Amazing Thailand

[willyumcr]

Thought I would post a good story for a change. A friend of mine and his wife driving from Pattaya to Bangkok and had a blowout on a rear tire. They managed to get over to the shoulder from the fast lane.

Within minutes a police car came and dropped traffic cones to mark our area and get cars moving away from us. He told XXX help was coming. A few minutes later, another police car showed up and made sure the drivers gave us a wide berth. About 5 minutes later the road service truck arrived and those guys had the destroyed tire off and the spare in place in less than 5 minutes... and that was working with trucks, buses and cars whizzing by about 1 meter away. The safety margin in Thailand is much less than in America. The spare tire is in place and I can't believe how efficient the cops and the mechanics were. It gets even better.

OK, the whole operation took about 15 minutes and when I walk up to the cop who was directing traffic with his partner I want to give the guy a tip. He refuses and when I try again I see he really means it. I thank him for all his help and go back to the mechanic getting into his truck. I start to tip him and his partner and he refuses. We go back and forth and then I force 400 baht into his hand. After all, he didn't have a gun strapped to his side. I am still shaking my head over how fast this was handled, no fee and no tip except for the one I practically forced on the mechanic. Amazing Thailand!

[petercool]

Having lived in Thailand for a few decades, I have many such stories .... people getting their buffaloes to pull my car out of a ditch up-country, police politely escorting me out of a one way street that I accidentally entered the wrong way, a stranger who guided out of a maze of unlit dirt tracks for miles one night etc. etc. ......none of whom would take any gift or reward.

Now living in Pattaya for a few years shows me a side of life in Thailand that is far from the norm but such acts can be found if you yourself are polite and friendly.

[MTH]

^ Agree Peter, most of the time as soon as you get out of Pattaya, the Thais are very helpful and pretty much don't expect anything for it.

(Not saying there aren't any nice Thais here, but they are fewer apart). Here are two of my flat stories:

Had a guy help me close to Kabinburi when my rear tire blew out. I couldn't get the spare out under the bed, as the lock on it was clogged up with dirt. The guy somehow managed to circumvent the lock and got the spare released anyway, this took him close to 30 minutes, he then continued to replace my tire. When asked how much he wanted, he just shook his head and said "mai pen rai". Can't remember exactly how much I gave him, to me it was a pittance, but we both ended up being two happy campers.

Another time, got a flat on Sukhumvit in BKK, pulled into a parking lot to replace the tire. Well this time I got the spare down, due to the lock now being gone ;-) unfortunately me not checking the air in the spare since my last flat, it turned out the spare was pretty much out of air. Well this was no problem for the nice parking attendant, he and a friend of his got on a motorbike with my spare between them, heading for the nearest gas station to inflate it. They cam back after about 10 minutes and helped me change the tires. Same procedure here, not wanting any monetary compensation, but did smile and wai when getting a few Baht.

[willyumcr]

While I totally agree with the two posters, this was not so much about getting help from regular Thais as no mention of people stopping to help. It was a "good on you" for the Thai police doing their job and so efficiently. But I do agree there are many stories about Thais being there to help as there are people in our home countries that do the same. It is common courtesy wherever you live.

[Jessi]

The sad thing is we only remember the grubs we come across in life, we easily forget the good & honest people we meet. I think its human nature.

I have had a lot of crap things happen to me in Thailand but I have had some truly great experiences & met some great people. That's life.

[nikmar]

Nice story pal. Brightened up my Monday morning.