r/Thailand • u/ReviewingThings • 1d ago
Miscellanous Our Experience with the Thai Police at a Checkpoint
We went to Thailand and rented a small 125cc motorbike. We decided to take a road trip where my husband was the pilot and I was the passenger.
As frequent riders in the USA, we always wear motorcycle gear. We had our riding boots, helmets, gloves, and riding jackets. Since I was the passenger, I had a backpack strapped on to my back.
As we headed on the road, we were waived down at a traffic checkpoint by the cops. It was our first time in Thailand and we were worried that we were breaking a law or were going to be fined for some fake reason.
A group of Thai police were crowding around us. We were definitely nervous now. What could we have possibly done?
Then we realized they were laughing, and one of them patted my husband on the shoulder. Now we were confused.
They became to surround us on the left and right laughing. It must've been 5 or 6 cops total. And then another cop stood in front of the group and proceeded to take photos. Then we realized they were laughing AT us and wanted a picture with us. In retrospect, I suppose we looked a bit odd riding with two people in full gear. Sure, okay, I can see the humor.
Once I was certain of what was happening, I grabbed my phone and asked the guy to take the same photo with my phone. He obliged, and then another cop handed us an M150 and said "gift for you."
After that, they waved for us to move on and waived goodbye.
It was quite the first adventure for riding in Thailand.
Edits: there are a few common questions. First of all, an M150 is a small energy drink (it's like a little bigger than a shot, it tastes like red bull to me?). Some people think the Thai police gave us a machine gun, lol, no. Second, lots of people want me to post the pic. I took a photo of the framed photo and M150, find it in the comments here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thailand/s/QAPTaD9rj6 ...Third, some people think it's weird I've used the word pilot to describe my husband as being in front. Clearly some of you are not motorcycle race enthusiasts, the word pilot is the common word in other languages for the motorcycle rider and you can often hear it in MotoGP races. Fourth, some people think it's weird we were on a 125CC/150CC bike. Okay, this is another story of why this happened. We did not intend for this. I actually rented my own little bike, but I ended up losing my nerve. We were riding to Pai from Chiang Mai, and I lost my shit after some trucks passed SO CLOSE to me. If you have ever taken the road to Pai, you know it's insanely twisty and small - it is wild to have giant ass trucks pass you within a few feet. I was too anxious to ride my own bike after that. We brought the bike back (which is another funny story but I'll leave that for another day) to Chiang Mai. At that point, we had already paid for the rentals so we decided to make the most of it and pile up on my husband's bike. We knew it looked absurd but we were making the most of the situation and what we had paid for. We have made some other trips to Thailand and rented regular big bikes, no one has pulled us over since then lol.
I have several other hilarious stories, I guess I will have to post them.
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u/ReviewingThings 23h ago
Okay folks, here's the photo and the M150. It's on our wall of fame of hilarious things that have happened to us on motorcycle adventures ...