Tuk-tuks Clearly A Bane To Phuket Tourism

[animatic]

Where there is a market there will also be market gougers.

Gonna be in Phuket at dinner time, and expect a nice Xmas there.

[toptuan]

Hypothesis: The higher the concentration of farang in any area in Thailand, the worse the place is to live in.

Discuss, using one side of the forum only.

[Oberkommando]

And smiling Thaipeople are history in tourism centers anyway

Really? I met loads of them in Ayutthaya last week. Phuket has a reputation for being unfriendly, and from experience I find the Southern Thais a lot less friendly than those in the North.

Thai attitudes turn to sh*t probably because of the daily abuse of tattooed hooligan scum from the U.K., ancient sex tourists, and a wide assortment of degenerates.

The Thais attitude has always been one of suspicion, distrust and dislike towards foreigners.

The recent influx of degenerates is only worsening the situation.

[DegenFarang]

It's like this on all of the islands I have visted to some degree. Phuket obviously being the worst but Samui is also extremely bad - though there at least you get to sit in a nice, new air-conditioned taxi while you are getting price gouged.

Haven't been to Phuket in a long time but now whenever I go to Samui, Phangan and Tao one of the very first things I do is rent a motorbike. Nothing pisses me off more than having no other option than paying 200 baht for a three minute taxi/tuk tuk ride - or in the case of Koh Tao, doing it sitting in the back of some guys pickup truck.

[moskito]

NEWS from PHUKET GAZETTE today, thought it fits in this thread here

MAI KHAO, PHUKET: Tourists disembarking at Phuket International Airport this morning encountered even more high-season chaos than usual, as police erected a new checkpoint there in an attempt to crack down on illegal ‘black plate’ taxis.

Phuket International Airport Director Prathueng Sornkham held a meeting at the airport yesterday to announce the crackdown, which he said was put in place at the request of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports following complaints from tourists.

The crackdown began at 9am sharp, when Wing Commander Prathueng was joined by Phuket Land Transport Office Director Kanok Siripanichakorn, Tha Chat Chai Police and Tourist Police in setting up a checkpoint at the exit gate of the airport to check for private cars carrying paying customers.

“Most of the complaints are from tourists, who say the black plate drivers annoy them, such as by taking them on shopping tours against their will and pestering them to buying things they don’t want or need. Some of them fall victim to scams,” he said.

The crackdown will continue, he said.

“We need to restore our good image among tourists…From the information we have, we think there are now about 200 illegal taxis operating here and we hope to solve this problem soon,” he said.

Mr Pratueng said he called yesterday’s meeting to let everyone at the airport know in advance what was coming, so that services there could continue as smoothly as possible despite the crackdown.

“We really have to help each other out, as currently there are 100,000 passengers transiting through the airport every month,” he said.

The only ones left out of the loop, it seems, were tourists. Many were forced to wait about 30 minutes with no idea what was going on while authorities interrogated their drivers.

Black plate taxis have long operated clandestinely at the airport, which is run by Airport of Thailand (AoT) Public Company Limited.

All taxis legally picking up fares from the airport must pay AoT, which has a concession arrangement with the Phuket Mai Khao Company to run sedan limousines onto AoT property.

Taxi meters are also allowed onto AoT grounds, but must pay a flat fee per fare.

In both case, the costs are passed on to passengers. Both limousine drivers and meter taxis have long complained that taxi syndicates controlling other parts of the island make it impossible for them to pick up return passengers, further increasing their fuel costs and driving up fares.

One ‘black taxi’ driver told the Gazette he was only reacting to passenger demand by supplying transport to and from the airport at true market value.

Most of his customers were either friends or repeat customers that called him on his cell phone when they needed transport to or from the airport.

Many are expat residents who refuse to use the overpriced services of organized transport services on the island, he said.

He never tries to take his passengers anywhere they don’t want to go, but admitted that other illegal drivers might employ such tactics.

If stopped by authorities, he would simply say the passengers were his friends and he was providing the service free of charge, he said.

I highlighted three points which I found funny,

1. Good idea to anounce a crackdown before it happend.........

2. which GOOD image he is talking about?

3. Why its called TAXI METER then?

let me know if you have an answer to my questions please

[JiveTalker]

Hypothesis: The higher the concentration of farang in any area in Thailand, the worse the place is to live in.

Discuss, using one side of the forum only.

Thai attitudes turn to sh*t probably because of the daily abuse of tattooed hooligan scum from the U.K., ancient sex tourists, and a wide assortment of degenerates. Not to put all the blame on the western trash a lot of the thai touts are the cesspool of society as well. It's basically a toilet bowl where sh*t meets sh*t and flushes into one brown and yellow swirl.

General prices and housing also go up because lame brained tourists are too stupid to bargain and aging expats living on pensions don't care.

Quality goes down. Service at even 2nd tier places like MK goes to sh*t because the staff knows they don't have to work as hard to keep any standard when the clientele is bar girls with expat boyfriends. You see more service personnel standing around idle chatting with crap attitudes because they know they don't have to remain presentable for anyone. Scams and other games goes way up as they know they are not held accountable for anything short of maybe mass murder.

Spoken like someone who's spent 2 weeks in a bar in Patong/Pattaya. Get out and see the rest of the country. You only see hooligan scum because that's what you're looking for. Open your mind and try to enjoy life.

[moskito]

Hypothesis: The higher the concentration of farang in any area in Thailand, the worse the place is to live in.

Discuss, using one side of the forum only.

Thai attitudes turn to sh*t probably because of the daily abuse of tattooed hooligan scum from the U.K., ancient sex tourists, and a wide assortment of degenerates. Not to put all the blame on the western trash a lot of the thai touts are the cesspool of society as well. It's basically a toilet bowl where sh*t meets sh*t and flushes into one brown and yellow swirl.

General prices and housing also go up because lame brained tourists are too stupid to bargain and aging expats living on pensions don't care.

Quality goes down. Service at even 2nd tier places like MK goes to sh*t because the staff knows they don't have to work as hard to keep any standard when the clientele is bar girls with expat boyfriends. You see more service personnel standing around idle chatting with crap attitudes because they know they don't have to remain presentable for anyone. Scams and other games goes way up as they know they are not held accountable for anything short of maybe mass murder.

Spoken like someone who's spent 2 weeks in a bar in Patong/Pattaya. Get out and see the rest of the country. You only see hooligan scum because that's what you're looking for. Open your mind and try to enjoy life.

Sorry JiveTalker, but obviously you are the one who have no idea here! Its like it is. foreigners changed over the past years. Many Farangs visiting LoS atm have absolutely no idea of the culture, many of them just came because they heard its cheap, for the bargirls and for the cheap alcohol. If tourists running around with a beerbottle on streets everywhere, not only in Patong and Pattaya, how they expect Thais to treat them as humans? Its common to drink in Thailand but not to running around while drinking. I also NEVER saw a Thai without a T-shirt in a shopping center, bank or public office.

We cant just take our houses and move up to the north to see another part of the country, like you suggested here!

btw, TOPIC is the transportation system!

[pampal]

The last time I was in Phuket(2004), I rented a private car with driver for 800 baht/day.

Problem solved.

[LuckyLew]

AS long as there is a Phuket with a Patong there will be tourists.

It is here forever. The island provides a combination of services

that cannot be found in many other tourist areas.

No issues with the tuk tuks

Now if they could just get rid of the yanks, the brits and the indian/

pakistani tailors it would be a great place

[SantiSuk]

Perhaps everyone should set aside 5 minutes of every day when in Phuket to walk up to a few tuk tuk drivers, start to negotiate a price and then walk away saying too expensive. Small steps seep through.

[webfact]

One off-topic post deleted

[Jingthing]

What a fantastic idea! Every resident and tourist in Phuket get their own private auto or bike. Bloody brilliant!

[KarenBravo]

What a fantastic idea! Every resident and tourist in Phuket get their own private auto or bike. Bloody brilliant!

That's not far from what has actually happened, thus, the virtual grid-lock on the roads at peak hours.

An affordable public transport system may reduce the need to use personal transport for every trip.

[happyinkathu]

What a fantastic idea! Every resident and tourist in Phuket get their own private auto or bike. Bloody brilliant!

That's not far from what has actually happened, thus, the virtual grid-lock on the roads at peak hours.

An affordable public transport system may reduce the need to use personal transport for every trip.

Absolutely will not work..most developed counties have great public transport systems, but they also are gridlocked , for a number of reasons i, believe..

One reason is that the humble car has gone, changed from being a mere means of conveyance into a mobile luxury lounge room, complete with every conceivable mod con immaginable..so Joe Average is not going to convey himself around in a fairly basic public transport vehical and miss out on his/her ''must haves!''

Another reason is that the majority of people now are unbelievably LAZY..most would not walk to save themselves! If the public transport did not pick them up within metres of their home and drop them off within metres of their destination they will simply continue to use the car, or at least here in T/land ,use the twist and go.

[moskito]

guess it fits in this thread NEWS

from PHUKET GAZETTE

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Metered tuk-tuks 'just an idea': Phuket Gov

PHUKET: In a bid to end disputes between drivers and passengers over fares, the Phuket governor is considering introducing meters to Phuket tuk-tuks.

Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop said natural gas-powered tuk-tuks could also be rolled out in order to cut down on fuel costs.

Any metered fee structure would still have to reflect Phuket’s status as an international tourist destination, Gov Wichai said.

“The prices aren’t going to start at 35 baht,” he said. “It could be 120 or 250 baht, but I don’t know yet because we have to set up prices that both sides are happy with.”

Gov Wichai was keen to stress the plans were ‘just an idea’ at this stage.

He also expressed some dismay that one local blogsite chose to report his idea after he expressly asked all the reporters present at a meeting yesterday not to do so.

“It’s my sincere desire to make this happen, but that doesn’t mean it will. Nothing has started yet,” he told the Gazette today.

Many tourism business operators and expat residents hold Gov Wichai in high regard for his introduction of the mandatory insurance scheme aimed at ending disputes between tourists and jet-ski operators, the first of its kind in the world.

No previous governor had ever taken serious action to put the jet-ski rental industry in order.

Problems continue, however, with a number of jet-skis operating without the insurance.

There have also been some reports of continued disputes over repair costs between operators of insured jet-skis and the tourists who rent them.

There is widespread agreement in Phuket that imposing order on the island’s tuk-tuk industry and developing reasonably-priced transport options for tourists will be a challenge of a much greater scale, given the relative size of the two industries.

so, all in all he let us know that he dont have the power to do ANYTHING....

Tuk tuks still going on to dictate the transport fees, doesnt matter with or without meter. Nothing will change until we got another, totally different PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION system....a lot of blablabla and hot air.