The good side of Thai people

It’s been a while since my last update, not that I’ve been short of stories recently.

Last week, what is usually a routine and enjoyable trip to Future Park, a shopping mall in the Northern Bangkok suburb of Rangsit, became a story which illustrates some of the positive things about living in Thailand.

First we have the ‘only in Thailand’ scenario.

We routinely entered a petrol station for a fill up, with The Missus diving out of the car for the loo while I continued on to be served by a young Burmese lad, who looked well under the legal age for working.

The lad managed to ‘accidental’ serve an extra 30 baht of gas. Although The Missus felt it was an honest mistake, I suspected it to be his way of supplementing his daily wage (which is probably only around 100 baht), made possible when he spotted a lone foreigner pulling in.

Despite a lack of loose change to hand, we poured out the shrapnel and gave him an extra 30 baht to prevent it being taken from his wage.

I didn’t mind this, I regular tip staff and would happy have tipped him a little extra, but this wasn't the only influence on our day.

After a normal journey we pulled into our destination car-park with the car beginning to spasm and repeatedly stall. We quickly pulled into a space, realising that the lad had filled our diesel car with unleaded petrol.

I’m quite sure giving us the wrong fuel was an honest mistake however, given the type of damage this typically causes, I began to wonder how much our fill up would cost beyond the extra 30 baht.

The Missus called her Dad who, as the senior office at one of Saraburi’s police stations, is a well very connected and influential man (the significance/important is a separate post itself). He made a few calls to sort it telling us to go off shopping and return in a couple of hours.

After shopping, meeting up with FIL and waiting some time in the car park, the police mechanic arrived to fix us up. We had blocked a number of cars in but, in true Thailand style, they were not bothered and, along with an assortment of security guards, cleaners and Future Park staff, they got stuck into helping us out.

The security guard, mechanic (in standard Thai crap shorts) and a passer-by get to work

While back home, most people are concerned with themselves, “you’re blocking me in, I need to get out”, it is always refreshing to see the attitudes of Thais who often help each other out.

A snapshot of the pandemonium we caused

Once the vehicle was winched up, we were taken back to the mechanic's garage (aka his house) in Saraburi where we were treated to food, beers, whiskey and sparkly conversation, in Thai of course.

The car was fixed within two hours and, inclusive of the 2 hour tow from Rangsit, including labour, petrol, etc, the grand total was a incredible 4,000 baht (£100). I’m not sure about prices in the UK these days but I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t even cover the tow back, let alone any work.

Add that we had been entertained and fed, and the amazing attitude of those around us and you can almost say the money was not so badly spent after all.

Much as I often berate Thai people for gossiping, staring and a lot of other things, they (outside of major cities, in particular) can be are incredibly kind and well meaning. At times, life in this country can be refreshing - just don't start me on the idiots I bump into at Tesco Lotus though.