Amazing Thailand!
… Number 3 in an occasional series…
Welcome back to ‘Amazing Thailand’, my infrequent, yet hopefully amusing, look at daily life in the land of eternal smiles. In this instalment, we take a look at the delicate art of car-parking.
Now, many of us, myself included, worry when parking our cars at the local supermarket. After all, another driver might accidentally scratch or dent our beloved vehicle while parking alongside or opening their door without due care and attention. And those little white lines that delineate each parking space. Well, they’re getting closer together each time we visit, aren’t they?
Just park where you like – It’ll be alright!
But never fear. Help is at hand from our friends in the East. Worry no more about dents, scratches or parking related accidents! Ignore those little white lines etched into the tarmac! Just park wherever you feel like it and all will be well! Just like the driver of this vehicle in my local Makro a few months ago.
Initially, I thought that the car had just paused after leaving its space, but as I neared it, I discovered that its engine was turned off, its wing-mirrors were folded in and that there was no one inside the vehicle. It had been parked slap bang in the middle of the exit to the entire lane of parking spaces. Well, it won’t be there for long, that’s for sure, I thought, as I made my into the store with a bemused smile on my face. Well, how wrong I was! Forty-five minutes later, I returned to my truck, shopping in tow, to find the badly parked car still there, with exiting vehicles doing their best to find a way around it. As soon as I’d unloaded my shopping from the trolley into the truck, I returned with my trusty smartphone and took a couple of quick snaps of the offending vehicle, much to the amusement of a Thai couple who laughed out loud when I told them that I was going to put the images onto Facebook!
I never did find out who the driver of the badly parked car was, or what happened to the vehicle in question, but it wasn’t there the next time that I went to Makro, which I must say was something of a relief.
How could I possibly be causing an obstruction, officer?
So, there you have it. Once again, the Asians have the solution. If your carpark says that it is full, or you’re just a bit scared about easing your car into a tight space, then just stop where you are, pop your wing-mirrors in for safety and go about your business as if nothing at all was out of place. And do you know what? You’d probably get away with it just like the driver in this story!
As always, if you enjoyed this blog, then please have a look at my others on the blog page and tell your friends, enemies and random strangers about www.rob-gregory.com! Thank you.
