Driving in Bangkok is stressful enough without an entitled drunk.

On the way home, I noticed a Toyota Fortuner changing expressway lanes again and again behind me.

You know the kind of lane switches I mean: zips car ‘nose’ into the small space between cars in the next lane, just enough so ‘he’ can’t be gone around or blocked.

It’s legal, but this was almost every other car, so it was annoying.

The traffic in ‘my’ lane began to move faster, so I did, too, stopping Mr. Fortuner from pushing in front of me. It wasn’t intentional (well, maybe a little); it was timing.

‘Mr. Fortuner’ was incensed. How dare I NOT let him in!

When he caught up to me, he honked his horn, opened his window, leaned towards me and did a middle-finger salute.

I could see his ruddy face, runny eyes, puffy lips; I knew he was drunk.

I ignored him.

When he did it again a few seconds later, I looked at him, shook my head and wagged my index finger at him, school teacher style.

Thais usually react with embarrassment when this is done. They acknowledge they have been rude.

Not Mr. Fortuner.

He was determined to get in front of me and punish me. He was probably the kind of jerk who would slam on his brakes so the car behind him would rear-end him.

A chatty Thai taxi driver had once told me that ‘his friend’ made money by changing lanes so quickly that the car he cut off couldn’t stop in time to avoid a collision. *

I just sensed that Mr. Fortuner was going to try that, so I hit my brakes before he cut in.

And here comes karma.

He was so busy turning his head to watch me hit him that he didn’t notice that ‘my’ lane had stopped.

He plowed into the rear of a brand new Mercedes.

But karma wasn’t done.

In an effort to run (assumption on my part), he reversed hard into the Honda that had been behind him in ‘his’ lane. He then turned his wheel and tried to get in front of it.

Was it over?

No.

He didn’t move over enough and dragged up the side of the Mercedes. He couldn’t move because the Honda blocked his retreat, he was smashed up against the Mercedes, and the cars in front had stopped to see what had happened.

Was that it?

Nope. Karma just had to add a cherry.

I was still stopped behind and watched as the Mercedes driver got out. He was in Army uniform with lots of weight on his shoulders (very high rank).

Elsewhere, that may mean little. But we are under a ‘democratically elected’ government (after a 6-year military coup government) that includes lots of military.

‘General Mercedes’ face was like thunder.

*Yes, this is possible here in Bangkok. Some have no insurance, don’t want to notify the police, etc and will negotiate a settlement right then.