Pattaya or bust turns to French nightmare

CHON BURI: Most foreigners have fond memories of their first visit to Thailand. For many, especially those on their way to Pattaya, it brings back memories of being a child on Christmas morning. But for 29-year-old Frenchman Tony André Marichaud, the excitement was just too much to contain. Marichaud and his friend, 28 year-old Richard Henri Detroit, had just arrived in Thailand and hired a car and driver to take them to Pattaya. For Detroit, the journey was to be the culmination of a dream for which he had scrimped and saved two years to afford. Unable to contain their joie de vivre and wait until arriving in Pattaya to start letting the good times roll, the pair cracked open a bottle of vodka – half of which they managed to consume before their car had made it out of Bangkok. When the driver stopped for a toilet break on the outskirts of Pattaya, Marichaud decided his services were no longer needed. So he slid into the driver’s seat and drove off, vodka bottle in hand, to take on Thailand’s road chaos for the first time. He didn’t get far, driving straight out of the car park and into an oncoming Citröen, also driven by a foreigner. The soused Frenchman staged a getaway. He crawled through a broken window, cutting himself up in the process, then stumbled across the median strip and crossed the other side of the busy highway, cars swerving to avoid him. He was eventually subdued by police with the help of local residents and returned to the scene of the crime, where his friend Richard Henri, still drunk and unable to speak much English, watched in disbelief – his long-awaited vacation had turned into a nightmare.