What is it with the transportation systems here.

Do the locals really think tourists want to ride around in

those crappy little, dangerous contraptions they call public transport ?

OK I guess for a quick half kilometer trip down the road but any novelty

value they have wears off very quickly.

And they want to attract “quality tourists”.

Sheeeeeeeesh, gimmee a break !

By the way, anyone left in Phuket ?

What is it with the transportation systems here.

Do the locals really think tourists want to ride around in

those crappy little, dangerous contraptions they call public transport ?

By the way, anyone left in Phuket ?

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Err.......................Yes Again....

Go home then! (again)

...Do the locals really think tourists want to ride around in those crappy little, dangerous contraptions they call public transport ?

OK I guess for a quick half kilometer trip down the road but any novelty value they have wears off very quickly....

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The locals don't ride around - much - in tuk-tuks, but some do. The so-called 'mafia' controls the tourist transport in Phuket, although the governor - or a minister - is trying to get more metered taxis on to the island.

I think the last time a public bus service was started between Patong and Karon was in about 1997, and the driver was beaten up. So the service was halted. End of story - the mafia rules

End of story - the mafia rules

That's right! So watch your step or else you could be wearing cement galoshes feeding the fish in Chalong Bay!

Hardly ever take a tuk tuk these days. If i need to get somewhere and my own bike isnt available for whatever reason, i'll grab a motorbike taxi, still mafia controlled but cheaper

I always advise tourists to use taxi's (metered or otherwise) over Tuk Tuks where possible, also try and give them an idea on what a fair price is for a typical journey, but at the end of the day its down to them.

That Patong/Karon bus route thing, i heard the poor driver went through a lot more than just a "beating" when the mafia got hold of him... i understand hes fishfood... (of course i could be wrong)

I'm with Wolfie on this one, I rarely use Tuk Tuks, being over-priced, scamming as they are. Nevertheless, they have price lists these days and I think the OP needs to understand things aren't always the same as back home

I have stopped using the Tuk Tuks in Patong, the price has gone up by 500% over a few years, and now they want to multiply by the number of people you are, so if you have a friend along and a couple of BG's it's 400 bath, a few years ago it was 20 bath, now we walk home screw them MAFIA

.... now they want to multiply by the number of people you are, so if you have a friend along and a couple of BG's it's 400 bath, ...

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Yes - I overheard a group of about six Japanese tourists at Big C talking - loudly - to a tuk-tuk driver who wanted 6 times the fair to take all of them and their shopping somewhere. So I wondered, as they all crammed into the one tuk-tuk, why didn't they take 3 tuk-tuks and sit more comfortably with two people in each? Strange people .

I also wondered what happened to their giant air-con tourist coach, complete with police motorcycle outriders, as that is their normal mode of transport .

Yup...the tuk-tuk mafia run Phuket. All they have to do is block the airport road, and their demands are met instantaneously.

Don't use tuk-tuks very often, but, the old boy drivers in Phuket Town during the day are generally honest and polite.

A hard hard rain is gonna fall when these tuktuk thugs/thieves finally get driven out of business by fair and open competition from AC'd taxis. It is just a matter of time. I hope some of them will be able to do something else, altho I seriously doubt it. So the few without alternatives will be like the tuktuk relics running around Bangkok.

It is a tough pill to take .... change. But you cannot stop technological competition forever.

Sighhhh .....

Funny that they are more popular now in the UK, they've just started making their way into the country via a company called MMW Imports and people seem to love them there. Mind, they're up to UK spec and run by responsible owners. The Rolls Royce of tuk-tuks you might say