Back home in Canada – this would never happen. Traffic is moving slowly – almost at a standstill. And there are spaces where with some creative maneuvering you could pass through on two wheels. It is a controversial practice in north america – only a few places have it be legal. Like passing traffic on the right when it is stopped. However, this is Thailand and the rules are different. It is sometimes hard to know if they are there at all.

Being a biker, I am pretty confident on two wheels – and my survival-orientation has me be very aware of other road users. When there are two or three lanes and reasonable discipline, the number of things to track remains manageable. Here, where there is little discipline and the basic rule is ‘if you can get through – why not?’ it starts to get tricky to keep your head on enough of a swivel to track everything going on around you. Part of me registers it as chaos. There is another part of me that is rejoicing in freedom.

My girlfriend and I rented a scooter for a couple of days in Krabi. A friend and his fiance led us to a beautiful out of the way beach that without transport, we would not have found. Whilst we were out, we got caught in a thunderstorm and scootered a couple of kilometers to shelter to wait out the intense, driving rain. It was warm. The rain was warm. The visibility and the wind made things challenging – however when we got to a place we could sit down and simply enjoy the rain smashing down outside whilst we shared a drink made it seem the simplest thing in the world.

The next day he led us on an excursion from where we were staying, through the city of Krabi to the Tiger Cave and a 1260-step climb up the Buddha on the top of the mountain. On the way we rode through two and three lane highways that, at times seemed to have many more lanes actually operating. By this time I had started to understand how to ride in Thai traffic. It involves trust. Of yourself, and others. Without it, you would never move.

In Canada and the US – a few incidents I have experienced and many more experienced second-hand have led me to understand that Bikes seem at times invisible to drivers. So we bikers use day-glo and lots of defensive / assertive riding techniques to allow us to make allowances for our occasional undetectable-ness and survive. The worst of these for me was in the US where a truck cut over in front of me across three lanes of traffic to turn left into the opposing carriage-way. A 100km/hr swerve and hard brake kept me alive. I still remember the shock in the drivers’ eyes as he realized that I was there and approaching fast. Luckily I anticipated and saw him start moving, giving me sufficient edge to do something about it.

Here, I am riding with a helmet, but no other protection. Many people do not even bother with helmets – although there is a 300 Baht fine for not wearing one – if you are caught. The scooter has given us a great deal of freedom. Also, I have found myself becoming strangely addicted to riding through Thai traffic. There is a challenge to finding the gaps and exploiting them. Lane splitting, finding usable gaps, sneaking through traffic whilst waiting at a junction. On a scooter you can easily match what a car can do for speed, and in traffic you have the massive advantage of manouverability. And scooters are dirt-cheap to run. Two days and about 150km of riding on about 2L of gas. As a result, scooters are everywhere here.

And this is where it gets interesting. Scooters are everywhere – so every road user is used to seeing scooters and working with them in traffic. Suddenly I no longer feel invisible. There is no furious beeping of horns when scooters find and feel their way through traffic. People know you are there. It looks like chaos – but it works. And it feels tremendously safe.

This morning I needed to return the scooter to the rental place. It is also Songkran, the Thai new year and water festival. Occurring soon before the seasonal rains are due to start, it was traditionally the time to wash all the statues and pictures of the Buddha. Over time it has become the worlds’ largest water-fight. The scooter was due back at 11am, and the party was just getting started. All of the skills I had learned over the last few days were employed as I weaved through traffic and got hit, repeatedly from super-soakers and buckets of water – some iced. Meanwhile negotiating traffic to get to the gas station and then again to get back to the bike rental shop.

It seems like a recipie for disaster – scooters, bikes, tuk-tuks, cars – all vying for the same piece of road – and the distraction of water flying in from multiple angles. But you know what? – it was fine, and more to the point – it was fun! And it was only me on this scooter which made life easy. The four-person scooters are an art-form all of their own…

I returned the scooter, walked back (wet) to the place where we are staying, filled the super-soaker I bought at the night market last night and with my girlfriend we waded (literally in places) into the party. We just got back after spending about five hours out participating in the biggest waterfight I have ever experienced. So. Much. Fun.

This place is amazing. It just works. And it is wonderful to feel safe, seen and be part of it all. There is a lesson in here somewhere. Give me time to figure it out…