Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Thai Transporter Photo


For many in Thailand a motorcycle is the only form of private motor transport they can afford however much they have to carry. These waste recyclers are clearly well-practised in the art of loading their bike’s sidecar and hopefully also used to riding it without being able to see anything to the left.

Notice how the lady in this photograph is only wearing flimsy flipflops but casually resting her foot on the exhaust pipe which happens to be a very common source of burns in Thailand. I have no idea what proportion of the population bares scars on their legs from motorbike exhaust pipe burns but it must be high. Not having been brought up with motorbikes, many tourists taking a motorcycle taxi or renting a bike of their own seem particularly vulnerable as they don’t realise that their bare skin is very close to extremely hot metal until it’s too late.

Photograph taken in Chiang Mai, Thailand

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