Trouble with Police

Aug 12, 2003
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I think farangs should always wear helmets and ride with their lights on if only to set a good example for Thais...
I personally do not even go one block to the market without putting mine on. I've hit the pavement about 3 or 4 times in Thailand...(always at low speed) and everytime there has been a 'ding' in my helmet and no bump on the head.
Mike Robbins
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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Maybe you should consider walking? Haha, Just kidding.
Actually that is an excellent idea. Setting an example. I beleive that to be one of the best sentences I have read here in awhile. Even though we are small in number.
For the first time in 1 year I wasnt wearing a helmet the other week. I was handed a motorcycle to ride to meet someone in a hurry and there was no helmet around for me to wear. No sooner had I got on the road, I started noticing an unusual amount of police pulling bike riders over. After many cutting corners and riding through flower beds and picnic areas. All places I shouldn't be riding I managed to get to my place and pick up my helmet.
I got back on to the road I was suppose to be and the police had packed it in and left.
 
Oct 10, 2003
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Yeah, sounds like a dangerous block! :)

And hitting the ground a few times at low speed is bound to set an example, na'? [:I]

I'll admit I'm an outlaw. Always have been. I've never worn a helmet unless forced to. I simply don't like them. I've also been ridng for almost 40 years without any injury...Yeah, I know....Gary Bussey and all that....

I like being anti-social sometimes. Others can wear their armour and helmets-- Just like the Ninja turtles. One infamous rider in CM even wears a Shocking Pink set of armour...Now THAT'S antisocial! [:eek:)]
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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Ooh I love being anti social.
Damn! I was going to say something but I guess it is gone now. Forget it. I feel like crap anyways. Saw my lunch and dinner a second time in the morning on the bathroom floor. Last night I drove to my home 14 km on a motorcycle, slouched over the handle bars. Had to keep moving my flippin' head out of the way it kept falling in front of the damned head light. Threw my guts up at 12:30 am. Completely obliterated the toilet. I was almost tempted to pay someone to clean it for me. Then I get a message at 6:00 am. "Please help me. I would like to buy my passport today and don't know what I should to do?". I was laughing so hard. "Hey, Wait a minute isn't this Thailand and aren't you the Thai?". So I stuffed a handful of ginseng down my throat to give me that extra kick to stand up". The I actually rode to work. I dislike eating and then finding out several hours later the person who prepared your food has bad hygiene.

Don't they have a health and safety rgulation around here?

Ahh, I remember what I was going to say, or ask.
At what level of cc's does the insurance place class big bikes? It is very expensive to insure a 400cc. In Esan we are looking about 20,000 baht "roughly". I am just wondering if they class 250cc's as a big bike as well. If it is then I don't think it will ever be worth registering one of those. In Australia they are classed as a the biggest of the small bikes. Which you can ride on a learners (licence). Anything above 250cc like your 400's (or those stranges rare 300cc's) and up is classed as a big bike and you need a full motorcycle licence to ride on one.
 
Oct 10, 2003
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SiFuh, sorry I can't answer except to say that your quote seems awfully high to me...My new Isuzu, valued at about 1 million baht, and with first class insurance, including theft, was 27,000 baht... Seems to me, a bike like yours should be a lot cheaper....

Frankly, I'm still suspicious of the validity of bike insurance, especially when it used to be a scam to get farangs renting bikes to pay more...And if they tried (at least the 3 instances I know about) to collect from an accident, or assumed the insurance covered damage, the fine print (this time in English) was brought out.....Lack of a Thailand Driver's License invalidated any insurance coverage...Another joint I heard offered reimbursement in 4 to 6 months...

Choke Dee
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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Ok thanks,

Here is what I will do. I will get several Thai's to go to the insurrance place and ask about the cost of registration and insurance with out me in the vacinity. I will have them provide a copy of the contract and see if they can somehow collect an english version as well. If not, I am sure I can get some good legal translators. We will see the difference in quotes to that of mine.

I have never paid for inssurance for anything in Thailand. I lost faith in the system years ago. It is just a big headache to go all out of your way to be treated the same as everyone else without being stolen from and lied to.

The familiar "Why don't you become/learn to be Thai" Most market places are thieves. Money seems to stick to people. Luckily there are many good people here too. You just have to weed the bad ones out.
I am sure we all have many rip-off stories to talk about and that would actually make a good topic. Should ask David to create it.

Something really funny though. A lot of my Thai friends actually don't look like they are Thai. Instead they seem to pass off as Chinese and Japanese. I often go to a place with them, listen to the bullshit they try to feed us and then I end up explaining that this is all wrong. The friend I am with becomes highly offended and ends up telling the sales men where to jump and my friends usually walk away feeling disgusted that people in their own country abuse the weaknesses of having foreign guests.
That is like having your neighbour stay for a very filling dinner and then charging them to use your bathroom. Hmm, I don't see the connection.. forget it.

I was in a shop looking around at the motorcycles a guy was selling 5 months ago. His shop just appeared out of nowhere and he was selling a number of Honda Phantoms. I don't care to look at those but one day I noticed a Honda CBR so I pulled up asking questions about whether he sells other bikes non-Phantom related. He starts telling me he has a VFR and several CBR's for sale. So being the good sport I am, I decided I would ask about the bikes even though I wasn't interested in buying any CBR/VFR's. 70,000 each! Some where dismantled others were complete. I could flick the rust and corrosion off of them. These bikes were in aweful condition and I was wondering if they would actually turn over. I have a very very short temper :( and I grew angry very quickly and silently abused him with some extremely impolite Thai/English words. Waiting for him to come and kick my ass as I am fuming out the shop he chases after me and says "ok, ok, 50,000". Like that will resolve my anger.
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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That is an impressive job!

Maybe I should have hired you to clean my bathroom this morning. But I think it would be worth paying you more than 40,000. haha. :)

Less than 40,000 that is sweet.
 
Oct 10, 2003
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I wish I could take complete credit...A good friend with a bike shop in Bkk did the worst of it. Mine was more in the 'detailing' end.....I recently sold that bike to Philip, the owner of the Mango Tree restaurant on Loi Kroh. It still looks nice...except for the helmet carrier on the back- hate those things because I always forgot about them momentarily- As I am swinging my leg over, my weight already shifted......Those are my 'hitting the ground a few times at low speed' examples, clearly based on being brainless- Hey, no need for helmet- nothing left to protect! :) My (ex) wife told a cop one day when we were pulled over.." Hua Maphrow Leew!" (Coconut head= hard-headed, literally and figuratively in Thai--As apposed to Hua Kheng, which I believe is only used figuratively, not hard like in helmet or coconut...Sorry, my 'teacher' coming out....I think the logic in the language is quite interesting, and *always* tricky. I do a lot of guessing :)

cheers

Oh, and thought of your toilet?
Som naam naa! ;-)
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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That advertisement on your Samui UFO page is annoying. I wish I could move it out of the way. I am curious to figure out what it though.

Logically, due to the fact that the first explanation is just completely obscurred from reality one would have no choice but to study from the second. However, the second explanation is so vivid that one would need to make a wild guess. To start "way up in the sky" we are now assuming that it is very high indeed and not close to the ground in anyway along the horizon... "a line of yellow/orange objects slightly bigger that the stars" no arc and no mention of them being lights or a second mention of them flickering... And the use of the word "seemingly" would suggest that they were not following each but only appeared to be. Which would lead me to the conclusion that... I have no idea :)

If it were man made, probably several jet planes flying in formation. Possibly a string of stray balloons floating around.
If it were natural, birds flying in formation. But that would be debatable since it was night time.

My guess? It is probably caused from light reflecting of a US weather balloon that crashed from excessive swamp gas on venus. Incoming nukes! Run for your life!

Haha
 
Oct 10, 2003
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Real Answer: A Kome, the floating condoms with a fire inside for lift..The ones we see around Loi Krathong.. The 2 Canadians recently contacted me after seeing the story---they asked me where we were on that night because they too saw something like that, and they thought we were there then, too......Charmingly clueless, some Canadians...Maybe they'll see this message in a few years, which will remind them to again contact me, and again ask me about that night...

Oh, the banners and such support the Pongyang Prathom school in the Mae Sa valley....90% Hmong, but the poorest of the Hmongs, mostly newcomers to the area...There is a constant influx of Hmong into the Mae sa valley, building their shacks just after the last one to arrive.....

Anyway, the banners... One of those, 'the end justifies the means' situations I feel. Small annoyance, for a greater good. You are making merit, too :)

I did struggle with the idea for quite awhile...I ended up deciding that if there were a few complaints, I would not do banners....In the last 3 years, I've had a total of two comments such as yours I extrapolate that out to maybe 1,000 more being slightly annoyed. I hope they forgive me[:)]....If it was money going into my pocket, I wouldn't do it because I don't need it, but I like the idea of using the internet to help support schools and families, giving others a chance to support this school, and I hope it can continue even after I'm gone....

Hope it wasn't toooo annoying
[:)]
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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Nope, Just resized Opera's webpage by 1000%. And read the gigantic font 1 word on each line at a time.

Damn this is aweful. It seems so difficult to find a decent Suzuki between 250cc and 500cc in the Esan area. Been looking for 2 years. I have no intentions of going to Bangkok because I purely cant breath there and I have no idea where any of the shops are in Bangkok.

I am really after a 250cc at the moment around 30,000 or a 400cc around 40,000. GSX, Bandit even a Yamaha XJR would be nice. Still can't figure out the pricing here.

Honda CBR 400cc is about 70,000 and but a Honda CB 750 is 75,000. Strange...

Going to Udon Tani on Monday see what they got in stock.
 

SiFuh

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Jan 14, 2004
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Well I got a story for you guys.

2 days ago I get a phone call from my friend Tara who arrived in my province from Bangkok.
She says "Hey, I am at the bus station, come and pick me up!"
I looked at my watch 15:30. I thought she has go to be kidding me. I don't like riding in the city at that time. Especially since I only had a Suzuki Mate (3 gears) and my home is 14km the opposite direction to pick up any real machines. So I proceed to head to the bus station.
When I arrived I had only 1 helmet and she didn't bring a helmet with her. By now the place is crawling with police officers. I decide to take a short cut through the bus station to avoid the police. However that ended very quickly. A motorcycle pulls up beside me snatches the keys from my ignition. I was about to swing a fist towards this individual when I realized it was a Police officer.
He asks for my licence, so I give it to him with a nice Government ID along with it. He looks at it and pauses then after a minute or so of thinking he starts filling in the ticket. Now I can see that he was thinking whether or not I knew how this ID worked. Assuming that I am foreign he probably considered that I didn't know and continued filling in the ticket. I asked him for his name and superiors contact number, and he said he couldn't give that information out. But he did point me towards the police station.
After a short ride on the Sorng Taew, we got to the station and the officer behind the desk asked for my licence. So I slung out the Government ID and the drivers licence and waited for him to tear the ticket up. However he starts saying that it is going to be 400 baht for the fine. I then again pointed to the Government ID and pointed to my watch as it is nearing 16:00. So he asks me how long I had been in Thailand for. (Whatever the hell that has to do with anything). He then says to my friend that he will charge us 100 baht instead of 400 because I work for the Government. She was about to pay and I said
"No! This is not good enough. Translate the ticket for me".
The ticket says I was going the wrong way. Hmm, wait a minute the officer who pulled me over was also going the wrong way. The ticket says my motorcycle had no clutch. Again, the officers motorcycle had no clutch (didn't even know that was a fscking offence!). The ticket says I had a pillion passenger with no helmet. So did the officer who pulled me over. He had his girl friend on the back of the moped with no helmet.
I picked up my phone and told them to wait. I called my friend and had a small conversation like "Hey, how are you? Whats going on? What to have dinner tonight?"
After the phone call I said "I want a photo copy of the ticket. I also want the name of the traffice cop, your name, the superiors name. I want his phone number. I want the time that it is now written on the photocopy with your signature. I will take this up to the next level for wasting my time."
The officers face goes a very bright red he scribbles out the 100baht written on the back of the ticket. Signs his name and says to forget about it and go back and get my motorcycle.
That was just insane. I have never been pushed around as though I am stupid by Thai officers like this before. Might not have been their impression but when people tend to make look like I am a dork or think that I don't understand, I become stubborn. I dislike people taking trying to take advantage of me. The on top I have to explain my abscence from work for the last hour. Heh, I thought my superiors were going to explode down at the police station with anger, they were almost reaching for the phone. :p
 

DavidFL

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Jan 16, 2003
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www.thegtrider.com
In Chiang Mai the traffic police at checkpoints are now asking for your Customs temporary import papers if you're on a foreign registered bike. Don't get caught on an overstay or it will cost you, more than the overstay fine!
 

BJ

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Aug 27, 2008
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Wow
Lucky you saved that three dollar fine with your influentual friends.

BJ
 

Moto-Rex

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Jan 5, 2008
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Rumor has it, that the Lao police in luang prabang, become very sad when seeing farangs on motorcycles riding around there historic town without wearing there helmets.

One respected source, will neither confirm or deny, that a very high ranking GT-Rider board member was nabbed for not protecting he's noggin just a few days ago.

We a wait confirmation.

Rex
 

Auke

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Nov 10, 2003
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Yes, the cops in Laos are at present out in force and are checking for helmets, registration, insurance, speeding, driving license and so on so watch out. Normally you can see them from a distance as they set up traffic cones in the middle of the road to guide the traffic along their location.

Was stopped last week three times and in general no problem. One cop insisted that my Thai driving license was not valid and that I needed to have an ASEAN driving license. He did not look very happy when I did not cough up some beer money but let me go anyway so I guess it is not yet official policy.
 

pee

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Mar 10, 2006
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I had this question in mind: is a regular Thai driving license (not a Thai issued international driving license) valid in Lao and Cambodia?
In September went to the Chatuchak Land and Transport office,Driving license division.
I asked at the information desk if my Thai driving license is valid through ASEAN countries. Positive answer. And next to guy' office desk was a banner figuring flags from all the ASEAN.
This is one source, if anybody has heard otherwise...
 

Auke

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Nov 10, 2003
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Hot sure if a Thai driving license is valid in all ASEAN countries. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos recognize each others driving license as valid in these four countries.
 
There seems to be a bike blitz on here in Ayutthaya lately. In the last 3 days I saw 3 checkpoints, two of them big with lots of cops waving ticket books. They were stopping all bikes, except bike taxis and farangs. Judging by the number of bikes parked they seem to be impounding lots of them. All in the name of road safety, I guess.
 

Moto-Rex

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While heading south to Chiang Mai a few days ago on HWY 1, the road was totally blocked just before the 118 turn off. Every truck, car and bike was stopped and checked for rego.
There was two Thai guys with big bikes that looked to be in a bit strife as I went through.

The police where also nabbing people for not wearing helmets in Chiang Rai.
They had set up a table on the foot path were violators on the helmet law where sent to pay a fine, there was a queue of about 60 not so happy riders.

Rex
 
Mar 15, 2003
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www.daveearly.com
Auke wrote: Hot sure if a Thai driving license is valid in all ASEAN countries. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos recognize each others driving license as valid in these four countries.
When renewing a drivers license you now have a choice of the standard license or a new version which supposedly is the ASEAN approved license and I beleive is a few more baht.