flevering

Hi Kannot, there are stories in abundance on this forum to prove your point indeed. We were incredibly lucky to be so pleasantly surprised by these awesome kind people. Expect the worst, but appreciate the best I guess.

@ CornishCarlos: That's absolutely priceless LOL. The spirit is alive, the car is dead. Long live the spirit LOL.

Hi Aussieroaming... Just noticed that I didn't quite sanitize my last response correctly. I intended to say, of course, sell the car without victimizing anyone else. So we agree completely!

Spot on MauGR1, let the hunt begin :-). It is also time to figure out how to sell the victimizing without screwing anyone else, while still getting at least some of the invested money back.

Good point Krisb :-) It won't do to take anything away from this awesome couple, but suffice to say that I took a gamble with my eyes wide open and paid the price with the lemon indeed. You win some and lose some.

Thanks Nikmar... Still blown away by the experience.

When I moved to Thailand with the family 2 years ago, we decided to buy a cheap (old) car that would see us through the first few years as we settled down. What a bad decision that was, as it turned out to be an endless string of repairs and issues from the moment it was out of its sellers warranty. The climax of this poor car's misery happened this past weekend.

We planned a quick day trip to Pattaya from our home in Bangkok, so the kids could play on the beach while we enjoyed the downtime. The car decided to call it quits with about 25 kilometers to go before Pattaya, spectacularly with smoke and all, in the middle of nowhere on the highway. As a regular leacher on Thaivisa forums, I know this is where you all expect the usual robbers, corrupt government officials etc. This is NOT what happened. After mere minutes, a pickup truck pulled over in front of us and a Thai gentleman got out. In simple English he explained he might be able to assist, so I showed him the problem area (still smoking). It was obviously not going to get fixed by a handy solution on the spot, so this is where I expected the start of an elaborate scam to kick in. How ashamed do I feel now. The very friendly local took a pulling cable from his car, towed us 20km to his house and had the wife bring us drinks and sat us down in the shade. He proceeded to make a number of phone calls to find a garage that might be able to help...

This guy easily spent 20 minutes making numerous calls until he finally succeeded in finding someone who could help on a Sunday. Of course he jumped back in the car, dragged his poor pregnant wife along and towed us another 20km to the garage he found. We loaded our personal things in his car while I took the location, contact details and some pictures of where my car undoubtedly would be seen last, if only for the police report. Feeling even more ashamed now. He asked us about our plans for the day in Pattaya and offered to drive us to the beach. This is around lunch time, so I offered to make him stop somewhere so I could treat the couple to a nice meal at least. After a very local and cheap, but wonderful meal, he proceeded to take us to exactly the beach I would have taken us. Rather than dropping us off, he parked the car and they joined us on the beach. They happily entertained themselves, played with the kids, engaged in (difficult) small talk in English and seemed to really enjoy our happiness of turning this day around.

It doesn't stop there. My wife checked out the night market and they happily joined. Now my guilt kicked in about taking this couples' entire day away and I treated them to a nice dinner before we would take a taxi home to Bangkok. They outright refused to let us take a taxi. They drove us all the way home and refused all my attempts to at least compensate them financially for their time and wasted day. The guy shook my hand and said: 'no way, my pleasure for my new friend'. Well, you bet! This couple must be the kindest people I have ever met. Of all the things you hear about Thailand, I hardly come across stories of such incredible people willing to do whatever it takes to turn a bad day around into an experience we will smile about for years.

Maybe that is why they call it the land of smiles?

For the record: the garage followed up as promised with the suggested repair, estimated time and cost and an alternative option to keep the cost down if needed. I have given up looking for the scam and have to live with the shame of my cynicism.