Throughout our travels, Win has been playing Slug Bug, with me as the unwilling loser. Granted, the occasions to actually call ‘Slug Bug’ are pretty rare in the land of motorbikes and Hondas, but they do happen.
Every time I see one of the Beetles cruising around town I can’t help but wonder how difficult it must be to drive a 60s or 70s Volkswagon in a country where they drive on the left. If memory serves, I believe that the shifting isn’t the same as in most cars (something with the placement of reverse?). Put that on top of driving on the left hand side and having to shift with you left hand, all while anticipating the antics of Thai drivers. It’s mindboggling.
I haven’t seen so many VW Bugs in one place as I have since we arrived in Chiang Rai. There are so many here that occasionally (when Win is distracted or driving) I actually manage to win. In reality, we are probably dealing with a max of a dozen, just seen in different locations. But in a country where the motorbikes vastly outnumber the cars, this is still a bizarrely high proportion. There’s a wide variety of colors, and they all seem to be in pristine condition. How did they end up with so many Beetles in Thailand?
