Want to know Thailand? Get behind the wheel

Getting to know a foreign country requires plenty of time on the ground, an effort to speak the language and a friendly guide, be they a partner or a close friend. I would now add a fourth pillar to that holy trinity: obtain a local driving license and take to the roads. I have been driving in Thailand for more than a year and the experience so far has been revelatory. 
 
The highways are fantastic, Bangkok’s traffic jams are avoidable with a bit of local knowledge and the Thai capital’s chaotic street scenes are a dream for anyone sitting behind the wheel. Thai drivers are remarkably polite. They routinely let other cars in and no one beeps. Seriously. No one beeps. I waited at a flashing orange light for five minutes, completely confused by this road signal, before the car behind me gave me a gentle toot. And I swear the horn on my sensible, six-seater Hyundai has been modified by a monk to deliver the same umph as a temple windchime.

This lack of honking and road rage more than makes up for some unique driving habits. Put Thais in a car, especially a pick-up truck, and suddenly they are in a rush to get somewhere. Vehicles habitually change lanes, undertake and jump into any gap. It can take a bit of getting used to but every country has its own idiosyncrasies (I once watched a tractor in China driving the wrong way down a motorway) and that’s all part of the charm. 
 
But to back up for a second, I should make it clear that I’m not a car guy and I was living a perfectly happy car-free existence in London, Hong Kong and Bangkok until two kids came along. My midlife U-turn was only meant to be a practical concession, a need for safe passage to football practice, swimming lessons and Muay Thai training. The Damascene conversion came as a complete surprise and now I must confess to loving driving in Thailand. What’s more, the timing of my newfound mobility could not have been better. 
 
A few months after I got my license, we started work on our new handbook about Thailand. This beautiful title, full of original photography and fresh reporting, was released last week and it’s the first in the series to venture outside Europe. We have gone out of our way to make sure that the whole country is captured across 224 pages. Naturally, this required plenty of roadtrips north, south, east and west. I highly recommend driving from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai, stopping off at former capitals Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. I did the return leg in one, epic 11-hour drive and felt very Thai, stopping off at multiple service stations for Americanos at Café Amazon and Thai Red Bull from the 7-Eleven convenience store.
 
The best thing about having a set of wheels in Chiang Mai is being able to explore the surrounding countryside. Some of my personal highlights from the book include visiting the beautiful Moonler furniture factory and driving 90 minutes further north to the Araksa Tea Garden – a must-visit. 
 
But our books are an invitation to relocate and set up a business as much as plan a holiday, so I also called in on the Australian founder of Superbee – a pioneer of beeswax wraps. Antoinette Jackson told me her entrepreneurial story of landing at the beach in Hua Hin before packing her family into a car, driving north and building a global business in the mountains around Chiang Mai.
  
For me, driving has become a weekly wellness routine alongside games of six-a-side football – rare opportunities to focus on one thing without looking at a phone screen. I am as guilty as the next person of jumping into the back of a cab and spending the whole journey replying to emails rather than watching what’s going on outside the window. Getting behind the wheel allows me to see more of the country and be a better correspondent. 
 
Now, I know advocating for more car journeys in the middle of a fuel (and climate) crisis might seem frivolous but petrol prices will soon normalise and the EV network in Thailand is expanding at the speed of a Toyota HiLux pick-up truck on Highway 32. If I worked for Thailand’s tourism authority, I would be building a campaign to promote driving. I’d take a leaf out of Australia’s book, which brands coastal roads as grand expeditions. The journey south on Highway 4 from Bangkok to Hua Hin, Phang Nga, Krabi and Koh Lanta could easily become the Grand Southern Soi. That will be my next driving adventure and our Thailand handbook will be coming along for the ride.
 
James Chambers is Monocle’s Asia editor. Click here to get your hands on a copy of ‘Thailand: The Monocle Handbook’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.