Viral Taxi Nightmare: Thai Woman Alin’s Bizarre Journey from Kanchanaburi to Pattaya

In what turned out to be an unexpectedly perilous journey, a Thai woman’s trek from Kanchanaburi to Pattaya devolved into a six-hour ordeal that could only be described as a bizarre highway nightmare. The taxi driver, seemingly auditioning for a role in a surreal thriller, decided that the best way to engage his passengers was by watching cartoons while driving, much to the dismay of his passenger, TikTok user @alin_6236. In a video post that quickly went viral, she captured the antics of the driver who seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of sensibility.

The adventure began innocently enough when Alin booked a private taxi for a hefty 3,200-baht fare, with plans to be picked up at six in the evening. However, the driver, perhaps eager to impress or simply confused, turned up at an exceptionally early 11 a.m., waiting eagerly outside her home. In an unexpected twist of spontaneity, Alin and her family opted to leave right away—a decision they would later rue.

“At first, everything was peaceful,” Alin recollected, her voice a mix of disbelief and amusement. “We chatted, and eventually I dozed off. But when I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe it. There he was, watching cartoons on his phone while cruising along the M81 expressway as though he were out for a leisurely Sunday drive.” Astounded by this unusual turn of events, Alin did what any reasonable passenger might do—she reached out to the taxi company to report this bizarre behaviour.

The company’s intervention, however, backfired spectacularly. The driver, perhaps feeling his right to cartoonish entertainment had been unjustly curtailed, began to sulk and lamented aloud about the traffic, speed limits, and how Alin clearly failed to grasp the inherent challenges of being a taxi driver. Alin, who was in pain and had forgotten her medication, made a simple request for him to speed up a tad. Unfortunately, her plea was met with a monologue that turned into a full-blown rant, leaving her with no choice but to demand a little peace and quiet.

As tensions simmered, the driver opted to forsake the expressway in favour of a scenic detour through Bangkok’s inner city, a bizarre choice that added an exhausting two extra hours to what should have been a straightforward journey. Yet, Alin bit her tongue until they found themselves crawling along Rama 9 Road. “I asked if we could go back to the expressway, but he just grumbled about road closures and traffic snags. We sat in silence, patience stretched thin, until my patience was snapped at Suvarnabhumi due to intensifying pain,” she recounted.

By the time they approached the end of the journey, weariness gave way to desperation. “Could you please speed up just a little? Even just to 100 km/h?” Alin pleaded, her patience exhausted from an endless six-hour drive that should have only taken four. The driver seemed to have a fondness for the speed of a snail, maintaining a steady crawl of 90 km/h, no matter what was happening outside.

What transpired next was as if lifted from an action movie script gone wrong. Having finally had enough, Alin requested to get off the vehicle. “The driver refused, and in a frenzy, we started yelling. I threatened to call the police, to which he responded with a wild scream, ‘I can’t take it anymore!’ just before veering off with a jolt,” she described, eyes wide with disbelief.

The chaos didn’t end there. As the car slowed to a halt, the driver, apparently deciding that physical exertion was in order, exited the vehicle in middrive and attempted to chase Alin down the road, urging her not to run. The bags were subsequently tossed unceremoniously onto the roadside as the driver roared away into the oblivion of the highway night.

The social media jury was divided, with commentators debating who was truly at fault: Alin for standing up to the cartoon-loving chauffeur, or the driver whose judgment seemed clearly impaired. Alin, advocating for a sensible approach to public safety, is now pushing for action. “Is it so wrong to speak up when something is clearly amiss? Isn’t this man a danger to others?” she asked, hoping to spur a discussion on accountability and road safety. In any case, her harrowing ordeal stands as a chilling reminder of what can go wrong when a drive for leisure takes an unexpected turn.