Got Stopped Tonight...

[ChiangraiTony]

Chiang Mai - I was driving my motorbike (without helmet) headed toward the night bazaar area on Chang Road In the direction of the moat. There were at least 16-20 police and military. They were stopping most all the vehicles and motorbikes.

They waved me over and one of the police called over an English speaking police officer. The military seemed to be directing the traffic while the police did their thing.

So, the English speaking policeman asked me a series of questions in which I answered everything that was asked of me. He and another officer were giving me the once over with their eyes, looking at my bike and then at me from head to toe. He asked for my Drivers License, motorbike paper (proof of ownership/registration, and my passport. I provided my license and passport. When he asked again for the motorbike paper I told him that I have it at home. He then began telling me that I needed to have it with the motorbike and that it could be a copy. I appoligised that I didn't have it with me.

The questions continued.. He and then another officer (twice in total) asked me where I was going. I told them that I was going to eat and they wanted to know where. This was at approximately 10:30 PM. He then asked me where I'm from and then read my passport and said you are from NY, in which I replied with a yes..

He continued and asked if I live in CM, how long have I been here, what kind of job/work do I do. I told him that I do not work and that I'm retired. He gave a look like he didn't understand so I had to repeat myself more slowly and with using slight hand and facial animation. He then seemed to understand.

His next question surprised me. He said, what work did you do in your home country. I told him that I worked for a large company, a telephone company. He then interjected by spurted out the company name of Motorola. I said no, not Motorola, AT&T. He once again gave me that stare, something like a Deer in the headlights look like he didn't understand. I then showed him my mobile phone which brings up the AT&T logo when you turn on power. After seeing that, he then understood.

He contined on asking me how long I've lived in Thailand and I said 5 years in CM. Then he asked me if I have a Thai wife and I told him that I do and he proceeded to ask if I have any children and how many.

Then another police officer walked over and said to me you don't speak Thai and you've been here for 5 years? I nicely replied saying, no, I'm sorry I can only speak a little. The officer then walked away and the other one started again. This time he asked me if I have anymore children. I told him not in Thailand but I do have a son in USA. He then asked how old is he and what does he do.

By this time I was beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable and raised my voice just a tiny bit saying to him, would you like me to call my wife so you can speak with her in Thai? His eyes seemed to open more and he looks at me and says, no it's ok.

After all that barrage of questioning he then asks, do you have a helmet? I told him that I do. I then opened under my seat and retrieved it and quickly placed it on my head. He then said to me, "safety first, always safety first". I replied acting very humble and said thank you very much.

At that point, he held my drivers license and passport between both his hands, held together and close to his body chest high. It kind of reminded me of when doing business with the Japanese and Chinese, they hand you their business card with both hands along with a bow gesture. It was something like that.

So at that point he hands everything back to me and says thank you. In which I said thank you too. I placed my hands together in the Wai position and said Sawasdee Krap and surprisingly he reciprocated by doing the same to me in front of all his comrades.

It felt like I was there for a good 15 minutes. Moral of the story for me is to get a copy of my bike ownership/registration, and wear my helmet. Reflecting on it, I was fortunate that I didn't get one or more tickets. I believe one contributing factor was that I acted respectful, had most all documents in order and while I spoke with him, I made eye contact and smiled when I thought it was appropriate to do so.

[Godfree2]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

[Tywais]

An unnecessary comment removed.

[Oscar2]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

a Mexican moving to New York would learn English. people living here should learn some basic Thai phrases.

[NeverSure]

-snip-

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

It is SO much easier for a Mexican to learn English or for an NES to learn Spanish than it is for an NES to learn Thai!!

I don't hear tones real well any more and I give up.

English and Spanish are both Latin derivative languages and have a similar sentence structure and even some words that are easy to remember. Neither is tonal. They share the same alphabet.

I can speak some Spanish (Mexican actually) just from being around it some, but I'll never learn Thai.

Edited October 10, 2014 by NeverSure

[ChiangraiTony]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

Why be so quick to jump to conclusions. Firstly, you start off with a claim by stating "The correct action". It sounds like you've already decided in your own mind to tell someone else on TV what is "The correct action" for someone else to take... I don't know if I should thank you or feel stupid that I'm having to respond in-order to have to defend my words because of your distorted view. I've been coming to Thailand for thirty years, I've lived in CM for five of those years. So your insinuations are not correct.

As for your other comment about the police being right to be outraged, and with your insinuating comment that I've not learned any Thai, are just other examples of how your mind has chosen to fabricate or concoct something that is incorrect. Hopefully your intent was not to be deceitful in anyway by your obvious fabrication of my original post.

If I may suggest. Maybe the next time you reply to a posting try reading it correctly and not just make comments that are clearly incorrect.

Ridiculing is not healthy.

[eeeya]

As intimidating as it probably was, I think you did an excellent job of being an outstanding foreigner staying in Thailand.

Have a chat, respectful wai at the end.

Good one

[cloudhopper]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

What a pant load that is.

[sustento]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

You aren't Mexican. You aren't in New York. Whatever rules apply in the USA are completely irrelevant in Thailand...

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Just go read all the ridiculous and desperate recent claims of the military govt in the Thailand News forum.

They have

A cure for Ebola

The Tour De France is to be held in Thailand in 2015 (later retracted)

10,000 baht bounties for motorists who try to bribe police

A proposed national bicycle infrastructure

A tidy but highly questionable Koh Tao murder case investigation

and much more

Maybe it will all blow over but to me anyway Thailand has jumped the shark

Best watch your back these days

[philw]

Big checkpoint near my house on the middle ring road last night.

Got stopped at about 11:30, in my car.

Had had many drinks, was certainly over the limit but not quite paralytic.

All very polite and friendly.

No big deal.

They are looking for drugs, I think.

Too many posters on here make an issue of nothing.

[cloudhopper]

Big checkpoint near my house on the middle ring road last night.

Got stopped at about 11:30, in my car.

Had had many drinks, was certainly over the limit but not quite paralytic.

All very polite and friendly.

No big deal.

They are looking for drugs, I think.

Too many posters on here make an issue of nothing.

Glad you made it home without killing anyone phil; good thing you don't use drugs and drive....

[FolkGuitar]

Just a guess here, but keeping you there for 15 minutes with non-specific questions suggests to me that they were doing a computer records search, and failing to find what they were looking for, sent you on your way.

You were polite to them, so they were polite to you. I've found that to be the case when dealing with Thais. With most folks, actually... Obviously they weren't on a witch-hunt nor gathering money for the Widows and Orphans Fund or they would have ticketed you for failure to carry the correct documents (bike registration) and failure to wear a helmet. They were looking for somebody and you weren't him.

I applaud you for your behavior, not losing your cool, and remaining collected during the incident. I doubt they were out there just for their amusement, and would have preferred to be sitting at home with a beer or two rather than standing around in the road, just as you would have preferred to be on your way. Kudos to both of you.

[Dante99]

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Yes, it is not that hard to learn enough to be functional.

[fcgprg]

Big checkpoint near my house on the middle ring road last night.

Got stopped at about 11:30, in my car.

Had had many drinks, was certainly over the limit but not quite paralytic.

All very polite and friendly.

No big deal.

They are looking for drugs, I think.

Too many posters on here make an issue of nothing.

and some posters trivialize a very serious matter also.

[Ulysses G.]

For some reason, I don't understand, many Thais find talking to Westerners interesting. I would not read any more into it than that. It is a good thing for us that they do though.

[kalbo123]

I don't trust the Thai police, If the ask me those questions, about where you go what you do etc... I never answer, just give a "Thai" answer like I don't know....and they also think that's ok.. never got in trouble doing that... I think it's none of their business where I was or where I go etc.

[chiang mai]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

The "correct action", my derriere!

[mesquite]

Sounds like he wanted to practice his Engrish and you obliged.

The correct action would have been to ask, "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?"

As far as having been in Thailand for five years without learning any Thai passed hello and thank you -- yes, they are right it is an outrage.

Would it be OK for a Mexican to move to your hometown in New York and not learn any English? Wait...don't answer that...

Sounds like you need to learn more about Thailand.

The "Am I being detain or arrested, officer? If not, am I free to go?" statement is for the US, not Thailand.

Regarding the OP learning Thai, the OP has not told us in this post whether or not he speaks Thai. He has only told us what he told the police. One strategy here when dealing with the police is to tell them you do not speak Thai. They frequently want to let you go as they would rather not speak in English and many can't anyway. Nowhere in his post does the OP say he hasn't learned any Thai.

Finally, on the subject of learning languages, I could go into detail of your misuse of the English language in your post, but that would violate forum netiquette policy.

Edited October 11, 2014 by mesquite

[chiang mai]

Big checkpoint near my house on the middle ring road last night.

Got stopped at about 11:30, in my car.

Had had many drinks, was certainly over the limit but not quite paralytic.

All very polite and friendly.

No big deal.

They are looking for drugs, I think.

Too many posters on here make an issue of nothing.

I think you being, "over the limit but not quite paralytic" whilst driving your car in an area that I might also be driving, is not "nothing" of an issue.

[stuurman]

So you were not fined for not wearing a helmet and in return you gave a 15 minute English conversation lesson to the Thai police officer.

Not a bad deal if you ask me.

[naboo]

Just a guess here, but keeping you there for 15 minutes with non-specific questions suggests to me that they were doing a computer records search, and failing to find what they were looking for, sent you on your way.

I'm guessing the policeman's thought process went something like this:

Oh s***. Farang. Farang. And those army guys are here. They told us we have to pay close attention to the Farang and they're watching me.

Quick quick! English. "Hello, how are you!" Right, blurt out as many questions in English as I can come up with, then the army man will think I'm interrogating him. Genius plan!

Questions, questions, questions.

Right, that's enough, time for him to go. Safety first! More English haha and I just read it off that sign! Oh s***, I forgot to ticket him for no helmet.

[masuk]

I would have told them what country I'm from; I'm sure they wouldn't want to know if I was from NY or TAS.

[sfokevin]

You were pulled over at 10:30pm on a Friday night... My take would be they were engaging you in conversation to determine if you had been drinking or not... In the end you got off lucky as they could have ticketed you for no helmet... To me they were just doing their job...

[uptheos]

Big checkpoint near my house on the middle ring road last night.

Got stopped at about 11:30, in my car.

Had had many drinks, was certainly over the limit but not quite paralytic.

All very polite and friendly.

No big deal.

They are looking for drugs, I think.

Too many posters on here make an issue of nothing.

Well the BIB certainly made a cock up of this one!

[Dante99]

I don't trust the Thai police, If the ask me those questions, about where you go what you do etc... I never answer, just give a "Thai" answer like I don't know....and they also think that's ok.. never got in trouble doing that... I think it's none of their business where I was or where I go etc.

Thai questions and answers to "where are you going" or "where are you coming" from are just polite conversation and there are three standard answers, tura, tio and talat (business, pleasure and market), no details required or expected.

[Tywais]

Post in non-English language removed.

[kalbo123]

Thai questions and answers to "where are you going" or "where are you coming" from are just polite conversation and there are three standard answers, tura, tio and talat (business, pleasure and market), no details required or expected.

I find those questions disturbing, if they want to be polite the could ask "how are you doing", or say "good evening sir"...

Again, where I go and where I come from is none of their business.

[daoyai]

I remember a few years ago being stopped on a road block returning from San Patong to CM, they took me aside and after all the usual identity questions they asked what I thought about Thaksin, I said I don't know him so have no opinion, then they asked if I supported Obama for prez, I said yea, they gave thumbs up and I was on my way.

[daoyai]

Thai questions and answers to "where are you going" or "where are you coming" from are just polite conversation and there are three standard answers, tura, tio and talat (business, pleasure and market), no details required or expected.

I find those questions disturbing, if they want to be polite the could ask "how are you doing", or say "good evening sir"...

Again, where I go and where I come from is none of their business.

You must be disturbed often, I am asked daily, "bai nai?" or "bai nai ma"? pretty normal. If I am not in a mood to explain I will just reply ...bai gin kau... but then you may get, "oh,.. ja gin alai?