BOS2BKK

Don't forget these guys are pushing to get Nuclear power plants too... Nuclear power in the hands of people with a complete disregard for safety is a bad thing.

The comment chain here has really offed me.

First why is it so hard to imagine a 16YO girl shoplifting perfume? Seems pretty standard to me. In fact in the US you never see high end perfume shelved in the open at decent stores for this very reason. Because she is Australian on holiday she is beyond reproach? Not buying that line for a second, sorry.

As for the 16/21 YO thing, there is legal, and there is moral, and there is right. Not nearly enough information is presented in this story to pass judgement on that. I think most "sane" people would raise an eyebrow at this arrangement, but it is definitely a gray area at best.

I shop at King Power every time I travel. I usually buy perfume. I have never had an issue, nor have I seen anyone have an issue. I don't doubt there may be alot more to the story about the British couple who supposedly wound up at the hotel. I don't deny that "special fines" are a way of life in the Thai police system. I am really given pause for thought when I see these extraordinary situations though. I have to wonder what obviously critical fact is being left out that turned the mundane into the extraordinary. I have gotten up to far worse drunken antics in Thailand than stealing a bar mat, and it has never cost me more than buying someone a beer. The one person I know who spent time in jail took a swing at a Thai cop after being bounced from Bossy Disco. (if you ask me he was lucky he didn't wind up hospitalized, I know alot of places in the States where swinging at a cop gets you a walk out back before being thrown in jail) Of course when he tells the story of how he was dragged out of a bar and "special fined" a hundred thousand Baht when he did absolutely nothing wrong, he manages to leave out the part about being stumbling drunk, getting bounced after starting a fight over some guy talking to his favorite hooker, then pissing on the steps of the front door and swinging at the cop who showed up. To listen to his story he was just happily drinking a beer and minding his own business when the evil little brown men stole his innocence. Whenever I see a story about some poor innocent being oppressed I remember this. There are 3 sides to every story, theirs, yours and the truth, which usually bears little resemblance to either.

Now the point I really wanted to make. It never ceases to amaze me how quick people on this board are to assume the worst about the Thais. They have a different culture than ours. Their values, goals and behaviors reflect these differences. Yes some of it is baffling. Some of it is frustrating. Some of it is outright enraging, but it only becomes an issue when you demand they conform to your value set. Even the most dyed in the wool long term Expat, is still a guest. To my knowledge everyone who resides her did so by choice.

This estimate is ridiculous. They speak of several Soi's like Latprao 101. I don't know it specifically, but it is undoubtedly typical of most of the sois in that area, then they refer to victory monument, which is a giant square, with large stores and shops, maybe 2 KM of skyways servicing the pedestrian crossings and the BTS, and a huge market. How can you include the two in the same estimate? Also are they including the protests that took place there as dangerous crime? I live about a KM outside Victory monument on a soi of Rangnam Road and I have never hesitated to frequent any area of Victory square. There are soi's off of Sukhumvit and Silom I wouldn't go near even in daylight. In classic Thai police fashion this random selection of places smacks of someones personal agenda.

I have not been to Pattaya for several years because it has gone so far down hill so fast. Pattaya has always been seedy, but it used to be a kind of fun "sailors on leave" seedy, now it is a dangerous "mobsters will kill you" seedy. Thanks alot to the proliferation of former soviet block Prostitutes and Criminals.

I am just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if this lady was mistaken for a Russian and raped as a retaliation or something like that? You just don't see this behavior elsewhere in Thailand.

Pattaya Hard Rock used to be my favorite hotel in Thailand. I loved chilling out and watching the fun go by at the pool. Last time I was there in 2005 I was the only English speaker in the entire hotel. I had my life threatened by an eastern European because I sat in his favorite cabana, I watched a nice gentleman slap the snot out of his girlfriend in the lobby, and I had a drunk puking in the hall outside my room one night. That was the last time I went to Pattaya. Now I spend my Dollars on Samed.

Yes hundreds of good expats live in Pattaya, but I fear they moved in when the neighborhood was different. Many of the worst slums in US cities were, at one time or another, nice neighborhoods. I think anyone who lives in Pattaya and defends it is delusional. The place has turned into a cesspool.

Mai Pen Rai + Nuclear Power = YIKES!!!

I am a big fan of nuclear power. But in a country where the elevator in my building stops 2 inches higher than several of the floors, so they put little ramps there, I am not sure if Nuclear power is the best option. What about hydro-electric? God knows Thailand has enough rivers, it is clean safe, and alot easier to maintain.

I just want to add one point you may not have considered. I am not sure where your from, Canada's reply may be correct for Canada, but not the US. For whatever bizarre bureaucratic reason it is infinitely easier to get a Fiancee visa to the US than to get a marriage visa. If you are legally married in Thailand you have no choice but to get the marriage visa. The Fiancee visa is relatively easy, and you have 3 months to marry within the US or the fiancee has to return to their home country, and you can get them as often as you like even for the same person. As long as she never breaks the 3 month rule, you just put on the application that you had reservations, and would like to try again. This is something else to consider if you think you may take your girlfriend to the US someday.

Yeah, don't be so xenophobic! The Mafia in Pattaya is made up of a number of failed former Soviet states, not exclusively Russians!!!!

Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Belarus, and numerous others have contributed their fare share of whores, theives, and petty thugs to the Mafia that is currently running rampant in Pattaya.

I myself am a long time Thailand expat and I have not step foot in Pattaya in 3 years, nor do I plan too.

Don't forget the Thais Allied with the Axis powers during WWII. It didn't work out so well for them, because the Japanese took it to mean they invaded Thailand without firing a shot, and then proceeded to subjugate rural Thais as a conquered people. Anyone who knows Thailand, knows mistakes of any kind are quickly glossed over and ignored.