marijka

• Yes the man has a family. The opening post stated that the family were arriving and stated that they knew of no medical condition he had.
  

This reporter or the police must be clarvoyant as this article was posted at 12pm Saturday Phuket time. His family were not notified until late Saturday evening Australian time and certainly made no comment then or since.

RIP

Thanks, after the past few days of reading the horrors happening on the streets with the body/injury count going up in News forums, this forum is like a breath of fresh air, light comic relief.

stay safe.

Well i was there in October and didn't take any notice then

The yellow airport close started in Bangkok and spread to Phuket.

And this forum keeps saying that the Reds are from the North - Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai where we are spending most of our time.

You can't have it both ways.

A lot of people of here, not this particular topic, keep saying what is this doing to tourism, to the Baht - well this is what it is doing.

I am an Aussie who subscribes to Thai Visa. I have been following this since it started, mostly on the "news only" topics. I am about to book flights from KL to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi for May.

Do I book or not?? at the moment my only financial commitment to Thailand is $200, that will increase to $2000 if I book.Now a State of Emergency has been declared that voids travel insurance.

Ok folks - what do I do? Well me and probably thousands of other tourists.

My sister is coming in May too - her first overseas holiday - there are 18 in her group.

Now even though I have only been to Phuket once - even I know that would be too easy!!

well I still say bu**er the tuk tuks, metered or otherwise, get a bus service running Patong-karon-Kata, that will bring the tuk tuk fares down and they won't have to buy the meters!!

I know I have been told here it can't be done - what you mean is it won't be done - well if it carries onthis way Phuket will be well and truly done ......and gone, as an "international tourist destination" there are plenty of others - destinations that is.

BUT there is a very simple answer to all this from a one-time tourist point of view. Run a bus service from Kata/Karon and Surin areas to/from Patong.

There are buses sitting in Kata all day long not moving waiting for people to go to Phuket City, and buses run from Patong to Phuket, why can't a bus service run between the beaches? Or would this be too easy??

That would wipe the smiles off the tuk tuk drivers faces.

WOW.. No ones ever thought of that before.

The last time this happened.. The bus service was running for a day or two and the driver was pulled from the bus and beaten half to death..

Since then the concession for the bus service hasnt had a tener.. odd that huh ??

Ok thought that may have been the case. Well we are off to Malaysia - cheap transport though accommodation is more expensive. I hope you farangs get off your visa runs before the tuk tuk mafia are curbed!!

Yes I am a first time poster, though I have been reading thaivisa for about 8 months.

I came to Phuket for the first ( and probably last) time in October.

Because of all I had read here and in other forums we hired a driver during our 2 weeks there. The most it cost was 1000 bht a day including tip. This was very reasonable, considering a tuk tuk from Kata to Patong is 400 bht. We did have a problem in that the driver had only been in Phuket for a week ( from Pattaya) and couldn't speak English, and his girlfriend accompanied us everywhere. This turned out to be a good thing because although she didn't speak English either she somehow usually made out what we were saying. In a stalemate we just rang his boss who should have been our driver!!

We are Aussies, and no we dont steal bar mats. We didn't even go to that street.

I have read all 7 pages of posts here. The tourists shouldn't have been attacked. The tuk tuk driver should be charged. The tuk tuk mafia should be controlled. The police should not be corrupt.

BUT there is a very simple answer to all this from a one-time tourist point of view. Run a bus service from Kata/Karon and Surin areas to/from Patong.

There are buses sitting in Kata all day long not moving waiting for people to go to Phuket City, and buses run from Patong to Phuket, why can't a bus service run between the beaches? Or would this be too easy??

That would wipe the smiles off the tuk tuk drivers faces.

Wow - I started reading this topic was 4 pages, now it is 11, it is keeping me up!!

I am a booked tourist for my first trip to ? Phuket.

I have wanted to visit Thailand for 20 years and now I have a plane ticket for October.

Will I use it?? Not sure.

I have always wanted to visit the River Kwai, but because of the probs last year in Bangkok travelling thro Singapore.

I have read the posts here with great interest, I sympathise with expats living there, seems you are given the run around. I am of course interested in the tourist bit.

The bar mat incident - silly aussie - stubborn thai authorities, worldwide media beat up.

I read a lot of forums, the problems I have with forthcoming planned trip are atm fees and the ASEAN conference. At present it is planned for Phuket when I will be there and I don't want to get stuck not getting back to work.

By reading the forums I have also found that it is not the cheap holiday I thought it would be - wish I had booked to Bali or even back to Fiji where we were in April, since they devalued a week after we left it is very cheap.

Despite this as long as I can feel safe, cos of ASEAN, i will come and see my land of dreams - not just Phuket, in fact since reading the forums I don't think I want to go there, but tickets are booked. If I don't feel safe will go to Malaysia or Vietnam instead.

Swine flu - I live in Qld and there are the most over reactive place in the world I think - sneeze and close a school for 3 days!!

Expats I hope you get a better deal or learn to live with the deal you live with now