A Brush with the Law

We drove into Bangkok this morning to register our wedding at the Philippine Embassy. I was driving along Petchaburi patting myself on the back for getting us smoothly downtown when I was stopped by a motorcycle officer of the law. He started telling me I had driven in the wrong lane and produced a diagram in an attempt to explain. I am afraid this is one of these situations when I speak no Thai and same for my wife, she is a filipina. Experienced Thailand hands will know that there are no rules of the road here .... it really is chaos most of the time; cars,trucks, buses,lorries, motorbikes regularily drive against the traffic flow. So I am mildly amused at PC Plod. As I say there is nothing exceptional in this land in seeing a car coming at you in the wrong direction. I was not aware that I had done anything wrong. In the absence of a driving licence I produced my passport, everything in order there, plod tells me I will need to report to the police station to pay a fine of 500b. I said ok, no problem, and he approaches me and says he will accept 300b if I pay him now. It is another no brainer but it still pisses me off as it is basically a shake down. Anyhow I paid and made the most of my day in Bangkok. The moral of the story folks is keep your window up when you drive in Bangers so the filth don't know there is an ATM driving the car! In fairness a similar scenario back home would have worked out costing a lot more and also it is done and dusted. I also have no doubt that if I had stood my ground I would probably be in a police cell and the car would have been impounded and I might be on my way out of Thailand.... Leaves a bad taste but hey I'll get over it, I'll be ok.....bastards!