A year ago I was filling my Nuevo Scooter for 60 baht. Now it costs 120.

My car strangely cost twice as much too.

Little relief seems in sight and 95 has already hit 30 baht/litre in distant Mae Hong Song. It’s only 1.5 baht from that in Pattaya and we have oil refineries down the street in Laem Chabang. Now’s time to learn a new Thai word.

Pang –  expensive.

Europeans on holiday aren’t too bothered because they’re paying about $300/gallon to drive a tuna can around congested shopping malls. There aren’t enough Americans here to care what they say, but this price hike is hurting the Thais, who earn about 200-300 baht a day. If you have to pay for gas, that means it comes out of one thing. Your sanuk funds or fun money.

No more beer. No more driving drunk. No more karaokes.

Rice farmers are even considering going back to buffaloes for plowing the fields and drivers are modifying their engines to LNG for cheaper fuel. The bureaucrats have sacrifced motorcades for their trips to 7/11 or mia nois (small wives)

Here are several measures you can make to help alleviate the demand for petrol

1. Shut off your engine at stop lights. (probably save about 4 million thimbles of gas per day, which adds up to about 12 billion thimbles a year which is enough to take the thai aircraft carrier into the Gulf of Siam for an hour cruise)

Buy a small hand towel to wipe off the sweat or just run a red light. That saves time and gas.

2. Turn off the lights in your house ( that way a thief won’t have to drive around  to find a better house into which to break)

3. When you short-time, finish twice, so you won’t have to drive your car again to soi 6

4. Drink at home (not only will you save money, but you’ll realize you don’t need to drink if there aren’t any dancing girls around)

5. Ride a bike. Downside is that beer is a more expensive fuel than gas and driving drunk on a bike is more dangerous. I face planted after a beer blitz two years ago and my shoulder still isn’t right.  What was weird was that I said the same thing before I left the bar while going to my bike as I would have for my car. “Shit, I’m fine to drive.”

6. Don’t drive drunk. Who knows where you go between point ABC and home. Better to sleep it off in a cheap hotel. Short-time 300 baht for 3 hours versus 100 driving drunk. Einstein gets behind the wheel every time.

5. Lastly be innovative. Check out this URL.

http://www.rvi.net/~mdhorban/hybridmotorcycle.htm

You don’t have to be smart to come up with a good idea. Trust me, Einstein wasn’t that smart otherwise he would have invented a space ship that runs on nothing instead of giving us a theory no one can understand.

A casualty of the gas hikes has been the H1 Hummer from GM

12000 of the 4.5 mph/liter were sold to consumers wanting to show they were consuming. GM promises that the Hummer DNA will continue with every car they make. I actually saw a H1 in pattaya. Stopped traffic on Soi Bhaokhao when the driver (male) couldn’t make the turn onto soi Diana.

Military experts say that the downswing in sales was not from higher prices, but that the Hummers counterpart in Iraq was not safe under any conditions.

Personally I think they’re perfect for driving down Beach Road on a Friday night. Beep beep. Look at me. You know the spinners would be gagging to get in this ride.