TRANSPORTATION AND TRAFFIC

When you are in one of Thailand's larger cities, such as Chiangmai or Bangkok, you can expect to be surrounded by cars and other vehicles. The tuk tuk is a typical form of transportation as is the red sii-lor truck that we used to get around when I traveled with the students. Tour buses carry around large groups of people. The daily newspapers during the New Year's holiday reported the increasing number of fatalities by vehicle accident, including a tour bus that hit an oil tanker just near one of the temples we visited near Bangkok. Spirit houses are left by the road sides to mark the location of the accident. To cross the street, one takes ones life in his/her own hands. During our first night in Chiangmai, it took my husband, daughter and I nearly 30 minutes to cross one street. This became my first hunch that perhaps a Thai Buddhist, informed by the principle of emptiness or void, might perhaps be able to identify openings within traffic, when all I saw was the closure. Or, perhaps, they are just used to it!