Thursday 10 April 2008

A rather disturbing experience...

Nearly every person who has ever been to Thailand is likely to agree when I say that it's one of the safest places in the world to live and visit. Apart from rumours of petty theft in the busy markets you don't often hear about crime. I have lived here for over 4 years and have never felt at risk.
Just before we left for Canada, myself and Nick were walking back to school after going home for lunch. We had been enjoying the lack of students and taking 2 hour lunches by the pool. It was about 1.00 when we walked our usual way to school, along a quiet soi near our apartment. I was walking between Nick and a wall when we heard a motorbike approaching from behind, this soi is usually quite busy with bikes and tuk tuks so we didn't pay it much attention. The next thing I knew I felt someone grabbing me from behind. My first thought was that one of my friends was trying to surprise me and I stopped and turned around expecting to see someone I knew. It was therefore a huge shock to turn and see a stranger and it was only then that I realized the 'friendly grabbing' was him trying to pull by handbag off my shoulder. Nick hadn't realized I had stopped and thought I was just behind him to let the bike pass, it was only when I started screaming that he turned and saw me clinging onto my bag as the guy tried to take it off me. As soon as Nick started yelling and running at the guy he let go of my bag and started to run towards his mate who had turned the motorbike around and was waiting to drive off. Nick ran after the guy who ran out of his flip flops and fell over his feet. He received a good kicking before he managed to get up and climb on the back of the bike. They tried to drive away as we were chasing them but over balanced and crashed into the wall before disappearing.
Apart from being really shook up, we definietly came off better than our assailants. I had some pretty bad bruising on my arm and Nick some cuts on his hands and a saw ankle from all the kicking, they smashed their bike and one of them will have been hurting for quite a while. I only hope that they think twice before doing it again. I still can't believe that they chose to do it at 1.00 in broad daylight. Unfortunately it has somewhat reduced my feeling of security in this country.