Tuk-tuks are hybrids between motorcycles and taxis. A tuk-tuk is powered by a scooter but has two wheels and a row of enclosed seats on the back that can comfortably fit three and uncomfortably fit five. In Bangkok they tend to have a lot of blue LEDs; in Siem Reap on our last trip we took one that was decorated as the batmobile.
You hail a tuk-tuk like an ordinary taxi, let the drivers quote you an exorbitant fare, argue them down to a reasonable fare, and then add that you want to fit five people in one tuk-tuk. Only once did a driver object to this arrangement, and that was when we had all of our bags.
In Chiang Mai we were picked up by a lady tuk-tuk driver and her dog, who apparently rides along with her every day. They had matching haircuts and the dog didn't hesitate to hop from the front seat to the back to check us out. With five people we were a very heavy load and the tuk-tuk didn't want to accelerate, but she made up for the lack of haste by making Mario Kart noises all the way back to our hotel. We checked with a GPS and found that our max speed was 30 kph after she had been flooring it for more than a minute.
Darren insisted on calling them duck-ducks the entire time we were in Thailand.
On our last night in Bangkok we caught a tuk-tuk across town and enjoyed the sights. I wish I had good photos of us in a tuk-tuk, but we were always crammed so tightly together that I couldn't get photos.
From writing this blog post I have learned that typing tuk-tuk on a phone keyboard is difficult.
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