Running Out of Fuel in Thailand: What to Do

Running dry in Thailand is rarely a crisis and usually an embarrassment. Petrol stations are dense along main roads, and where they thin out, roadside sellers fill the gap: bottles, drums with hand pumps, and small kerbside dispensers outside shops in villages that are nowhere near a forecourt. Get the vehicle off the road, work out how far the nearest fuel is, and walk or flag down help — a scooter pushes easily and a passing pickup will very often stop.

The two things worth knowing in advance are that a scooter's fuel gauge is not to be trusted, and that Thailand's fuel grades are in the middle of a transition, so what is available and what your engine can take are both moving targets.

• Highway Police1193
• Department of Highways1586, press 7 for motorways
• Roadside bottle petrolUsually gasohol 91 or 95, quality variable

When the engine dies

1. Hazard lights on and use what momentum you have to get to the left and off the tarmac.
2. Get yourself off the road. A stationary vehicle on a Thai highway is not somewhere to stand about — see what to do when you break down.
3. Confirm it is fuel and not something else. A clean cut-out with no warning lights and a gauge on empty is fuel; a rough die with steam or a temperature warning is not, and that is overheating.
4. Find the nearest fuel on your maps app. Petrol stations are well mapped in Thailand even where small shops are not.
5. Walk, or get a lift. On a bike, either push it or leave it visible with the hazards on and walk. Flagging down a pickup is normal and usually works.

Roadside bottle petrol: what it is and whether to use it

In rural Thailand you will see petrol sold in old whisky bottles or soft-drink bottles on a wooden rack outside a shop, and in slightly larger villages from a drum with a hand-cranked pump or a small kerbside dispenser. This is an ordinary part of the fuel economy and it is what keeps rural motorbikes moving. The fuel is normally gasohol 91 or 95.

Is it safe to use? For a small scooter, in a pinch, generally yes — millions of Thai riders do it every day. Two honest caveats. Quality is variable in a way that pump fuel is not: a bottle that has stood in the sun for weeks, or been decanted through a funnel that has seen better days, may carry water or dirt. And it is more expensive per litre than the forecourt, which is entirely reasonable given it is being brought to you.

• Use it to get to a proper station, not to fill the tank.
• Buy from a shop that is clearly selling regularly rather than from a single dusty bottle that has sat all season.
• Do not put it in a hire car. A modern petrol engine with an emissions system is far less tolerant than a carburettored scooter, and the wrong grade or dirty fuel becomes a rental dispute.
• Never, in any circumstance, put it in a diesel vehicle.

Getting the grade right

This is the mistake that costs real money, and it is the classic hire-car error. Thai forecourts sell several petrol grades that look confusingly similar on the pump.

The forecourt is mid-transition. Under the national energy plan, gasohol 91, gasohol 95 and E85 are all to be phased out, with full discontinuation expected by 2027, leaving E20 and B7 as the two main road fuels. So the list above will look different in a year or two.

How far the reserve really takes you

Not as far as you would like, and less than the gauge suggests. Small automatic scooters have crude fuel gauges that read optimistically for most of the tank and then fall off a cliff, and the reserve on a 110cc or 125cc machine is measured in single-digit kilometres in some cases. Cars are more honest, but a hire car handed over with the needle "on full" may not be.

The practical rule for a scooter is to treat the last quarter of the gauge as empty and fill up whenever you pass a station with less than half a tank. It costs nothing to do and it removes the whole problem. On a long rural ride — the mountain roads of the north, the emptier parts of Isaan, the coastal roads between towns — fill up at the last town rather than the next one.

Where stations actually thin out

• Mountain roads in the north. The gaps between stations on the loops around Mae Hong Son and Pai are long, and the terrain eats fuel. The Mae Hong Son loop is the classic case.
• Rural Isaan. Long, straight, empty roads with villages that have a shop and a bottle rack but no forecourt.
• The islands. Koh Chang, Koh Phangan and the smaller islands have stations, but not many, and not always open late.
• After dark, anywhere rural. Small stations close earlier than you expect; the big 24-hour PTT and Bangchak sites on main highways do not.

Carrying spare fuel

For a normal trip, do not bother. For a long tour on quiet roads, a small approved fuel can strapped somewhere sensible is reasonable. Do not carry petrol in a soft-drink bottle in a rucksack on a motorbike — the heat, the vibration and the consequences of a spill in a crash all argue against it, and it is not worth the two litres.

Frequently asked questions