I waited on the curb, my eyes peeled on the approaching traffic. In the distance, I saw the red number 11 songtaew, so I held my arm out into the street, flapping my hand up and down. The 11 pulled over, but it seemed too full for me. People were sitting, standing and nearly hanging out of the back! I didn’t know if I should get on or wait for the next one.
One of the coolest parts about the songtaew is how communal it is. People seem to work together with complete strangers to ensure that everyone gets to their destination on time. Some songtaews I see have up to 12 or 15 people on them at one time, forcing riders to squeeze closer together to make room for another person to embark. In Thai culture, it seems that people do not mind sitting or standing very close to one another. Personal space isn’t an issue, so when I was standing on the curb looking into the overflowing number 11 songtaew, people rearranged their bodies to make room for me and helped me on, all smiling.
While songtaews exist in cities as public transportation, they are also used for tours in national parks. This weekend, I visited Khao Yai National Park, which is the first and largest national park in Thailand. It is full of lush green forests, rolling grass fields and an assortment of critters that I have never seen in the wild before, like elephants and gibbons. Gibbons are small, monkey-like mammals that swing on jungle branches.
My friends and I took a day-long tour of the park, riding a songtaew the whole way.
