Baht bus driver stuns foreigner with his honesty
Sir,
Many people seem to think Thais are not much better than common thieves. The following is a story which happened to me recently.
I live in an apartment complex in the south Pattaya section of Third Road. I have just had surgery on my hip and so it is difficult to walk long distances.
I wanted to do some shopping at Home Pro in Big C on central Pattaya road, so I flagged down a baht bus and told the driver I wanted to hire him to take me there. I offered to pay him a flat fee of 200 baht. Probably over-priced yes, but I didn’t want to haggle too much.
I sat in the front with the driver and paid him off at the entrance to Big C and went inside to shop. Not long after, a woman came to me carrying my Thai driving licence in her hand. She beckoned me to follow her to an information counter. At the counter was the baht bus driver and a policeman. The woman then handed me my UK driving licence. By this time I realised I had lost my wallet, which, of course contained the aforementioned licenses.
The woman and the policeman explained the baht bus driver had spotted my wallet on the front seat after driving off. He had come back to Big C in order to return it, with all my money and cards intact.
Naturally, I was greatly relieved at this man’s honesty and being prepared to save me an enormous amount of inconvenience. I gave him a reward of 200 baht for being so honest. Not a lot for some, but I don’t have a lot of money anyway. The incident certainly made me realise that not every Thai person in Pattaya is only on the make.
George R,
by email
Nice to hear a good Thai-foreigner interaction story for a change.
The baht bus system runs about 600-700 vehicles. This translates to about 1,000-1,400 individual drivers. Even if 20 percent of these are bottom-feeding, pond-life types then there are 200-280 ‘bad eggs’. This means the remaining 800+ are probably half-decent types just trying to make a living and not looking to rob everyone they meet. Obviously your driver was one of these, thankfully.
Gerry aka KOTO
Aloha
I have met many, nice, honest, willing to help Baht bus drivers and like in every field, there is the good, bad and ugly.
Slacker
Indeed, a majority of Baht bus drivers are just out there scraping a living. It's only usually the bad ones we get to hear about. I also like the way many drivers look nothing like their pictures which one can see when sat in the rear of the bus.
In the past I've made friends with a couple of Baht bus drivers & MC Taxi drivers and found them to be affable, friendly people. Driving round in a big circle in Pattaya can't be much fun but along with alot of farang, perhaps they are (or in fact, their standard of driving, one should say) is a necessary evil. Nice to read a heartwarming story,I hope that some good Karma comes his way.