It has now been about five months since I got my motorcycle. I had lots of fun with it. I have also been through a lot of bad luck which has upset me very much. Now, I am back at the temple with the bike. I am outside waiting for the monk to come back from his alms round. I will ask him to bless my bike to get the good luck back.

Since February, the first day I got my bike, up to now there has been quite a lot of accidents and problems happen to my bike and me. Especially the latest accident that just happened, it was a very big one. That reminded me about what my mum said when I first bought the bike. She told me to take the bike to the temple to have it blessed but I didn’t listen. Even after the first time my friend crashed my bike, I still didn’t listen to what she said. Now, I am very sorry that I didn’t listen to her. If I had taken my bike to let the monk bless it earlier, my friend might not have ended up in hospital and I might not have had lots of bad luck like this.

The first bad luck with the bike happened to two of my friends. It happened not long after I had the bike, less than one month. My friends came to see me and my new bike at my house. They came without telling or calling me first so I wasn‘t alone. At that time, I was staying at home with one of my girls. They walked through the front door and surprised me. I tried to give them a signal to tell them to go first but they pretended not to see it. They sat down on the floor and started to talk to me and tease my girl. We talked for a while then I went to turn a nude video on for them. I asked them to wait there for a while. Then I went upstairs to my bedroom with my girl. A little while later, I came down to check on them but they weren’t there. I came down and saw a note that they left for me on the table, it said …

“I borrowed the bike to go back home, won’t be long. Don’t worry, I will be extra careful with your bike.” From: Ton & Job

I was shocked and worried. I called Ton on his mobile to ask where he was, he didn’t answer. Then I went back upstairs. About 15 minutes later, they came back with some scratches on their arms and legs. They said they had crashed while they were trying to avoid a dog. They said they were OK then I went out to see my bike. There were some scratches on the bike plus the handles weren’t straight. I took my girl back home and then I went to the bike shop to fix it. My friends paid for it.

After that accident, my bike didn’t look as new as it was before. The scratches were still there because the shop didn’t paint over them. It is expensive to do that so my friends didn’t do it. Really, I could have told my friends to do it as well because they took it without my permission. But I didn’t tell them, I was too scared to tell them. I was very sad about that accident but I still didn’t learn. I lent my bike to another friend and the second accident then happened.

My friend asked to borrow my bike to go to see his girl. I don’t know why I lent it to him. Maybe because I was on the bike with him at the time. While we were waiting for his girl, he went to ride around. When he came back, he came on the wrong side of the road. It was during the night time and the road was pretty dark. He came very fast and then he drove into a big hole. The bike flipped over and my friend broke his fingers so I called a taxi to take him to the hospital. I stayed with my bike for nearly the whole night until some of my friends came to help. Now, it looked even older than before.

After that second accident, I didn’t let anyone borrow my bike anymore. But the third time still happened. It was my mum who crashed it this time. I was in the hospital at that time. She was going to ride my bike home. But, because she hasn’t ridden a bike for a long time, she went too fast and crashed into an electric pole. She was fine but my bike wasn’t.

My mum told me that I should listen to her and take it to the temple to be blessed. I still didn’t listen to her and then the fourth and worst accident happened.

The final and worst accident happened because I was too lazy to take my friend, Ball, home so I asked another one, Oat, to take him. He was the one I trusted most about using my bike. He is very good on motorbikes. He took Ball home and he was on his way back. A car in the left lane suddenly did a u-turn without signalling. Oat was in the right lane behind that car. He crashed into that car and flew over it. He fell down on the road and broke his left leg. The man in the car took him to the hospital and agreed to pay. He also paid for my bike to be fixed. It was in the garage for about two weeks. I had to use my dad’s bike instead. It is a very old one and very loud which was embarrassing.

You know what? It wasn’t only about the accidents that happened. I also got caught lots of times by the policemen for not wearing a helmet. And one time, I got caught after I came back from watching motorycle racing. I lost 600 baht for that. I should have listened to my mum and taken the bike to be blessed. I was so unlucky, I lost lots of money to the policemen and to fix my bike. But at least, none of the accidents happened to me. I still have some luck left!

That is why I finally decided to go back to the temple. After waiting for a while the monk came back. I followed him up to his kuti with some flowers, incense sticks, a candle and gold leaves. I gave them to him and then he took a pen out and started to write something on all three gold leaves. After he finished writing, he gave them to me and led me down to my bike.

He used some white powder and water to put some marks on the front of my bike, above the light. He made a triangle shape pattern. I heard him say something as well while he was doing it. It wasn’t Thai. I think it was Pali though I didn’t understand any of those words. After he had finished that, he held one of the gold leaves in his hand then he put it on the bike above the white marks. Then he did the other two gold leaves on both sides of the handles and put the jasmine garland around the left handle. After that, he started to bless my bike with the holy water in the bowl that I was holding.

He walked around and blessed my bike one time. Then, he turned to me and blessed me by splashing some water over my body. He said to me that he had warned me about those accidents already. He said that the next time when he or elders say something, don’t ignore, listen and do it. I replied “yes, I will” back to him and gave him a polite wai. He said it was nearly done but there was something else he needed to do. I asked him what was it? And suddenly the monk hit my head pretty hard with the thing he used to bless my bike. He said now it’s done and walked back up to his kuti. I think the reason he hit me on my head is to keep away bad luck plus he maybe wanted to tease me!

I went back to my grandmum’s house to eat some snacks before I went back home. I went to stand in front of my bike and looked straight at it. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at it. I went in the house and came out with a cloth. I was about to wash the white marks and gold leaves off. Then I heard my grandmum say that not to wash them off, let them fall off by themselves. She said if I washed them off too soon, some bad luck might come back to me and my bike. I listened to her and went inside to put the cloth back. I paid respect to my grandmum and her friends then got on my bike and rode back home.

After the blessing, I feel a lot safer every time I ride on my bike. However, even if all the bad luck has gone away, I don’t think I will lend my bike to anyone again. Now, I will say “no” to everyone who wants to borrow my bike. Or if they are really in a rush or have really important things to do, I will take them. I have spent a lot of money making the bike look new and I want it to stay that way.

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This is the uncut version of Panrit's article that first appeared in his Gor's World column in the Bangkok Post when he was 16 years old. We will be posting his full versions every Sunday for him while he is still in prison. This story and many others appear in Panrit's autobiography "Gor's Thailand Life".