Highway Robbers in Thailand

Highway Police.

I have just returned from my monthly visit to the North East and the return journey was most interesting. The journey up to the North East went without any problem from the Police, it was raining most of the way, therefore they would not be visible, might get their hair wet !!! So my speed in the car was not of interest to anyone.

However, on the trip back yesterday I lost count of the number of Police checks going on. Must have been 10 or 12 between Khon Kaen and Pattaya. I had already decided to abide by the law and control the cars speed near to the Thai speed law of 90 Kilometers per hour. OK itтАЩs not easy to control that but I did keep it around that.

I managed to pass most of the blocks and the Police jumping into road to stop vehicles. But on two occasions they tried it on with me. The first one was on the Karat bypass.

This was a complete road block and the Policeman motioned for me to stop at the side of the road, which I did. He asked me if I knew what the speed limit was in Thailand. I confirmed that I did and said that I was doing no more than 90 kpm. He inferred that I was doing more, asked for my licence and started trying to be nice to me at which point another Officer came over. This one started speaking in German and then my boyfriend said that I was a Brit. I said, firmly, with a raised voice, that I was not doing any more than the limit. Then I snatched my licence from the PolicemanтАЩs hand and told him that this kind of thing is no good for Thailand. At which he told me to go.

Feeling that I had made my point I carried on. After about another 80 kilometres there was another block over the road. I was in the process of overtaking two slower moving vehicles. He pulled me over to the side and started telling me that I was speeding. To which I confirmed that I was not. My boyfriend was doing some interpretation with this one as he did not speak any English. I raised the voice again and firmly said I was only doing 90 kpm, I also raised 9 fingers so he would understand. Asking for my licence I just showed it to him, keeping a firm grip on it so he could not hold onto it. He then gave up with this and changed the problem to the fact that I was in the outside lane of the dual carriageway. To this I told him that I had to overtake 2 slower vehicles. He went on and on but I was not going to give in. He then backed down and told me not to stay in the outside lane again and told me to go.

So by being firm and raising the voice a bit I was just moved on without any problem. ThaiтАЩs donтАЩt like confrontation.

Other than having the benefit of no backhanders or fines I also noted that the fuel tank was not going down so quickly. Altogether a less expensive trip this time.

If you will notice, when the policeman leans over to talk to you they will ALWAYS slip their hand just inside the rolled down window on the drivers side. All you do is discreetly slip a 100baht note in their hand and they will say, "Thank you" and walk away. It always works and there is no need for any conversation at all...unless, of course, you feel the need to run off at the mouth. This is simply how business is done in Thailand. Learn the game and stop bragging about the foolish way you handled the situation... if you keep it up your confrontational behaviors sooner or later there will be an article in the Bangkok Post about some poor farang with your name that had a terrible accident or perhaps an assisted suicide???

[netrix]

This is simply how business is done in Thailand. Learn the game and stop bragging about the foolish way you handled the situation.

HAHA !! Well said.

Ditto.

If you will notice, when the policeman leans over to talk to you they will ALWAYS slip their hand just inside the rolled down window on the drivers side. All you do is discreetly slip a 100baht note in their hand and they will say, "Thank you" and walk away. It always works and there is no need for any conversation at all...unless, of course, you feel the need to run off at the mouth. This is simply how business is done in Thailand. Learn the game and stop bragging about the foolish way you handled the situation... if you keep it up your confrontational behaviors sooner or later there will be an article in the Bangkok Post about some poor farang with your name that had a terrible accident or perhaps an assisted suicide???

Sorry guys but enough is enough for me. Having run a couple of Bars in Pattaya and having to deal with the Police, I know that you cannot sit back and let them rob you. It's been a very long learning curve and firmness with a little raised volume is the winning message.
AND 100 Baht is not enough these days. A few months ago 600 Bt was demanded. Why put up with it.
I read some time ago about someone that was stopped at the pay tolls by a Policeman for no good reason. The guy got out of his car, locked it and started to walk away, causing blockage to pay booth. He too was told to go without any further problem.
If I had been stopped at all the police checks (about 10 +) then the cost would be enormous. They can only guess the speed anyway as these Police do not have the speed cameras.
AND fattman, the speed limit is 90 kph. Main Roads 90 kph (80 kph for commercial vehicles)
Expressways 120 kph Check the speed signs along the road side. Also the Policeman tell me it is 90 kph.
This is all information for readers that travel a lot around Thailand. So nextrix theres no bragging going on here, you can learn from it or pay up.
For speed advice see..... http://www.propertyshowrooms.com/thaila ... ailand.asp (http://www.propertyshowrooms.com/thailand/guide/driving-in-thailand.asp)
"The maximum speed limit in cities and towns is 60km per hour and varies between 90 and 120km per hour on main and country road outside the city centres and the police apply regular speed checks. Seat belts are compulsory and drink drive laws apply which makes insurance invalid if drivers exceed the legal limit."

[netrix]

...So nextrix theres no bragging going on here, you can learn from it or pay up.
For speed advice see..... http://www.propertyshowrooms.com/thaila ... ailand.asp (http://www.propertyshowrooms.com/thailand/guide/driving-in-thailand.asp)

This is from the very page you referenced:

"It is advisable to discreetly pay the money and never argue or
lose your temper as it will cost your more. DonтАЩt expect a receipt
for the money and you will never know if it is a genuine fine or
whether it is being pocketed as a bribe."

I just think that advising others to raise their voice and argue with
a Thai police officer is unwise advice. You may have been lucky,
but to triumphantly post about it definitely seems like bragging.

The national speed limit is actually 80kph. Why such a fuss?


AND fattman, the speed limit is 90 kph. Main Roads 90 kph (80 kph for commercial vehicles)

Is fattmann so fatt now that he needs a commercial vehicle to get around in?

http://thegarageblog.com/garage/wp-content/uploads/225629_fat_guy_in_car1.jpg

I wonder why the expressways in Bangkok have big flashing signs saying "80 kph". I am aware that the so-called motorways have a 120 limit, but I always understood (wrongly it seems) that the national limit was 80; but cops will take no action for speeds up to 90.



You have me confused fattman, not a hard feat to accomplish I must admit. :iconbiggrin: If what you refer to as expressways, are the toll roads, it is these that have the 120 limit, so if there have been signs flashing 80 kph, it would for whatever reason, be asking drivers to significantly reduce their speed.

Motorways as you refer to them, are what I call the roads such as Highway 1 that goes up North to Chiang Rai and South for that matter and, Highways 2 and A2, that goes North East and up to Issan right up as far as Nong Khai. It is on these roads that the speed limit is 90 kph, as it is on all of the main Thai Highways.


Choc dee,


George.

I can not believe the silly pea brained responses of some of the dim wits on this board that think standing up to the Thai police about donating "tea money" will curb or correct their total dependence on the coruption income that is built into their salaries by the Thai government. Surely, you are not so dimwitted as to think that that wasn't part of the plan when the authorities established the pay scale for Thai police officers....and, also, why no one questions a Thai Cop driving an expensive car that his offical income could never hope to support.

And the price is still 100 baht unless something has changed in the last couple of months. We drove to Ubon and the price was 100 baht all the way there and back, so if you are being ask to pay more it must have something to do with your attitude......beware, as I have said before; you run a big risk of becoming a corpse on the side of the road after having had :bounce: :blackeye: some terrible accident.

[Hmmm]

For what it's worth, I have done return trips from Bangkok to Khon Kaen and Nakhon Sawan in the last month or two. We regularly saw police stops on the highway as we zipped past in the bf's Vios, usually at well over 100 kph (fortunately he's a good driver and regards his countrymen as road maniacs to be kept as far away from as possible). We were never stopped. It seemed, and the bf confirmed, that the police only stopped the ubiquitous Thai pickups, and they seemed to be stopping a high proportion of these. Whether they were extracting 20 baht tea money from each of the multiple occupants or actually fining them for often being overloaded, I don't know. Some of them had loads piled twice as high as the cab roof.

We also saw the aftermath of two major pileups, one involving a bus, and many near misses along the way.

George, sorry but you seem not to know too much about roads in Thailand.


On the contrary fattman. I have driven thousand upon thousand of miles on the roads of Thailand over the last 30 plus years. Now had you have said that I don't particularly know about the roads in Bangkok, the only ones in Thailand by the way that I have hardly any knowledge of, you would have got no argument from me. For the record fattman, I have no particular desire to learn about them either.

When through having no choice, I am forced to drive to Bangkok, I park my car as soon as I can and take either a taxi, or use public transport. I absolutely hate driving there. Can you honestly blame me?


Choc Dee,



George.

[globalwanderer]

Having just done Udon - Pattaya 3 times and Udon Bangkok once in the last two weeks I can say that both routes regularly have a large number of checkpoints and traffic police. The 'fine' will also depend on whether you have a Thai with you or not. One stop when I was following my b/f the traffic police started at 400Bht. As the b/f had been stopped as well I claimed not to understand and signalled to the b/f to come over. Ah your friend the traffic police said. yes I replied. Ok 100Bht.

And interestingly every time we were stopped for speeding we were doing 120. I did query it once as I knew we were doing under 100Kph as we had slowed specifically having been stopped at the same point two days earlier. he said you want to check radar... it 1km back... I said I am not arguing with you but if I was doing 120 then my speedo is wrong and I need to inform the rental company so maybe we can do a check. Ok you go.

And every time the police stated the limit was 100kph even though we were in a pick up. for the 4 return trips, or 6 if you allow for the fact that some were in two pick ups cost me 1000Bht in 'fines', one of which was documented by an official receipt.

I'd also comment that there were plenty of cars being stopped as well!

I was also 'fined' for being in the outside lane whilst overtaking and for having the tailgate of the pick up down!

One thing that I have noticed recently, some of the drivers coming in the oposite direction who see a police block ahead, are flashing their lights at you as a warning.
This has be the norm in the UK for many years and it's now catching on here.
Also, globalwanderer, if you insisted on looking at the radar trap there would not be one. It's a story I have had before.

[globalwanderer]

Also, globalwanderer, if you insisted on looking at the radar trap there would not be one. It's a story I have had before.

I am well aware of that and knew there was no trap. However, I beleive in quitting whilst I'm ahead... some other fault would have been found!