March 5, 2008

I have never been so scared in my life. Misty and I stayed late after teaching today to tidy up some lose ends. We didn’t end up leaving Mercy until 9pm, and we were the last ones to leave the office building. We went over to the other building to tell security that we were done and that the building and grounds needed to be locked. We asked him to help us get a taxi. He waited beside us in the street for about 5 minutes and no cars came. Finally some cars were coming but they turned up one of the streets further up and never made it down to us. He ran down the street and flagged a taxi for us.
He explained to the driver at least twice in Thai the directions for us to go home, and told us to get in the taxi. As soon as we shut the door it became evident to us that the driver was obviously drinking, and drinking a lot. At this point we were already moving in the opposite direction we were supposed to be going and could not communicate to him that we wanted to get out.
Let me also tell you that the area where we work looks very different at night. We were warned by many people and many times not to ever walk around there at night. People are drinking in the streets and there is loud music. It is like it turns into one big drunken street, and not in an exciting way.
So back to the story, so the cab driver is dialing on his cell phone with one hand and trying to swerve his was through the narrow streets of the slums with the other, almost hitting a pedestrian and driving towards several vehicles. When we get to the main highway he does not even look and pulls the car out in front of a tractor trailer who flashes his lights at us, and also nearly runs us into a motorbike. Then when we finally get onto the other side of the road in the other lane, the cab driver puts his seat even farther back so he is basically half laying on me. He proceeds to take a few drinks out of his water bottle which misty and I would not run it past anything that there was not more than water in there. He then continues to drive down the middle of the two lane road, swerving in and out of lanes without a blinker or even a warning. Misty describes it as “it is like he thought he was in the fast and furious.” So then two more lanes merge into our lane and I thought my life was over, another close call with a motorbike. Coming towards the next intersection we were faced with a red light. Not only does he bring the car to a stop but he puts the parking brake on too! He is then very restless in his seat, clearly showing he is quite intoxicated. The next few minutes seemed like hours as we drove along side several vehicles until he comes to a quick turn onto our road. Misty and I were so scared that we did not even notice him pass our street until he got to the end of the road (I do not even know how we did not notice the speed bumps). He knew that was our road so he let us out there, and we decided to walk back home. Seriously I am not exaggerating at all. This was actually that scary. Misty wanted to cry and I brought my food from lunch back up. :S. I think from here on it might be safer to walk…
Don’t worry, Mercy was notified about the experience and extra measures will be taken next time.