What is interesting is how people get their fuel. There is no RaceTrac to pull into, where you buy $50.00 worth of gasoline (1629 Baht!!), run in grab a jumbo bag of Doritos and a 44 oz Big Gulp before you dash back to your car.
Instead, there seem to be two types of stations in the areas where we’re at, although there must be something closer to what we’re used to seeing, maybe in the more residential areas where privately owned cars are more populous.
One type of station is geared more toward the skooters and motorcycles. It tends to be a display rack that looks remarkably like it actually came from a gas station – kind of a tripod affair, like those “wet floor” signs, only bigger, made of wire and holding bottles. The most predominant type of bottles seem to be those for “100 Piper Scotch”, with the labels still on them for some reason.
Gasoline is a deep red color, probably indicating octane. Each of the bottles is a little better than half full, probably holding a liter and they sell for 30 Baht (91 cents).
Now, for those who are metrically challenged as we are, a liter is .264 gallons, or a gallon is 3.79 Liters. This means that gas is running about $3.45 a gallon.
The other way is to go to a “gas station”. Again, no Slurpees here. 2 pumps (manually operated by pulling a lever to fill the glass bowl), no waiting, open 24 hours according to the sign.
Both the “gas stations” and the bottle service are located in strip malls, open air markets, and right next to other businesses. We didn’t see any tanks, but suspect they’re in the back of the stations, with the gasoline being pumped up to the front when you pull the lever. There isn’t any spatial separation from other businesses or fire suppression equipment that we saw, nor were there the spill catchment systems that are in US service stations to prevent groundwater contamination.
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