Many Thais are musically oriented which explains why karaoke is so popular in Thailand and why you hear recorded and live music in so many places here. Bangkok cabbies often enjoy listening to music in their taxis, too, and the driver today even had a Thai instrument known as a phin in the back window of his cab. At one point, the cabbie offered to demonstrate how he plays his three-stringed lute from the Isaan region in the Northeast of Thailand, but since he was behind the wheel of his taxi, I told him to wait until after we arrived at our destination. In the meantime, he put in a CD of Thai Northeast Native Melodies and cranked the volume on high.
Thais on the whole are adept at improvising, and Bangkok cabbies are particularly good at winging it. One cabbie that I met was tired of listening to customers complain about the heat in the back of the taxi, so he strapped a fan to the seats with a bungee cord. Another taxi driver needed to prop up the rear brake light that he rigged and decided that a couple of plastic food containers would work best. Never mind that these contraptions aren't overly pleasing to the eye. In both cases, function takes precedence over beauty.
