They want to take me for a ride!?

[mobs00]

I left Chiang Mai and visited a friend yesterday for lunch with my girlfriend. He lives out in Sanpatong at the end of the canal road to the right up towards the mountains. We had lunch at around 1pm and I had 2 cans of beer. He is building a small house on his property so I helped him around the site for a bit until about 2:45pm when I decided to take off. This is when it got interesting….

On this trip to his house I was also planning on looking for some new running trails for the Chiang Mai Hash House Harriers to run on. So I headed out of his driveway and to the right out towards the hills. I kept driving for a while and the road dead ended so I turned and headed back. As you probably know the roads in Chiang Mai have a habit of getting smaller and smaller the further from the city you drive. And here was a perfect example; only one car could fit on this country road at a time. No problem as I have driven like this before and the key is to drive slow.

So I am driving along at around 15-20 km/hr and all of a sudden the girlfriend yells ahhhh!! HOY!!! Which in itself is a funny reaction but she does that every time something really surprises her. So BANG!! BOOM!!! KRSHH!! That is what a motorbike sounds like hitting the front of your bumper at low speed. I though ohh SH_T! Here we go! About 15 minutes earlier my friend and I were just talking about how tough it is to drive in areas like this with all the idiots having their afternoon shots of lao kao then pulling out from god knows where on the motorbikes.

So I get out and sure enough the guy is down. I had no idea if I ran him over or what happened. He flew out of a small soi to the left so fast all I saw was him hitting the truck and then going down. So here comes his drinking buddy running over quicker than the rush to Big C when they put the cooking oil on sale. First thing he does is check his friend, then starts to subtly kick out the motorbike tracks to hide the direction he came in; yeah, like that will work. The guy seems to be ok and is up and walking after a few minutes. I quickly get on the phone to my friend to have him come down with his wife. During this time the rest of the village of 50 shows up and out of the corner of my eye I see his drinking buddy pick up a small plastic bag that fell off the bike and toss it in the bushes. First thing that comes to mind is “whiskey”. And sure enough it was lao kao. So while the village idiots are scrambling to see if the guy has any serious injuries I go to grab the bag and put it near the truck, after taking a picture of its location first. We confront him about this and he says “he is not drunk because it is the afternoon; he only drinks in the evening!”

So here comes the Thai soap opera drama corp. Thank god my girlfriend was with me. They start blaming me for everything of course. My girlfriend starts to point out everything he was at fault for; trying to drive on the wrong side of the road for one, being drunk with whiskey on board, no license, no rego, the list went on. They blame me for driving to fast and for being a falang and they blame my girlfriend for siding with me. While she is keeping them busy I am taking loads of pictures of everything.

My friend arrives about 10 minutes after the accident. Not much he could do but it was comforting not being alone in this. Well, with everything going against this guy he decides he wants to call the cops. So I said “let’s dance”. Come to find out he is an ex-cop. Oops. The local police arrive and were very friendly, they checked out the scene and I guess because he was an ex-cop they decided to bring on a traffic cop to settle this. He must have been a friend of the “big policeman”. After waiting for 2 hours the guy shows up looks at m and says “falang gin beer”. Do you believe that! Shows up and says I am the one that is drunk, while the slur talking, squinty eyed, professional lao kao drinker throws his 10 baht bag of whiskey in the bushes!

Here we go: falang+accident=$$$

So it’s all my fault. He says I am drunk I say test me. He says it is my fault so we point out the guy was pulling out onto the wrong side of the road. Still my fault. The “big policeman” talks to his friend a bit more and they decide to hose me. I have first class insurance so they tell me to admit I was at fault and call my insurance company OR they will take me to the “bigger policeman” and I can deal with him. At this point my girlfriend wants me to just admit it, but “why would I do that? It’s not my fault”. I tell him “good, then take me”. I start to take a bunch more photos of everything; the truck, tires, tire tracks. The bike, driver, people around, everything! The “big policeman” starts to ask my girlfriend all kinds of questions about me and about her. Why am I here, what do I do, where do I come from. They ask her where is she from, why she is in Chiang Mai when her ID say Mae Sariang, where she goes to school; basically trying to intimidate her because it wasn’t working with me. I stand my ground and don’t budge.

The cops that first showed up go over to the motorbike driver to talk to him. I guess they tell him “when falangs think they are right they don’t change their mind. Falangs have money and you will lose”. I wasn’t going to change my mind and he was going to lose and the cops will lose face for trying to extort money from me with all the evidence on my side. The “big policeman” gets fed up and almost throws our ID’s at us and tells us to go. 6pm now and we jump in the truck and take off.

So in the end it turned out to be a pissing match and I guess after being so “drunk”, I ended up peeing more than him.

I wouldn’t recommended this in every situation but more often than not if you have an accident and it is clearly not your fault, you may be able to stand your ground and get off without having to pay. So much for the village that won the lottery!!! And I guess for you runners out there, I won’t be setting a run in that part of Chiang Mai anytime soon….


I recently posted this on a forum that "shall not be named" and you know the response I got? This Thai guy told me it was my fault and I should have paid! This is one of the most idiotic aspects of Thai drivers and one that makes it so dangerous for us falangs to drive anywhere. And you know what? If the guy on the bike, his drinking buddy and the rest of the village would have been friendly to us I would have been more than willing to help him out. They got greedy and got nothing.

I have pics but as I am a new member I can't upload them. If you want to see them go to "photobucket" website and search for username "mobs00"

[Marmite the Dog]

Should've backed the truck up and run over the wanker properly.

[NickA]

^I saw something similar one time, staying in a hotel in Bangkok one time, heard a bang early in the morning.. got up later and had a look outside, there was a car stopped with a lady near it and a bike on the floor with a couple of guys next to it. After a while the lady just got in the car and tried to drive over the bike, she got stuck and her car started to smoke, she reversed and got out and stood there again.

[Rigger]

Sound like a normal farang/Thai accident to me

[Begbie]

He should be celebrating rather than complaining, got away without paying anything which is still a novelty.

[Dalton]

Sound like a normal farang/Thai accident to me

Same shit different day

[Butterfly]

you should have paid him 300 THB and leave within the first 2 minutes,

not looking back,

paying him was basically buying time and saving headache, think of it as a road tax for the idiots, not much different from your government,

[rawlins]

Well done for standing your ground.... If they were just after extorting a small amount I might have given in easier and just paid it to be getting along with my day.....

I suppose the thing to do is just keep smiling and see how things develop...

[AntRobertson]

Sounds like you're lucky to have gotten away with that, all things considered. Him being an ex-cop and all could've turned out quite badly for you.

[Thormaturge]

Reminds me of the time I opened a cab door and was about to step onto the pavement when a motorcycle ran into it, leaving the rider on the ground. Nobody was hurt but he kicked up a fuss thinking he might get some money. I suggested that on the next occasion he sees a taxi stop it might be an idea not to try and squeeze between the cab and the pavement.

"Why?" he asks.

That was the end of the incident. I just walked away.

[AntRobertson]

... I suggested that on the next occasion he sees a taxi stop it might be an idea not to try and squeeze between the cab and the pavement.

"Why?" he asks.

That was the end of the incident. I just walked away.

I bet you thought of some really witty comeback you should've said a few minutes down the road though

[Property]

A wonderful story mobs00, quite believable.

I had a similar experience in BKK several months ago, which kinda went like this.

Myself, my wife & her girlfriend left the Novotel disco one Sunday morning, around 3am or thereabouts. I would add that I'd only had two bottles of beer all night so was nowhere near tipsy. My car was parked in Siam Square. We got in the car & as I was manouvering backwards out of the parking space, I clipped the front bumper of another car (completely my fault). My wife said, 'drive off' but being a gentleman I got out to check the damage to both cars. Immediately two feisty females, who were apparently asleep, jumped out of the car I'd hit & started ranting & raving at me, one then ran towards my car & sat on the hood (I imagine this to have been a ploy to stop me driving off). At this point my wife & her friend got out of the car, I got back in & kept quiet. The feisty females demanded that I pay 10k in reparations, my wife being ever so quiet suggested that things be settled amicably by our insurance company. One of the wild girls got on the phone to the local cop shop, where she had contacts, and told a 'big policeman' to come round right away. Whilst waiting for the cop, both sets of females were discussing the situation, my wife also called the insurance company. The cop arrived & he was indeed quite 'big', he proceeded to demand I pay up of face the consequences, regardless of the fact that I had 1st class insurance. My wife then called her lawyer & made sure the other parties could hear her conversation, the lawyer advised us NOT to pay. The cop was however adamant. At this point my dear wife decided to play her trump card (which I didn't previously know she had), her dad knew an even 'bigger' cop who worked at the same shop as the one now demanding money from us. So she phoned daddy, daddy phoned the 'bigger' cop, and the 'bigger' cop phoned the 'big' cop (this all took another 30 mins. or so). The 'big' cop eventually told the two feisty females that they were flogging a dead horse, and then told me to get outta here, nothing to pay.

Now if two feisty females had just accepted my offer to let the insurance take car of it, there would have been no problems. TIT.

[NickA]

Reminds me of the time I opened a cab door and was about to step onto the pavement when a motorcycle ran into it, leaving the rider on the ground. Nobody was hurt but he kicked up a fuss thinking he might get some money. I suggested that on the next occasion he sees a taxi stop it might be an idea not to try and squeeze between the cab and the pavement. "Why?" he asks.

He's quite right though, it is up to you to look for oncoming traffic when you open a door.

[ChiangMai noon]

I got hit from behind a few years back.

I threw a major hissy fit and threw bits of broken bike faring at the stupid woman what hit me.

The village head yokel was there.

She ended up paying for the repairs, around 3,000 baht.

Throwing a major wobbly seems to help.

[AntRobertson]

^ I concur. When I was knocked off my bike (damaging it permanently, twisting the frame beyond repair, but it's ok because I was able to do cosmetic repairs and flog it off to some guy ) first thing I did was get up, take my helmet off, and throw it at the guy.

Helped immeasurably.

[ChiangMai noon]

^
is there some sort of trade description act that I can sue you under in thailand??

quote saved by the way.

[AntRobertson]

is there some sort of trade description act that I can sue you under in thailand??

Meh, TIT!

I am, of course, just joshing... It was only a little twist

[CharleyFarley]

Bought my bike off a copper, now the list of people NOT to buy a bike from gets longer.^

[Zpete]

NOT when some twit is passing on the left, FFS, serve him right, dum shyte.

Oncoming is from in front.....

You Thai, it seems of things giving that statement.

[Loy Toy]

Good on ya mate for standing your ground.

I have always thought that if I'm in the wrong I will pay.

Then again if I'm not at fault I will definately stand my ground.

Happened to me before and the stupid Thai piss head had to pay for the repairs to my car as well as his own bills.

[Rigger]

One thing to remember is they all just want a bit of fast money, the moment you bring a lawyer (plan to go to court over it) you will notice the police will start doing their job instead of tring extort money from you as well the piss head on the bike has no money for a lawer in court and they will walk away most the time

[keda]

Have to agree with CMN, they don't like wobblies but stay in control and don't let it get to you.

When you know you're in the right - have a good animated rant and say almost anything because they don't understand, but toss in the few words in context so they're clear what it is you want. Mostly it works and at the lower end they'll back down from the possessed farang.

[blackgang]

You have to remember that you are dealing with people that have no self respect or pride, they are all just a bunch of dis-organized beggars and bums and will do anything, even pimp their children for a little bit of money, so what do you expect them to do.
We are not natives to this place and so do not understand what we are dealing with, very hard for us to understand the type we are dealing with if we have seen or believe what is advertised and said of them and their imaginary culture or anything you read or hear about this country from Tourist promotional material.

[benbaaa]

he is not drunk because it is the afternoon

I like that. D'you think it would stand up in court?

[good2bhappy]

The proverbial story.
Why am I in the wrong?
Because you're a foreigner and you're here!