Word: traffics
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...That's nearly twice what a taxi would cost," I protest. He shrugs and takes a pull on his cigarette. "80 baht?" I venture. It's almost 6 p.m., and every minute wasted means another minute's worth of traffic backing up in the capital's sclerotic arteries. The hell with haggling, it's still less than $3. "Okay," I concede, "100 baht. And please, drive carefully." Wiset flicks a switch and the two-stroke engine explodes into life with a flatulent blast, filling the immediate vicinity with evil blue fumes...
...error occurred while processing this directive]In the time it takes me to get home?which could be anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour, depending on traffic?hundreds of unsuspecting tourists will enter similarly Faustian bargains with tuk-tuk drivers in all corners of the capital. A white-knuckle, smog-shrouded ride in one of these golf-carts-on-steroids should be on the top of any Bangkok tourist's checklist, up there with a visit to the Grand Palace, a kickboxing match at Lumpini Stadium, shopping at Chatuchak weekend market and a longtail-boat ride to the Temple...
...Most likely the tuk tuk will eventually go the way of the samlor and of its person-powered relative, the ricksha, becoming just another tourist curio and footnote in the annals of Asian transport. But to watch tuk tuks zigzagging cheekily through cracks in the traffic, to listen to that deafening two-stroke note that sounds like a defiant raspberry directed at detractors, is to realize that the tuk tuk is not going to go without a fight...
...read: "We have lost our nation and are fighting to get it back." True or not, the roads of Laos will be seeing a lot less traffic...
...grassroots social uprising. The number of jobs created in China barely keeps up with the armies of workers laid off by failing enterprises?and angry, laid-off workers are the biggest threat to the country's stability. Sichuan has seen its fair share of trouble: last June, traffic in Chengdu came to a halt on two occasions when workers held a protest about unpaid salaries; in September, 800 oil refinery workers in Chongqing demonstrated over paltry severance payments...