Surat thani is a small city of 200,000 in southern Thailand where Linda and I and Frank and Sally spent two weeks teaching English. Geographically, the city seems to be spread out more like Los Angeles. There is no real town center or “downtown.” In order for us to get to Nii Kom, the school where Linda and I were assigned, we had to take “public transportation.” This consisted of hailing a “Tuk Tuk,” so named for the sound their little engines make as they weave in and out of traffic on their way to deliver kids to school (there are no school buses), people to work, and everyone else who doesn’t own a motorbike to their destinations. These tiny pickup trucks have room for about eight bodies seated facing one another. They are driven by men or women who are free to charge whatever they can get, within reason, usually between 15 and 40 bhat (50 cents to $1.15) for a one-way trip. They drive no established routes and speak little or no English. Tuk Tuk drivers are free-lance taxi drivers. There are few auto taxis in Surat, unlike Bangkok.
So the first leg of our trip was grabbing one of these little blue tuk tuks, being sure to settle on the price before getting aboard, down to the bus station, where we caught a “Song-kau,” a slightly larger pickup truck. These were orange-colored trucks and kept to the same route each trip. We just had to make sure we caught the one going by Nii Kom. The fare is the same for a one-way trip, 15 bhat.
Song-kaus have a two-foot wide platform on the back of the truck. I discovered the reason for this on one return trip from our school when there were already twelve or fourteen people on board. The driver motioned for Linda to ride in front with him. We were not about to wait for the next Song-kau. I jumped up on the rear platform as the driver took off and got up to about 50 mph. Fortunately there were bars on the top and sides of the pickup to hang onto. At the next stop two more young men jumped on and I wedged myself inside on a sort of “bar-seat” that ran between the rows of knees.
Linda thought this would be a good chance to engage a local in conversation. Of course he spoke not a word of English so they both ended up laughing. There usually was not much conversation going on during these rides. One memorable Song-kau trip I remember was when an older lady got on and began to talk to Linda. No matter that we could not understand a word she was saying. She just went on as though Linda was a younger friend, or a daughter. She would pat Linda’s leg and hold her hand. She noticed our gold wedding bands which were much like her own. This beautiful lady bonded with Linda in a ride that lasted only fifteen minutes.
My favorite Tuk Tuk story was of our last evening in Surat, the night of the torrential downpour and my fateful trip to the hospital with a head laceration. The evening started out as a pleasant, partly cloudy one with no indication of the impending storm. Leslie T. gave me the name of the restaurant where we were to have our closing celebratory dinner. It was on the other side of the river. He said to give the Tuk Tuk driver the name of the restaurant and he would know where to take us. Well, these guys are programmed to just nod and say “OK” even when they haven’t a clue where you want to go, which turned out to be the case on this particular evening.
We drove around Surat thani for about twenty minutes and then stopped in what seemed to be an alley on the edge of an empty lot. The driver was motioning to get out and go to our restaurant on the other side of the lot. I looked around and there did not seem to be a river anywhere nearby. So I pulled out the map and tried to show the driver where we wanted to go. It became obvious that besides not understanding English he did not read maps either. After some making of meaningless sounds back and forth between us, something clicked as I pointed to the map and he realized where we wanted to go. Now the price negotiation had to begin again. He suddenly remembered his English. “Seventy-seventy-seventy-seventy” he said as he pointed to each of us. I responded in my most forceful Thai with “Mai-ow, mai-ow, pang, forty-forty-forty-forty” as I pointed.
We made it to the restaurant and had a wonderful last evening beside the river. Our Tuk Tuk driver even came back and was waiting for us after dinner to take us back across the river to Swenson’s Ice Cream parlor for dessert. This was before the deluge
and the fall and the experience of the wonderful Thai medical system.
My wife is impressed with how proficient I became in just two weeks at negotiating the transportation system in Surat thani. I’m just a little impressed as well.
Milan Hamilton
February 6, 2014
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