Where every Thai student wears a helmet

I've been spending 4-6 months a year in Indonesia since 2008. I have never seen a school student wearing a helmet and there would be a heap of kids who don't have licences riding to school. No one cares and I'm not sure anyone is keeping statistics on the carnage. Seatbelts? What are they for? You should see some of the YouTube clips of crazy Indonesian bus drivers - criminal.
Indonesia is a bit Wild West compared to Thailand.
 
Well we have our share of crazy drivers in particular minibus and coach drivers, in most cases, you have to undertake to pass people because drivers tend to keep right even though they drive on the left.

Having said that some of the overtaking manoeuvres shown are pretty frightening i would hate to be a passenger.
 
I've been spending 4-6 months a year in Indonesia since 2008. I have never seen a school student wearing a helmet and there would be a heap of kids who don't have licences riding to school. No one cares and I'm not sure anyone is keeping statistics on the carnage. Seatbelts? What are they for? You should see some of the YouTube clips of crazy Indonesian bus drivers - criminal.
Indonesia is a bit Wild West compared to Thailand.

For those who think traffic in Thailand is bad - they should try some hours in indonesian traffic! The main differences are that indonesian roads are in general in much worse condition, they mostly have only one (very narrow) lane in each direction - thus traffic will be like in the clip from 3.32 and onwards. Just freakin crazy! And add up that there are a whole lot more people living in Indonesia and thus traffic is much more dense than in Thailand. Java has around 145 million inhabitants and thats more than twice as much as Thailand and Java is only 25% of the size of Thailand.
If you imagine Thailand had 600 million inhabitants and the road standards of Indonesia - you will get the picture...?
 
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For those who think traffic in Thailand is bad - they should try some hours in indonesian traffic! The main differences are that indonesian roads are in general in much worse condition, they mostly have only one (very narrow) lane in each direction - thus traffic will be like in the clip from 3.32 and onwards. Just freakin crazy! And add up that there are a whole lot more people and thus traffic living in Indonesia than in Thailand. Java has around 145 million inhabitants and thats more than twice as much as Thailand and Java is only 25% of the size of Thailand.
If you imagine Thailand had 600 million inhabitants and the road standards of Indonesia - you will get the picture...?
Hey Kurt. You know better than me because I've never ventured west of Bali on a bike. It will happen one day though but at least I know what to expect. A couple of years ago in Lombok I met a very experienced rider in Lombok. He was heading for Sumatra having come across from Darwin to Timor Leste and then to Lombok.
So, he crossed Bali and landed in Java. He headed for Malang and made it after a six hour ride from the ferry. He found it so stressful that he changed his plan completely. He headed back east a couple of days later and spent tje next six weeks exploring Sulawesi, Flores and West Timor.
Java is, I imagine, alongside some of the Indian National Highways, one of the most challenging places to ride.
 
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