Canexpat

All the taxis in Bangkok I offered to play a flat rate (when I knew the average fare from point A to , insisted on turning on the meter. I was a little shocked at this at first, and always received the same reply when I inquired why. "It is not worth getting caught, and the police are very quick to pull over a taxi with a passenger and no fare light on." I was given the exact same reply the first 3 times I asked.

Perhaps things have changed a lot since I was last there in late 2011, but only the motor-bike taxis overcharged me. Maybe there was a crackdown going on at the time between July-Oct. 2011, because I never had a single problem with the taxis in Bangkok, all insisting the meter be on even for short rides. Other cities in Thailand, I found to be a lot different. I would never take a tuk tuk taxi in Patong, without an armed bodyguard.

I did notice though that only 50% of the drivers were the actual person pictured on the cab license.

I would imagine though that many drivers are under the illusion that foreigners tip higher than locals.

What's insane about being put in jail for passing counterfeit bank notes? And keeping you there if you're unable to post bail?

What's insane is that you believe everything you read in the papers.

Actually it is not me who believes everything I read in the papers. There were alleged counterfeit bank notes.

If you actually lived in Thailand for any length of time, you would know that posting bail does not guarantee a quick exit from incarceration.

My last 2 years in Thailand, I was assaulted by a tuk tuk driver. My aquaintance Alan Quicke who rented the house across the street from mine, was murdered for a few thousand baht and his cellphone (which is how the police tracked down his murderer). An Australian on vacation was murdered, and a local business owner (also an expat) was murdered by his wife, her brother, and her thai lover. All within a 10 days of each other in Hua Hin. My friend from Canada and his girlfriend now languish in a Thai jail, for a crime they did not commit, while the authorities bleed his family back home.

So I don't get all my information from the papers...

Now we can all condemn Monty Python too based on pictures ... for that matter lets condemn all things British.

Exactly Nisa.Well said.

So all the nun has to do is re write her letter to explain the students were modeling their sport day performance on Monty Python.

No, all people have to do is accept there was no malice, that their personal interpretation of the parade may well be tainted by their predisposition, that the apology was not an explanation, but an attempt to diffuse the wrath of the 'outraged'......but that will simply not do for some....who appear to wish to dominate the way a people think and express themselves.....isn't that what the Nazi were about?

'

Except the Nazis who schemed to dominate the way a people think and express themselves. Did it by ridiculing, suppressing, torturing and killing those who opposed their propaganda, and hiding the more unpalatable aspects of their Final Solution. Something those who are outraged by this incident, after reading nearly 50 pages of posts on this thread, haven't even hinted at...

AMAZING that after perusing just a few months of news stories on this website regarding foreigners nightmares in Thailand, that more countries do not post regular warnings to their citizens travelling here about how freaking insane it is for foreigners...

They kept the making of the 40 foot banners hidden from faculty for weeks? Gimme a break. No one thought it strange that the students were practicing goosestepping, and Zeig Heil salutes? No of course not, because when the faculty was questioned (many of which appear to be foreigners) even they did not know what the students were doing was wrong.

The only thing the students learned were the historical goosestepping, the Hitler imitations and the Zeig Heils, of the Nazis. Somehow the history of The Holocaust, the tyranny and barbarism of the Nazi Party, was missing from the historical references the students were using to design a Celebration of Nazism Sports Day. Yeah, I'll buy that for a dollar. I know displays of this sort are commonplace and even planned for school children in Muslim nations, where the Protocols of Zion are taught in the schools and on television as an accurate historical document, but I did not expect to see it in Thailand. The worst thing is they let the students carry it through, even after they knew what they were doing.

Finding a news media reporter who is not succeptible to a little graft or coercion to soft pedal this story and prevent them from getting to the heart of this ludicrousy, would be a little to much to ask I guess. Wouldn't want to hurt tourism.

Wasn't there some cheezy or chip manufacturer in Thailand a few years back, that made an advertisement shown on national TV glorifying Adolph Hitler, to sell their product, and Thailand did nothing to prevent it from being shown for months? Sadly there are no laws in Thailand restricting this of antisemitic portrayal, if I recall. I find it very disturbing, still having relatives alive who had their world torn apart by Hitler and the Nazis.

would that also work on my...................................ouch!

roflmao

I can honestly say that I have never bribed the Thai Police. I have on occassion given them a tip for thier dedication to road safety and upholding the rights of the people and the laws of the land.

roflmao

After spending a year travelling throughout Thailand, I found it amazing that in a country that advertizes itself as a tourists paradise, I did not find one stream, river or body of water that was safe to drink from. Come to think of it, I did not visit one city or village where it was safe to drink tap water.

I only spent one week in Pattaya, and 2 weeks in Patong (Phuket), and found the smell of both those places reminded me of the times I helped family or friends back in Canada drain their septic tanks.

My first tuk tuk drive ended up with me being punched out by the driver after I hesitated paying the 300 baht he asked for, after he initially agreed on a price of 200 bht. (This occured on the 10th day of my holiday, which was my first night in Patong. I never took another tuk tuk in Thailand after that experience.) The next day I reported the incident to the police and had the tuk tuk's liscence plate number, and 2 eye witnesses to the crime, one of them observant enough to write down the liscence plate. Rather than taking down the information and pursuing my assaulter, as would have been done in every other country I have vacationed in, the police took me for a 1 hour ride throughout Patong, asking me to identify the tuk tuk. After about 50 minutes I realized this was probably the 2nd stupidest thing I had agreed to do in my life, and that the police had no intent to prosecute the tuk tuk driver, and could actually be placing me in jeopardy. That if we had found the driver, he could identify me and knew where I lived.

After relating this incident to my best friend back home who had been travelling to Thailand regularly for 8 years, and owned property in Hua Hin. He told me to get the h-ll out of Patong, and go to Hua Hin. I took his advice, moved to Hua Hin where I rented a house near the King's summer palace, and very close to the beach. Less than a week later my wonderful neighbour Alan Quicke was murdered in his own home. A few days after this my landlord's friend was murdered by his wife of 12 years, her brother and her lover. Even though she and her accomplices were caught, the wife was allowed to keep all she inherited from the husband she had conspired to murder to get his money, business and property. A few days after this an Australian tourist was murdered by a pair of ladies or ladyboys (to my knowledge the case was never solved) who had slipped something in his drink in one of the late night Karaoke bars with the intent to rob him once he passed out. Unfortunately the drug he was given was too much for his system and age, and he fell dead 200 feet from the Karaoke bar, after he left to go home claiming he felt woozy. Three foreigners murdered in Hua Hin in 10 days.

I had originally intended to buy land and retire in Thailand like my best friend. I owned shares in an oil company operating in Thailand, and mining companies in neighbouring countries. After my visit to Thailand and my experiences there, I sold off all my shares in the oil company I owned. I am sure there are foreigners who have lived many years in Thailand without negative incidents, but I did not meet any person who once I had related my personal experiences to them did not shower me with stories even more gruesome and disconcerting.

After my experience in Thailand, I would recommend that rather than spending money on trying to simply increase yearly tourism quotas, that Thailand focus its monies and resources on making Thailand a safer place for tourists to visit and foreigners to live and invest. That Thailand do something to clean up its ecology and corruption, and educate its population not to discriminate against foreigners by charging them double to visit museums and aquariums and the like, and its police force to not target people based on their skin color.

One thing my time in Thailand has taught me is to truly appreciate my home province of British Columbia, its governments mandate to preserve and improve its ecology. Where the lakes rivers and streams I would not hesitate to drink from or eat the fish I catch therein. To appreciate its diverse population where discrimination is criminal and strongly enforced. Where a police officer who accepts a bribe would swiftly be fired and face jail time.

I have no plans to ever return to Thailand, and have dissuaded many friends from vacationing there.

Politics and ideologies aside, raising the minimum wage in Thailand is not likely to have a major detrimental effect on the thai economy, discourage foreign investment, nor cause the collapse of small business in the private sector, for the simple fact that is about as likely to be enforced as the current thai labour laws.

The maximum number of work hours is eight per day or 48 per week, except for work deemed by law to be hazardous, in which case employment is limited to seven hours per day and 42 hours per week. Overtime compensation must be paid at a rate of between 1.5 to three times the normal hourly rate to qualifying employees.

Employees are entitled to 13 national holidays per year, plus a minimum of six days of vacation after one year of consecutive work. Thirty annual paid sick days is standard, and an employer may require a doctor's certificate for sick leave of three days or more. Female employees are entitled to 90 days of maternity leave, including 45 days of paid leave. The minimum daily wage rate varies, depending upon location, from 137 baht (US$ 3.43) in some provincial areas to 175 baht (US$ 4.38) in Bangkok.

Predicting the effect this one time single item adjustment may have on the thai economy by comparing it to historical detrimental effects minimum wage increases may have had on specific sectors of the economy or business in European or North American countries, is comparing apples to oranges. In Britain, Germany, the US., Canada or Australia, the legislation would be implemented universally and immediatly unless it was a graduated increase to a certain level over time. Companies and businesses in the aforementioned countries may oppose, argue and lobby against legislation by their respective central federal government during the legislative process, but once it was written into law it would be extremely rare for any employer to try and get away with not paying it.

The only instances I have ever seen in thai media of labor law violations being reported is when I've read some story of a police sting operation against a business involved in the sex trade employing under age girls or undocumented foreigners, and then only as an aside to the story. Outside of Chang Mai or Bangkok, it is unlikely to be enforced at all. I have never met a single restaurant or bar worker in Pattya, Phuket or Hua Hin (unless their employer is a franchisee of a multinational like Hilton or McDonalds) to name a few whose employer limits shift durations to 8 hours. The majority of my neighbours' sons and daughters in Hua Hin who work in the restaurant industry for private small business owners, work 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, and make on average 185bht a day, with no social security contributions.

The Social Security Act requires all employers to withhold social security contributions of 5% from the monthly salary of all employees, up to a maximum of 15,000 baht (US$ 375) per month. Employees with social security registration may file compensation claims for injury, illness, disability or death which is not due to work performance, childbirth, child welfare, retirement and unemployment.

This alleged national minimum wage increase, compared to the rising rate of salaries on the Eastern China Seaboard is not significant enough to discourage the many Chinese companies presently choosing to relocate some of their operations to Thailand.

My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased. During my entire time, and my extensive travels throughout Thailand, I have never been in a bus or taxi-van that drove his vehicle with the professional conviction that his passengers well being was his responsibility. I have never seen or heard of a bus or taxi-van driver being pulled over by the police for unsafe driving. Over the course of 2 years I travelled on average from Hua Hin to Bangkok once every 2 weeks using busses and taxi-vans, during the past 3 months I gave up using these forms of transportation and hired a personal driver to take me from Hua Hin to Bangkok. The cheap prices were just not worth putting myself at risk. I do not exaggerate at all when I say, I did not witness a single bus or taxi-van driver operate his vehicle in a safe and responsible manner.

I agree with many points in this article. I have only been in Thailand just over one year and have found that the stereotypical sexpat moniker applies to the vast majority of expats I have met in Pattaya and Phuket (I have no desire to ever return to either of these places), but not the ones I have met in Udon Thani, Kabin Buri or Hua Hin.

I have no complaints against all the negative replies to this article. They are no different from the majority of replies to any given news article I read in my home country, other than the fact that those who chose to reply to specific negative posters cannot say, "If you don't like it and choose to complain, why don't you go back to your own country."

A couple of points I would like to touch upon though that I have not seen mentioned yet. While travelling through Thailand, while in the company of thai people, virtually everytime I bring the topic around to prostitution and mention how ashamed I am to see the sexpats practicing their vices in places like Pattaya, Patong and Bangkok, I am assured that the majority of prostitution that occurs in Thailand is between thai men and women. On the occassions I have brought up the topic I have been told that less than 10% of the prostitution that occurs in Thailand focusses on foreigners ( I do not know how they come up with that %figure, but I have heard the same statistic mentioned at least 3 times), and have even been driven through the shanty towns in the countrysides by my guides where thai for thai prostitution occurs, to prove their point.

One other statistic I think worth mentioning is that while I agree with the author (because it has been my experience also), that the vast majority of expat business owners I have met really do hate Thaksin, so do the vast majority of thai business owners that I have met. Out of all the thai business men and women I have had the pleasure of golfing or dining with, I have only met one who was a vocal supporter of the red-shirts. The rhetoric that the thai people I have met who dislike the red-shirts and their leader almost always mirrors that which the expat business community uses, and I doubt very much that the rhetoric thais themselves use when voicing their dislike comes from listening to farang or reading english media. I have also found that most educated thai people I have met in the business community, do not blame foreigners for the erosion of thai culture or its rampant corruption, and tell me it precedes the influx of foreigners to their country.

Thnaks to TV.com posting this article. I was not even aware of the danger one could open themselves upto in Thailand for liking or sharing an item on faceBook with their friends, while in Thailand, and will definitely be more circumspect in the future. I have been reading thaivisa for a little over a year now on a near daily basis and it has been extremely educational to me on how to conduct myself while in Thailand.

Have you ever been to Vegas, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Frankfurt's Redlight district, or The Wall in Nuremberg? I'm sure there are a lot more.

I doubt Thailand invented this industry.

True. Thailand neither invented prostitution, nor karaoke bars. Then again, I doubt that you'll find 13-year old prostitutes (this fact perhaps even being known by some government officials) in Amsterdam, Frankfurt or the US. Nor will parents in those places sell their teenage daughters to brothels.

You cant be so naive or self-righteous about western culture to make a statement that there are no 13 year old prostitutes in America or any other western society. Where there is demand there will always be supply. As for selling one's child into this industry, I think it is more the immigrant families from the surrounding countries - Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos - who are guilty of such things. They all boast large numbers of offspring in comparison and can afford to "lose" one or two along the way. We have vermin like that in the USA as well, just not in such great numbers. The same problems exist in the west, it's just that prostitution in general is not allowed as much as in Thailand due to the reduced levels or corruption. Of course, corruption is how any brothel stays open anywhere that has illegalized prostitution, there just is not the same level of corruption in our society. Here is Maesot, there are 4 "karaoke" bars, known for what they represent, using mostly Myanmar girls, also allowed to operate by the powers that be. The community here is, however, much more conservative and not set up to cater to western tourists, so there are only those 4. Still, there ARE 4.

The operative phrase here being "I think". Methinks you are mistaken. I have met dozens of girls, most of them from Isarn, who said they were doing very good in school, when one day their father (and in a few cases mother) sent them off the farm to go "work in the city" as they like to say. Of course I have only been spent time in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Udon Thani and Hua Hin, where I have yet to meet one from Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam or Laos. It may be different in Maesot, but I doubt that Maesot represents the broad perspective of where these young girls come from as much as the places I mentioned.

Although I had never experienced Phuket prior to 2010, as a first time tourist to Thailand my stay in Phuket was horrible. My first night in town I was assaulted and robbed by a Tuk Tuk driver. Even though I had the liscence of the Tuk Tuk, and eye witnesses to the crime, the police did everything they could to convince me my best course of action would be to forget it ever happened. According to every local I spoke with afterwards by pursuing charges against the said driver I would actually be putting myself at risk as the police collected bribe money from the Tuk Tuk mafia as the locals called them.

If I was to pursue charges against my assaulter, I was told I would most likely have my passport held by the authorities as the lawyers of the Tuk Tuk mafia dragged the case through the courts for many many months, and would most likely have to hire a bodyguard to ensure my personal safety.

I rented a motor scooter after this incident ( have never taken another tuk tuk since that first night in thailand and have been here for a year now ), and was constantly targetted by police simply because I was white. Even though I was never fined for anything, I was pulled aside on every roadblock I passed through, all my identification and motorcycle thoroughly examined as thai people were waved through with upto 5 people (aged 3 to 30) on a motorcycle, not one of them with a helmet.

Personally I found nothing charming about Phuket. Every beach resort city from Patong to Rawai smelled like a septic tank boiling over. Even water sellers had an open wild west type shootout over territory while I was there. For myself, Phuket will always be remembered as a place of infamy in my life.

:jap: Slightly off topic, but relevant nontheless. As one who lives in Canada 3-6 months of the year, and Thailand the rest of the time, I am astounded at the lack of integrity in condoms I have in the past purchased in Thailand. Before I left on my first trip my friend had mentioned to me if I was planning on having sex to bring my own supplies of condoms from Canada. I did not pay much attention to his warning for various reasons. After 4 months in Thailand on my first trip I met a wonderful lady, one thing led to another and we fell in love. The first time I had sex with her the condom broke after about 5 minutes. I replaced it, and 5 minutes later the second one broke. It was at that time that I recalled my friends warning. Need to say we took extra precautions after that. I tried every brand of condom available, and the result was virtually the same. Every third condom on average I used broke. I have been using condoms since I was 16 years old, and in all my time using condoms of North American manufacture, I have had ONE break on me. Need to say on subsequent visits to Thailand, I took along my own supply from North American manufacturers, and have yet to have one of them break.

The quality control and integrity of prophylactics in Thailand leaves a lot to be desired. I find it astounding that a country with one of the highest statistics of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases allows condoms of such ineffective quality and integrity to be sold as an option for those who wish to practice safe sex. The statistic regarding STD related infection does not surprise me at all after my experience with condoms made and sold in Thailand, nor does the instance of unplannned pregnancies after reading this article.

At the very least Thailand needs to bring in some form of quality control and standard for the production of prophylactics if they are gonna promote them as an option to practicing safe sex.

Also I am with the same woman I met on my first trip to Thailand, and will most likely propose marriage to her this trip if she will have me... :jap:

Though I did not attend the 2009 festivities, I did see the parade on various videos. I did not see any inappropriate dress, costumes or behavior, so am curious about the charges levelled at "the sexual diverse" people. If there is anyone who was there could clarify what inappropriate dress or behaviour occurred I would appreciate it.

I would also think that banning someone from a cultural event based on the fact that they are not buddhist would work against the perception the rest of the world has regarding Buddhism as a peaceful, tolerant religion that accepts all peoples and faiths as brothers and sisters.

One would hope that the people of Thailand would embrace their constitution and allow people of all faiths, races and sexual preferences to exercise the freedom that constitution allows them.

Even if one of the few countries that has an extradition treaty with Thailand, were to decide to exercise that option with Thailand, it would take 4-10 years for extradition to be implemented. All the countries with extradition treaties abide by The Rule of Law, and someone with the monetary resources of a man like Thaksin would be able to tie up such a proceeding in the courts for a very long time.

One ray of hope for all the Thaksin haters is, if in fact if he was caught within one of the countries that has an extradition treaty with Thailand, with all the money at his disposal he would only be able to spend it on lawyers, and not on bribing court officials...:jap:

I had the pleasre of meeting Allen, shortly before his untimely death. He was very sociable to me, and I enjoyed his company. When I mentioned his death to my girlfriend she was immediately distraught and began to cry. She knew Allen for some time and described him as "A Perfect Gentleman" with a good heart. She immediately called her sister and friends who also knew Allen, who were also sad and grieved at his death. I will always remember seeing Allen cycling about town on his bicycle, his only form of tranportation in Hua Hin. His neighbour (my best friend in Hua Hin) spoke fondly of Allen and also described him as a gentle man, kind to a fault, the kind of person that would not hurt a fly.

While I was in Hua Hin the information regarding this tragic assault was impossible to get hold of. It is good to see they finally found the construction worker who worked behind his house and was solely responsible for murdering Allen, dispelling the nasty rumors of bar girls and unfounded conspiracies. I hope the full force of Thai justice will fall upon this repeat offender and brutal murderous thief.

Albeit belatedly my condolences go out to Allen's friends and especially his kin. His death was and is very close to me having just met him shortly before it occured.