Thailand The Most Dangerous Place For Australians To Visit

[justcruisin]

I came to Thailand to get away from australia and australians, I think the aussie media should post stories like that everyday.

Aussies dont go to Thialand its bad for you, go to bali nothing to worry about there... well .... just some muslim suicide bombers,

but the rest is ok.

Welcome to the forum Sudao.

Don't worry where I frequent,I rarely see another foriegner,let alone another aussie.

What you will see is the idiots roaring down the road with no helmet,on the way or coming back from a drinking session.Statistics speak for themselves,an average of 78 people a DAY die on the kingdoms great roads in motorcycle 'accidents".

Is no helmet and being drunk drunk an accident? ?

A life is a life,whether Aussie or Thai,just good to see big brother tabulating results for our own benifit.

[JSixpack]

Meanwhile Australia is ranked in the top 3 best places to live:

http://tinyurl.com/yeybabw

Why not just stay home in paradise, Ozzies? Why the all-consuming obsession to come to Thailand?

[Ulysses G.]

the cheap beer

Where are they hiding that? Must be in Vietnam!

[ozzieovaseas]

the cheap beer

Where are they hiding that? Must be in Vietnam!

Well,i speak in comparison to beer bought from a bottleshop in Oz...

I think around $6-7 for a 700ml bottle (even more in pub or restaurant)...equals around 195 BAHT

LOS..Leo in supermarket: 50 baht

OR still drinkable archa: 28 baht

[toptuan]

I reckon a fortnight's bed and breakfast in Helmand would be a bit dicier.

" Hello? Reception? Excuse me. This is Mr Jones in room 109. I wonder if you could you move me to a quieter room room please? I can't sleep because of the American helicopter gunships razing the Taleban stronghold across the street and an armoured personnel carrier has just crashed through my wall.

Haha, talk about a dumb tourist going to Afghanistan to begin with.

And <deleted>'s a fortnight? First time I'd heard it over here I had to think back to my high school Shakespeare to dust the cobwebs off the term 'fortnight'. A Canadian colleague asked me the same question. Some Brits occasionally use 'fortnight' but many Aussies use it regularly.

Very popular word in Oz because people are paid fortnightly.

Why do they pay them at night?

[jombom]

Well of cause it will have a high number of death compared to another country because like they said its the No.2 Asian destination for australians , they tell you that 105 died , but they dont say how many people went there !!! its all about the ratio of people to deaths

Ummm...let me help.

Thailand had 380,000 Australian tourists of which 105 died, which means 1 in every 3,619 tourists die

Indonesia has 420,000 Australian tourists of which 58 died, which means 1 in every 7,241 tourists dies

That means that as an Australian tourist, statistically speaking, you are twice as likely to die holidaying in Thailand than in Indonesia.

Are those the ratios you were referring to?

HMM...having read that you might think it had something to do with the "class" of tourists that are more likely to come here compared to those that go to Indonesia

And Yeh, i know the irony of saying that when I spend a lot of time here myself

Some interesting comments in these posts.

Another point I would add is that the length of time spent at each destination, needs to be considered. From observation and talking with Aussies, I get the impression that Bali is popular for short breaks, while Thailand is popular for longer visits.

If for example the average vacation in Bali was 10 days, but Thailand was 20 days, the risk of dying on any given day would be approx equal for both locations.

This is one of the problems with statistics --- we need to compare apples with apples.

[bonobo]

Some interesting comments in these posts.

Another point I would add is that the length of time spent at each destination, needs to be considered. From observation and talking with Aussies, I get the impression that Bali is popular for short breaks, while Thailand is popular for longer visits.

If for example the average vacation in Bali was 10 days, but Thailand was 20 days, the risk of dying on any given day would be approx equal for both locations.

This is one of the problems with statistics --- we need to compare apples with apples.

That is a very valid point.  Looking at the total number of "visiting days" versus deaths would give you a much better statistic for comparing.  I don't have any figures to back this up, but I would imagine that more Australians retire in Thailand than in Indonesia, so that would add 365 "visiting days' for each retiree (ignoring trips back home) when compared to the 7 visiting days for someone going to Bali for a week.

Then you would also have to look a demographics.  I have never hung out in the tourist destinations in Indonesia, but from what i have seen on television, it looks like Bali, in particular, is a little more skewed to couples and females while Thailand is a little more skewed towards single males.  And in the western world, single young adult males die at a higher rate than either couples or females.  I don't know if there really is a huge demographic difference between Australians in Thailand when compared to Indonesia, but that needs to be determined in order to obtain any reasonable conclusion.

To compare apples to apples, you would need to take a demographic segment, say single males between the ages of 20 and 40, for example, determine the total number of days this segment spends in each country, then compare that to the number of deaths.

I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that the Aussie death rate, for this segment, is pretty much the same for both countries.

[a2396]

As soon as they can show that 80% of them didn't die of old age, perhaps they can really claim it's so dangerous.

Also, blaming a country because visitors roar around the beach areas on bikes while wearing no helmuts is a bit of stretch.

You miss the point entirely.

No one is blaming Thailand for anything....and the fact that people can "roar around the beach areas on bikes while wearing no helmuts" is precisely why the numbers are they way they are...it's a dangerous place. Get it.

I'm sure some died of old age...but I'd say you attempts at trying to justify Thailand is not dangerous is "a bit of a stretch".

It's not Thailand that is dangerous. It's the idiots that are here and their behavior that is dangerous to themselves. I feel much safer here than I did in my home country. You just have to take some sensable precautions against certain local hazards.

[david96]

Death rate for Australian Nationals only (not permanent residents) of Australia.

By natural causes.

Work related.

Accidents, Traffic and pedestrian.

On the water

Aircraft accidents.

etc,etc.

Murder

Sucicide

Drug related

etc, etc.

Deaths and injuries by proscribed "terrorist" activities these apply to Bali and Jakarta.

Compare these with Bali (Indonesia) and Thailand ( Pattaya, Phuket and the major tourist areas that Australians visit.).

What is not stated is the number injured many seriously and these are the ones that require on going medical care.

The dead are dead, they do not vote,complain,or remember. We spend too much time worrying about the dead.

The main thing you should do before you travel is make sure your Will is up to date.And then you will have no problems, remember you are responsible for your actionsand how those actions effect others.

The numbers are not that high compared with other countries.

Statistics can and are manipulated for various purposes.

And, as an afterthought, if you die overseas make sure you obtain a death certificate, your Will

can not be processed without one.

[Mousehound]

My math may be wrong but 18k Australians died from deaths other than old age / chronic illness etc. If we say there are about 22million Ausies then, factoring in a division of 26 based on an average of a 2 week stay in LOS it would seem that you have a .006 more chance of kaarking it in LOS than in Aus.

OR I could go back to live in a semi in Warrington in UK and pretend to be alive!

Give me Aus or LOS anytime.

[midasthailand]

And, as an afterthought, if you die overseas make sure you obtain a death certificate, your Will

can not be processed without one.

So after I die overseas, where do I go to get my death certificate? (assuming I give a S@#T what happens to my worldly possessions after I have kicked the bucket)

[rabcbroon]

As soon as they can show that 80% of them didn't die of old age, perhaps they can really claim it's so dangerous.

Also, blaming a country because visitors roar around the beach areas on bikes while wearing no helmuts is a bit of stretch.

You miss the point entirely.

No one is blaming Thailand for anything....and the fact that people can "roar around the beach areas on bikes while wearing no helmuts" is precisely why the numbers are they way they are...it's a dangerous place. Get it.

I'm sure some died of old age...but I'd say you attempts at trying to justify Thailand is not dangerous is "a bit of a stretch".

Not trying to justify it mate but perhaps the article (despite two sentences at the bottom) should place more emphasis on the behavior of those who come here. You want to blame the police because you didn't where a helmut?

You still don't get it - MATE

[jupiler]

100 Ausies

200 Brits

... Americans

.... European

....Japanese

..Koreans

...Arabs

Well let's say around 1000 foreigners a year ( 3 a day), die in The Kingdom.

[minefield]

What the Sydney morning herald should have said.

The Australian idiots that go off on holiday get drunk and then take off on a motor-bike no helmet and kill them self,s are giving Thailand a bad name

The holiday shops in Sydney should be promoting kill your self holidays in Thailand,,, Blame everyone else but not your self it's the Aussie way

[elkangorito]

I like the word association here. Look at the pic below..."dangerous place"..."minefield".

Ok, my sense of humour is strange.

[Old Croc]

An interesting question posed by the OP. A seemingly lopsided stat at first glance considering the similarities of the two destinations.

And it attracted the usual silly and non-sensical answers thrown up by the usual posters who rush into print attempting to prove how smart they are, but achieving only the opposite. (You know who I'm talking to. )

Thanks to posters like bonobo, and a couple of others who reasonably pointed it out, the answer really is quite clear.

A lot more single men travel to thailand for a lot longer periods, up to and including forever (ie death).

[thefalang]

Interesting that in todays Sydney Morning Herald, Thailand is rated as the most dangerous place for Australians to visit, claiming 105 died in Thailand in 2008/09, that despite it being second to Bali in terms of tourist numbers (58 died in Indonesia).

You can read the article here.

After living in thailand for almost 20-years, I agree.

Thailand is a dangerous place for all foreigners for a number of reasons. Here are some statistics:

As per the Global Peace Index 2008:

Thai vs USA

Number of homicides per 100,000 people 3 : 2

Level of violent crime 4 : 1

Level of organized conflict (internal) 3 : 1

Overall rank 2008 1-140 (1 most peacful) 118 : 97

As per WHO:

Heavy vehicle driver collision with car, pickup, van *

Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)

#1 Ecuador: 185 deaths

#2 Thailand: 48 deaths

#3 Mexico: 15 deaths

#4 Venezuela: 6 deaths

#5 Korea, South: 6 deaths

Unspecified drowning and submersion (per capita)

World Ranking Deaths per 1 million people (numbers rounded to nearest whole digit)

#1 Belize: 64

#2 Thailand: 56

#3 Cayman Islands :45

#4 Kyrgyzstan: 44

#5 El Salvador: 42

As per the OECD Factbook 2007: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics for 2005, road fatalities/million population for Italy and the US were 90 and 145 respectively. As per the Department of Highways of Thailand, road fatalities for the same period were 504 (per million population)! That's almost 6 times the fatality rate in Italy for the same year.

The homicide with firearms rates in Thailand are equally as staggering. Based on the 8th UN survey 2002, Thailand rated 3rd in the world (actual number of people murdered) for murders with firearms, surpassed only by Columbia and South Africa. On a per capita basis, Thailand's murder rate was approximately 6 times that of the US. Thailand's murder rate (all causes) was double that of the US.