Continued from #731

Todd: So, then we go back to the airport. I don't know what to do because I'll be back where I started and I see a hotel. A big hotel, right next to the airport and I tell the cab driver to go there, and so he goes and there's a bellman, you know, waiting for the cab. I go up and I get out of the cab and I'm really sick and I just wasted three hours. I'm back where I started.

Greg: And you paid the man, like forty dollars and you didn't get where you wanted to go.

Todd: Right, and this is the interesting point. So we come back and the sweet old cab driver is there and he's trying to explain to the guy about how he couldn't find the place I guess, and he looks really flustered.

So then, I'm thinking he wants more money so I pull out my wallet and and I give him another thousand baht. I put it in the cab driver's hand and he looks at it like it's a dead fish, like doesn't want it. And he's just looking at it and looking at me and he has this really puzzled look, like he doesn't get it.

So finally the bellman kind of snaps at him in Thai, like you know, something and then the Thai cab driver takes the money and he walks back to the cab and he's looking back at me like like he feels guilty or he feels bad and he gets in the cab and he drives away.

And then it dawned on me that the cab driver didn't want to take the money. Like he felt bad. He had been trying to find this place for three hours. He couldn't find it and he didn't even want the extra money, but I was just the foolish foreigner and didn't know what to do and the bellman said, just come on, you silly cab driver, take the money and go away.

But I think it was a good story because I think that is so indicative of my time in Thailand, you know, like the people are so sweet and bad things can happen to you when you travel but in this story, it was just a sweet old guy and he actually didn't want to take anymore money from me. He didn't want to take advantage of me. He was just disappointed that he couldn't get me to where I wanted to go.

Greg: Did you actually get to the place you wanted to go?

Todd: Well, yeah, eventually I called my friend and they came and picked me up.

Greg: Was there a phone number on the card?

Todd: Yeah, there was.

Greg: Why didn't you stop with the cab driver and call them?

Todd: Well, because I was given the card and they said use this card to go to this place and it was a factory and then so when I called the place they realized what was happening. Before the cab driver was calling the place and so he couldn't find it but once there was a foreigner they put me with somebody who speaks English and it was all worked out, and I should have thought of that in the first place.

Greg: You learn from experience.