Now growing up in Smallville USA, the most I really heard a horn used was from a car alarm. On occasion you would have the angry driver or two blare the horn, but for the most part, the horn was for "emergency" situations i.e. children running out in front of you, a car changing lanes that doesn't see you and so on.
That being said, in Asia, the horn takes on a whole new life. If it's not a car honking at you , then it's a bus, if not that, then it's a motorcycle, if not that, then it's the dickhead on his bicycle ringing his bell at you. You can't escape the dreaded horn here.
Different countries however, use their horns for different reasons. Thailand, I have noticed, uses their horns primarily for defense. For Korea it's a strictly offensive tool. Allow me to please start with Korea since it is the most offensive. I ride the bus to and from work everyday. It is about a 10-15 minute ride. On an average day, during that short time span, you can count on the driver using his horn no less than 10 times. This is not because of all the idiot drivers around him, he uses it to scream at other drivers " Get the hell outta my way, I'm coming through !" If he feels a car is going to slow....horn, if he feels a car has not pulled enough to the left so he can illegally pass on the right....horn. If you do not start to take off from a red light BEFORE it turns green...horn....Seriously, you can be waiting for the light to turn green and 4 or 5 drivers will start honking at you because they see no traffic coming the other direction and you are not moving yet. When I take a taxi, they have one eye on the road, one eye watching their Korean soap opera on TV, one hand steering and the other resting on their horn. They are almost caressing their precious horn like it's a new found girlfriend. Another unusual habit that I have seen EVERY Korean driver do. When then stop at a red light, the car gets put into park and the Emergency brake goes on ????? They say they are saving gas that way, but by the way they actually drive, they aren't saving shit ! And anyone else who has been here has also experienced this other annoyance....Many of the older drivers..taxis, buses, private cars etc...They all push their gas pedal up and down. Say you're driving down a road with no other traffic. Your driver will be quickly "revving " his engine by tapping the gas pedal up and down. You are actually rocking back and forth when they do this.
Now Thailand....just the opposite. The horn is used a lot also, but mostly in a defensive manner. That is to say, you are approaching an intersection that you have no intention of stopping at...So you pre-emptively honk your horn in the hope that others will slow down so that you can blaze through. Unfortunately this doesn't work very often. There are tons of motorcycles there. They all have those little " beep-beep" horns. When I am driving in my truck, with the air-con blowing and my DVD blasting out some Kiss tunes...I don't hear a damn thing. I am surprised actually that I haven't killed anything aside from a cobra lazily crossing the highway. Overall, I think Thailand is a much more relaxed place to drive....Not that I would ever drive in Bangkok ! Crazy bad traffic there. Last time we came from the airport, it took about 20 minutes to get downtown and then about 5 blocks from our hotel.... it took another 45 minutes to travel that last 5 blocks. Of course we could have walked it much faster, but we had 4 suitcases and it was pouring rain.
Then you have Hong Kong. OK, I don't know what the hell is going on there ! It is such a mix of offensive and defensive honking, that I think everyone has just tuned out the horns. You know, kinda like when the wife is talking and you are just hearing blah,blah,blah..and answer with the occasional head nod and uh-huh. Ooh, maybe that explains why I have been married 3 times also ! And totally off the subject of horns...that reminds me of why I love having a Thai wife so much ! You don't have to really listen to them..just when they pause, you say " uhh." That is a legitimate Thai answer. I can watch my TV show and just say "uhh" a couple of times and I am good to go. Of course, being American, when I talk to her and she says that to me, I will ask if she is even listening to me, at which point she prattles off whatever I just said. When she does happen to catch me and ask me what she said..I go into a deep thought "looking" mode and say " Mai Khoa Jai " Thai for I don't understand...and I chalk it up to the language barrier. I know that is only going to get me so far as she is picking up more slang from me and I am learning more Thai. Just the other day she told me to shut my pie hole ! I was rolling on the ground laughing. She heard it from one of my movies.
Ahhh, life can be good sometimes !
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