My Chiang Mai

Well, in only one respect, but it’s important.

Despite recent protests by some 30,000 people in the capital of Apia, the South Pacific island of Samoa changed over to drive on the left side of their roads on September 7th.

The change was decreed by the government to fall in line with neighbouring Australia and New Zealand, and to reflect the fact that most vehicles in Samoa thus have the steering wheel on the right.

The protesters feared a massive increase in accidents, saying that drivers had not been properly prepared. Their fears proved to be groundless.

Like it or not, Samoans have joined almost a third of the world’s drivers who all drive on the left. This possibly surprising total is of course explained by the enormous combined vehicle populations of UK, Japan, Malaysia, India and Indonesia, as well as Pakistan and most of the countries of Africa.

Why Thailand, surrounded by right-driving Burma, Laos and Cambodia, evolved motoring on the left can only have sprung from British influence in Malaya, now Malaysia.

When men rode horses and carried swords, most of them kept to the left. This was simply because most people are right handed and it was faster to draw your sword against an oncoming robber or enemy, as the sword was worn on the left of the body. Napoleon is said to have ordered his armies to march on the right as one of his demonstrations of hatred of the English. But at least we have to thank him for his lighting. At night, one soldier at the front had to carry a white light and one at the back a red light!

Editor’s note: Sweden was the last European nation to change (from left to right) in 1967 and did so without one fatal accident, thanks to brilliant, long term advance planning. The biggest expense was changing all the doors of the buses! Burma was the last eastern nation to change (the same way) in 1970. It is said that a general was obsessed by knowing how he would die. His fortune teller said a truck would run away down a hill and hit his car, in which he always sat on the left. The next day he ordered the nation to change over to the right.

The national four wheel drive rally circus arrives in Chang Dao, north of Chiang Mai city on September 5^th-6^th where stars fro Thailand and Japan will compete for fame, fortune and prize money.

Rally fans had a taste of things to come at Thapae Gate on August 14^th when the previous round of the Asia Cross Country Rally championship ended with the usual splashing of champagne and Singha Beer.

The No 15 Isuzu D Max of Atchiki Srimongkol and Tadamisu Nihori had been the fastest over the high speed off-road stages since the Bangkok start, and took top honours, while maximum credit goes to the disabled Takura Aoki who got his similar truck to 12^th place on hand controls. Takura was an engineer and racer for a professional bike team in Japan, until a crash cost him the use of his legs.

Watch this space for details of the Chang Dao event with times and places to see the best of the action!

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

The Chinese motor industry had come to Chiang Mai!  The Chery QQ has been on sale in China for nearly 2 years and now it’s on sale through a network of Thailand dealers which includes a dealer here in Chiang Mai.

For the rest of this month there is a display in Carrefour Chiang Mai where prospective buyers, of just the plain curious types, can take a look at the QQ.

The QQ is a small car with a 1.1 16 valve engine with fuel injection and impressive fuel consumption.

Chery is China’s biggest car manufacturer. They have come under criticism over the QQ after GM accused them of copying the Daewoo Matiz, whist that may well be true I do feel that most car manufacturers do draw inspiration from other manufacturers to some extent.  Having driven  Matiz many years ago I must say that any similarity is superficial.

It’s easy to be biased against Chinese manufactured goods, especially if you have ever owned a Chinese built motorcycle!  However I must say that I was impressed with the overall build quality of the little QQ and at the price It looks unbeatable.

The base model (which impressively includes airbags) is just 366,000 baht and for another 20,000 baht you can buy the luxury model which includes such refinements as Leather Seats, 14″ Alloy Wheels, and Sony Stereo System with iPod adaptor.

The Chery QQ is available in Thailand a nice range of colours, and overall it has the looks and feel of a much more expensive car.

It’s only a matter of time until Chinese built cars become mainstream throughout the world, lets hope that early adopters in Thailand get a car the lives up to the hype in the brochure.

and that’s the BEST result from our special survey!

Chiang Mai motorcyclists, the most vulnerable people on the road, tend to use helmets temporarily when the police are around. Many helmets stay in the front baskets of the bike “just in case” and on the brief occasions they are worn, they are often unfastened.
That’s been our perception for many years, but what are the FACTS?

Thanks to a detailed survey, taken on midweek mornings over the last few days of July, we can now report the awful truth.

Students at Far Eastern University near the airport are more likely to wear helmets than any others, but only 33.93% did so on the day they were surveyed.
This disappointing result, however, is still good enough to put Far Eastern at the top of the class for safety!
And who are at the bottom? The students of Mae Jo University. A tiny 7.24% wore helmets between 7.00am and 8.15am on the day they were surveyed. That’s just 42 bikers out of 580.

The terrible totals of the minority of youngsters bothering to wear helmets goes like this:

1. Far Eastern 33.93% (19 out of 56)
2. Rachamankala 29.41% (85 out of 289)
3. Chiang Mai University  22.6% (294 out of 1,301)
4. Rachabhat 19.3% (270 out of 1,399)
5. Payap 16.1% (81 out of 503)
6. Mae Jo 7.24% (42 out of 580)

Our thanks go to volunteer surveyor Derrick Titmus, who also observed:
Rachabhat: 5 students riding while using mobile phones.
Payap: 4 students riding while on the phone, one also smoking a cigarette.
Chiang Mai: 1 student riding while on the phone.

Editor’s Note:
There are two other factors worth noting.
* A junior traffic policeman has said “As students don’t have much money, we tend not to concentrate on them”. He may not know that typical annual fees for a student at Chiang Mai University (a government establishment) are 100,000b per year, excluding accommodation.
* When a foreign teacher suggested to the principal of a Chiang Mai vocational college that security men should turn away all students arriving without helmets, the reply was “It’s not our responsibility. It’s up to them.”

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

The hybrid version of Toyota’s Camry went on sale throughout Thailand this week. Priced at 1.77 Million Baht for the top of the range model, and as little as 1.59 Million for the cheapest model. Delivery will begin next week and Toyota is hoping to sell about 4000 before the end of the year.

Toyota say that about 900 Toyota Camry Hybrids have already been pre-ordered, they do say that most pre-orders have been from Bangkok customers, though at least some will be seen on the roads on Chiang Mai.

There are three versions on sale, each has the 2.4 litre engine and boast exceptional fuel efficiency together with great performance.

The 3 year/100,000 Km warranty is extended to the battery, this is likely to be important to customers as the battery is likely to be very expensive to replace.

Whilst grey-imported Hybrid cars have been on sale through specialist importers for some time, Toyota points out that this car has been designed to cope with Thailand’s climate and road conditions together with high loads on the air conditioning system which has to continue to run when the car is powered electrically.

The Toyota Camry has enjoyed very good sales in Thailand where it has more than 50% of the market for cars in it’s class, and with good reason. It’s a fine car at a fair price.

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.