a lorry which in turn was overtaking a tuk tuk only to realise that exactly the same manouvers are happening up the road, we're on the wrong side of the road and so were they, but in one effortless movement it all seemed to go back into place, no flicking the vees or calling anyone a wanker, unflustered and calm. You could argue the weather is nice, until it rains, biblical style, floods and stuff all over the roads. We didn't see one bump, scrape or altercation, nobody hurt, all the animals safe, organised chaos, all wearing a sarong and flip flops, How do they do it?
I had the pleasure of being pillion from Columbo to Adams peak on a trials bike with an overnight stay in the rain forest Bloody brilliant helmet trainers jeans and a hoody Ratnapura mega busy nice tarmac roads Be prepared ride anywhere Saw a nasty bus accident with lorry I love Sri Lanka
How do they do it? They just get on with it, just like we used to do, before the majority of the population turned into self obsessed selfie taking narcissists.
sadly they come a cropper on a regular basis i was once following a tipper full of gravel and it hit moped and the guy and bike went under, horrible site
Organised chaos! Your post takes me back to some of our trips to Vietnam. Motorcycling in Hanoi is manic but so much fun! Absolutely mayhem, with no rules, but it works!! And then there is the incredible countryside... what a beautiful place!
a quick google "Available data indicate an average of 38,000 crashes annually which result in around 3,000 fatalities and 8,000 serious injuries. Sri Lanka has the worst road fatality rate among its immediate neighbors in the South Asia region" Me I stay home and watch you tube videos of other brave ppl traveling
Really enjoyed Sri Lanka, went in 2018. First week spent touring with our own private driver, from the central region of the island, down to the south coast then back up the west coast to a resort for the 2nd week. Saw loads from monuments, train ride up the mountains to the tea plantations, safari and national parks. Exhausting first week but saw loads. Highlight being the delay at the station, all still old network from the colonial times, trains run when they turn up so we were sat at a station for hours so our driver, who would be leapfrogging us in his car with our bags got chatting to the stationmaster, next thing we were walking down the middle of the track to the signal box and I was changing the tracks for the goods train using the Victorian levers, don’t think you’d get a chance to do that at Paddington. As for the driving, doesn't their faith have a lot to do with it and they leave it in the hands of (their) god if they are going to make it til tomorrow? A lot of the roads we were on were narrow single lane with 8’ tall plantations each side so can’t see round the bends, they just carry on regardless and toot the horn as they approach the corner to let anyone know coming the other way, fine as long as no one approaching toots their horn simultaneously
Thailand is somewhere else where road safety isn’t very high on the agenda! Again it was another touring holiday, couple nights in Bangkok, on to an elephant sanctuary for a few nights and then onto Krabi beach for a week. While in Bangkok there was an excursion to the ancient capital but it was fully booked, undeterred my mrs decided we would make up our own excursion. Armed with Google Translate and maps we headed in to the centre of Bangkok, found a minibus station and through gestures and speaking English just louder and slower we got on a bus, transferred to another then dropped off at a scooter hire/taxi place where we were ushered on to the back of a scooter, both of us, wizzed through the town by Valentino Rossi’s Thai cousin to finally arrive at the ancient city. Fantastic country and people!
