A Near Death Experience in a Bangkok Taxi
Before I get to my next story one thing I’ve asked myself is why do I keep returning to Asia after so many tours in 35 years of doing so? Well I’m not a drinker nor do I do drugs which I mentioned in my first submission so hanging around a bar getting plastered is not my thing (but no judgment there as long as there is respect for the culture and the people). One thing is simply the need to escape from my usual commitments and daily work routine a few times a year where I have no real responsibilities to perform or expectations to maintain.
I was married to a Japanese woman for seven years whom I met while living in Japan. Divorced with no kids marriage is simply not my thing. I have come to realize that I am not capable of a sustained relationship as I grew up in the ashes and fallout of my parents’ bad marriage which ended in divorce and I think this set a negative template to long term relationships somewhere deep in my psychic storage unit. My mother was a saint in my eyes and my father a violent alcoholic. Of course this impacts me both consciously and subconsciously for the rest of my life. It only dawned on me as I got older that I lack the confidence to maintain a long term relationship and combined with the fact I am very independent it is probably not a great combination.
Ironically when I am in a relationship I am always responsible and considerate but I soon yearn for complete freedom. I now know this and accept who I am.
Anyway on to my next adventure. As I mentioned in my first submission Tick and I had finished up after two years and I was a free agent. My first trips to Thailand were to see her primarily but my subsequent trips were motivated by simply enjoying the culture and training in Muay Thai which was part of my life’s martial arts journey and I still travel on today. My trips were a combination of training and relaxing.
Anyone who travels to Asia frequently often gets asked is it dangerous? Well of course in most cases not at all but I do want to address a few instances where things did get tense. Take into consideration that in over 60 trips I can only think of a handful of instances where things did stray to the dark side. I am quietly confident in my ability to look after myself. In my early twenties I worked as both a bouncer and a bodyguard for a few years before moving from New Zealand to Japan and never stopped training in the martial arts since the age of 11. I’m not very imposing average height but I was very fit back in the day. Please don’t take this as bragging; I’m just trying to give you some background of who I am.
The Taxi Incident 1989
The year was 1989 and two weeks before leaving for Thailand I happened to be reading the Japan Times newspaper which was a daily routine on the train. I read an article warning travelers to be aware of going to Thailand as some people had simply disappeared between arriving at the airport and going to their accommodation. Bodies were found and other times no one ever turned up. Police suspected a taxi gang were operating this sinister operation. I didn’t think much about it at the time and continued reading the paper.
Two weeks later my plane touched down in Bangkok and it was the last to arrive that evening. Everything went smooth through customs and immigration. I was pumped to be back. I might mention that sometimes I travel with friends and other times alone this was a solo trip. I was to stay in Bangkok for two nights before flying to Koh Samui. As soon as the doors opened to let me out of the airport the senses were instantly engulfed in the Bangkok groove a combination of smells heat and emissions that smack you right in the face. I loved it.
I got in the taxi told him to go to the Malaysian Hotel my then place of choice bartered a price and off we go into the night. I knew the route pretty well by then but around 10 minutes in the driver took off the ramp and I asked him what he was doing. He replied ‘Shortcut.’ I gave him the benefit of the doubt for a few minutes until I just knew we were heading away from the general direction of where I should be going. The streets were getting narrower and the lights dimmer. I said in a strong voice to turn around and get back on the freeway. He stopped communicating altogether and in an instant I knew something bad was about to go down very soon if I didn’t do something as the article I had read a few weeks earlier flashed through my mind.
I shook his shoulders firmly and asked him to stop. He didn’t answer and tried to pull my hands away. I then grabbed him in a rear naked choke and slowly squeezed as I didn’t want him to just pass out while driving. He slammed the brakes on and then came to a stop and we struggled. I now put the pressure on until he went unconscious. I kept it on for a good 10 seconds which I knew would allow me 20 seconds for the blood and oxygen to fill his brain back to a conscious state. Adrenaline pumping I quickly grabbed my suitcase carried it on and ran like a man possessed.
I had no idea where I was. I ran down a small street in the dark about 150 meters away and hid behind some kind of bush in front of a house. Dogs were barking and I was very very scared they would give me away. After a few minutes the dogs stopped barking and after a further 10 minutes or so I could hear some more cars pulling up and some voices. I knew they were looking for me. It was a long wait until they disappeared into the night. I stayed there about 20 minutes or so until with great hesitation I ventured out. I could see some street lights in the distance and I followed them until I hit a main connecting road the whole time hoping my old ‘mate’ wouldn’t make an appearance.
Not long after I flagged a tuk tuk down and I made it to the hotel totally exhausted and absolutely relieved. I checked in and slept long into the next morning.
Aftermath of the Bangkok Taxi Escape
When I woke up and showered I felt good and decided there was no point in contacting the police as I didn’t know the number plate of the taxi or even what the guy looked like. The cops back then just didn’t have the resources to do anything with the little info I could provide. Of course these days the security at the airport has really stepped up and every person getting into a taxi is subjected to details being recorded.
Just a little travel security hack I might suggest if you are traveling alone place your luggage in the back seat next to you as it is easy to exit the taxi in the case of a dispute. Also there have been cases where an accomplice has been traveling behind the taxi with a duplicate key opens the boot when stopped at the lights and relieves you of your luggage the taxi driver claims you must have left it on the airport sidewalk. Ironically the trip ended up being fantastic but I’ll get into that on my next submission.
The Davao Bombing
Another dangerous experience was not in Thailand but the Philippines. I will quickly tell you what happened if you kindly indulge me as it haunts me to this day. A few years earlier I was contracted to teach the special branch of the police anti terrorist group and went over once or twice a year for a few years which were conducted in Manila. The captain of the team was a nice guy and told me some horrid encounters he had dealing with terrorists that stick with me to this day. Little did I know I would have my own horrible event.
A few years later on late August 2016 I was in Davao City visiting my girlfriend. We had been seeing each other for two years by this time and it turned out to be my last visit to see her as things just didn’t work out in the end. We had a nice dinner with her friend and her friend’s Australian boyfriend and it was decided that we should visit the Saturday night market. We walked around ate some food and enjoyed a lovely massage under the stars by a group that permanently leased the spot. The Australian man was big and insisted on using a big strong male masseur that he had used before on a previous visit and I distinctly remember him as he had a really good sense of humor and we joked around quite a bit.
The next day I flew back to Australia where I was now living. One week to the day on September the 3rd a bomb wrapped in a package went off at the night market which was placed in the massage station right where we had been a week earlier and killed 14 people including the girl who had done my massage and the big masseur who had worked on my friend. It shook me to the core and I shed a tear for those poor people whom I had a minor interaction with only days before.
I want to conclude that despite the above bad experiences I hope the readers do not get turned off travel. Remember most of my trips were awesome and I had some fantastic times and for the most part feel completely safe as long as you are mindful respectful and use common sense. If you do like a drink and have had too much please organize a safe passage home because walking in the back streets drunk is a very dangerous move. It’s a numbers game and once in a while something just happens and a twist of fate intervenes. I can’t wait to see what my next adventure in December has planned for me and who knows there might be a story or two to be had. Stay safe and happy and I dedicate this to the memory of the poor people who lost their lives in Davao that fateful night.
Story Two A Night in Ao Nang Beers Bands and a Lost Girl
Afternoon after 4 PM I grab a Chang beer or two yes you can buy them in some Tesco’s in the UK. I open the first one and take a break from working remotely at home for a bank in London. I sit down on my couch and then listen to your viewer stories. I absolutely love them and it keeps me sane and focused on my dream to live and work in Thailand one day which at the moment may be sooner than I think.
Going to Ao Nang was a great experience. On a bus service from Surat Thani we had a very comfortable bus inside although not looking the part from the outside. We arrived in Krabi at the bus station early in the night probably around 7 PM. We then took local transport down to Ao Nang. It was during this trip squashed in the back with many farangs that my friend’s wallet got stolen by a fellow farang. We suspected a guy who was sitting next to my friend the most unfriendly of the lot not speaking to anyone really and from the looks of it on some kind of substance. I connected quite well with a young French guy sitting next to me.
My friend had to get up now and again to talk to the Thai driver along the way to explain to him how to get to Ao Nang from the bus terminal. I know this is super weird we all thought that the driver does not know how to get there yet he drives around the area all day that is his job. My friend used Google Maps on his phone and spoke a little Thai.
My friend had moved over to Thailand about a year ago. He decided to teach English at a school to remain in Thailand by way of an educational visa and earned some money to pay his expenses. He just finished a stint in a small rural school and was to take up a new job in Chiang Mai in three weeks hence carting along his luggage. My friend used to work in the financial services industry back in South Africa but had had enough of the daily grind and the stress that goes with it and had decided to try something in Thailand instead.
We realized my friend’s wallet had gone once we arrived at the hotel he had to pay for two nights’ accommodation. We were so disappointed that his wallet was gone that we even went back to the bus terminal in Krabi by taxi to go look for the wallet in case it fell out of his pocket but we found nothing at the now empty bus terminal. It was a real shot in the dark. On the funny side of things we actually stopped at three different bus stations since there were more than one and we did not know the name of the one we arrived at but eventually found it. We looked on the ground everywhere but we didn’t find his wallet. We even woke up the bus driver of our bus who by now was asleep in the bus next to the bus terminal and parked up for the night.
We did not find my friend’s wallet in the bus. We then realized that it probably got stolen by the suspicious guy in the pickup truck or my friend lost it standing up and down in the back of the truck.
The Pretty Thai Girl
Back in Ao Nang we decided that my friend should go to the local Thai bank in the morning and get a new card. We decided to go to a local restaurant later that evening to get something to eat. Our table was on the side of the restaurant so people walking on the pavement could stop and talk to us easily. A very pretty Thai girl came along and introduced herself and asked if we would mind if she joined us for dinner. We said ‘Yes no problem grab a seat.’ It wasn’t long until I realized my friend had taken a liking to her. We chatted for a while and ended up sharing all of our Line app contact details and she then left. This was my first experience of actually sitting and talking with a Thai girl.
I had spent a night in a nightclub back in Chumphon but it was a little quiet and I didn’t really get the chance to speak to any girls.
We ended up walking around the main street after our meal in Ao Nang and headed down to the Beach Road and found a bar where a local band played mostly Thai music. We were literally the only farangs in the place but it was fun drinking local beer and listening to the Thai house band playing covers of well known songs. Both me and my friend were still quite upset about the loss of his wallet because it would make a real impact on our trip if he could not get a replacement bank card. That evening we decided to head back and have an early night.
The next day we hired a couple of scooters but several days later my friend actually had an accident right outside the scooter hire shop but that’s a story for another time. I had never ridden a scooter or a motorbike so Frankie took me to a quiet part of town and taught me how to ride. However I did get several laughs from local people watching me. After riding around for most of the day and enjoying the local sites we headed back to our accommodation. We had arranged a date with the girl we had met at the restaurant last night and she was going to bring a friend along too. The girl’s name was Ploy and her friend was called Nam.
The girls took us to a local bar where we spent some of the evening drinking and playing bar games such as Jenga. Ploy was into my friend and my friend into her they hit it off. Ploy had brought her friend called Nam along to hopefully hook up with me. She was quite sexy looking and we seemed to hit it off. She was also a lot of fun and I loved her smile. Oh and she was also definitely very flirty with me. The girls told us about a Western style nightclub that they knew of and wanted to go to. We agreed and we all headed to this nightclub you know the sort of thing no sides on the building more of an open air nightclub. The performers at this nightclub did all sorts of crazy things like juggle fire this was all new to me.
We ordered a round of cocktails and were all sitting watching the performers when Nam stands up because she recognizes another foreigner and goes over to speak to him. I was left on my own like a lemon sitting there watching Frankie and Ploy enjoying each other’s company for at least half an hour. This really annoyed me. I looked all over the club but realized she was nowhere to be found. I thought to myself ‘Why am I running around chasing this girl? She’s obviously left with an old customer.’ I wasn’t now in the best of moods. There wasn’t much single action going on in this club but next door there was another bar which looked a little bit more interesting. I spoke to my friend and said ‘Look I’m going next door there’s nothing going on for me here. I’ll see you in a bit.’
A Night With the Ao Nang Band
This place was mainly Thai people but again they had another live band. I was the only foreigner in the bar but I really enjoyed the band. So every time they finished a song I stood up and made a lot of noise. The band took notice of me and loved the attention I was giving them all smiling back at me. Although I was by myself drinking and listening to the band I was having a really good time. I enjoyed this live band music so much they were really good musicians. I even ended up dancing at one point. I can’t remember how many beers I’d had at that point but the band bought me a beer to show their appreciation. Eventually the music stopped at about 2 AM.
The band leader called Lock who spoke some English came over to me and asked me if I wanted to join them on the beach as they were going to party. I thought this was great. I looked over at the other place and I couldn’t see Frankie or Ploy the club was closed so they had obviously left. I told him yes I’d love to join them.
We all ended up on the beach all of the band members their girlfriends and me. We were drinking beer Thai whiskey and listening to Thai music. I remember asking Lock why didn’t he release a CD because I thought his music was that good. He just laughed at me and said ‘I only play for fun I don’t think we’re that good.’ I told him I didn’t agree with him and thought his band was brilliant which put another smile on his face. At about 5 AM I was quite drunk and thanked them for the evening and headed back to where we were staying. Walking back to the accommodation I bumped into a ladyboy who tried chatting me up.
Remember I had zero experience of Thailand and this was quite an awful experience as I just wanted to go home and sleep but he was so persistent it took me half an hour to get rid of him. Believe it or not he actually started crying because I would not take him back with me. I don’t know if they were real tears or not but he was very convincing.
When I spoke to my friend the following day he told me that Nam had come back to the club about an hour and a half after I left and she was looking for me. My friend didn’t let on that I was next door as obviously being more experienced than me he realized that she had gone off with the other guy for a short time and then came back to look for me afterwards. So he played dumb.
Story Three The Engineer the Translator and the Bar Girl
My story starts in the middle of February 2019 when I worked as a freelance engineer for an engineering company in Rotterdam that designed built and installed food processing plants all over the world. I was working on my last project before leaving the company where my boss asked me to temporarily take over a project from one of my colleagues due to him being sick for several weeks to come which meant I had to travel to Thailand within three days.
Now as a project engineer I was responsible for the smooth and correct installation and handover to the customer of complete production lines both as project leader and engineer. So needless to say the three days’ notice left me no time at all to prepare for the project and to look into the Thai culture. Since I had worked several projects in Asia before China South Korea and Singapore I assumed that it would be fine. But boy how I was wrong. Even though it is called the Land of Smiles I quickly learned that saving face is everything and telling the department head he is wrong in the presence of others is a sure way of losing that smile.
Anyway I left for Thailand knowing only the main details of the project that a local team of employees was waiting for me at the customer’s site approximately one hour north of Bangkok. I guess this project would start as a ‘fake it until you make it’ project until I got up to date with all details. At arrival I met the team finding out that most spoke little to no English. After two difficult days luckily one of the local managers assigned one of his office staff that spoke almost fluent English to assist me. She was a timid girl with zero technical background and was if you ask me afraid of making mistakes so I did not expect too much cooperation. I’m not going to mention her name as I want to honor her privacy.
However after some days of working in the team she loosened up and after a week or two I would even say she became one of the key persons in the team instead of just a translator. She may not have had the engineering skills to fully understand all the details but she picked up the big picture rather quickly. The project which was the installation and commissioning would take 11 to 12 weeks but after two and a half weeks we already met the four week deadline and reached the six week deadline at the end of the fourth week. I can safely say that I could not have done this without her contribution in directing the different staff working on the project allowing me to concentrate on the detailed installation and integration of each process step to the next.
After the fourth week my colleague should be better and would come and take over so I could go back to the Netherlands and continue with my own projects. However due to the fast progress I was making and the fact that he was only 90% recovered my boss in the Netherlands pleaded with me to stay and finish the project especially since he was impressed that I got 50% ahead in the time schedule and he liked to try and get the early delivery bonus that was in the contract. However the last four weeks I had been working on two full time projects my original project in the Netherlands plus the one in Thailand so I was tired and looking forward to concentrating on just one project only. So I declined his offer.
You have to remember that I was leaving the company after my own project was finished anyway so I did not need the goodwill. Since he really liked the way I was handling the project he made me an offer I could not refuse. He would pay me the time I spent working in Thailand on my own project at 150%. I would get one week’s paid holiday after completion of the Thailand project. And if I managed to finish the Thailand project within the next four weeks I would get a third of the early delivery bonus the company would earn since this bonus could earn me an extra half year salary on top of the overtime and standard salary. I agreed.
Feelings for the Translator
Now writing it down like this I see how you could think that I only did it for the money. But what I have not mentioned yet is I have to admit that in the past weeks I had started to appreciate my English speaking colleague in a more than work related way if you know what I mean. And even had the idea that she did too since she made flirty comments and we talked about a lot of personal matters when we were working alone. So I wanted to see if this could become something. Now I have to admit that I am not the greatest in recognizing a woman’s signs and I have been wrong in the past so I doubted talking to her about this directly.
But since a Dutch colleague of mine who came for a specialized job asked me only after half a day if she was into me it was clear to me that she also felt something for me.
So I asked her on the seventh week if she would like to join me on a trip to Bangkok where I planned to celebrate my holiday after this project and hopefully my early delivery bonus. I offered to book her a separate room in the same hotel I stayed in and we could see the city together while getting to know each other outside of work. Unfortunately she declined my offer since she already had a boyfriend. I was so embarrassed I had misread her signs. But until today I’m not sure if I really did especially since my colleague noticed something within half a day as well.
Despite the strange atmosphere between us I managed to get all required signatures two days before the eight week deadline securing my early delivery bonus. Now I’m all about teamwork and paying it forward so I arranged a dinner that evening for the core team to celebrate the successful completion of the transfer and planned to share part of my bonus I gave each of them 25000 Baht as a reward for the hard work. Since I wanted to give each the same amount and did not know if the team would appreciate it if the others knew how much each of them got I had put the cash in an envelope with only their name on it.
My English speaking colleague was not joining us for this celebration dinner therefore I gave her the envelope before the dinner at the office when we were alone. I assumed that she would appreciate it as a nice gesture of me sharing my personal bonus. Now that was not the case at all. She thought I was trying to buy her to join me for my holiday for a week away. So before I could even say one word in explanation she started swearing at me in both English and Thai. After screaming for several minutes I managed to explain that it was meant as a thank you only and I would also give a bonus to the other five key members in the core team not just her.
At first she did not believe me but after showing her the five envelopes she calmed down but never thanked me for the bonus and just left. So the last two days the atmosphere between us was even worse and when I said goodbye on the last day she was nowhere to be seen.
The Holiday in Bangkok
The second part of my story is about my holiday in Bangkok. I arranged a hotel close to Nana Plaza. Now after working for an average of 90 to 100 hours per week for the last two months on two full time projects you could imagine that I was exhausted. So the first two days I did little but sleep and got one of the famous Thai massages the one without the extra service. However the second evening I decided to join the party in Nana Plaza just to see where the night would end.
Now in the third bar I entered I made a huge mistake. When I walked in I saw a girl at a table standing alone. At first I thought I was mistaken but she looked exactly the same as my English speaking colleague same height same weight same haircut and even a somewhat similar scar on her neck. So after observing her for a few minutes she was still alone I was convinced it was her. So still being a bit hurt from the way she reacted and did not show up to say goodbye I went over and bluntly asked her why she did not show up to say goodbye to me in the office. Once she started talking however I knew I’d made a mistake she was not my English speaking colleague.
I did not know where to look and I guess I said sorry a hundred times before retreating to a different table.
At that moment I did not understand why but she followed me after me approaching her so unfriendly. Now in hindsight I know the reason money. I was an easy target. But now I’m jumping over the juicy bit of the story.
After several drinks and buying her some lady drinks she convinced me to take her up to my room for some aerobics. I was not drunk but close to it when paying the bar bill. But I am sure I did not order 12 rounds for me and her at most it was six or seven. However she swore on the grave of her mother it was more than 10 and since I had no proof I had to pay. I guess I should have paid more attention to the bills in the cup on my table.
Walking back to the hotel we passed a 7 Eleven and here is the next mistake of the evening. She wanted a toothbrush so she could freshen up for me. Since I saw no harm in a one or two dollar toothbrush and I liked the idea of her freshening up I agreed. But once inside the one toothbrush became one toothbrush plus some perfume plus some of that shampoo that smells so good and something to drink to continue the night in the hotel making the one dollar toothbrush into a forty dollar bill.
The Hotel Room Dispute
In the hotel room she did freshen up but it took her a long time in which I waited on the bed and almost fell asleep. When she finally left the bathroom we drank the booze from the 7 Eleven before finally engaging in some aerobics. But honestly it was not good at all. She just rushed it without smiling once. It really felt as if she was saying ‘Just get it over with so I can sleep.’ The next morning we did round two but this was hardly any better. And to top this wonderful night off the girl claimed I still had to pay her when she was leaving. Well I was sure I’d paid her the moment we entered the hotel room. She lowered her demand to 1500 Baht. I paid her anyway just to get rid of her.
This experience ruined my next evening and I left the bars early on my own. However the night after that I hit the jackpot. I met a gorgeous girl named Cherry I’m sure that isn’t her real name so I’ll use this name in the story with whom I had a wonderful evening in which she never asked for anything and was content with the drinks I offered her. Around one o’clock she joined me to continue the party in my hotel and this time I can say nothing more than ‘Wow that was good.’ After an hour of fun we finished the whiskey I had left in the room before we were done.
The next morning I woke up but she was not next to me anymore. After finding the bathroom empty as well and noticing the money I left on the counter for her was gone I thought back to the previous experience and started looking through my stuff to see if anything was missing. I had already emptied my suitcase onto the floor when the door opened and there she was with a big smile carrying two cups of coffee and some bottled water. Since we had so much to drink the night before and there was nothing left in my room she decided to go out to buy something before I woke up and took the money I left her to pay for it. The fact that she went out to buy coffee and water from her own money impressed me so much.
After the coffee we had some even better aerobics than the night before. Since I enjoyed our time together and trusted her not to take advantage of me I decided to spend the next few days together until I left for home. I cannot think of anything negative about Cherry or my remaining time in Bangkok. She never ordered too much or the most expensive dishes in a restaurant. She never begged me for gifts when we visited a market or shopping mall. I did buy her some small gifts but this was always on my initiative. So when I left I gave her my remaining cash approximately 9000 Baht and I really felt that she deserved every single Baht even though I already paid her the agreed amount for her company.
Now you could say I was 50% lucky in choosing bar girls but I like to think my first bar girl was not the exception and most are just honest working people like you and me.
