Journo on two wheels
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Motorcycle taxi driver Dejchat Bphuangket achieves media fame by posting photos and reporting on Tuesday's bombings
Taxi motocyclist Dejchat Bphuangket has long been known among Thai netizens for his entertaining blog posts and his tweets but his first-hand accounts and photos of last Tuesday’s bomb blasts on Sukhumvit Soi 71 jetted him into the international media limelight.
Orphaned young and raised by his grandparents, the Si Sa Ket native taught himself computer skills and English while working as a taxi motorcyclist in Soi Pridi Banomyong 20, not far away from the house rented by three Iranians now in custody on charges of possession of explosive devices and attempted murder.
In his tweets and blog where he posted photos of the carnage and one of the suspected bombers, Dejchat not only offered the materials at speed but also maintained the facts, quickly correcting his initial messages in which described the suspect as a “white suicide bomber”.
“That’s what I was told by fellow motorcyclists so I used the term to describe the suspect. Later though, I posted new messages to correct it, and added more details about the incidents as they developed,” he says.
Dejchat says tweeters and bloggers should always give credits to original posters, a practice he adheres to when referring to others’ materials. “I never demand copyright to my photos but a credit with my name makes me proud,” he adds.
Poverty forced Dejchat to quit school after completing the compulsory sixth grade and soon after he came to Bangkok to work in a factory. In his spare time, he attended adult education classes and later graduated with a 12th grade diploma.
His career as a mobile journalist started with a blog at OKNation.com back in 2007 and Dejchat, who’s now 39, now blogs regularly “about trivial but interesting matters,” he says with a grin. What makes his profile unique among other bloggers is that he works full-time as a taxi motorcyclist.
His followers increased to more than 3,100 from 600 after the explosions - among them foreign media members who used his photos on their outlets.
On the day of the incidents, a blogger identifying himself as DM asks: “Can I use your photos for my newspaper?”. Dejchat replied “Yes, you can use this”.
Dejchat says he learned English from every possible source available to him - grammar textbooks, portable dictionary, English-language magazines as well as from watching foreign movies with soundtracks in English.
At his motorcycle queue, Dejchat doubles as an interpreter. At his twitter account of @motorcyrubjang, he often tweets in English.
Determined to learn how to use a computer, he laid out Bt2,000 for a second-hand machine and spent six months studying and practising with users manual and computer tutorial books.
He remembers with some embarrassment the awkward moment when he entered an Internet cafe to use a computer. “I’d been studying for about three months. The cafe owner and the kids playing games looked at me with really strange expressions. I guess they were wondering what on earth a taxi motorcycle driver wanted!
“I never saw any taxi motorcylist [wearing the signature vest] entering a cafe myself. I remember how excited I was when I had my first personal computer experience and how people looked at me," he adds.
He registered with OKNation.com, mainly because of his interest in Suthichai Yoon, editor-in-chief of Nation Multimedia Group, which runs the website, and has since learned how to upload photos and video clips on it, drawing a large number of fellow bloggers and visitors - more than 910,000 as of this week.
Reflecting on game addiction and the time spent by young people in Internet cafes, Dejchat says he’s sorry to see kids wasting so many opportunities, as the Internet offers such a wide range of knowledge.
Dejchat says he was never wayward though he admits to playing truant during his school years. “I think it was a thirst for knowledge that prompted me to sign up for adult education classes, then set out to learn English and computer skills,” he says.
In the future, Dejchat plans to return to his home district of Rasi Salai and open a grocery shop with his new wife - a school librarian, whose photo appears on his blog.
