Quote:
Originally Posted by BabaBobo
Before you all pack your bags and leave your home and go to "Paradise" you should probably realize that there is a flipside to the coin. It's not all beaches, cheap beers and hot girls.
Like some people mentioned this IS a 3rd world country and that includes some not so appealing stuff too (I will skip the bad hygiene, rotten food/water and illness stuff):
People are poor (especially in off-season which it currently is) and even "good people" can get desperate in these times.
This includes but not limited to burglaries and robberies which often includes knives, guns and even machetes. These people WILL kill you for 20$
if you don't do as they want and/or they are too messed up on "mad medicine" (yabah) to give a crap.
There have been cases of people shooting people driving home on their motorbikes minding their own business to rob them of their petty change.
Attacks while the farang is using the ATM is also a commonly used technique. It can get stressfull constantly looking over your shoulders while withdrawing your hard earned (?) money.
Also, if the wrong kind of people spot you spewing money in a bar or club (which people reading this thread are likely to do), chances are that some day somebody will follow you when you leave. People have been beat to a pulp and threatened with a gun in these situations before.
Cab drivers are all part of the mafia. If you screw with them or they don't like you, you can get hurt really bad.
Remember, Phuket is a relatively small place. They will remember you and they WILL find you.
This of course counts not only for tuktuk people but with any Thai person you screw with on Phuket.
If you get drunk and accidently say something stupid to the wrong person you will enter a world of pain if you are unlucky.
I realize some of this stuff can happen a lot of places in the world, but remember you are far far away from home and the farang is ALWAYS at fault here. If you get in trouble with a Thai person even if he is acting stupid it IS your fault and they WILL gang up on you!
The police are currpt as well. They will try to get money from you if you get in trouble and they can **** you up if you dont oblige.
This is not as uncommon as you might think!
Driving a motorbike in the hills of Phuket is anything but safe! if you decide to go chances are you will see dead people on the roads. Typically farangs lying facedown in the concrete with a pool of blood and motorbike pieces around them. Sightings of motorbikes caught under a truck with only the pool of blood remaining since the meatwagon has already been there are typical too.
Hopefully you will not experience this yourself but it can happen even if you drive safely as the police really don't care much about drunken driving and somebody can crash into you. Also, if you happen to crash into somebodys car/motorbike or even worse, tuk-tuk and break/scratch their vehicle, you can go from having a NL1k roll to grinding alongside WCG|Rider on the NL25 tables in a matter of 1 day.
Have fun and good luck.
I never post on these forums, but I just had to reply to this post.Having lived in Thailand for a few years, i have been reading this thread with interest, and I must say i am suprised that it has taken this long for a true account of life over there to given.
I lived in Bangkok and Phuket ,but i am now thankfully,safely back home in the States.Thailand may be good for a holiday, but i would not recomend any one to move there, never mind a grinder.
The fact is that Thailand is a 3rd world country and is very unsafe.I agree with pretty much all of the above post, and cant really add more.Although the post didnt mention the AIDS, malaria, snakes etc.
I can really identify with the part about being " a long long way from home" .I cant go into the specifics of the kafka-esque situation I was involved in, but believe me, you have no protection from the locals or the police.The law is a joke, as it is in most 3rd world corrupt countries .When you are faced with locals who want something from you or are drunk and high on the local amphetamine and just want to kick your ass for the hell of it, you have no rights.
The reason that i finally left was I have a european friend who works on Bangkok, and he told me the Thai gonverment had just invested in a new internet monitoring system.One of the uses of this system would be to catch westeners who are working from thailand on the internet, without a work visa.That means its game over for grinders out there. Never mind that gambling is illegal, which gives them carte blanche to extort even more money from you or add god know how many years to your already substantial prison sentence.
Visit thailand for a holiday? sure!,just make sure you stay in good resorts and travel in groups when you leave the safety of the hotel.(although i would advise not to be seen with americans as they are a big target, due to us being seen as walking ATMs by the robbers)
Move to Thailand to live? my advice is no.
B
