any of you thinking about going to bangkok on holiday...
Poh Tek Tung
Your final journey. Lots of people are understandably concerned about the health risks associated in coming to Bangkok. The Lonely Planet guide reassures you with the knowledge that there are many good quality hospitals and clinics with English speaking doctors. ( Incidentally if you need any dental work doing it's a lot cheaper here than in USA or UK. )
The question is what happens to people if they are unfortunate enough to die whilst on holiday? You'll all be familiar with ambulances, unfortunately for you Thai's aren't. There is no state run ambulance service and the private hospitals have better things to do with their ambulances than use them to collect dead people - that's understandable - dead folks don't pay, do they?
The solution - volunteer ambulance drivers who provide their own vehicles and do it for fun, morbid curiosity or what they like to call ' making merit '. There a few large, mainly Chinese temples, in Bangkok who's mission is to collect the dead. The more dead people their followers can collect the better the temple and therefore the more donations it will receive. ( Bodies = baht )
The biggest temple-run organisation is Poh Tek Tung. In the daytime you will see, usually red or white, pick-up trucks, with the name in English, Thai and Chinese written on all sides of the vehicle, parked or being used to carry vegetables to market.
They can sometimes also be recognised by the witty slogans on the tailgate 'Bringing out the dead' and 'Grateful Dead' are two I've seen. However, once night falls and the number of fatalities increases you can see these pick-ups, with their radios tuned to the police frequencies, racing round the streets trying to be the first on the scene of the accident, shooting or any other kind of death inducing situation.
Who are the drivers ? Just ordinary people who want to do a good turn for the temple. No qualifications or training are needed. A friend of my girlfriend's does this and although he was sick at the scene of the first couple of accidents he attended, it's now just another night out now.
Start the night with a meal with friends, then head off for some karaoke and finally race to see the aftermath of a 5 car pile up. It goes without saying that you can't go alone, so it's only polite to invite your friends along for the ride.
So for those farangs who die here there's a good chance that your last journey will be made lying, unshrouded and un-coffined (?), surrounded by giggling 19 year olds, on the floor of a market traders pick-up truck.
Enjoy your holiday !
Poh Tek Tung
Your final journey. Lots of people are understandably concerned about the health risks associated in coming to Bangkok. The Lonely Planet guide reassures you with the knowledge that there are many good quality hospitals and clinics with English speaking doctors. ( Incidentally if you need any dental work doing it's a lot cheaper here than in USA or UK. )
The question is what happens to people if they are unfortunate enough to die whilst on holiday? You'll all be familiar with ambulances, unfortunately for you Thai's aren't. There is no state run ambulance service and the private hospitals have better things to do with their ambulances than use them to collect dead people - that's understandable - dead folks don't pay, do they?
The solution - volunteer ambulance drivers who provide their own vehicles and do it for fun, morbid curiosity or what they like to call ' making merit '. There a few large, mainly Chinese temples, in Bangkok who's mission is to collect the dead. The more dead people their followers can collect the better the temple and therefore the more donations it will receive. ( Bodies = baht )
The biggest temple-run organisation is Poh Tek Tung. In the daytime you will see, usually red or white, pick-up trucks, with the name in English, Thai and Chinese written on all sides of the vehicle, parked or being used to carry vegetables to market.
They can sometimes also be recognised by the witty slogans on the tailgate 'Bringing out the dead' and 'Grateful Dead' are two I've seen. However, once night falls and the number of fatalities increases you can see these pick-ups, with their radios tuned to the police frequencies, racing round the streets trying to be the first on the scene of the accident, shooting or any other kind of death inducing situation.
Who are the drivers ? Just ordinary people who want to do a good turn for the temple. No qualifications or training are needed. A friend of my girlfriend's does this and although he was sick at the scene of the first couple of accidents he attended, it's now just another night out now.
Start the night with a meal with friends, then head off for some karaoke and finally race to see the aftermath of a 5 car pile up. It goes without saying that you can't go alone, so it's only polite to invite your friends along for the ride.
So for those farangs who die here there's a good chance that your last journey will be made lying, unshrouded and un-coffined (?), surrounded by giggling 19 year olds, on the floor of a market traders pick-up truck.
Enjoy your holiday !
fordy:
Ok, probably see you then, then...