Jedi Masters on two wheels ( and four)

The similarities to SA drivers is there ...and it isn't. Land of Smiles ...yes and no . I have seen first hand the service the deep pocketed, hard currency tourists experience vs the backpacker / budget tourist experience and they are vastly different. It's not a dig at all at the Thai people (30/40 million tourists for Thailand , a few million for SA) , they seem to genuinely just have, understandably, tourist fatigue. Especially as many arrive with this massive sense of entitlement and disrepsect the Thai culture. So on the surface you might not experience a resentment but it bubbles under the surface. e.g. This morning when riding home from the CBD I was sticking to the motorcycle lane ( narrow lane on the left of the traffic) and coming up to the traffic lights the custom is to then pull out of the motorcycle lane into the middle lane so traffic turning left can pass you without you disrupting traffic. I could see this pickup behind me in the middle lane and I indicated my intention , he didn't slow down to allow me in, I then sped up to move into the middle lane...so did he. So it sounds worse than it was as I just pulled in front of all the cars in the middle , a usual custom for motorcyclists but the fact that he sped up to close the gap to prevent me from moving over was not an accident. These guys all grow up on motorbikes, they know the drill. This was just a subtle, unThai, way of "sticking it to the man". That being said, in general the people are as respectful to you as you are to them. most of the time. Re driving / riding though. You ride left and pass on right . Unless otherwise. if your flicker is on for left , you could turn right, or not. you could be riding left and have a motorbike pull out of a side street on the wrong side of the road riding towards you ( a shortcut to shop 100m down the road and avoiding having to cross over traffic twice). or not. Yield signs are a free for all and after 6 months intermittent travelling here I still haven't discovered who has right of way. You don't yield to the right, you don't yield to the first who got there . It seems like survival of the biggest group. So if a gaggle of bikers come down the road , they have right of way , even if you got their first. Or Not. Just have to ride with caution and rather give right of way to anybody who looks more assertive than you lol Another oddity , at a crossroads if you arrive at the stop sign ( there road has no stop) and a car /bike approaches from the side and they are turning into your street , they cut the corner behind you , so you pull out in front of them when their indicator is on. This does not always apply in all provinces in Thailand. Needless to say where we saffers turn into the road in front of cars that have stopped can cause confusion for them and you. Last comment and this might be Krabi related but I haven't heard and seen so many ambulances racing to accidents as here. Without a doubt within one week I had seen more than my entire previous visits to Thailand. Whether its due to higher tourist activity and /or the rapid transition of many Thais from bike to car ( without the skills) idk. I have seen bike accidents with ambulances and certainly more than the norm. With cars involved. I should add I need a pillion rider with a strong constitution to sit on the back and video some of the stuff for me lol