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Infromation On Motorbikes In Bangkok And Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand is like many other South Eastern countries in so much that it has plenty of people travelling around on motorbikes. Motorbikes are cheap to buy, cheap to run and get you through the terrible Bangkok traffic.

Whilst here you will see entire families perched precariously on a small, moped sized, motorbike. Dad will be driving with the youngest child fitting between him and the handle bars. Behind him will be the next child who is squashed between dad and mum who is sat at the back. Dad, by the way, is the only one wearing a helmet.

Motorbike Taxi Drivers

Motorbikes are also used as a kind of taxi. They can be found at the beginning or end of almost every Soi ( street ) and are easily identified by coloured waste coats that they should all be wearing. The image above shows a few motobikes drivers waiting on Sukhumvit Soi 24, just outside Au Bon Pain.

The law about riding a motorbike is that you must wear a helmet, but you will see passengers frequently riding without them. However, if the driver suspects there are police around, he will pass you a helmet to wear otherwise he could get stopped and forced to pay a fine ( which will end up in the policeman's pocket ).

Generally, motorbikes are taken to get you from one end of a street to the next, or just short journeys to other means of transport. The Sukhumvit 24 motorbike drivers mainly ferry people to The Emporium or the Phrom Phong Skytrain station.

There will be another group of taxis drivers at the opposite end of the street and so you will often see a motorbile drop someone off and turn around and go back rather than picking up a return fare. This is because they have an agreement not to take potential customers from eachother. No-one seems to have figured out that it's more economical to travel only when you have a fare and just rotate between ends.

The cost of a motorbike taxi ride will depend on the distance and your ability to bargain. There are standard fares of course but they will certainly try to charge you more if they feel they can get away with it.

An example of a fare would be from one end of Sukhumvit 24 to the other. This should be 10 Baht each way, but the drivers try charging farangs (that's you and me basically) double.

If you know the proper amount, hand it to them and walk away even if they can be heard protesting behind you.

It's hard to give you a proper idea about costs, but as a rule of thumb, short rides are between 10 and 20 Baht and slightly longer ones 30 - 40 Baht

Rough Guide To Fares

Distance  Fare  up to 0.5 Km 10 Baht  0.5 - 1.0 Km 20 Baht  1.0 - 2.0 Km 30 Baht

Bangkokresidents.com hopes that everyone has a safe visit or stay in Bangkok and so the information provided is meant to give you a few hints and tips as to what to be careful about. We hope you find the information informative but we also suggest you visit Our Forum and read through the various postings and stories.