Phuket Taxis Blockade Luxury Cruise Ship Passengers From Disembarking

[bangkoklight]

One can talk of boycotts and of avoiding, but the fact remains that tourists get into those tuk tuks every day and pay the asking price. If there wasn't a demand for the services, there wouldn't be any tuk tuks, right? Some of the tricked out tuk tuks can cost 1 million baht and it is not unusual to have a 400,000 baht cost for a basic tuk tuk. The owners have to pay for that investment as soon as possible. No hotel is going to risk having a confrontation and will just steer clear of the issue. The fact of the matter is that the tuk tuk problem is at its worst in the Kalim to Kata strip, with the epicentre Patong. If the major retailers gave a sh*t, do you think the taxi scum would be allowed to crawl all over Jungceylon or to occupy prime parking space in front of some the hottest outlets or main hotels? A place like Graceland in Patong can keep them out since it is walled. The Marriott Courtyard cannot.

There is a demand, yes as there is for mobile phone services, food outlets, bars, clothes shops, diamond rings, computers, toilet tissue, and anything else you can think of. But if I want to make a telephone call, I'm not forced to buy a SIMcard or phone card costing 10 or 20 times the normal rate from an intimidating, smelly thug waiting outside my house or hotel. I have a choice of network and package at the 7-11 or other shop I choose to go to. So there is a demand for TRANSPORT, yes.

The keyword here is CHOICE.

Edited April 10, 2011 by bangkoklight

[iSabai]

One can talk of boycotts and of avoiding, but the fact remains that tourists get into those tuk tuks every day and pay the asking price. If there wasn't a demand for the services, there wouldn't be any tuk tuks, right? Some of the tricked out tuk tuks can cost 1 million baht and it is not unusual to have a 400,000 baht cost for a basic tuk tuk. The owners have to pay for that investment as soon as possible. No hotel is going to risk having a confrontation and will just steer clear of the issue. The fact of the matter is that the tuk tuk problem is at its worst in the Kalim to Kata strip, with the epicentre Patong. If the major retailers gave a sh*t, do you think the taxi scum would be allowed to crawl all over Jungceylon or to occupy prime parking space in front of some the hottest outlets or main hotels? A place like Graceland in Patong can keep them out since it is walled. The Marriott Courtyard cannot.

There is a demand, yes as there is for mobile phone services, food outlets, bars, clothes shops, diamond rings, computers, toilet tissue, and anything else you can think of. But if I want to make a telephone call, I'm not forced to buy a SIMcard or phone card costing 10 or 20 times the normal rate from an intimidating, smelly thug waiting outside my house or hotel. I have a choice of network and package at the 7-11 or other shop I choose to go to. So there is a demand for TRANSPORT, yes.

The keyword here is CHOICE.

Yes, we can all agree with you. But idealism doesn't go far here, and your best option as a visitor or expat is to contact your consular reps and complain to them. Your efforts to boycott or organize one would only be a fruitless waste of time, and result in undue headaches for you and even possibly risk putting yourself in harm's way.

Why bother? This is something that needs to be worked out by the Thais, hopefully with some input from the consulate reps, and MAYBE they'll get the message. But as I say, I'm not holding my breath. Putting yourself in the middle of that fight can only bring you trouble.

[anterian]

Yes, we can all agree with you. But idealism doesn't go far here, and your best option as a visitor or expat is to contact your consular reps and complain to them. Your efforts to boycott or organize one would only be a fruitless waste of time, and result in undue headaches for you and even possibly risk putting yourself in harm's way.

Why bother? This is something that needs to be worked out by the Thais, hopefully with some input from the consulate reps, and MAYBE they'll get the message. But as I say, I'm not holding my breath. Putting yourself in the middle of that fight can only bring you trouble.

A boycott is too formal an action if you mean as a group activity. However, if I am typical of many tourists then before I visit a place I check the Internet for background information.

Having done this I would never dream of visiting Phuket, just as I would never stay at a particular hotel in Chiang Mai.

This is what being a tourist means in this modern age, be informed or be abused, there is no exscuse

for ignorance.

[metroman]

Apparently the gov't has no control over the streets. Any group can block any road as long as they want and the gov't must beg them to open the roads. It makes for an exciting visit.

[BangTaoBoy]

We need to start doing something guys! We need to take action! We need to e-mail the big hotels, the cruise liners, the respectable tour operators. We need to tell them that the tuk tuk and taxi mafia are jeopardising the wellbeing of tourists with their unsavory practices. We need to make them understand that this will affect their business and that of everyone working and living on the island. Let's go! We can't let these small men push us around anymore! We're good people!

Sorry, but that is the funniest post I've read in ages. I nearly wet myself when you said 'Let's go'.

Everything's relative. You get a taxi in Jamaica or Nigeria, you're lucky if you don't get your throat slit for the price of your wrist watch. Doesn't make paying, a couple of quid for a tuk tuk, seem so bad to me!

People go to communist countries on holiday, where people don't have the right to freedom of speech and can't access the internet. People go on holiday to countries where the military keep democratically, apointed leaders in prison for decades on end. As I already mentioned, people go on holiday to countries where, stepping foot outside your hotel is likely to get you shot in the face, so what the f#ck is so unbelievable, and hard to live with, about a monopolised transport system that means no busses can run, and you have to pay slightly (only slightly as well) over the odds for it??

What part of getting on a plane, and flying to the other side of the world, where different people from different countries and cultures, do things differently, did you not understand??

[Lancelot]

One can talk of boycotts and of avoiding, but the fact remains that tourists get into those tuk tuks every day and pay the asking price. If there wasn't a demand for the services, there wouldn't be any tuk tuks, right?

True and I don't ever see it changing-and why should it? Tourists continue to flock to Thailand in ever increasing numbers so the tuk tuk drivers will continue to do what they've always done, charge ridiculous fares.

Its not going to change folks

[SantiSuk]

Sorry, but that is the funniest post I've read in ages. I nearly wet myself when you said 'Let's go'.

Everything's relative. You get a taxi in Jamaica or Nigeria, you're lucky if you don't get your throat slit for the price of your wrist watch. Doesn't make paying, a couple of quid for a tuk tuk, seem so bad to me!

People go to communist countries on holiday, where people don't have the right to freedom of speech and can't access the internet. People go on holiday to countries where the military keep democratically, apointed leaders in prison for decades on end. As I already mentioned, people go on holiday to countries where, stepping foot outside your hotel is likely to get you shot in the face, so what the f#ck is so unbelievable, and hard to live with, about a monopolised transport system that means no busses can run, and you have to pay slightly (only slightly as well) over the odds for it??

What part of getting on a plane, and flying to the other side of the world, where different people from different countries and cultures, do things differently, did you not understand??

When I first went to New York some 25 years ago I was taken the long way round and charged double the fare that it should have been. It was well known amongst experienced travellers that you got ripped off by New York's yellow cabs if you had no smarts. Many of those arriving from London and other European destinations probably did not realise it or thought it was no more expensive than getting from Heathrow to central London or its equivalent in Paris or Munich.

Luckily it did change (due to a strong mayor and good administration I suspect). At JFK a few years ago as I alighted at JFK kerbside from downtown Manhattan a policeman asked me whether I had had any problems with the driver. 'No, but I'm experienced so when he insisted on $60 because it was Friday afternoon I insisted on the meter because it's the law'. 'Right - he's dead meat' said the cop and proceeded to get his citation book out in front of a very pissed off looking cabbie.

I guess you would have been laughing at the futility of anything being changed back 25 years ago and poo pooing anyone wanting to do anything about it then too! What part of indignant consumer response do you not understand?

[thaiwanderer]

We need to start doing something guys! We need to take action! We need to e-mail the big hotels, the cruise liners, the respectable tour operators. We need to tell them that the tuk tuk and taxi mafia are jeopardising the wellbeing of tourists with their unsavory practices. We need to make them understand that this will affect their business and that of everyone working and living on the island. Let's go! We can't let these small men push us around anymore! We're good people!

They probably think they are good (and also not misguided) people.

[BangTaoBoy]

When I first went to New York some 25 years ago I was taken the long way round and charged double the fare that it should have been. It was well known amongst experienced travellers that you got ripped off by New York's yellow cabs if you had no smarts. Many of those arriving from London and other European destinations probably did not realise it or thought it was no more expensive than getting from Heathrow to central London or its equivalent in Paris or Munich.

Luckily it did change (due to a strong mayor and good administration I suspect). At JFK a few years ago as I alighted at JFK kerbside from downtown Manhattan a policeman asked me whether I had had any problems with the driver. 'No, but I'm experienced so when he insisted on $60 because it was Friday afternoon I insisted on the meter because it's the law'. 'Right - he's dead meat' said the cop and proceeded to get his citation book out in front of a very pissed off looking cabbie.

I guess you would have been laughing at the futility of anything being changed back 25 years ago and poo pooing anyone wanting to do anything about it then too! What part of indignant consumer response do you not understand?

It's a nice story, but not that relevant I don't think. It wasn't tourists and expats that brought that change in New York was it? So why is it you think you have the right and ability to change things here.

Anyway, I'm running out of opinions to give on this subject, so I shall just wait (not with baited breath) and see what happens. I will be the first to hold my hands up and say I was wrong, if anything changes soon and changes because Farang wanted it to.

I will also, obviously be the first person to say' Told you so' in a couple of years time, when things are pretty much the same, and some bright spark has just made a post, saying 'Lets go people, we can change this if we stick together Blah Blah Blah'

[bangkoklight]

Regarding SantiSuk's post on New York cabs. Laws were enforced to protect the consumer which included, but wasn't limited to, newbie tourists.

The city acted because taxi drivers were overcharging tourists, which could have gravely affected New York's image as a tourist destination. Overcharging for a taxi ride is a crime. It's stealing.

Every culture aspires to having a system of law enforcement and Thailand is no different. Just because Thailand is "a different culture" doesn't mean that Thai people want mafia gangs ruling the streets deciding who goes where, when, for what price.

Back to New York, had the mayor not taken decisive action, what would the city be like today? A stay away place for tourists? A tourist destination joke of the world? A city with a police force powerless to take on the might of a taxi mafia? It's all possible.

Keeping tabs on one seemingly insignificant crime one day can save a lot of time, money, manpower, and lives the next.