Songthaew

Songthaew, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

The songthaews cruise endlessly looking for passengers. They make getting around incredibly cheap and easy.


Here was my enthusiastic posting from Chiang Mai:

All we have to do to get around is walk out front of our hotel and wait 30 seconds and a songthaew will stop to pick us up. I still have that little map the Canadian gal gave us and just point to our destination, then we climb in the back and away we go. It costs 40 baht for the 5 of us (Eden rides free I guess) and they drop us off, all smiles.
On the way here we met a delightful young man from the Philippines who is here teaching ping pong (?) and a very pretty very shy school girl who bid us farewell as if we were old friends when we clambered off, even though we'd only exchanged a few awkward sentences.
By the way, a songtheaw is a little pick up truck with a tall covering and seats along both sides of the bed. It's well padded inside and has openings rather than windows and plenty of places to hold on. I have to say it's the most fun public transportation I've ever experienced! Very practical too. I do wonder what it's like in the rain, with those open sides and all.