Will you go to Koh Tao?

[dalpha]

I think everybody should boycott the island. It's clear that someone in the tourist industry with big money don't want the truth to come out. Why go there, when they look at tourist like cattle?

[CockneyGit]

Grow up, drama Queens.

Koh Tao is no more corrupt or dangerous than any other Thai destination.

[draftvader]

Grow up, drama Queens.

Koh Tao is no more corrupt or dangerous than any other Thai destination.

We do, however, have some real evidence for once. A push for the British Authorities to flex a little muscle (none of that pathetic "oh Britain is nothing", still a top 10 global economy at the moment) and demand that they can verify the results of the DNA testing themselves as it involves 2 British subjects. Once that is done and the evidence is published I'll take my whole family there. This year I think I'll have to write off a holiday to Koh Tao.

How many people won't get that it isn't about our safety but about our ability to have a voice and make a change. Is this too much for you?

[SoiBiker]

I think everybody should boycott the island. It's clear that someone in the tourist industry with big money don't want the truth to come out. Why go there, when they look at tourist like cattle?

You know a tourist place where they don't?

[brd]

Knowing much to much of the islanders real so dangerous uncontrolled and never caught by the justice actions I would not recommend anyone to go there and myself I would go if only by boat staying offshores certainly not to stay neither for a night nor for a meal...!

This latest murder is similar to previous ones always foreigners becoming friendly with locals in a bar, night club, what ever and the girls attracting the bestial instinct of those animals not only raping them but killing them for no reason other than to satisfy their thirst to get a foreign girl.

Too easy to use scapegoats once more as in this case it stinks again to have been until proven wrong I am by independent serious recognized International Organisations.

Where is the American FBI mentioned ? WHere do the DNA results come from ? why all this meddling of the murdered with the medias presence ? Every one ( local Police included ) looking like making a cover up with it.

Animals are unrestrained on those islands......Phukett/PhiPhi/Samui/Chang all over the past years had similar unsolved cases....DO NOT mix ever with them, being friendly is a risk especially for blond women same on Yachting around do not board with you blond women.

Do you ever meet on holidays on those islands Bangkok or mainland Thai people there ? none...of course they are aware of the dangers and never talk about them.....

Horrific case for the victims and for their families.

[uty6543]

If I was not going to go to a place that has had a murder where in the world can I go?

[santa1000]

I don´t understand some of you guy" it is safe, this will not happen again, i will go and diving there or snorkeling"
IT IS NOT ABOUT THAT.
It is about showing those A-holes who run the island that you can not kill 2 young tourists and get away with it. We foreigners maybe don´t have so much power in Thailand but by avoiding that island and not spending 1 single baht there, they maybe understand.

[SoiBiker]

Funny how it's seemingly ok to decide who you think committed the crime and then punish them by boycotting their island, without worrying too much about the evidence.

[jdinasia]

It is not the fact that murders have occurred, but it appears the mafia operation there operates with more than the usual hubris and impunity. Visiting would be equivalent to endorsement.

Are you stating that these things do not happen in CNX? Etc??

I don't see anything of the sort in canuckamuck's post.

Keep reading..

[garyinhuahin]

I think now is rather the perfect time to go. Quiet and peaceful for once. My last visits were wrecked by the techno and rowdy packer/divers.

Like Phi Phi, KT up to now has been a paradise lost.

[Smurkster]

No and not only Ko Tao will i not be patronizing, but once I leave, that will include all of Thailand

[cbluck58]

Only to stand outside the police station and laugh at them until I was carried off !

[canuckamuck]

Funny how it's seemingly ok to decide who you think committed the crime and then punish them by boycotting their island, without worrying too much about the evidence.

As a free thinking individual I choose whatever burden of proof is necessary for my own decisions.

[Fairynuff]

A fit up job..

.

Possibly. I rather doubt it though.

I rather doubt it's NOT a fit up.

Would I go? Unlikely I would have done. Now it's a definite no. Not cos i'm scared, more cos I thnk there's not a reason to spend a single baht of my money there.

[Andyfarquar]

Honestly this fiasco has put me off Thailand a bit but not specifically Koh Tao. I mean Koh Tao is not any different to any other place hit by a tragedy in Thailand, they don't want the truth to be published anywhere here after a potentially damaging event. To put things in perspective, at least half a dozen women have been raped, murdered and dumped on the roadside in Pampanga, Philippines in the time we've all been debating this malarky but not one mention has been made about them.

People have short memories and this will all blow over in a few months, just like all the others. Although I feel this way, I do feel bad for the bereaved, my heart goes out to them.

In short: 'Not my circus, not my monkeys'.....

[jimbeam1]

I thought I would just take a look here to see what the responses were.

jb1

[Calach]

Now that there will be less tourists, I might consider going there.

[stevenl]

Why would anybody not go? People who are discouraged by the 2 murders should think what happens in other places in the world, including there own country and place.

This case has shown that there are 1000 illegal immigrants working on the island paying the BiB to do so. The AC Bar employed illegals to save money by not employing locals or legal immigrants. If the arrested are the culprits then the BiB and the AC bar owner is complicit in the deaths of these kids because they have ignored the law for personal gain.

Same at any bar, guesthouse, restaurant, any business in tourism employing more than 4 people or so in many places where law enforcement is not that good. So all Gulf Islands, Phi Phi, Lanta, etc. etc.

But my opinion has nothing to do with the right people arrested yes or no, only with the fact that an incident like this is just that, an incident.

Totally agreed. I think that the residents of Koh Tao (including the real suspects) daren't fart without making sure its legal. Problem is that I would always try to make moral decisions in my spending. This is how I make a difference in the world. I am just a small person in a massive ocean. It everybody like me acts this way we'll change everything. Starting now....here....with this.

They obviously have no respect for others so we need to have no respect for them. The only respect they want from us is THB so I chose to cut that out. Quite simple really. Looks like its working for now.

That I can totally respect.

But not going because of these murders makes no sense IMO.

[laislica]

why not? no more corrupt or dangerous than any other thai resort

With the downturn in tourism, the crack down on corruption, there are fewer targets tourists to be prayed upon.

I would avoid all popular tourist resorts as well.

[maprao]

No evidence to support my statement but I am with the earlier poster. The real culprits now feel invincible because they got away with it.

I will never go. For me it is a just a gut feeling but with 15 years experience in Thailand my gut feelings are getting more and more tuned in and never rarely let me down.

[SPB65]

I've been to Koh Tao at least 5-6 times over 17 or so years and have always had a good time there. Sensi Paradise is a fantastic natural resort that I love going back to. But after all this,no chance. Koh Tao can go and get 'effed'. I just wonder which will be the next Thai 'paradise' to get completely ruined. For a myriad of reasons Thailand becomes a less desirable and enjoyable country to visit and stay by the day. Time to move on and leave it all behind. The world's too big and interesting to worry about this rotten tropical cesspit.

[connda]

I'd go there before I'd go to Phuket. .

[Mosha]

Imagine sat in s bar there, and a Thai strikes up a conversation. "Hello my name is Mon, what is yours?"

[thejcb]

Whatever has happened there wouldn't put me off going.

However, never wanted to go and still have no reason to.

Let's face it, there is nothing there except sand and sun and I detest both those things.

Nothing to do except get burnt and drink beer and listen to arrogant locals that think they know everything about everything.

How boring, Better to stay at home with a cup of tea and everything I want around me (and that is England of course)

[IAMSOBAD]

I would rather go to North Korea and Iran dressed like a girl scout than go to Con Tao.

[richusa]

That's why I'm in Bali....Thailand will get very little of MY CASH.

[Cynical]

It's tragic about what happened to these two and I hope their families can have some sort of closure with the arrest of the the people that did this. Is there more crime in Thailand now than there was 20 years ago when I first came here or is it more publicized?

When i first started dating my Thai wife many years ago, we made love on the beach in Koh Chang and it scared the hell out of her. Thais don't behave like this for a very good reason.

Only stupid people go to a Full Moon party or go binge drinking on holiday and think there isn't a heightened risk of danger. There are a lot of bad people out there and they come in all guises.

You would think that some form of British advisory organization would issue some kind of warning to the 800,000 British tourists that come to Thailand each year.

[tomyumchai]

i will not fund an island where the person selling stuff to you could possibly be the one who swung that hoe, and looks at you knowing he could do it to you and theres nothing that can be done to him.

in 2006 i was on phi phi where id learned to dive and was going for my divemaster. my attractive thai g/f at that time was getting a lot of unwanted attention from 1 of the island bosses sons. he told her to get me on a longtail trip and 2 of them would drown me,and she could stay on the island with him. i laughed at her for being silly but she packed and left 1st thing in the morning so i followed. they never got another baht off me from then and never will again.

[longstebe]

Why would anybody not go? People who are discouraged by the 2 murders should think what happens in other places in the world, including there own country and place.

What about the families of the victims?

I'm pretty sure the police have got this wrong and it has something to do with the local Mafia families.

Ask yourself this, could you honestly go there and line their pockets and support their business with your hard earned cash.

[BV70]

It's the overflowing sewage, constant construction, price fixing, mafia taxi gangs and general overpricing of absolutely everything that makes me not want to visit Koh Tao again. I headed there for the diving, and it really is quite poor in comparison to other site. Absolutely no reason to visit again. The despicable murders have only confirmed what I felt when on the island: threatened, ripped-off and unwelcome.