Bangkok - A 23-year-old Thai man who woke up with a cockroach in his ear on a public bus has sparked a public health drive to improve sanitation on the kingdom's provincial bus routes, media reports said Friday. Kittipong Khamdong, who had taken an overnight bus from Khon Kaen province to Chiang Mai Monday, awoke in the middle of the night with an unwanted passenger lodged in his left ear, the Bangkok Post reported.
At the first pit stop in Phitsanulok, Kittipong dashed to the bathroom and managed to remove the cockroach with a cotton bud but suffered a severe ear bleed and tinnitus, a roaring sensation in the inner ear.
Kittipong lodged a complaint with police about the bus's poor sanitation.
"I decided to set a precedent so the bus operators are made responsible for passengers' safety," he said.
Thailand's Public Health Deaprtment has issued a warning to provincial bus operators to clean up their act while advising passengers that they might take their own precautions to avoid Kittipong's fate, such as covering their heads with a hood or using earplugs before nodding off.
