Police Story Thailand: Road Checks

My first road road check in Muang Sakon was only blocks away from my house.

When I had stopped and lifted my visor the policeman very obviously rolled his eyes.
You could tell he wasn't expecting a westerner.
I reached for my wallet and the officer smilingly motioned to me that it was not necessary.

"Where you from, where you live, where you going."  The officer peppered questions at me.
It quickly became very obvious that he had exhausted his knowledge of English with those three questions.

I answered "U.S.A.," he had a dumbfounded look on his face. I rephrased my answer "America." Now he understood where I came from.

Answering the next two questions, I started to feel more like I was giving a mini-English lesson.
"I live in this neighborhood" took a lot of hand gestures to explain.

He did understand my final answer that I was going "shopping." and smilingly sent me on my way.

The second road check I encountered I was a passenger in the back seat of a car.

Unfortunately, when stopped the driver became quite grumpy:
"What the hell are you stopping me for."
The cop didn't understand the question, but he obviously picked up on the drivers disposition.
He demanded every possible document from the driver,  Insurance papers, drivers license, vehicle papers, visa, passport. 
I thought next he's going to ask for a birth certificate.
The lesson is obvious, smile and you get a smile in return.  Hassle a cop and expect to be severely hassled

There have been times when I passed a road check slowly, expecting to be stopped, but the cops either waved me on or totally ignored me.

Memorable was a road stop where the police officer totally ignored the Thai driver in the car and came to my passenger side.  That English lesson lasted over five minutes until his partner finally told him to get back to work.

In the eight years of driving in Thailand I was only asked once to produce a "bicycle license."  That took me a moment to realize what the officer meant, since I was driving a motor cycle. 

In a distant town my Thai driver was pulled over for going through a red light.  As he was exiting the car I offered Bt 200 to him to pay the obvious fine, but was refused.


Twenty minutes of waiting, the driver returned and asked me for the Bt 200.  It took another 10 minutes before he returned.  
Lesson, pay up and be on your way, the cop always wins the argument.

The most memorable road stop to date deserves a separate post.

Coming Soon!! Dumbfounded TAXI