When I share the mishaps my daughter has had recently with some of my colleagues over lunch the other day, one of my team members shared a spine-chilling story of a freak accident which happened to his fiancee not too long ago.

The story went like this:

She was walking on the pavement after knocking off from work one evening. While there was some sort of a construction site going around in the vicinity of her office, the area, in true Thai fashion had not been cordoned off. The manholes that stood along the pavement right outside the construction site  were sealed off – what looked like a hardened cement, with no warning, signs or anything surrounding them.

Without over-thinking and suspecting that anything could be wrong at all, she walked on one of the cemented manhole, and promptly fell through it. Nobody was in sight at the time she plunged in, and crying for help was a useless thing to do. Fortunately, she managed to use her arms just in time to stop herself from plunging further and with all her might, gathered all the strength that she had to get herself out of the hole.

Luck must have also been on her side, as a taxi soon stopped by in an otherwise empty street, just in time and helped to pull her up. He was kind enough to offer her a ride, as well as something to clean herself up.

She finally gathered herself and took a shot of herself post the scary aftermath of an almost certain death. My team member has kindly shared  his fiancee’s photo with me .

 

I cringed when I heard the story. It was a scary, scary thought, even scarier to discover that it had happened to someone I know. It further drums the message home further that the streets of Bangkok are far from safe. We really do have to be very  mindful of what is lurking beneath our feet. The above shot is a very scary reminder of the dangers Bangkok presents, and, I thought I’d post it up here just so you readers are aware how much worse it could have been.

I am again reminded of my personal habit of refusing to step onto anything that covers a manhole or whatever holes there are on the pavement. Doesn’t matter which country I happen to be in, if I see them, I avoid them like a plague. If it means I have to walk around them, I would gladly do it than succumb myself to walking over it. Those manholes can look as innocent as one of these shown below…but, given that this is Bangkok, my advise is, unless feeling suicidal,  never  try to push your luck.

 

Here is a useful site I came across a while back that highlights the dangers of Bangkok streets which I had covered in a separate posts about safety in Bangkok and Mind the manhole(s).