Close Encounters of the Thai Kind

After several years here we begin to think of our life in Thailand as being the new norm but still, things happen that make you remember the same logic does not always prevail. Every once in a while something literally slaps you in the face with a difference which reminds you that you are not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

My wife and I were returning to Pattaya the other day  on our big motobike. Dom was starting to doze off and I was just driving along watching for speed bumps which are numerous in the area. Due to Song Kan coming up there were a lot of policeman stopping drivers and checking their documents.

All of a sudden I hear a “blam” and a large object hits me in the face while not wearing an integral helmet. I’m really not sure what has happened but I’m driving so it takes a while to realize what happened. By this time Amy is fully awake when I see a mirror in my lap and looking at my side view mirror it is turned in but missing the mirror. Touching my face I have a small cut on the left cheek but nothing serious. Apparently somebody’s vehicle in the oncoming traffic had gotten close enough to smack my mirror assembly pretty hard.

There was a gas station ahead so we pulled in to figure out what had just happened. First, check for bodily damage, just a small cut and not a lot of pain. Obviously very lucky since the mirror could have shattered or just smashed my face badly. Even in times like this you have time to remember odd things like the scene in The Christmas Story where the boy receives a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun with a compass and everyone warns him “you could put your eye out”. Anyway, it looks like I will live. I leave the bike to check out the side view mirror. I push it back to its normal position and surprise, I was able to pop the mirror back into the assembly.

At this time, a police car pulls up and asked what we were doing. We told him what had happened and later, wished I had not repaired the mirror so quickly or wiped away the blood. He told us a driver had filed a claim against us. Wow, a few minutes had passed and a claim was written up and a policeman had appeared. Pretty fast in the Thai world. He asked us to follow him up a couple blocks. Apparently the other driver had turned around, saw us at the service station then found a policeman further ahead and made the complaint.

At the next turnoff I parked behind the policeman and the “other” vehicle. The other gentleman’s side view mirror was smashed up and parts of the mirror was on his seat. My mirror looked just fine. He stated we had come too close to his vehicle and caused the damage. After a detailed conversation we found he was passing a bicycle and drove into our lane to avoid the bicycle and I remembered that event. Sounds like an open and shut case but the policeman explained that the other driver had sustained more damage than us thus the claim. We received further sympathy when they found we were not only residents but had a Thai driving licenses and full coverage insurance.

Still, if we did not settle on the spot we would both receive tickets then a judge would decide the outcome someday. So I turned to the other driver whom I wanted to hit in the face with his own mirror fragments and asked “what do you want?” He thought about it for a while then stated he wanted 2000 bahts. I tried using the logic that the other driver was at fault but he had more damage than me and 2000 bahts was pretty cheap to just walk away and get rid of the time consuming mayhem. The policemen made the other driver write up all the details and the settlement to prevent him from coming after me later.

I paid the other driver and with optimism, I thought that could have been a lot worse like decapitation of my head, glass flying into my face or enough damage to make me swerve into the other lane and causing similar injuries to Amy. I believe I need to keep a Bowie knife under my seat. The next time this happens I will not fix the mirror for a while and use the knife to make a deeper cut in my face so the blood flows freely. Then perhaps the other driver would have paid me 5000 Bahts while obviously private hospitals are not cheap.....amazing Thailand, never be surprised by anything...

Hope you have a future without claims.