My brother is still whooping it up in SE Asia (as his 40th birthday looms near on the 21st of September…) and I got this email from him this morning:
“forgot to mention that i bribed a cop today when i got pulled over on
my scooter.
rented a scooter to get around. was looking for a movie theater
(another story) and did a uturn on a one-way street when a cop
standing on the sidewalk waved for me to pull over:
cop: “one way”
me: “uh”
cop: “fine. station. more.”
me: “uh”
cop: silent
me: (watching about 20 other motorbikes go the wrong way down the
one-way street)
cop: silent
me: “fine? how much?”
cop: “up to you”
me: “how about 4,000 riel?” (4,200 riel = $1)
cop:Â laughs
me:Â “i don’t have a job and they just cancelled my unemployment
benefits because they think i’m whooping it up in bangkok” (didn’t
really say this, just thought it)
cop: “$5”
me: <gasp> “that’s how much it cost me to rent my scooter for one day”
(almost true. it was $6)
cop: “cambodia very cheap”
me: <hmmmm> “$3?”
cop: “ok”
then the cop took me over to a nearby street stall so i could buy a
rain poncho (it was raining). as i pulled away, he waved me over
again and before i could finish calculating in my head how much more i
was going to have to pay him he leaned over and turned off my turn
signal which i had left on.”
And in case you missed my account of how to bribe a Thai policeman from last year, you can read it here.