Outcome

　　As soon as we got through passport control, our friends ran up to us and took us to his company car. As I heard before, the traffic on the highway was really smooth, but the local streets were so jammed with lots of cars and small vehicles. I called and asked the tour company to wait for us for 5 or 10 minutes, and they were kind enough to wait for some time, but we weren't able to reach our hotel in time.
　　However, my friend came up with a wonderful possibility, which might help us. That is, the tour bus would pick their coustomers up at some places going through the same heavy traffic jam as the one that we were caught up in. Could we catch up with the bus, by going ahead of them? I called and asked the tour company again to tell our driver their customer picking-up route. I was a stranger in Bangkok and I handed my mobile phone to the driver. He chose a hotel out of several points and headed for it. Finally, we were able to catch the bus! The driver refused to receive a tip, but we had him a little forcibly receive it as a token of our gratitude. He didn't speak English, but we fully felt his sincerity. Starting with a bad impression of Thailand, our emotion changed completely to the opposite side. The picture shows my look of relief on the seat of the tour bus.

(Vocabulary)
be/get caught up in sth ＜…＞に巻き込まれる
Thousands of civilians are caught up in the fighting. 何千人もの民間人が戦闘に巻き込まれている．

ツアーに間に合った件

入国すると待っていた仲間が駆け寄ってくれて走って外へ移動。同窓生の用意したワゴン車とドライバーに助けられ、一路ホテルを目指した。空港から高速道路を利用するのだが、事故さえなければ渋滞は無いと聞いていたとおり、スムーズな流れだったが、一般道に降りると渋滞。ドライバーは脇道を走り、車をすり抜け急いでくれたのだが、ホテル到着時、すでにツアーバスは出た後だった。道中でバンコクのツアー会社に連絡し１５分ほど待ってはもらったのだが間に合わず。ツアーに参加することを諦めた。が、ここで同行の友人が客をピックアップするホテルを確認して先回りできないかと提案。

ツアー会社から客をピックアップするコースを聞き出し、ツアーバスよりも先回りすることでなんとかツアーに合流できた。この運転手のお陰でバンコクに対する印象が変わった。言葉の通じない運転手であったが誠意は十分に伝わってきた。彼は最初拒否したが、感謝の気持ちを示すためほとんど無理矢理彼にチップを受け取ってもらった。間に合ったツアーバスの中で安堵の顔を浮かべている写真をＵＰ