PHUKET: A motorbike taxi driver in Patong has apologised for losing his temper at a foreign tourist after the motorbike taxi driver refused to uphold the fare as presented by Grab when the ride was booked.
Patong Police reported the incident late yesterday after a video clip of the motorbike taxi driver losing his cool gained traction on social media platforms earlier yesterday afternoon.
The video was posted on the ‘Hot Jung’ Facebook page at 4:44pm yesterday. By 6:24pm Patong Police posted on their Facebook page that the conflict had already been resolved.
The motorbike taxi driver, Chamnong Salee, and the foreign tourist involved had both presented themselves at Patong Police Station to shake hands and put the incident behind them.
The foreign tourist was not named in the post by Patong Police.
The incident began after the Chamnong arrived at the house. The tourist had ordered a ride through Grab, which presented the fare as B56.
However, when Chamnong arrived, he refused to take the tourist for anything less than B100.
The video posted online showed Chamnong shouting angrily and yelling abuse at the tourist through a wooden gate where the tourist was staying.
Chamnong then kicks the gate, and then while continuing to verbally abuse the tourist gets on his motorbike, shows the tourist his middle finger and drives off.
Chamnong yesterday agreed to pay the owner of the house B1,000 for damages to the gate, Patong Police reported, though no discernable damage to the gate was visible in the video footage posted online.
Additional reporting by Eakkapop Thongtub
