I Would Never Do That. Things I Would Never Do as a Seasoned Traveler

#1: Rent a Scooter in a Busy Foreign City... Don't Do That

I travel constantly. I actively look for adventure, and I'm willing to accept considerably more risk than the average traveler in exchange for an extraordinary experience. But there are things I see people do while traveling that make absolutely no sense to me. This series is about those things. I understand the appeal, but don't do it.

You land in Bali, Bangkok, Hanoi or Manila and scooters are everywhere. They're cheap. They're convenient. You watch the locals weaving effortlessly through traffic and think, that looks fun. Then somebody hands you the keys. This is where I'd like you to remember that you are not a local.

You don't know the roads. You don't know the unwritten traffic rules. You don't know which intersections work differently than they appear to. You're probably looking at Google Maps. You're surrounded by drivers who have spent their entire lives operating in that environment, and your primary safety equipment is a helmet of questionable quality and whatever clothes you put on that morning.

There is almost no upside worth that combination. And the numbers are ugly. Thailand has roughly 18,000 road deaths annually, and motorcyclists account for nearly 84 percent of them. In Bali, police recorded 142 traffic crashes involving foreign nationals in 2024, up 35 percent from the previous year, resulting in 21 deaths and 174 reported injuries. By late 2025, Bali police were publicly warning inexperienced foreign visitors against operating motorcycles themselves.

Globally, powered two and three wheelers account for nearly 30 percent of road traffic deaths. The risk isn't theoretical. One of my close friends nearly died in a scooter accident while traveling. When we first heard what had happened, we thought we had lost him. He survived, but what followed was three months in a hospital.

Three months. Whatever convenience that scooter provided disappeared in about three seconds.

And you don't have to look far online to find travelers showing the aftermath: broken ankles, shredded legs, skin grafts and hospital stays. People who started with exactly the same thought. That looks fun. This is where my philosophy of adventure sometimes surprises people. I don't believe great adventure means accepting every available risk. If I'm taking on additional risk, I want an extraordinary experience on the other side of it.

Climbing a mountain has risk. Diving with sharks has risk. Driving across a desert has risk. Those risks may be worth managing because what you get back is genuinely remarkable. Getting from your hotel to a restaurant isn't an adventure just because you chose the most dangerous form of transportation available. Would I do a motorcycle journey through the Vietnamese countryside? Possibly, because the ride itself could be the point. The risk and the reward are at least in the same conversation. But riding a scooter through chaotic city traffic because I don't want to wait fifteen minutes for a car? No chance. That is not a risk-reward calculation. That is just risk.

Take the car. Spend the money. Wait the extra time. Save your risk budget for something worth remembering. So if you're standing outside a rental shop in Bali looking at a row of scooters and thinking how fun it would be to zip around for the week, remember my friend and his three months in a hospital bed. Then ask yourself what you're actually getting in return for the risk. Put your wallet away.

That's Rule No. 1. I would never do that.