sahibji

6 hours ago, emptypockets said:

 

looks like the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

8 hours ago, toofarnorth said:

Is this so NC...... ? When I lived there after arriving in LoS in 2005 I thought there were one or two very pretty ladies along Soi Bintabaht , this was after leaving my wife behing in England.  I did decide after a while that one has been in the LoS too long when ladyboys start looking prettier though.

this incident happened in phuket.

not again. this is not desirable - to viciously attack tourists. and you wonder why more and more tourists are staying away.

8 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

soon to be a misunderstanding.

hope you are joking

taking matters into hands can be costly as this fellow found out. he should have tried to seek redress through legal means.

3 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

You must be thinking of another country.  The beer is not cheap.

australians quite singapore for cheaper beer in bali. tourists will go to places where their money goes further and they are also safe.

strange that the pm has just opened his eyes only now - it all fell on deaf ears when cases afters cases of such abuse were reported but no suitable recourse was accorded. 

5 hours ago, keith101 said:

They should talk to TAT who keep saying tourist numbers are up .

keith101 they should talk to themselves as to how they have fleeced and abused tourists.five or six fellows beating up one person does not send the right signals to others.

1 hour ago, Beggar said:

I can't get rid of the feeling that he had enough of his neighbors. 

yes but there are avenues for redress. hope he is not mowed down by his neighbours - has happened before with this kind of aggressive guys.

a quality tourist?

21 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

10-11 years ago if you sat in a beer bar on Walking Street and watched the endless stream of people going by, you'd have noticed that probably 95(+) % of the tourists were "white" (Euro, Scandinavian, Canadian, Australian American, ect). Seeing an Indian or Arab was a rare thing (outside of the "Arab quarter" at least) and an Asian tour group ? Wow - people would stop and stare because it wasn't something you saw very often.

The bars and go-gos would be packed. The owners (and staff) would be giddy with about the money they were making.

 

Most of my Thai friends at the time owned various businesses - restaurants, bars, hotels. One had a small gold shop. One had a motorcycle shop.

All of them had a Harley (which is how we got to know each other). We'd ride all over the city to different places and often end up parking outside a go-go bar owned by one of the guys. Then we'd go up and down Walking Street visiting different bars/go-gos until the wee hours of the morning.
Every week or so we'd make a trip somewhere (Koh Chang or Rayong or to some Bike Week event upcountry).

There was a distinct "trickle down" effect from all that business. The businesses were making money, the owners were making money, the staff were making money and the businesses that those people frequented were making money, from noodle shops to karaoke bars to motorcycle shops and of course, gold shops.

But then the "demographic" started to change. TAT (I presume) started aiming their promotions at Russia more than Europe/N America and when the Russians stopped coming, they started going after the Indians and Chinese.

All they were looking for was an increase in number of "arrivals" - regardless of whether or not those "arrivals" were actually spending anything. They soon started finding out what a "zero dollar" tourist was (one who pays for their trip back home and literally doesn't spend a penny in the country they are visiting). 

So they saw an increase in the number of arrivals - but never noticed that all those shop/bar/hotel/restaurant owners were complaining that they were losing business big time, as those new arrivals (mostly from China and India) were not-spending-money !

Most of my friends ended up selling off their Harleys (the luxury items are the first to go) and some even ended up selling their businesses as they just weren't making money anymore. Tons of people on the street - walking past half empty (or worse) bars, restaurants and go-gos. Where one motorcycle club had 20+ business owners with Harleys, now I think there are 3 remaining.

Replacing 2 caucasian tourists that might spend 2,000 a night each on food, drink and "fun" with 6-8 people that might spend a total of 200 a night (or less) isn't going to help the economy. 
4 caucasian tourists renting hotel rooms for 1,000/night each or 4(+) people sharing one room for the same price ? Which sounds better to the business owner I wonder ?

I've sat in bars and go-gos that had Indian customers and spent more in an hour than the Indians did all night (at that place at least). I watched one guy sit in a go-go for nearly 2 hours and when he finally left (after none of the girls would sit with him anymore) his small glass of draft beer was still half full (but no doubt very warm and flat by then). That was the only drink he'd bought the whole time. Meanwhile my bill was something like 1,700 in the same period.

Gee - I wonder who the bar owners would prefer as customers ? There is a very good reason why so many "club's" charge an admittance (or "membership") fee before letting any Indians in. It is because that is the only way they will make any money off of them as they will probably only buy a single drink (one drink - even if there are 3-4 of them) and nurse that for 2 hours.
I was sitting next to the owner of a beer bar on Walking Street when a group of 6 Indians stopped in. One spoke to a waitress who directed him to the owner. The guy came over and said that because he'd brought a group of 5 with him, maybe they could get a discount on the draft beer. (I think the cheapest beer was something like 60 baht a glass at the time). He was trying to barter it down to 50 baht - but they only wanted 2 glasses !

Between the 6 of them !

The owner said no as he already had the cheapest price on the street, so they all left to go try somewhere else !

 

I've watched tour groups of Chinese go into a go-go bar. Each person had a choice of either a beer or a coke (as a part of the tour package). They'd sit for an hour then leave - without spending a penny or giving a single tip or anything. I spent more in the one hour than the entire group of 30+ tourists and I wasn't even trying !

Increasing the numbers of people that aren't spending money is not going to help anyone. It may make the airport numbers look good but it's not helping the economy at all.

(And yes, I have visited India a couple times - short trips though. I also spent 10 years working with a lot of Indians (and Nepalese) in Afghanistan. Most of them were nice enough but if they thought they could get away with **** they'd try it in the blink of an eye.)

If TAT started targeting their promotions back to the "caucasian" countries, they might see a drop in the numbers of arrivals (as fewer Chinese/Indians arrive) but would probably see a large boost in the tourist spending portion of the economy. The trickle down effect of that reaches all the way into the darkest corners of Isaan as most of you no doubt know already !  ????

Will they ever go back to trying to lure the "rich(er)" Westerners back while reducing the numbers of "cheap charlies" they are currently targeting ? Probably not for years to come. You'd need a whole new generation of people in charge that realize that quantity doesn't mean better than quality (when it comes to the spending habits of tourists at least - hard to say that any of them are "quality" in any way) !

But of course, those "richer" Westerners also come with a lot of baggage, much of which Thailand wants to keep out. However, they (the "authorities") probably don't want to admit that the hordes of Chinese/Indian tourists they are bringing in also come with a lot of baggage. I've met a few and these days I try to stay as far away from them as I can.

 

kerryd Westerners "richer"? who are you kidding?

2 minutes ago, madmen said:

Yes right up until they tell you that you have a lucky face. Most of us realise that its not being shy but rather getting prepped for a scam

name me a place where scams do not happen.

25 minutes ago, Monkeyrobot said:

Could we have a table for five with one coke & 5 straws please. 

surely it   is not that bad. indian tourists have kept many economies going.

it is important to treat them fairly and well and keep the lady boy antics in check. otherwise you will kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

7 hours ago, Snuller21 said:

And a way to strong Baht. Thailand used to be an affordable country for holidays. Not anymore as the Baht is way too strong. And that is also for the Export. Just look at the price for rice, and the declining of that as export as well. And Toyota making an assembly factory for HiLux in Myanmar, as they lose money on every assembled car in Thailand. Just saying.

thai baht is but one small component of the whole zigsaw puzzle. violence, cheating and indiscriminate price hikes are some of the other factors.

14 minutes ago, dave moir said:

It's not just Phuket and Pattaya Chiang Mai is like a ghost town and has progressively gone down hill over the past 5 years very sad to see lots of people's livelihood disappearing.

there is a reason for everything.

when greed and lawlessness sets in tourism is sure to be impacted because visitors begin to look for alternative sources, much to the peril of the country.

it is a  long process to rebuild confidence and depends on the genuine will of the hosts to restore  such confidence for people to return. we should never forget that there are numerous alternatives vying for this business.

6 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Pattaya has sunk as certainly as the Phoenix, but it is difficult to see it rising from the ashes.

High baht is one thing, but years and years of corrupt cops, fleecing taxis, violent assaults and thefts all put a damper on travelers enthusiasm, and nothing seems to ever happen to stem any of it. It is a pit they have dug for themselves.

ThreeEyeRaven you have nailed it.it is not the strong baht - it is the vicious attacks by gangs of thais on individuals that is a huge factor- cheap behaviour at the bars also keeps families away.if pattaya were so good destination hordes of malaysians and singaporeans would rush to that place.

how sad when we equate car above life.

possibly the pad thai was not thoroughly fried.

4 minutes ago, Grandpa Cool said:

It's not going to happen. I lived and traveled in India for 4 years. If one is polite and steps aside to allow someone on the bus before oneself you won't be able to break back into the queue. I've had to pay railway porters  to lift and push me through the widow of the train in Agra...and the passengers inside the train were trying to push me out. It was very crowded! It's a dog eat dog world!

this is a subject of RICH indian. what you are describing is the situation of the masses.

23 minutes ago, AJBangkok said:

I dont know if Pattaya and Phuket are the same but Hua Hin gets huge business from the Indian wedding industry, its big money and centered on the 5 star hotels.

that is a commercial decision, technically being tourism of course.