This might sound a highly racist thing to say … but it’s based on fact [cough-cough] so it isn’t. Ahem.
OK, here we go … Asian people are crap drivers. Yes they are.
Please note I am not saying they are bad drivers … they are fucking nightmare drivers.
And I’m not just talking about the Taxi guys [though they reach even lower standards than the masses] I am talking about every bloody person who gets behind the wheel of a car.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s Singapore, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Philippines … they all are totally shit … infact in Vietnam, traffic accidents are the number 1 reason for death for people under 35!
I could try and describe some of the reasons – but I wouldn’t be doing it justice – so just imagine being in the back of a 20 year old cab in monsoon rain, driving at 120mph with zero visibility, no seat belts in the back, swerving in and out of lanes either to get ahead of the traffic or to avoid a vehicle you see at the last moment, sliding [and I mean sliding] around the multitude of tight bends on the constantly cracked and bumpy roads, squeezing through 2 feet gaps between trucks and cars, using the horn to stop cars side-swiping you because people don’t use mirrors and rely on the vehicles around them to warn of impending crashes – all the time while the driver is either nattering away on his mobile phone or – and I kid you not – cutting his nose hair while looking in the rearview mirror or opening the door and spitting out greenies along the road.
Sure the cabs are dirt cheap out here … but when you are taking your life in your hands each time you use one, then they should be paying us instead of the other way round.And I still feel this way after literally thousands of trips!!!
Anyway, a while back if you’d of asked me, I would have said the worst drivers of the lot are the Malaysians.
Apart from the fact that on 2 occasions I genuinely thought I was going to die in a cab, cars are dirt cheap so everyone has one which results in swamped roads and drivers desperate to break free from the traffic chaos.
How do they break free from all this mayhem? By driving like bloody lunatics … both interms of speed and navigation.
Now as I said, I used to think this led to them being the worst drivers in Asia – however with hindsight I now realise they are actually highly skilled because on top of having less traffic accidents than many other countries in Asia, they can park their cars in places that to lesser drivers, would be nothing short of madness.
Even Evil Knievel would be impressed – I know I am, as well as bit scared!
Reverse parked on the very edge of a 40 foot high building.