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#1
19-06-2006, 20:14
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Thailand and safety.. What a joke !!!
No amount of lazy incompetant disorganised 'service with a smile' will ever surprise me in this country again.. And if an item has any safety aspect whatsoever then I can only advise to check check and triple check, all yourself, and never trust any shit eating grins or mai pen rai comments. Do not take anything as too stupid for them to do or too unbelievable for them to skip.
As I have mentioned in some of my posts I recently had my jeep all refurbed up.. Decided to take it round krabi and lanta and use it a bit more.. Had a great time touring about and today was returning from Ao Nang in Krabi. Well one of the tasks that the mechanics did during the rebuild was to replace the windscreen.. So I am driving out in krabi, starting a leasurely return journey home planning to take all day. So me and her indoors are cruising along, about 50 - 60 mph or so and the winscreen just implodes !!! Now I have been in cars when the windscreen catches a high velocity stone and shatters but stays in place, this was nothing like that this was an almighty bang then flying shards of mental razor sharp glass !! I caught one in the cheek which sliced in but lucked out considering the possibilities. Spinner again luckily was 100% not a scratch. I had some minor nicks at scalp level and sliced my ankle stopping the car under control so blood started to flow. The jeep only has these convex mirrors so I was having a hard time assessing how injured I was, spinner FREAKs out, crying and wailing, looking at me like I am hanging apart, standard 3rd world brass panic reaction !! Not helping thanks love.. I have blood streaming down my face, on my shirt, in my mouth, spitting lots of foamy blood, I take my hand away from my cheek and it seems like a lot of blood (its not bad in truth) welling up out of this hole but the combo of accident, blood, and most of all not being able to know how bad I was hurt did give me the shakes and dry heaves for a second of two as I pulled my shit together.. Knowing your cut and bleeding (face especially) but unable to know how bad it is or what your reaction and course of action should be was the real kicker !! Anyway it takes me a second but then I twig whats happened.. The ****ing mechanic muppet has put a piece of plate glass in as a replacement windscreen !!! For the last 1000 miles I have been sitting open eyed and facing a goddamn timebomb. When I consider the possible injuries, sliced face, lost eyes, jugular and other arteries etc it just boggles the mind. I mean hes a mechanic, he has to have known !! He must have just gone down the glass shop and asked for the cheapest bit of plate glass they had.. I will lay money on thats how it worked out !!! I assume he knew the danger that meant to me, as a child would know that whole issue. Of course as I realize this, is at a time that heart is pumping, adrenalin was flushing through the system, and I was injured.. The thought of choking the little bastard for the risk he put me under was high on my 'things to do list' and I was having a bit of a rage reaction.. Now I have had some time to calm down I doubt I will do anything other than give him a firm verbal roasting but he deserves a cuff round the head in my book, of course the way Thais work is all no confrontation, no anger etc.. No wonder nothing gets solved or done !! Things like this just are another symptom of why Phuket Air dropped off the radar and are blacklisted all over, it will be ok, mai pen rai. Anyway, we are out of the tourist zone somewhere between Karabi and Phang Nga, a Thai fella on a bike stops and says that the local doctor / medicine man is up the road but I didnt much fancy having it messed with and maybe sewn up by the local witch doctor in ****knowsaburi.. Considered turning back for Krabi hospital but thought sod it.. By the time I did that and messed around finding it I would be wasting the whole day and Phuket was only a couple of hours away.. So I clamped a rag to my face and drove (in the rain) back from krabi with no windscreen.. Quite an trek in a slow jeep with stinging rain and a cut face. Once we get back on the island I made a wasted journey to the hospital.. The cut had closed and being a glass cut was very clean slice, so by keeping real firm pressure on it for the first hour it sealed pretty tight already and from what I could see had closed up all nice and pretty clean. I had sorted in my mind to just get some paper stiches (setures ??) to keep it closed and it would be fine. When I get to the hospital I explain all this to the first medic / nurse and his instant reaction is to open the wound and look how deep it is / assess it.. I understand this, but it had closed nice and clean and I didnt want him breaking it open and increasing the scar etc.. Despite me clearly saying not to reopen the wound in he kept coming in to do exactly that, over and over hes just smiling and reaching in with 2 hands to grab both sides and I even had to grab his hand as he was just going to do it while smiling and agreeing. Then had the same story with the doc attempting to open it and who wanted to real stitch it.. I debated this with him and had a close look myself in a mirror (at last) and decided against letting him local me and muck about. Doctors the world over dont like being debated or having thier opinion challenged as I guess it challenges thier authority but then you get a Thai for whom thats also a social no no and where most Thais just will agree anything the doctor says because hes the 'official' and he kinda got the **** with me and left. I guess he was thinking awkward bloody farangs always think they know better  so all in all I paid a grand to argue with a doctor for 10 mins but I had some paper setures slapped on there and it fells nice and tight / closed now.. Just take care not to re open it for a few days and I am pretty sure I made the right call.. Not the first time I have had my boat race split and I somehow doubt it will be the last.Still mad at the mechanic, still not sure how much I should let myself lose it when I give my safety education speech !!! Thais are great people for sanuk.. Great people for sabai time.. But some things they are worse than useless at !! Anyone know a good car window fitter ??
__________________
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich. 
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#2
19-06-2006, 20:25
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That was truly disgusting... If i were you personally i would go down there and really let go..... You were lucky you got off as light as you did.... Could have lost an eye or even worse.... Hope it all gets sorted soon mate
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Life is like a box of chocolates..... you go to Thailand and get greedy 
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#3
19-06-2006, 20:27
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WOW, can only agree! What an idiot to let you drive like that. Even 1 KM is too far with that kind of glass as a windshield...
Lucky to be reasonably OK afterwards, could have been a lot worse.
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#4
19-06-2006, 20:37
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Damm what a story. Better not to think about what could have happend with your eyes. Hope your wounds heal quick and it will end up as a good story to tell in the bar. Maybe a naive question but isn't there some place you can go to to complain about the bad job and get some money to pay for the damage (doctors fee).
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#5
19-06-2006, 20:40
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Jees Lil.......thank God No One Was Seriously Hurt.........consider Yourself Very Lucky..........
Jees......what I Wouldnt Do To That Son ***** Of A Mechanic..id String Him Up By The Balls...... Ij
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ROLL ON OCTOBER........
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#6
19-06-2006, 20:57
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Yeah well now I am home, relaxed and have a couple of glasses of wine in me I am feeling a lot more relaxed and philosophical about it all.. For the price of a small cut I learnt a valuable lesson about trusting Thais to do a job right (should have known) even to extreme levels of madness and that safety shouldnt be aassumed.
I will say I did royally lose it at the time though.. I do have a bit of an anger flash point in my personality (I am not proud of it) and the righteous anger of the bad work and risk to us, plus the adrenalin, fear / panic reaction from the blood / injury all combined to make me have a right old dummy spit.. I could see I scared spinner as I was ranting raving spitting blood and looking for rocks to break and trees to punch.. To be fair I must have made a daft sight !!! Easy to smile now with a red wine in hand.. Thank **** it worked out that way and niether of us were really hurt.. Plate glass all cracking / imploding and the shards flying inward at 60 mph.. Doesnt bear thinking about.. Quote:
Ha ha ha.. Thanks for that WBC, best laugh all day !!! Erm.. NO !!
__________________
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich.
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#7
19-06-2006, 21:00
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If you did not hear this one first-hand you would put it in the 'too dumb to be true' box. Amazing Thailand eh?
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#8
19-06-2006, 21:08
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wow. crazy story LIL.
id sleep on the guys doorstep waiting for him. goes to show you msot thais could give a fcuk less if a farand lives or dies, IMHO thats why it makes me laugh when guys try to kid themselves and say tehy go to LOS cuz the thai people are great!
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#9
19-06-2006, 21:09
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Oh, forgot to mention, last time I had a clean cut (top off my ear) they just picked the scab off and glued the thing back together. No scar at all.
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#10
19-06-2006, 21:11
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defintely count yourself lucky,hate to think of an other outcome.
but what a pr1ck of a mechanic,there's is certain things that have to be done properly,its putting peoples lives in serious danger,gets my goat i tell thee. but glad to hear u and spinner are fine. hope it didnt put a big damper on your time away. i would defintely go down and give him an earful,being back here(uk), i'd demand a replacement(but it wouldnt of happened here for starters),but to be fair wouldnt trust the fella putting another in.
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DO WHAT U WANT 2 DO,AFTER ALL ,IT IS UP 2 U !
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#11
19-06-2006, 23:50
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This sort of workmanship is why I was having a whinge in my thread on Isuzu service the other day.The brakes on Pick up trucks(utes)are crap anyway only having drum brakes on the rear instead of disc so when they didn't adjust or even check the brakes(fluid only half full,excessive pedal travel)I was a little p-ssed off especially when driving in a country were you spend most of your time sitting on the brakes to avoid hitting motorbikes coming at you from every direction.
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#12
19-06-2006, 23:58
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Hi LIL,
Glad to hear that you got out of it with only minor injuries. Must have been a little gut wrenching at the start though. Good luck getting it fixed and hopefully they will take care of your medical expenses.
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variety is the spice of life. I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. Mav's a hasher, not a basher, Tell me it ain't so! Mav, he sits on ice, says it feels nice, enjoyed it so much, he did it twice.
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#13
20-06-2006, 00:26
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Feck LL I was following you the other day with that dodgy screen could have scratched my car!!!! seriously though I think a fairly firm little chat is in order.
Glad your okay, few more scars will only add to your rugged good looks (5555), they say things happen in three's, bbq stone in the eye, windscreen shattering, I'm dodging you for the next few days!!!! Booked my car in Friday for a service, after reading the Isuzu thread, I asked how long it would take, they said an hour, so I said okay I'll come in the workshop and watch your guys doing the service for something to do!!!
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If I havn't done it already, then i'm gunna do it today.
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#14
20-06-2006, 03:07
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What a sh*tty state of affairs when you can't trust a thai mechanic to service your car/jeep properly. Hope you get over this LL,and give the cnut who did this a severe talking to.
 I'd seriously think about taking my motor a long way from the cowboys who service cars on Phuket. How far is the drive to Malaysia? 
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I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my Granddad Not screaming in fear like his passengers
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#15
20-06-2006, 05:31
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Quote:
Sorry to hear about this disaster LiL.....as you said could have been seriously injured or worse............very hard to maintain cool with half your cheek hanging off..........and frothing blood coming from your mouth.......all whilst trying to keep a jeep on the road at 60mph!!!!!! But this attitude is what is holding the Thais back the most....they just don't listen.....or care......and you know when you see that smile and the head bows that you may as well just stop talking and walk away then.....ain't nothin' sinkin' in anymore..........just belligerence and that fcuk you attitude..........it's infuriating!!!!!
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#16
20-06-2006, 05:44
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Thai people in a nut shell ???
 Like when my friend X-rayed his bag at an airport some where near Wanon Niwat /Isaan! He was suppose to check in at the desk after the X-Ray and the lady told him to go and X-Ray his bag .. but i all ready did he said! You have no "plastic-strip" around it the lady said you have to go back and do it again .. my friend walks back .. put´s his bag in the X-Ray machine again ! Then he discovers an old Thai guy sitting behind the machine .. the guys said´s: Oh , solly .. me forget  This dude have only ONE thing to do all day long .. put "Plastic strips" on people´s bags but nope .. him forget  Funny most of the time but in your case there LiL things could have been alot worse .. i would go and see the so called mechanic for a looong talk
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CS//  
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#17
20-06-2006, 06:34
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Wholly **** Livin - you are so lucky you weren’t severely injured.
When I was younger I saw a friend run through a sliding glass door. (Before they had the pretty squares and things so you could see it) cut him up so bad, almost completely severed his right calf muscle. The mechanic taking short cuts was that to 'Save Face; because he couldn't do the right job? Just I've been reading about this concept of saving face and don't understand it fully. Matt
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#18
20-06-2006, 07:53
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The little fcukers will do anything to cut corners and make an easy buck
Keep and eye on you cut, ive got a similair one from ermmmm accidently smashing 3 windows near Sainamyen and now have a lovely scar on my forehead I know this dont mean shit but get your GF or someone else to go and negotiate compensation, its the only thing they understand (as i know) Stay safe m8, i reckon there is a market for farang (epxerienced mechanic) owned garage G
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#19
20-06-2006, 08:24
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Quote:
Will do but theres not much that will change now.. pretty sure will have a small scar but I have a feeling that in Thailand I might just be able to pull anyway Quote:
Funny thing.. You know my nutter and shes the normal shy, fairly timid, dont talk back to elders etc, pretty useless at bartering etc.. Well now that I and a couple of mates have explained that cars have special glass and how bad what the mechanic has done and what danger he put us under to save a buck shes pretty mad about it.. Seems spoiling to kick off on him too so will be funny to see what happens.. He doesnt speak a lick of English so its going to be hard to sort sensibly. Quote:
The well known big bike service that is one of the few that sportbike riders trust is owned by a farang (swede IIRC).. Sad to say but some things about the Thai personality make them very poor at doing stuff right.. Look at any building project etc.. The strange thing is, up until this happened I was singing this guys prasises as having found a good guy mechanic that did good work and didnt do a rip off.. Quote:
I think is wasnt saving face it was saving money.. Just taking shortcuts and doing the easiest / cheapest thing possible with zero thought or regard for the implications and safety. Also dont worry about not understanding 'face' properly, I dont think any outsider will get the full implications for years.. Its kind of like a very fine ego trip thing that permeates each and every dealing.. Anyway home safe and sound, no lasting damage just a bit of shock value and a crappy journey in the rain..
__________________
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich.
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#20
20-06-2006, 10:41
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Hi LIL,
Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I wonder if the mechanic even knows about glass, not that I'm trying to protect him but if all he ever does is fix things under the hood maybe he might not know about safety glass. 95% he probably knows but 5 % maybe he's clueless. If he went to the glass shop and asked them for glass based on his measurements instead of telling them it was for a windshield they wouldn't know either. That must have been a scary day, I can only imagine. Hope you heal well and your modeling career is not in jepardy.
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"Start every day off with a smile and get it over with" W.C. Fields
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#21
20-06-2006, 13:47
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thank your god you are ok LIL, it is so unbelievable but so beliveable if you know what i mean, these things seem to happen in what my father would call non-proper countries.
and he was a teacher for a time in singapore, which he regards as occupied by ignorants. i think this is one of the reasons i will live in small town issan and not phuket/pattaya/bkk when i decide to move. because if she indoors has family with some respect amongst the locals hopefully the same wont occour. what you need is an uncle who understands mechanics has nothing to do all day but watch the tradesmen work. glad you and her indoors are ok.
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#22
20-06-2006, 13:59
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She just phoned him to 'yak yak' him and try to psyche him a bit with a threat of going to police and hospitgal story etc..
His response was to grovel and be sympathetic and sdaid to bring it back.. He then told her that for a jeep / flat windscreen you cannot get a real one and that they are all 'just glass' I am having a tough time deciding if he is a moron, a liar, lazy, or what..
__________________
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich.
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#23
20-06-2006, 14:08
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