Makassar – A group of tourists from Malaysia were almost kidnapped by a taxi driver while visiting Thailand. Luckily, one of them understood the local language so the kidnapping was thwarted.
Reporting from detikTravel, this unpleasant story was told by one of the victims named Andrew Tong on his Facebook page. The kidnapping incident occurred when they arrived at Don Mueang International Airport, Thailand on Tuesday (5/9) at 7 am.
Initially, Tong and his four friends ordered an online taxi on the inDrive application to the Ascella Bangkok hotel. According to GPS, the accommodation only takes 30 minutes from the airport.
Not long after, a four-door car came to pick them up, they finally got in and put their suitcases in the trunk. No one was suspicious of the taxi driver who picked him up, until finally they were in the car.
They began to feel some oddities. First, the car window couldn’t be opened, then the driver was busy talking on the phone.
Luckily Tong understands Thai. He became even more suspicious when he heard the driver who took him only discussed them with the person on the other end of the phone. The driver told them their number, gender, and other details.
Finally Tong decided to check the driver’s GPS. It turns out the driver had bad intentions. Instead of taking them to their accommodation, the driver instead drove the car to a further place which took 50 minutes.
The driver, who had been paying attention to them from the start, also began to realize that the passengers he was carrying actually understood Thai.
“I think some of them can understand Thai,” the driver said to his friend on the phone.
Feeling increasingly uneasy, Tong asked the driver to stop at the nearest shopping center. But the driver refused.
“I think they know,” the driver said again.
The driver, who had been caught, was still trying to cover up his actions by negotiating with them. Tong and his friends were allowed to get off, but at the gas station.
As soon as they arrived at the gas station, the five tourists immediately got out of the car. They carry goods and run from there. Surprisingly, the driver didn’t ask for fare or follow them.
The experience that Tong shared certainly received various responses from Thai people. There are those who agree and there are those who oppose their actions.
“The driver was probably talking to his wife, a friend or the application support center,” said a netizen in the comments column of Tong’s post.
However, Tong didn’t bother with netizens’ comments. He felt that this incident was truly terrible. Tong also appealed to tourists to continue to be vigilant when using public transportation by continuously tracking their location using GPS.
Watch the video “Ojol rapist of Brazilian tourist in Bali arrested in Pasuruan”
(urw/urw)
2023-09-09 14:00:48
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