I Must Just Say...

[onzestan]

it wasnt too hard no,but slightly pointless as i dont see how it helps any other members whereas informing of crime/scams and all the bad things that happen here would help newbies/tourists and keep them on their toes and might stop it happening to them.

I absolutely disagree with this one.

Whenever I told newbees to avoid a certain place, that's where you would find them on their first night out.

It is my experience that negative reporting has absolutely no effect on people, and if any then it's just the opposite.

Anyway as my father used to say, experience is the best school.

cheers

onzestan

[LennyW]

Pleasant, but uncommon experience this morning, police pulled me over and simply told my wife and i to put on our seatbelts, quick salute and on the way, no tea money, no ticket, no liscence check!!!

[tattoodrob]

Pleasant, but uncommon experience this morning, police pulled me over and simply told my wife and i to put on our seatbelts, quick salute and on the way, no tea money, no ticket, no liscence check!!!

now that is a WOW, he must have been in a big rush or has your wife got high up relations

[tattoodrob]

it wasnt too hard no,but slightly pointless as i dont see how it helps any other members whereas informing of crime/scams and all the bad things that happen here would help newbies/tourists and keep them on their toes and might stop it happening to them.

I absolutely disagree with this one.

Whenever I told newbees to avoid a certain place, that's where you would find them on their first night out.

It is my experience that negative reporting has absolutely no effect on people, and if any then it's just the opposite.

Anyway as my father used to say, experience is the best school.

cheers

onzestan

yeh its up to the individual if they listen but at least you can feel good about warning them and if something bad happens to them you can say"told you so" or "som nomna". i agree experience is a good school but if a bit of advice saves their lives or a lot of money, heartache etc then i believe its worth it.if no one tells anyone there bad experiences then how would we stop it reoccuring on many more occasions. i understand about people not taking advice as a friend of mine lost a fair bit of money by not listening to me and others......i feel better that i warned him,that doesnt help him but i can sleep good knowing i tried my best

[joe552]

ah well, tattoodrob, as long you feel good about yourself, no need to worry.

[cali4995]

i'll be the first one to agree that "things back home" are far worse than here. still, bad stuff

does happen here on a regular basis and pretending it doesn't or thinking that "if i just keep

my nose clean it won't happen to me" are common fallacies. in the last year i've been physically

struck by young thai males, wound-up on yaa-baa twice. both times i was extremely fortunate

to put the assailants in a simple submission hold and wait for the police/locals to escort them

away. because of course, you can't beat them into the ground as much as you might like to. the

entire soi will come to their aid. and i'm a small guy, 5'9" and a little over 160lbs. obviously this

doesn't happen to big strapping fellas that look like they belong to a biker club. and i have to

say, both times i was stone-cold sober and the young thai punks were looking for a fight not

me. so believe what you want, it can happen to anyone here at anytime. exercise caution.

[MayBeLater]

I am aware that there have been much said regarding the negative experiences of Farangs in Pattaya on the receiving end of local people.

I have to report my experience of yesterday. Driving down Pattaya Kland I was aware that the steering in the car was not quite right. Turned into the Siam Commercial Bank on Sai Song and parked to be greated by one of the security pointing out I had a flat tyre. To my shame I couldn't remember how to change the wheels over. So by this time the two security guards set about it and within a few minutes the job was done. Not only did they not want any financial reward but gave me directions to a repair shop near the top of the Klang.

When I got there it was pouring rain,cats/dogs didn't have a look in,however the three young lads set about it repairing the puncture, taking off the spare,putting on the proper wheel,fixing the spare tyre to its proper location under the bed of the truck. I said to the boss how much ( I have to admit i was expecting megga cost) but he said 80 baht!

I couldn't believe my ears.

I should say that I did persuade the security guards to accept a financial reward for their help. And also gave more than 80 Baht for the lads fixing my tyre.

What could have been a nightmare was a joy

Great you were helped out. But shame on you big time for paying more. You should understand that everything has it own price. The security guards were payed already by your gratitude and smile because they saw they helped you so much, they never ever considered receiving a financial bonus for that, nor wanting as you said. Its a pity you think that money is the all important social lubricant as it might be in the States and some other Western countries. Please refrain from making Thailand and the rest of the world the money driven idiotic place some parts of this globe have become. About paying more than the amount a service costs, 80Baht in this case. Do you also pay more in the West if a service is cheap in your eyes? ofcourse not. They ask 80 Baht because 80 Baht is the correct price. Please don't over-enforce the believe that Farang are nutcases, the Thai already believe the farang are total weirdos due to behaviour like yours (how many percent you overpaid?)

Gratitude is shown by heart not by your wallet. Its a sad society if every sign of gratitude should be accompanied by cash.

MBL

[Ulysses G.]

If you felt that you wanted to give more than you did the right thing. Don't worry about Cheap Charlie!

[tattoodrob]

ah well, tattoodrob, as long you feel good about yourself, no need to worry.

dont think you get the point,giving advice is aimed at helping people to think more about their actions and save them hassle/problems and not to make me feel better but yes i DO feel better that i have given friends this advice because i wouldnt like them to say after why didnt you warn me,you live here etc. same on t.v forum,if we know what could happen to our fellow human beings in thailand then im happy they have a chance to get advice whether they take it or not is not up to me

[MayBeLater]

If you felt that you wanted to give more than you did the right thing. Don't worry about Cheap Charlie!

The ultimate Silver Bullet on Thaivisa. Calling someone a Cheap Charlie.

MBL

[Chaimai]

If you felt that you wanted to give more than you did the right thing. Don't worry about Cheap Charlie!

The ultimate Silver Bullet on Thaivisa. Calling someone a Cheap Charlie.

MBL

I think your point was well made and 100% valid.

However, it only served to highlight one of the East/West cultural differences. Westerners EXPECT to show their appreciation by monetary reward whereas the Thais (certainly in the OP's case) do not expect this.

The issue of tipping has been covered many times and I, for one, took a long time to stop tipping at Thai kitchens and dropping the tip from 100 Baht to 20 Baht at BBQ's and Thai restaurants (it usually equates to close to 5%). It did not feel natural to me - 3 years later it does and no one seems to think any worse of me. Your point that everything has it's price is perfectly true and Farangs who tip excessively only tend to raise the expectations of service staff - there are many examples in Pattaya where greed has distorted 'service' prices.