Bangkok Police 'Checkpoints'

[hughben]

I read on Stickman yesterday, that he has heard from readers (foreigners) being taken to a gas station and pee tested east of Asok (which is notorious for police stopping people on foot).

[jybkk]

Someone also complained about that on a 'reader's letter' section of one of Thailand's english newspaper: got stopped and frisked at Asoke, even pee-tested.

About a week ago same thing happened to me and a friend of mine. Going to Terminal 21 from Petchburi by taxi, we stopped at Asoke intersection on the left side (near Soi Cowboy) to cross through the MRT underpass. 2 policemen on a moto stopped us. Looked in our bags, pockets, etc...

They were relatively polite, mostly because we can speak thai and showed them our Thai driving licenses (and explained we've been working here for almost a decade). Most of their questions in english sounded 'pre-formatted' specifically for tourists (where is your hotel, when did you arrive in Thailand, etc...).

They let us go after about 2-3 minutes when it was clear we were not the type of foreigners they were looking for.

I can imagine this would be a quite intimidating experience for tourists.

However, I did not have the impression they were trying to frame anyone. They seemed to be genuinely looking for drugs/illegal activity.

[Pinothippy]

http://www.wowasis.com/travelblog/?p=6098

A warning that tourists are being targeted by the BIB for spot searches and urine tests.