The so called "prime sukhumvit area" from emporium to nana is nothing close to higher middle class area since many years. The riffraff has taken over until soi 11 turning it to good old fashioned slum and it is spreading as we speak.

Now where is the crackdown when we need it. Several days now if you don't count the one in Phuket...

If you want a real eye opener, take a look on Suk soi 13, especially after midnight.

Cant comment further, wouldnt want to be accused of being racist.

These attacks are on the increase. My friend was attacked without provocation on Sukhumvit road. He was punched in the back of the head but the attacker fled quickly so he didn't have a chance to retaliate.

much rarer than in the west, where you really must be on your guard at all times.

It depends where in the West you are talking about. There are many safe places and many dangerous places. Thailand is no different.

In the west most crimes are reported, in no news is good news Thailand the opposite is true

In the west most crimes are reported, in no news is good news Thailand the opposite is true

I don’t recall th OP saying he filed a police report. How would this get reported otherwise?

TH

The OP is a irresponsible not giving the location of an attack yet posting it in a public forum warning about attacks! There is absolutely no reason not to state the location. I posted about my friend having her mobile phone snatched from sukhumvit (as did others) all stating the soi. People should know.

You might think the attackers/robbers travel from afar to commit these crimes...the police think otherwise. Mobile phone snatched from Suk but robber from Petchburi, sold to shop in Seacon. The same bikes are used around sukhumvit sois and they don't travel that far to get "home" and sort through the belongings. The crimes seems to be committed in fairly close proximity by the same people - they don't have the sense to rob in sukhumvit then rob in Chinatown the next night.

State locations to help others be aware.

OUCH, I think that this is really awful... Good luck with your recovery!

Do you have any experiences with some foreigner retaliating and then calling the thai police? Will they arrest the guy that is hitting back then calling the police on them?

Before I was afraid that if i retaliate too hard i might be the one to blame and the one to be put behind bars based on some of the posts on here, but we have to protect ourselves somehow as well...

What would be your suggestion if you are attacked and lets say you have slippers on and they have sneakers instead of going into conflict with the attackers...

i don't think it's the cell phone they were after. just a thought. i've walked around the mean streets of bangkok with a smart phone worth more than what most thais make in 3 months, and not one of them attacked me for it. however, the motorcycle, tuk-tuk and taxi drivers are quite annoying. what kind of run-in did you have earlier that day or that week?

Does that make you think that it was not cell phone he was after? I think it was.

They snatch, telephones, jewellery, womans hand-bags etc. etc. One was threatened to give away his expensive wrist watch to one of these thugs. (He gad a big knife.) Most of these thugs are unemplyed and on drugs. They usually are two or three together. They are cowards, and are afraid of doing it alone.

These things happends every day, many times, even if they did not attack you.

I am sorry he was beaten with a stick with nails it it. I am happy, that this idiot did not get his telphone. I hope he will be OK.

"I was born and raised in a rough city in the West, but I have never had anything like this ever happen to me before over there or anywhere else in the world. Obviously Thailand is not as safe as it once was. Welcome to Bangkok 2010! "

I looked carefully through the OP's essay to find what I was looking for, and it was almost exactly what I anticipated: from a one-off attack he inductively reasons "Thailand is not as safe as it once was". The exasperation of the "Obviously" is just cream on the pudding. Beautiful.

It reminds me of a not-too-bright American girl who had her wallet stolen in Japan. Her supplément was to assert that it just shows you Japan is not as safe as you think it is. Unless you thought there was zero crime in Japan, then it shows no such thing. Similarly the OP is in error to believe any conclusions can be drawn from his experience.