PingRoundTheWorld

The concept of drunk tourists who don't drive causing more traffic accidents still eludes me. Do what they want with Thai nightlife venues, but at least let the tourist-oriented ones open late. They're going to drink anyway - the only question is whether it's in a safe establishment with proper fire exits, or in a hole-in-the-wall overcrowded with no safety protocols and nice donations to hardworking BIB. It's actually quite ridiculous how in Phuket everything is open until 4am and some later, yet in Bangkok proper clubs close 2am. You'd think the larger city would have better nightlife, but TiT.

I knew someone would bring that up - it's not the same thing. Walking street and Beach road don't have a large community of innocent ladyboys just standing around. In 99% of cases a ladyboy standing around those areas is looking for customers or other trouble. This isn't profiling because of their gender - it's profiling because of what they're doing.

Considering the disproportionally large number of crimes committed by ladyboys in proportion to their population in Pattaya, and the fact they've gotten more bold/shameless about it lately - some profiling it actually warranted. Seems like they just stopped them for questioning and identification rather than arrest them, so no harm done and hopefully may make some of them think twice before robbing another tourist, at least in the near future. Gotta love the "allegedly" part in the title, though, as if there was a doubt.

And do what exactly??? What is it you think the host owes you? just check in to a hotel for one night like a normal person and go to immigration in the morning. You won't even be charged overstay for one day, and if you are charged it's only 500 baht per day. The possible overstay is actually your fault for not going to extend your landing stamp sooner - why wait for the last minute? Understandable if you didn't know about TM30, but probably 99% of Airbnb's operate illegally and therefore won't report TM30 - they had you sign a blank rental contract just in case authorities came looking for one later on (which they probably won't but I guess they're covering their ***). And it's not just Airbnb hosts - even landlords for regular rental contracts will usually not report TM30 either because why bother? if anyone gets the fine it'll be you - not them.

At least from what I observed, usually it's the kids who are expected to take care of the parents, not the other way around. Complete opposite from western countries, but it is what it is.

Sadly enough- those guys' wives don't cheat on them, usually. It's always the nice guys who take care of their families that get done for by crappy wives. No good deed goes unpunished.

Recently saw a viral video where a woman tells her man she doesn't trust his friends, then to prove it she calls his friend who claims the guy is with him at that moment - and she proudly proclaims "point proven!". And here I am thinking "who the **** let's their woman have the phone numbers of his friends?!? No good can come out of that". Similarly I'm here thinking "who the **** let's his woman handle his money?!? No good can come out of that". Even if there wasn't a "relative" involved - the money would get spent very quickly in her hands. Terrible idea all around.

Yes, because so many people live in soi cowboy, Patpong, Bangla road.... If you want to stay home and do nothing then just (don't) do it. Other people want to have fun and not be told to go to sleep at 2am, or worse- have to go to unlicensed illegal venues that pose a fire hazard, among other hazards. They're not eliminating after hours partying by closing at 2am - they're just forcing it underground with all negative implications resulting from this. Let the clubs open late and everyone will be safer (except those who will get less brown envelopes, of course).

And that right there is the difference in mentality - "Criticism is UNACCEPTABLE". Who cares if other countries have long lines too? be better! The issue isn't that so many people are coming - we're still far below 2019 levels - the issue is poor planning OR lack of care OR just laziness in not opening all available booths. We can and WILL criticize that.

Just another example of how Asians completely misunderstand Halloween. No, it's not "let's all dress in happy PC costumes" day, and it's certainly not "let's all dress as slutty as we can and take photos" day - though I have to say I approve of the latter, even if it isn't what Halloween is about. ????

What do you expect them to get for using drugs? it's not like they were selling or distributing. Assuming it's their first (caught) offense then suspended sentences are appropriate. If they get caught again I'm sure they'll throw the book at them though.

Really not sure who you're talking to where, but I rarely ever see any talking about fighting, and I stay away from the rare ones who do. Sounds like you need to sort out your own problems.

I usually do $1000 transfers so that's definitely not the issue. And we're talking a popular bank (Capital One) so it's very odd that they claim to not be able to direct debit it after being able to for years. I think the move to Plaid messed things up.

I know exactly who you're talking about. They were starting trouble and fights every night all winter, but the venues do not dare kick them out for whatever reason (connected? or just perception as big spenders?). Funny enough speaking with one venue manager it seems like they aren't actually big spenders - they complained that these guys would buy 150k worth of bottles on their first night in town - but then keep checking out the same bottles over and over and spending next to nothing for a month. That averages out to only 5000 baht a night - between a group of 5-10 guys.

OK. After watching the video it looks like the wife completely made up her side of the story. You can see in the video that Frenchie was actually knocked down (first second) and a bystander tries to pull the Thai away but he pushes him away because he wants to continue fighting. Clearly he wanted the fight and probably started it. Frenchie even tried to walk away after the first time he knocked Thai down, but he attacked him again so he had to finish the job. Seems more like self-defense than "unprovoked attack". It's disgusting that Thai media is going with the wife's story completely ignoring what actually happened. Unfortunately for them, the Porsche and the swagger will only play against them in this case as it's easier to portray them as ruthless shady thugs. Whether that's true or not is another question, but the video suggests otherwise.

That's probably what happened. Unlikely they really thought "they needed directions". Thai guy shouldn't have stopped for a fight, Frenchies shouldn't have knocked him out. I'm sure they didn't mean to nearly kill him, but the problem with fights is that you can't control the outcome. Most likely French mafia either vacationing in Thailand or escaping legal reach in France. Thailand does not have an extradition agreement with France, so you get some real shady characters sometimes with lots of money to wave around and a talent for causing trouble. It would be quite ironic if they end up spending jail time then deported to face more charges back home.

I've been using Wire (and TransferWise) for years now, it used to arrive in seconds or minutes every time - no problems until a couple months ago when all of a sudden every transfer says "in seconds" then before completion switches to 5 business days which is ridiculous. This is US banks (tried 2 different ones). When contacting Wise support I was told that "we do not have a direct debit agreement with that bank so there is a delay". This is for an account that worked fine for years, mind you. Something definitely changed/broken on their end, but not sure what. A "workaround" I found was to use debit card to pay, which processes in 30 minutes - but the fee is double. Are there any alternatives to Wise that operate similarly with low rates? I'm tired of paying double fees every time now.

No kidding. He has "bad guy" written all over him, quite literally. I'll never understand why (some) Thai women think it's a good idea to date or even talk to guys like this - don't they understand it will end badly? or they just think "it won't happen to me"? And to all the tattoo-fan crowd - this isn't some nice guy who grew up in a good area and just likes tattoos - when Thai guys have these kind of tattoos it usually means gang, jail experience, etc. The issue isn't that they have tattoos - it's the type of tattoos and reason they got them.

Uhhh... or- I can just avoid public transportation and cinemas. Not that this will be enforced anyway - it won't be.

I was wondering the same thing - if the Emergency Decree has ended, then based on what legal basis is this doctor saying this? Sounds more like opinion than an actual rule.

There is zero percent chance that a respectable attractive lady walks down soi 4 at 4am. Zero.

You obviously haven't been to Phuket recently. Taxis are quite reasonable booked via InDriver and Bolt - 100 baht inside Patong. Grab is terribly overpriced. Tuk tuks are a mixed bag with some honest ones (relatively) charging 200 baht, while others try for the 300-500 baht scams. As for Bangkok - sorry but if they don't like how much the job pays they should quit. You mentioned "what the market demands" but ignored supply and demand - there's a ton of empty taxis for every possible passenger at most times - obviously if they're willing to drive, the job pays enough for them to do so. The fact that some try to run fixed fare scams, especially on tourists, does not mean those are fair prices, it just means those drivers feel entitled to charge foreigners more. Reminds me of the time a driver demanded 100 baht to go one soi over with no traffic. Told him meter or I don't ride, he drove off in the same direction of the soi I wanted to go to. So he actually preferred to give up 40 baht going in the same direction anyway over giving up his "100 baht" scam. What a clown. Next taxi of course agreed to meter.

Don't even have to wait for a rainy day. Just go to soi 11, Cowboy, Nana, etc. any night of the week - 95% of taxis will refuse to use the meter. And yes the only way this would get solved is if they put some effort and used undercover cops and/or farang volunteers with cops backing them up. Expecting tourists to put their lives at risk by taking pictures of license plates is ridiculous. Some of those drivers keep deadly weapons in the car and won't be shy to wave them around if challenged.

This would be funny if it wasn't actually correct. No doubt we will see this play out with more cases soon.

Exactly. We don't know the full story. Soi 4 at 4am it could easily be that the woman (or ladyboy) instigated the fight, and 4 Thais lurking around decided to join in on the fun. The type of people hanging out there aren't exactly typical good samaritans. Looking at these guys' wounds the alleged victims' claim that they just tried to break up the fight seems unconvincing - these guys were hiding on the rooftop likely because they feared for their lives at that point. As for the stabbing - we don't know that it was a knife - could've been a broken bottle or something else laying around. From the looks of it one of these guys forehead he might've been bottled too. I think if there is CCTV footage it would tell a very different story than the Thai guys' version of how it played out.