Pattaya has great conversion rates at the exchanges (TT exchanges are the best) you are losing around 0.5% on dollars to baht. Just make sure your dollars are clean crisp hundos as they are picky about that. So no need to convert unless you really want to. 2k usd worth of baht means you'll be carrying around about 74 bills so your wallet will be bulging. When I bring USD I just convert as needed.

Grab is more expensive than Bolt but also easier to book a ride if you ever have trouble getting one with Bolt.

Women are the only ones you really need to be worried about !

PM sent would be nice to have a place to play when in Pattaya

*TLDR* Cautionary tale; hell hath no wrath like a woman scorned.

Some background, I've lived in Thailand, mostly Phuket for 10+ years, would imagine I'm top 1% of foreigners when it comes to speaking Thai but far from fluent. Never had a run in with police.

I went out partying at the start of the month, had a few beers down Bangla Road and was feeling it, grabbed a bag of cocaine(from my dealer not rando/tuk tuk), got home at about 5am, I've had a girlfriend of around 1 year, and been trying to break up with her for 4 months. This would consist of me packing up her stuff, asking her to leave, etc, the end result would always be the same, she would simply refuse to leave.

This particular evening I decide I've had enough, I own a car and decide ill put her stuff into the car and just let her keep it(10 year old Mazda 2 probs worth 150k), I pack her stuff into bin bags and start to move them out of the place. I do the first trip and then on my second trip down there is a police van beside my car. Turns out the girl has rang the police whilst Ive been doing this. They search me, find the cocaine and im off to the police station in cuffs.

My phone was taken from me instantly so I had no ability to contact friends, my gf came along. During the next few hours they gave me maybe 30 papers to sign, in hindsight I should have demanded to see a lawyer but there is a good chance they would have just denied it. After a few photos Im off to a next station.

I get thrown into a holding cell, maybe 3x3m with 3 others, 2 foreigners and a Thai Ice head who is still cuffed in the cell, one small fan outside the bars and a hole in the corner with a bucket for the toilet. Time now is 8am, I next hear from someone 30 hours later. They give me my phone for the first time. My gf brings down 10k to hopefully smooth over police. He takes me into his office. Tells me im currently down for intent to supply(the total found was 0.3 grams so duno how they decided that, they also searched my house and car with nothing found) the sentence for which is 5 years, although he will change it to personal use to help me. But regardless im still going to be deported and blacklisted.

They provide no food or water in the cell, I was lucky had friends come down to bring me food, they offered up to 300k to police to drop the charges but they didnt want to know, contacted police we knew but they either came down and were told no, or didnt want to touch a drug related crime.

3rd morning in cell im taken to court, This process was actually quite smooth, in and out in one hour, I got a 2 year suspended sentence for 2 months and a 7,500 baht fine. Once again I was very lucky to have friends around, as most of the people I met inside did time for not having cash to pay their court fee, they old accept cash and wont accommodate you at all if youve had your wallet stolen, want to transfer funds, etc.

From there I am taken to immigration, and this is where the fun starts. Im put in a cell for 10 days with up to 16 others, you dont get told a thing, and never leave that cell. eventually they inform me I will need to go home via BKK, and to do that ill either need to wait for the bus, which is once a month, or pay 30k for me and two officers to fly there. I took the latter option.

Arrive in BKK and things go from bad to worse, I have 91 people in my holding cell, which is about the size of your average 7/11. I'd estimate 80% of the people are mentally ill. Few examples:

- One old man would wear a diaper or else crap his pants daily, hes been there 20 years.
- Guy told me he got switched with Prince William at birth(he was from Canada), 'the old switcharoo' as he called it, he was the only person in the cell he was forced to take medication, as he was found chanting over the leader one night and made a shiv out of a toothbrush.
- Groups of Elderly Chinese men who had been there 20+ years, would be 'on the phone' complaining to back home often, there was no phone it was hand to their head.

The average time someone spent seemed to be about 3 months, many had lost their passport or wallet, embassy's largely didnt want to know. Resulting in many being in no mans land. Word was its funded by the UN, who pay 50bht/day per inmate, and the Thais try to spend 3b/day per inmate and pocket the rest, I believe it as the food was total slop, typically watermelon soup(???) and rice.

I got out after 6 days, deported back to London Heathrow(Im from Ireland). They add 40% surcharge to your ticket(they dont let you book it), and 1000 baht for the police ride to the Airport.

Total cost was:

Bribe: 10k
Court: 7.5
Phuket flight: 30k
Deportation: 27k

74.5k

+ Flights back to Ireland, new passport, flight and set up costs for new country of choice, delivery costs for all my ****(they only let me fly with carry on). Not to mention I had 8 months left on my Education visa that cost me $2k that ofc is scrapped.

0.3 grams.

Not 100% sure if im blacklisted or not, but have a note saving ive been deported for drugs on my passport, but not in such a rush to get back to Thailand after the experience.

jfc - was she a bar girl?

During Covid and planning to travel to Thailand for the first time, and with nothing better to do, looked a lot into all the horror stories of situations people had got into, and found that pretty much all of them had broken one of three rules.

1) Never operate a vehicle. It's a way higher level of responsibility to take on. As in probably the majority of countries of the world, if you get into an accident or an "accident" with a local you will come off worst.

2) Never sit on a two-wheeler. Not a motorbike taxi. Not the scooter your friend rented.

3) Never mess about with drugs.

Would the thread say those are pretty accurate?

Professional girlfriend, looks down on the bar girls but one rung up the ladder

I live in Thailand for 10 years, and whoever wrote these things is insane and doesn't know how things work here, or got scared by reading news about accidents in the highway in some shitty road in Isaan which is not relevant

1. I personally don't drive, but my friends own motorbikes and cars and never had issue, I don't remember anybody having an accident, accidents happen in the roads going to other cities where there are 5 kids over a scooter, drunk people driving 4am and sleep deprived truck drivers

2. I take motorbike almost daily, never had an issue, except once grab bumped into a parked car while driving at 5km/h, he was probably tired, but nothing happened, wouldn't call it an accident

3. almost everybody does drugs here, and only once some Thai friends got into a problem traveling intercity with a lot of drugs to a festival and had to pay a lot of money and go to court, if police ever catches you with drugs, you just pay the FIRST that catches you, they won't ask directly, you have to initiate and imply you want to pay, don't wait to go to police station, the longer it takes for you to pay, more police you will have to bribe

just be polite and pay the money, do not speak Thai to them, pretend you are a tourist, the police here don't make much and they will be more than happy if you pay them some money, they will treat you as a close friend after that, if it happens in a club or a bar where police raided is a bit different of a different story, some of my Thai friends own clubs and bars and they tell everyone to never bring drugs to the establishment

I have never needed to pee in a bottle or drug tested and I've been out a lot everywhere, been to multiple police stops and everybody was always nice to me

my experience is mostly in Bangkok, but I've been almost everywhere in Thailand for a good period of time

haven't lived in thailand only visited, but i spent most of my life living and traveling around the globe

i've heard countless horror stories about getting in bike/scooter/car accidents with needing a horrendous bribe, running from an angry mob, or facing an overly punitive legal system

still goes without saying that anytime someone from the west gets in a vehicular accident in the 3rd world - they are never not going to get railroaded - they just see one the people involved is from the land of the wealthy and just see dollar signs

55555 no! the only acceptable way of getting around Thailand is on a scooter AINEC, just dont DUI and dont be an idiot and you'll be fine. There's always the "random thai doing something stupid factor" and you end up under the wheels of a truck but is the tax you pay for living there, wcyd, and if you follow the dont DUI and dont be an idiot rules even that factor is small.

And wrt drugs, well, know plenty of people that do and never had an issue, most horror stories (like purretrog's one) also involve a (scorned) thai woman.

Yes, you can get ****ed just with drugs alone but I'd say odds are very little unless you're a big idiot or run like ****. Just don't do lines off the tables in Baccarat or try to buy molly off some random tuk tuk guy and you'll be alright.

BTW that was rough to read purrretrog, sorry for you bruh, hope some day you can get back to LOS if you wish to

@purrettrog

Crazy story I'm surprised the police didnt just take the 300k. Still getting off with just some holding cell is alot better then it could of been. I imagine if you had a gram or an entire 8ball you would be doneso.

You can reach out to a agent to check your immigration status I imagine.

Damn purrretrog, that is rough! You're lucky you had friends, would have been much worse for most people.

Did you offer the initial police officer anything? That was definitely your best chance.

I'm sure even there once everything gets entered into the system it becomes a lot more difficult or higher risk to let someone off.

During my stay in Pattaya a bar was raided and a 100+ people drug tested (they don't need any consent or probable cause as you probably already know)

Even the slight chance of something like this makes it not worth the trouble for me but to each his own.

If you get in an accident even a tiny minor bump you are going to be the one paying regardless of who's at fault. Personally I don't see how it's worth it in the city when its a few bucks for a taxi. In a rural area I'd consider getting a motorbike.

And wear a helmet or you will get pulled over in Pattaya at least.

Sorry to hear about that nightmare purre but thank you for sharing.
I better think twice before buying a bag off the rando African guys. Just always figured a bribe on the spot would do if needed.

well, that's pretty terrible obv, but well yes, it could of been worse, you could of landed in Thai prison. Yeah, I'm sure a bribe would do in most cases but here he was prolly distracted by the situation with his woman, also the cop may have thought there was some harm to the gal or whatever, so may have not been that receptive.
Yeah obv TH and also neighboring countries are basically a huge stockpile of drgs, but sometimes it can be a dangerous game.

Damn, sick story purrretrog, thanks for sharing, man. All this chit started because of a crazy biatch, I feel you bro, had a few bad experiences but nothing on that kind of level, money wise.

I posted this, last year, official corruption prices in BKK according to Chuwit Kamolwisit, former MP and massage parlour boss. I am not an expert in bribing but as an other poster said here, always deal with the first cop and start negotiating don't wait until you end up in the police station, this is number 1 third world bribing golden rule.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...ostcount=68929

I ran good doing this kind of stuffs where local laws were no joke.

One country in SEA, I ended up getting thrown at me in my back a brickwall by a street sloot (that I knew for months!) after getting stole my phone right after I finished smashing her in a "sketchy house" for free when taking a piss right after boom boom was over and the room door magically unlocked allowing the scumbag to stole my phone, phone me was blasting music for boom boom performance obv. A few days later she had the audacity to ask me for money, told her to **** off never speak to me again, she told me to wait in my street (we both living in the same area, we have a few friends in common) and that she gonna tell local guys to speak with me, told me "don't run away!", which I didn't, a few minutes later 2 guys showed up asking me for money, told them **** this biatch she stole my phone you better stab me now I not gonna pay her a cent. They look at each other and leave.

Anyway I was living there, I had a lot of friends in this area, both locals and foreigners, she was asking for 10$ only but it's all about respect. Ended up walking back to my bro and got thrown a brickwall in my back by this crazy biatch that was ice junkie mode since 1-2 months and I didn't know it (didn't see her for a few months and before she was just smoking it occasionally). Funny part is that they were 6-8 young local guys around so can't give her back equality rights and she was fully aware of that.

In Romania, during covid, I dated for a few days (lol) a gypsy girl who was the sister of the boss lady of a gypsy drug dealing clan. I lived there close to 3 years, mutual friends but when I peace out with the gypsy girl after seeing red flags after red flags (her telling me that she was an ex stripper for ex) and still hanging out in their areas with my gypsy bros, this clan set me up with the local police (they were paying them for protection money). Lucky me I am street smart and I had a good reputation around there so the local police didn't do it dirty to me and I was able to throw what I had in my pocket under the police car before they went out their car for the control and obviously I was the target not my gypsy bro with who I was with that night and for real I never saw a street police control in that area at 4am but like I said, I was the target but big respect for the Bucharest police, even if corrupted they are good police at the end from my experiences abroad, best police I ever dealt with, always respectful. Like I said they could have play it dirty with me but they didn't.

Anyway drugs are bad, fook crazy biatches

Sorry to hear that purrretrog. You should put it on the thaivisa forums too

Is the Bangkok bit the immigration detention centre, or a different prison? Did they take your phone again at this point?

I've heard at the IDC they take your phone and wallet which makes it difficult to arrange cash, unless you pay a bribe or have friends that visit to do that

Yea ive a guy in immigration who has agreed to check out my status, he'll also assist my path through the airport if im not blacklisted so I dont get any hassles at immigration due to history, 10k for the check and likely something similar for the assistance through the airport if ive got lucky and dodged a blacklist.

Yea it seems like that was my best play, almost every officer we reached out to said once they have 'made the paper' the chance for bribes has all but gone. It was hard for me to start an initial bribe though, I was in handcuffs after 10seconds, and 3 police officers who just avoided me, phone was also instantly taken so couldnt message a Thai to come down to start that convo. But yea if anyone else got in that situation id suggest trying anything to get a bribe sorted.

Yea the Phuket immigration guys wer fairly chill on my trip to the airport/BKK, I got my phone so was able to update people, It got stripped off me again at the IDC, to use your phone or an ATM you need to apply to use either, the process takes 5 days apparently, you cant do both at the same time, so if there was a situation where you needed someone to send you money and use an atm, you would have to do both separately, meaning a minimum time inside of 10 days. I was lucky had the 'GF' fly to BKK with me and she sorted the flight booking before I even knew.

Were the police friends of the gf? Sounds like they were more focused on doing what she said than making money (which seems rare).

Nah, only time they spoke to her was asking if I was the guy in question, to which she just nodded. I really should have asked her to strike a deal with them when we wer at the station before they did all the paperwork etc, but obviously at that stage I was pretty tilted with her and didnt really wanna start pleading haha.

Recently the chief from Bangkok came to Phuket and demanded the arrest of more foreigners(lol), he wanted something like 1500 more arrests, believe this was reported and not just word of mouth, so my thinking is they are hell bent at getting to those targets before they get back to lining their pockets again. Alot of the guys who wer in had ridiculous charges like 2 days overstay, which I would guess would be paid out of 90+% of the time(?)

One of the best stories was A guy got drugged when he went out for beers with a security guard, lost wallet, phone, laptop and camera. He went to police to report crime, try to get them to go to where the security works, After telling him not to file a report he insisted, they told him to come back with his passport. He returned and they noticed he had 4 days overstay(he had a return flight booked for a few days later), hes now been in IDC with no phone to contact anyone and no wallet to pay, hes from Greece and their embassy just doesnt wanna know, hes been inside for 50+ days so far. His first trip to Thailand.

I mean if you are stupid like that what do you expect? You want to get the police involved in something while you're an illegal?

How does your laptop get stolen when you go out for drinks with a security guard?

Sounds like he was robbed by a working girl which is why they suggested it's better to not pursue it as I believe it's still technically against the law there although not enforced. And I suppose even if everything said is truthful how likely is it that they are going to be able to make a sound case in this sort of situation.

Ofc it wasnt the smartest thing to do, but he had never been to Thailand so wasnt as aware of how they treat an overstay as we are, not to mention he had an exit flight.

He claims he showed up to a bus station with his bag with laptop and camera in, it was 1am, security told him next bus is not until 6am. The guy said no problem he will wait, security said he could go out drinking with him if he wanted, obliged. Last thing he remembers is being in a restaurant alone drinking with security then wakes up on the street with nothing. So he assumes he was drugged and robbed.

It could be a made up story and something else could have happened(I only met the guy in jail), but nearly everyone who had done actual time in Thai jail(they send you to immigration/IDC post sentence) had no phone or wallet, they left it with police when their sentence started and didnt receive anything when leaving, so just as they think their nightmare is over it starts all over again.

Thai laws obviously make no sense, but the whole overstay thing is another level...They arrest people for few days overstay, meanwhile I overstayed 87 days during Covid and at the airport Customs couldn't of been happier to see me and collect their fine, they were super nice.