Quote:
Originally Posted by basil111
Looking at renting a small motorbike to get around Pattaya and later perhaps Phuket. I've heard so many bad stories about uninsured bikes...so what's the real deal? Any way to rent a decent bike with comprehensive fair dinkum insurance so all the riding is worry-free?
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My only "bad" experience in Thailand in over 20+ visits was with renting a scooter. Long story but basically it got nicked outside the Brazilian restuarant in Samui about 2 hours after we rented it.
Strange thing was it was parked on it's own right outside the door and we were in there less than 5 minutes cos restuarant was fully booked. hadn't even thought about insurance up to this point.
Thought about doing nothing and checking out & leaving the island at the end of the week but ran it past my hotel (Thai owner) and she recommended I report it cos stuff like that gives us farang a bad name.
So went to the shop, and we went to police. First surprise - police say I need to pay compensation cos I lost the scooter. Over the next 6! hours and two police stations, 5 police officers and 4 Thai's that seemed to have an interest in the bike shop, plus their wives & kids we played out the same stalemate.
Police say I owe 1,000 USD for "lost" bike - I say there is nothing about that on the rental T&C so I won't pay. Police say the owner can take me to court, I say take me to court.
Eventually (after a lot of abuse from police and Bike owners) we are let go (1am) with no compensation paid but I have signed a statement saying the bike was stolen (not lost).
next day the rental guy turns up at the hotel, poolside, says he's "found the bike" but I am an expletive deleted and so is my wife and the clincher "Bin Laden is a hero!"
Thing is, the terms and conditions were awful, I even offered to write something better but I wouldn't accept that a stolen rented bike was 100% my resposnibility. I know that, had I offered something in compensation, they would have bitten my hand off but by that stage they'd wound me up so much my stubborn streak had kicked in.