bermannor

4 hours ago, Kerryd said:

I've never felt in danger walking around Pattaya, even at 3am when I've been "too drunk to ride a mototaxi and as a result walked about 2+ kms back to my apartment". (Seriously - I was on Soi 7, got hammered, went to Beach Road, walked all the way to Walking street and then to my apartment, because I thought I was too drunk to sit on the back of a mototaxi without falling off.)
I used to go to Beach Road in the wee hours a lot, either coming from Soi 7 or just to hit MacDonald's for a snack. Despite loads of lady-boys, hookers, taxi drivers and other people on the streets, I was never pick-pocketed, harassed, hassled or assaulted.

However, I have walked around downtown Vancouver, Delhi, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Toronto (and even Dubai) and the danger was real. I was mugged in Amsterdam my second night there. Scumbag Rastafarian wannabees trying to sell drugs by "accidentally" spilling some on you and then claiming you owe them for it (and having people armed with sword canes and knives behind you in case you tried to run). They weren't too smart though. I put my hands in my pockets and from one pocket I pulled a single 20 guilder note (yeah, it was a while ago) and from the other pocket maybe 5-6 guilder in coins and told them that was all I had. Lol - the guy looked at it, shook his head and walked away. I looked behind me and the 2 guys there moved back into the shadows of some trash dumpsters. (I actually had a couple thousand on me at the time - lucky I didn't end up floating face down in the nearby canal. Back at the hotel the barkeep told me I'd wandered into an area that the locals wouldn't even go into in the daytime unless there were 3-4 of them in a group and they wouldn't go there at night for any reason.)
 

I've seen people get mugged in downtown Vancouver, directly across the street from a police station ! No lie, me and another guy ran up to help one guy, the other guy pretended that he thought the muggers were there trying to help an injured guy (we knew better) and as soon as the other guy started dialing 911 on his phone, the muggers took off. We carried the guy across the street and into the police station and - again, not a word of a lie - the guy at the desk told us to call 911 ! He agreed to let us use his phone though. Wish I could have seen the look on the dispatcher's face when we called. She asked for the address, we told her and there was a pause, then she said "Isn't that the police station ?". 
That same area of Vancouver (the lower east side) is filled with druggies, pushers, pimps, dealers and other lowlifes. Not a place you want to wander around at night if you can help it but I've also nearly ended up in confrontations on a city bus in a nicer part of town and while walking down a main street in a the centre of the city. Both times I was alone and the other group had 3-4 people. (Funny how as soon as I turned to face them their balls turned to jelly and they took off. Seems they were used to confronting people that would be scared and likely to give them money to just go away. They didn't know I was in the army but apparently anyone that would turn and face them was someone they didn't want to try any BS with.)

Wandering around downtown Delhi felt like I had a target on my back, even in the daytime. At one hotel I went to the lobby and asked where a convenience store was so I could buy some snacks. The staff didn't want me to leave the hotel because they didn't think it was safe for me to be walking on the streets ! They finally pointed out a shop about 2 blocks away and off I went. As I walked it was almost like a movie. People on the street would be talking and doing whatever, but stop and look at me as I walked by. I couldn't have drawn more attention if I'd been naked ! Got to the store, bought my snacks and as I was walking back I could see a couple of the hotel staff standing in the doorway watching me in case anything happened.
Never got mugged or assaulted but I had the strong suspicion that if it had of been dark and I'd had a few drinks, things would have been a lot different.
I also stayed in a poorer hotel in a worse part of town for a couple days (a place our Nepalese workers stayed at while in transit to/from work). No problem in the daytime but again, they really, really didn't want me to go outside at night. (One bellboy though showed me a selection of "dates" that would be willing to come to the hotel though so I wouldn't have to go out if that was what I was looking for.)

Hamburg also has places where you had better be on your toes if you are walking around late at night, especially if you look/sound like "an American". A friend of mine got a baseball bat to the head and thrown down some stairs because he'd asked the DJ at a club to play a song and the DJ thought he was American and said something to the bouncer who then clubbed the guy and threw him down the stairs. Found out later the place was off limits to Americans because the people there hated them for some reason (they weren't Arabs or Russians - just Germans who maybe blamed the Americans for beating them in WW II or something).

Toronto is a lot like Vancouver. There are areas where you really don't want to be late at night. I lived there for awhile back in the 70s and it could be quite the nasty place at night. People used to carry heavy dog chains in their pockets (in case the cops stopped them they could claim they were looking for their lost dog). At times it was almost like the movie "The Warriors", but not as many people in costumes. Lots of street gangs though.

Dubai is a nice, modern city but you have to realize that 90% of the population of the UAE is made up of migrant workers from places like India, China and assorted African countries. Those are the people staffing all the shops and doing most of the "work" there, and most of them aren't paid very well. I've left my hotel to go to an ATM machine and been followed by groups of Indians maybe hoping I'd take a side alley or shortcut somewhere less visible. (I would normally just stay in the hotel or take a taxi but once in awhile I'd go out to check out other places or do a bit of shopping.) 
I even tested my theory once by going to an ATM a couple blocks from the hotel, then coming back and taking a detour through an alley that brought me to the back door of the hotel. I did the classic "duck into the alley at the last moment" trick and then did a speed walk to the hotel door and sure enough when I looked back, the 3 guys that had been following me had turned into the same alley and stopped up when they saw me looking at them from the door.
Another time one of the bellhops insisted on going to the ATM with me and he carried one of those big, heavy flashlights that make excellent clubs with him. Seems there had been a rash of "incidents" in the area and the hotel was being proactive in looking out for their guests (sort of).

You can find trouble in almost any city on the planet, if you are looking for it. In many of those cities though, trouble may find you whether you are looking or not.

 

You can find all the trouble you want in Pattaya (or Phuket, Bangkok, Chiang Mai) as well if you want it but it seems that it is far less likely that trouble will find you. Don't want to get hassled/mugged/pick-pocketed by ladyboys at 3 am on Beach Road ? Then don't go there !

Don't want to get beat up by a bunch of moto-taxi drivers for pissing on a Buddha shrine ? Then don't do it !
Don't want to get into a confrontation with a bunch of strangers ? Then don't get drunk and walk up to some and start yelling at them and insulting them.

 

Those are things that people actually do (and have been reported doing on T.V. and in the news) and people wonder why those people get into trouble. Other people have been here for decades and never had a problem.

A lot of the time, when people do have problems, the first place they should look for the cause in a mirror. 

Why do you not publish a book?