Malaysian tourist goes viral for taking over Thai motorcycle taxi

5-minute trip turns into 20-minute city tour in Hat Yai district of Songkhla

A Malaysian tourist went viral for his unexpected motorcycle taxi adventure in Thailand after he had to become an impromptu rider because his elderly Thai Grab driver repeatedly missed turns, which turned a five-minute journey into a 20-minute city tour.

The Malaysian man, Clifford, shared a video of himself riding a motorcycle in Thailand with the elderly Thai rider as his passenger on his Instagram account, @cliff_kwj, last week. He explained the incident in the caption, which read…

“You know those uncles who just never trust Google Maps? Well, my Grab rider uncle is one of them. What was supposed to be a five-minute ride turned into a 20-minute free adventure tour.

I kept telling him he missed the turn again and again until I finally asked him to pull over and said, ‘It’s okay, uncle, let me do it, you just hold my bags.’ Even then, he kept saying from the back, ‘slow slow ah…’

Not complaining, just one of the funniest rides I’ve ever had.”

Malaysian rides Grab taxi in Hat Yai Thailand
Photo via Instagram/ @cliff_kwj

In the video, the Thai Grab rider can be seen holding Clifford’s shoulder tightly due to the speed. He also looked at the camera nervously, seemingly worried that his passenger might get into an accident while filming.

Clifford later told Malaysian media outlet WeirdKaya that he was spending his holiday in the Hat Yai district of Songkhla province, southern Thailand. On the day of the incident, he had booked a Grab motorbike ride to a train station to return to Malaysia.

The app showed that he would arrive at the station within five minutes, but the journey did not go as planned. The Grab rider appeared to ignore the map on his phone and repeatedly missed turns. Clifford therefore decided to take control of the ride, making the older rider the passenger, as seen in the video.

Grab taxi rider Thailand
Photo by Garakta Studio via Canva

He added at the end of the interview that he managed to catch his train on time. Clifford also said he was surprised that his video went viral, with the clip now earning over 55,000 likes on Instagram.

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Petch Petpailin

Petpailin, or Petch, is a Thai translator and writer for The Thaiger who focuses on translating breakingThai news stories into English. With a background in field journalism, Petch brings several years of experience to the English News desk at The Thaiger. Before joining The Thaiger, Petch worked as a content writer for several known blogging sites in Bangkok, including Happio and The Smart Local. Her articles have been syndicated by many big publishers in Thailand and internationally, including the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Bangkok Post. She is a news writer who stops reading news on the weekends to spend more time cafe hopping and petting dwarf shrimp! But during office hours, you can find Petch on LinkedIn and you can reach her by email at petch@thethaiger.com.