South Wales Man's Thai Kidnap Ordeal

[JimsKnight]

That 'scorpion' news article had me in stitches! Funny as fck! LOL.

But on the taffy conundrum, to me its a guy who's been ripped off, taken to the cleaners, then to the jungle and left to stew. He came looking for love but found love in LOS is not same as the western ways have it!

They should give all two-weeker tourists a hand-out warning them of the whorish tricks in store for new guys, and make it compulsory reading! Some of these gimps that get caught out should be kept in europe for their own safety

[CymruAmByth]

He only left the "Jungle" cause he couldn't find any sheep !

I wondered how long it would take and it comes from a Jock of all races.

Tw@t.

[darkside]

He only left the "Jungle" cause he couldn't find any sheep !

I wondered how long it would take and it comes from a Jock of all races.

Tw@t.

Welsh and no sense of humour, double whammy!!!!!!

[Dakhar]

So he had to live like your average thai for a month, and after the affair he came out bumbling...."home, home, home...."

Well once he saves up enough, he will probably jump on a plane and head back to Thailand in order to visit another bar, to find another perfect match for a 58 yr old man... you know a 21 yr old, but this time without any kids... he probably learned his lesson on the last one with 3 children.

[Heng]

Is it just me or does the story read:

1) He married a 25 year old bargirl after a 3 week holiday

2) Pissed away most of his money

3) Divorced bargirl 1 and then got together with another 28 year old bargirl (who had 3 kids)?

4) Pissed away rest of money

5) Sat in a jungle for a month eating mangos and making no attempt to escape?

Yeah, # 5 is a bit hard to believe indeed.

[Gary A]

If there is any truth to the story, I find it difficult to work up much sympathy. Anyone that stupid should not be allowed to leave home unless escorted by an adult.

[Maigo6]

In my opinion, the story is more like this............................

Farang comes to Pattaya for a holiday with a pocketful of money as he has a good income back home.

He is treated to the rock star lifestlye that money can bring in Pattaya. He meets a young women in a bar who treats him like a King.

He goes back to UK, can't handle the fact that there he is just another insignifigant middle aged guy, decides to sell everything up and move to Pattaya thinking he can live the playboy lifestyle forever.

His UK family or friends, see the error in his way of thinking and try to persuade him not to sell everything and leave, but he is adamant and tells them that " Thailand is paradise ", they argue over it, he tells them that they can live the same old crappy lifestyle in UK if they want to, but he is going, and if they don't like it, go <deleted>.

He thought he would never ever go back to the UK so took a few bank loans and cheated the credit card companies as well, after all, the great guys he had met in the bars who live in Pattaya had told him it's easy.

So off he goes, sold everything, left his job, fell out with Family, owes Banks and Credit Card companies money................................. it's called burning ones bridges.

Arrives in Thailand, lives like a Millionaire for a while doing anything he wants, soon the money is going fast, decides he had better buy a bar to continue his lifestyle, he can even drink at cost price, he buys a bar from a friendly Farang who tells him the Bar is doing really well, the bar fails and he loses a lot more money, the Farang he bought it from left Thailand to go back to his own country and get a job.

Meets another Thai girl in a Bar, decides he had better treat her good as he don't wanna screw up this time.....Offers to buy a small store and add it to the house he has offered to build, of course it's all in her name.

He loses again, hits the bottle really hard, hardly eats, sits in some crappy fan room in Soi Buakow, Pattaya, drinking Mekong Whisky and water till his sweat soaked body falls asleep in a drunken stupor, then he can't afford to pay the rent, all the really great guys he had met that were his drinking buddies in the Bars of Pattaya don't wanna know him no more cos he is broke, he is slowly dying.

He feels suicidal, he has lost everything, why did he ever leave the UK, why did he ever fall out with his Family and choose Thailand instead ?

Some old drunken Farang who lives in the small Fan room next to him tells him what to do to get out of Thailand.....................

Voila...we have this story. Now people feel sorry for him, his family will probably take him back, even the British Embassy were good with him, he's the victim right....hey, maybe he can even sell his story to a Sunday paper.

The money from the Sunday paper, get a job again with someone else who feels sorry for him, it won't be long before he can go back to Thailand, next time he will do it all different though..................

yeah right.

Edited June 1, 2007 by Maigo6

[Stephen Cleary]

Unfortunately i don't live in Pattaya so im not 100% sure on this one like. But according to my knowledge i never realized that Pattaya had a jungle. Reads like a pretty big jungle too, had to walk a mile to find a mango tree. And no-one in sight.

This jungle so dense, that he spent four months there with no hope in sight.

BTW: I wonder whether he reported to immigration or not!

Anyway, if any of you guys could give me a link to Pattaya's jungle site (and i dont mean jungle music or jungle bar) it would be much appreciated. Since may be it would be a great idea to start up a tour company to this virigin previously un-known jungle, i have in the meantime bought the domain name:

www.pattayajungle_tours.com

Edited June 1, 2007 by stevesuphan

[meemiathai]

The story can't even attract the thai-bashers.

[Jimjim]

Rough crowd.

[Etrigan]

If stupidity were a crime, this guy would have got life with no parole!

[Aujuba]

It might be more acceptable if the guy were a paraplegic. I think the guy should be helped by being put in a mental institution. Now that he has no money what will he do? Oh, poor guy. Everyone knows that he'll scrounge some dinero off his friends and family and head back to Thailand or the Philipines.

[alexth]

If stupidity were a crime, this guy would have got life with no parole!

Only if they haven't had the capital punishment.

[leisurely]

I don't think he can be too bright. He had a pair of shorts and two or three t.shirts, which was it? Two or three. Daft bugger

[johnh101]

He only left the "Jungle" cause he couldn't find any sheep !

I wondered how long it would take and it comes from a Jock of all races.

Tw@t.

Welsh and no sense of humour, double whammy!!!!!!

Brilliant !

He only left the "Jungle" cause he couldn't find any sheep !

You'd know being an Aberdeen fan.

I just got a big wet kiss from Flossie, sh1t she's looking hot today..............where's my welly boots ?

[plachon]

MATE in PUB: Hey, Gareth, where've you been boyo?

GARETH: Oh, you know, extended holiday in Thailand.

DAFYDD: You're looking a bit thin these days......and what's that bandage on your thumb, boyo?

GARETH: Oh, you know, healthy fruit-based diet 'n that. But had a bit of a run in with a scorpion like while I was trekkin' in the jungle.

DAFYDD: What's this we hear about you getting a couple of reet juicy spankin' little Thai women over there and owning a bunch of bars, boyo? Must've been great like, having your every whim attended to by a coupla crackers, an' living like a king n 'tha. Have you brought them back wi' you? Can't wait to meet 'em, boyo.

GARETH: Oh, you know how it is, living like a king in paradise can get kind of boring sometimes, and anyway I was missing my big sis and mates in the valley. Nothing like the green grass of home and sight of slag heaps, after a long time away overseas.

DAFYDD: Gareth, you're full of <deleted>! I read my morning paper, like every other booger in the valley. Shaggin lady boys n' livin in a snake-infested hut in the jungle like Ray bloody Meyers is not my idea of living like a king boyo. Look at you, you great girls blouse! Look more like something me cat dragged in than an ex-pit team rugby player.

GARETH: Can I borrow a fiver and got a job mate?

[a2396]

Does the OP have a website reference or other documentation for this article/story? Possibly true, but amazingly stupid guy. Marrying not one, but TWO bargirls. Getting involved in the bar business? Not something I would try.

[mikethevigoman]

South Wales man's Thai kidnap ordeal

May 31 2007

by Abby Alford, South Wales Echo

A MAN'S dream of an idyllic retirement in the sun has been shattered after he was kidnapped, dumped in the jungle and stung by a scorpion.

Today, speaking from his hospital bed in Cardiff, former Barry businessman Gareth Pike spoke of his heartbreak at being left penniless and alone in Thailand, believing he was going to die.

He hopes his nightmare experience will serve as a cautionary tale to those who leave Wales to start a new life abroad.

"I literally thought I was going to die," said Gareth, who turns 56 next month.

"After I was bitten I felt so awful I thought I had about a week left. That's what spurred me on to find my way out of the jungle and back home to South Wales."

Gareth, who is being treated for the scorpion sting by doctors on the infectious diseases ward at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, said his dream soured when his 28-year-old Thai wife left the family home in a remote village with her eldest son who lived as a woman, known in Thailand as a lady boy, to find work.

He said:

His wife's male relatives forcibly evicted him from the bungalow he had built with the last of his money.

They kidnapped him and took him to the jungle.

They left him alone in a tin shack with nothing but the clothes he had on.

Gareth, who once owned a plush apartment in Barry's prestigious Waterfront development and ran his own double-glazing firm, said: "This shack was in the middle of nowhere.

"I slept on the floor and was forced to drink dirty brown water from a stream that ran through the jungle near the hut. The only thing to eat were mangoes that grew on a tree about a mile away.

"There was nothing to do, except wash my clothes, which I did in the stream, and nobody to talk to. I didn't try to escape because I didn't think there was any way out.

"I saw a lot of snakes, spiders and scorpions, but I never thought I'd be stung by one.

"I got up one day and went to put my shorts on.

"They had been lying on the floor because I had nowhere to hang them.

"I felt a sharp pain. Something had stung me on the thumb.

"Then I saw a black scorpion about three to four inches long run along the ground.

"I managed to kill it with my shoe and tried to suck the poison out of my thumb but I was too late and the poison had gone through my body.

"I had a blister come out on my thumb and foot and I came out in a rash. I was in dreadful pain.

"I literally thought I was going to die. I had already lost half my body weight and I felt so bad."

Gareth, who has two sons, Daniel, 14, and Harry, 10, from his first marriage, went to the Pattaya beach resort with friends for a three-week holiday two-and-a-half years ago.

After falling in love and marrying a 25-year-old Thai woman he met in a bar, divorced Gareth returned to South Wales to sell his business and home so he could return to Thailand and build a new life.

"I built a two-bed bungalow just outside of Pattaya for us and I never thought I would come back to the UK. I had high hopes for a fresh start and a new life," he said.

"Initially, I was retired. But then I opened a couple of bars in Pattaya – one of which failed and one of which I sold and managed to break even on."

After the marriage broke down, Gareth began a relationship with a 28-year-old Thai woman who had worked for him as a cashier in one of his bars.

They married and she persuaded him to move to her home village in a remote area outside Pattaya, where he built a new home for himself, his wife and her three children to live in.

He also started another business, a general store, with the last of his money.

"I spent everything I had left on the bungalow and shop," he said.

"But the shop failed and she left the village with her eldest son, leaving me with her two girls, aged 13 and nine.

"I really don't know where she went, but she told me she was going to find work as a masseuse."

That was in January this year and, after four months in the jungle, Gareth said he suffered the scorpion bite on May 17.

Fearing the worst, he staggered for miles until he came across a road, which he followed to a village.

There, a woman who could not speak any English put him in touch with her lady boy son in Bangkok who rang some of Gareth's friends, who then reached his sister Pam Roberts at her Southampton home.

"It was horrible getting that phone call," said the 66-year-old, who is also originally from Barry.

"I was given a mobile number at which I could reach Gareth and when I got through he was so ill he could barely speak.

"All he could say was 'Pam, Pam, home, home'.

"I just wanted to get him home and my husband got straight on to the British Embassy in Bangkok, who were brilliant."

Pam wired money to Thailand to enable Gareth to buy a plane ticket and, with the assistance of embassy staff, Gareth flew into Heathrow from Bangkok last Wednesday.

Today, a Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed Gareth had been given "consular assistance" and was advised to get medical help.

Pam said: "I didn't recognise him when he was wheeled out into arrivals at Heathrow. He looked so ill.

"The embassy staff had advised us to take him straight to a hospital, but Gareth wanted to come back to South Wales so badly we drove straight down the M4 to the A&E department at the University Hospital of Wales."

Gareth, who is now undergoing tests and has been put on antibiotics, said: "I have absolutely nothing except two pairs of trousers and about three T-shirts.

"I don't know how long I'll be in here, but when I do eventually leave I'll have nowhere to live and will have to rebuild my life."

Gareth said he has instructed a lawyer in Thailand through a friend who will be informing police about his ordeal.

--------------------

Theres a pattayafox on here somewhere !

[mikethevigoman]

South Wales man's Thai kidnap ordeal

May 31 2007

by Abby Alford, South Wales Echo

A MAN'S dream of an idyllic retirement in the sun has been shattered after he was kidnapped, dumped in the jungle and stung by a scorpion.

Today, speaking from his hospital bed in Cardiff, former Barry businessman Gareth Pike spoke of his heartbreak at being left penniless and alone in Thailand, believing he was going to die.

He hopes his nightmare experience will serve as a cautionary tale to those who leave Wales to start a new life abroad.

"I literally thought I was going to die," said Gareth, who turns 56 next month.

"After I was bitten I felt so awful I thought I had about a week left. That's what spurred me on to find my way out of the jungle and back home to South Wales."

Gareth, who is being treated for the scorpion sting by doctors on the infectious diseases ward at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, said his dream soured when his 28-year-old Thai wife left the family home in a remote village with her eldest son who lived as a woman, known in Thailand as a lady boy, to find work.

He said:

His wife's male relatives forcibly evicted him from the bungalow he had built with the last of his money.

They kidnapped him and took him to the jungle.

They left him alone in a tin shack with nothing but the clothes he had on.

Gareth, who once owned a plush apartment in Barry's prestigious Waterfront development and ran his own double-glazing firm, said: "This shack was in the middle of nowhere.

"I slept on the floor and was forced to drink dirty brown water from a stream that ran through the jungle near the hut. The only thing to eat were mangoes that grew on a tree about a mile away.

"There was nothing to do, except wash my clothes, which I did in the stream, and nobody to talk to. I didn't try to escape because I didn't think there was any way out.

"I saw a lot of snakes, spiders and scorpions, but I never thought I'd be stung by one.

"I got up one day and went to put my shorts on.

"They had been lying on the floor because I had nowhere to hang them.

"I felt a sharp pain. Something had stung me on the thumb.

"Then I saw a black scorpion about three to four inches long run along the ground.

"I managed to kill it with my shoe and tried to suck the poison out of my thumb but I was too late and the poison had gone through my body.

"I had a blister come out on my thumb and foot and I came out in a rash. I was in dreadful pain.

"I literally thought I was going to die. I had already lost half my body weight and I felt so bad."

Gareth, who has two sons, Daniel, 14, and Harry, 10, from his first marriage, went to the Pattaya beach resort with friends for a three-week holiday two-and-a-half years ago.

After falling in love and marrying a 25-year-old Thai woman he met in a bar, divorced Gareth returned to South Wales to sell his business and home so he could return to Thailand and build a new life.

"I built a two-bed bungalow just outside of Pattaya for us and I never thought I would come back to the UK. I had high hopes for a fresh start and a new life," he said.

"Initially, I was retired. But then I opened a couple of bars in Pattaya – one of which failed and one of which I sold and managed to break even on."

After the marriage broke down, Gareth began a relationship with a 28-year-old Thai woman who had worked for him as a cashier in one of his bars.

They married and she persuaded him to move to her home village in a remote area outside Pattaya, where he built a new home for himself, his wife and her three children to live in.

He also started another business, a general store, with the last of his money.

"I spent everything I had left on the bungalow and shop," he said.

"But the shop failed and she left the village with her eldest son, leaving me with her two girls, aged 13 and nine.

"I really don't know where she went, but she told me she was going to find work as a masseuse."

That was in January this year and, after four months in the jungle, Gareth said he suffered the scorpion bite on May 17.

Fearing the worst, he staggered for miles until he came across a road, which he followed to a village.

There, a woman who could not speak any English put him in touch with her lady boy son in Bangkok who rang some of Gareth's friends, who then reached his sister Pam Roberts at her Southampton home.

"It was horrible getting that phone call," said the 66-year-old, who is also originally from Barry.

"I was given a mobile number at which I could reach Gareth and when I got through he was so ill he could barely speak.

"All he could say was 'Pam, Pam, home, home'.

"I just wanted to get him home and my husband got straight on to the British Embassy in Bangkok, who were brilliant."

Pam wired money to Thailand to enable Gareth to buy a plane ticket and, with the assistance of embassy staff, Gareth flew into Heathrow from Bangkok last Wednesday.

Today, a Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed Gareth had been given "consular assistance" and was advised to get medical help.

Pam said: "I didn't recognise him when he was wheeled out into arrivals at Heathrow. He looked so ill.

"The embassy staff had advised us to take him straight to a hospital, but Gareth wanted to come back to South Wales so badly we drove straight down the M4 to the A&E department at the University Hospital of Wales."

Gareth, who is now undergoing tests and has been put on antibiotics, said: "I have absolutely nothing except two pairs of trousers and about three T-shirts.

"I don't know how long I'll be in here, but when I do eventually leave I'll have nowhere to live and will have to rebuild my life."

Gareth said he has instructed a lawyer in Thailand through a friend who will be informing police about his ordeal.

--------------------

WHY WHY WHY DELILAH !!

[mikethevigoman]

This story looks and sounds stupid. Nevertheless, looks like stupidity has no limits anyway. This what you get from an equation that contains an old bloke, a whore and a city like Pattaya.

all the ingredients for a good movie..

A new thai soap opera maybe?

WRINKLIE RAMBO FROM CARDIFF ,1ST EDITION, THE FLEECING !

[mikethevigoman]

Is it just me or does the story read:

1) He married a 25 year old bargirl after a 3 week holiday

2) Pissed away most of his money

3) Divorced bargirl 1 and then got together with another 28 year old bargirl (who had 3 kids)?

4) Pissed away rest of money

5) Sat in a jungle for a month eating mangos and making no attempt to escape?

Yeah, # 5 is a bit hard to believe indeed.

Hes welsh, he probably thought he was on the glyn williams rural bus route !

[mikethevigoman]

If there is any truth to the story, I find it difficult to work up much sympathy. Anyone that stupid should not be allowed to leave home unless escorted by an adult.

Dont gary, he will be taking his father with him next time !

[mikethevigoman]

MATE in PUB: Hey, Gareth, where've you been boyo?

GARETH: Oh, you know, extended holiday in Thailand.

DAFYDD: You're looking a bit thin these days......and what's that bandage on your thumb, boyo?

GARETH: Oh, you know, healthy fruit-based diet 'n that. But had a bit of a run in with a scorpion like while I was trekkin' in the jungle.

DAFYDD: What's this we hear about you getting a couple of reet juicy spankin' little Thai women over there and owning a bunch of bars, boyo? Must've been great like, having your every whim attended to by a coupla crackers, an' living like a king n 'tha. Have you brought them back wi' you? Can't wait to meet 'em, boyo.

GARETH: Oh, you know how it is, living like a king in paradise can get kind of boring sometimes, and anyway I was missing my big sis and mates in the valley. Nothing like the green grass of home and sight of slag heaps, after a long time away overseas.

DAFYDD: Gareth, you're full of <deleted>! I read my morning paper, like every other booger in the valley. Shaggin lady boys n' livin in a snake-infested hut in the jungle like Ray bloody Meyers is not my idea of living like a king boyo. Look at you, you great girls blouse! Look more like something me cat dragged in than an ex-pit team rugby player.

GARETH: Can I borrow a fiver and got a job mate?

fantastic ! nearly split me colon stitches !

[katyb]

Look, just give the Welsh a break, will you? There’s not a lot happens in Wales, so this story will become folk legend in years to come. It's a dam-n good yarn, the guy has returned a hero and will dine out on it for ever.

Most people in UK (not just Wales) have never been, and would never even think about venturing to somewhere as shockingly wild and savage as Thailand. Thus this is the sort of story that you will read here. It reflects public opinion. And so ….. the myth continues. Let’s have more of it, I say, and keep the masses quivering at the horrors of such a hostile and dangerous country. They can go to Benidorm and eat chips out of newspaper on the promenade.

Kate

[JimmyCA]

Could only happen in Thailand

[colino]

Tarzan of the valleys boy oh

[correct]

quite satounding the amount of sympathy you are all extending to this guy, have you ever considered he may have a mental illness.

[mikethevigoman]

Look, just give the Welsh a break, will you? There's not a lot happens in Wales, so this story will become folk legend in years to come. It's a dam-n good yarn, the guy has returned a hero and will dine out on it for ever.

Most people in UK (not just Wales) have never been, and would never even think about venturing to somewhere as shockingly wild and savage as Thailand. Thus this is the sort of story that you will read here. It reflects public opinion. And so ….. the myth continues. Let's have more of it, I say, and keep the masses quivering at the horrors of such a hostile and dangerous country. They can go to Benidorm and eat chips out of newspaper on the promenade.

Kate

With a hankie on the head !

[plachon]

quite satounding the amount of sympathy you are all extending to this guy, have you ever considered he may have a mental illness.

Youre right there boyo, the last line in the South Wales Echo confirms it - he's now paying for a lawyer in Thailand to follow up on his case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The geezer's raving mental! (but let's hope he gets his day in court with his ex who did a runner with the gatoey son).

[plachon]

"Gareth Pike" - you don't think he was related to Pikey out of Dad's Army do ya?