Was trying to take the back way from suk 62 to suk 22, but took a wrong turn and ended up at the toll booths for the expressway instead. I stopped at the tolls off to the side and a truck with 4 BIB in came up behind with lights flashing. I thought I was on for a ticket at least so just gave em a big smile and shrugged my shoulders and told em I took a wrong turn and was very sorry. Top boys, they just said 'follow us' and gave me an escort at 90kmh to the next exit with all the lights flashing and all gave me a wave as i went past. just a shame that I took another couple of wrong turns still trying to find suk 22 and ended up at On Nut riding the wrong way down Soi 77! Doh!

nice one, i bet they enjoyed it as well, did you shrug your shoulders in thai or english

Good to hear a positive story for a change, I've had a few decent encounters with the BIB but not for 12 months or so.

3 weeks ago I was riding back from Rayong to BKK, took the road from Minburi towards Ramkaenghang, first bridge had a sign "no bikes" so I took the side road under the bridge and rejoined the main road. Second bridge I wasn't so sure, I thought it looked like the same bridge that I had to cough up 200 baht a few months ago so I stopped and checked, no sign on the bridge and the side road was a U-turn back to MinBuri.

I decided it couldn't be the same bridge (girlfriend was sure it was the same one) so I rode over and sure enough the pack of pot-bellied shysters were waiting for me. I explained to them that I'd stopped, seen no sign and the side road was a U-turn. He told me that even though there was no
sign, bikes couldn't cross and I should have ridden towards the U-turn and then joined the pedestrian footbridge, ridden over that and then rejoined the main road!

Apparantly that's safer than riding over an empty 2 lane bridge! 200 baht and a few fake smiles from both sides later and I was on my way. 1 km later I was stopped again. No fine this time. That brought me up to 1000 baht in road fines over the 3 years I've been here (1 was a fair cop, 1 was semi-legitimate, 3 scams). A bargain really, but it still leaves a sour taste despite the insignificance of the cash. May as well do what you want, if they want the money they'll take it and at least if you've broken the law you get your moneys worth.

I can't say that i have had any problems with the BIB. Usually they pull me over, take a look at my driver's license and Thai ID card, and let me go. I guess it helps to have the last name of a wealthy and powerful Thai family.

hey Sub.... Can you adopt a few of us to have the same last name.....

Guess it helps having a few of the District Level boys in my MC... Lol - no powerful last name required....

Good to hear a funny BIB moment..

Will they ever change the rules so that at least "big" bikes can use the expressway?

Last time I was in Isaan and had to get to Hua Hin across Bangers. Bu55er me, instead of simply paying a toll and winging it I was consigned to traffic jams and even a dam_n boat crossing. Took almost four hours of frustration. Suppose I should have done a bit more homework.

It is not something I want to repeat.

Good to hear some good news from the BiB!

I think the way it works is if you can't pull over then bikes are not allowed. Eg if there is no pedestrian pavement, etc. So if you stalled and could not restart then its very dangerous since everyone drives at crazy speeds and no one would drive round you!

I have come across several bridges where there is no sign on the two lanes coming up to the bridge, but the sign is on the left most lane and you would not see it! I pointed this out once, but no sympathy

What bugs me is that you are in the middle of nowhere and you have to go and find the police station, and sometimes the police stations are in the most ridiculous places (I mean very difficult to find). Sometimes its quite a expedition to go and retrieve it!

Ratchada underpasses: you can use them at night because they never stop bikes at night using the underpasses. In the day they do.