Much consternation in the Spike household, one of the rear lights has ceased to function on my truck. She who must be obeyed is convinced this is so dangerous that I should not be driving, even during daylight hours. To appease her, I head for the Mitsubishi dealer.
“Mai mee fai”, I explain in my best Thai, pointing to the offending light which is refusing to glow. Three men with one screwdriver are mobilised. The screwdriver is almost, but not quite, the right size for the two retaining screws, and then there is much muttering and banging as the light unit refuses to slide out. One character wields the screwdriver, planning to insert it against my shiny bodywork, to help with the extraction; only a frantic waving of arms by me stops him. Finally they remove the unit and replace the bulb.
Pan across to the office where my service book has been placed on the table and complete details of my vehicle are transcribed onto a handy scrap of paper. Then we wait for someone to come from another part of the operation with the price of the bulb; 38 baht. Much banging of calculators and an invoice is prepared, for a grand total of 44 baht.
Presumably the additional charges were for the labour, 2 baht for each of the mechanics. I am not convinced I received value for money.