Dear Sir,
I would like to relate an experience I had
recently. I hope I can elicit a response through your
newspaper from those responsible. Recently I spend approx. 20
days in a well-known Pattaya hospital. Upon being discharged
from the hospital and before being sent back to the U.K. for
a further lengthy stay in hospital, I asked my friend to
collect my motorcycle from the hospital as I was unable to
drive. He returned to say that the police had taken my
motorcycle and were holding it at Banglamung police station.
I was then informed it would cost about 15,000 b to regain
the motorcycle.
I returned to Thailand two months later. My
first trip was to the hospital to ask them why the police had
taken my motorcycle. Their reply was that the motorcycle was
parked in the hospital a long time. My protestations that I
was in hospital for a long time and it was their
responsibility to look after my property fell on deaf ears. I
then asked for their help to regain my motorcycle. After one
futile attempt at a telephone call they then informed me it
was not their problem.
I finally regained my motorcycle through a
third party at a cost to me of 10,000 b. Greed and bribery
are part and parcel of life in many countries but seldom can
the mai pen rai attitude of a large modern hospital be found
in any country but Thailand.
Roy Brown
Jomtien
Dear Editor,
I read your article about transvestite
contests. Do they happen often? That’s actually really
strange.
Life in Thailand sounds so...interesting. I
mean the way the guys in the Singapore Army used to talk
about going there and visiting Bangkok and stuff, it really
sound like you can have a lot of ‘varied and
interesting’ experiences there.
Is it really as wild as all that?
Wai Onn Lum
Boston
