Morning commuter

It used to be that the way to get around the traffic in Bangkok was in a 3-wheeled tuk tuk, the iconic symbol of the city found on nearly every tourist t-shirt. Now tuk tuks are few and far between and almost always overpriced. Why sit in the hot, steamy traffic in an open, noisy tuk tuk when it's cheaper to take an air-conditioned taxi? Or even better, hop on a motorbike for a few baht and weave in and out through the traffic without ever stopping!

Motorbikes are also popular for short runs - getting to and from the sky train or subway. I caught this on the way to work this morning. I decided to walk from the sky train to the office instead of taking a motorbike (as one does) and snapped the office workers on their way down the street. As you can see, helmets are required for drivers but optional for passengers (who wants to put on a sweaty helmet used by the last stranger??)

Traffic was light this morning for some reason (I never can figure out why one day it's heavy and the next it's light) and the motorbikes were going so fast I could hardly pan the camera. I took 83 photos using high speed continuous shooting as they went by and only 3 or 4 were worth posting. Security guards moved me on a few times since it's an embassy area - I felt like a spy scoping out a target. LOL.

Here's my favorite shot.