‘Mafia island’: From paradise to bloodshed

[draftvader]

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[Badboldie]

My Son's have just returned from Koh Tao with friends and said it was a beautiful Island and the people lovely. They loved it I was a bit worried after what happened to the young British couple.They had nothing but friendliness from the local. It is very sad if this is true about Mafia the press it is getting is going to chase people away sadly.

I think you will be OK on Koh Tao as long as you don't go to the two bars that are run by the two brother and have an argument with them!

[Stokakrishna]

Its just never going to go away all.

Do the authorities still think that anyone, here or abroad following events, believes these two Burmese boys are guilty?

Do the authorities really still think that all these suspicious deaths will all be forgotten about in the era of social media?

I doubt Koh Tao will ever recover to anything near approaching the tourist revenues of the past. Its reputation appears, from what i keep reading, to be shattered for good. Such a shame because its such a beautiful island.

we all know that these burmese boys are innocent.

but we also know that tourists will be going to Koh tao as before. Koh tao will never recover?? from what?

There has been so much crap and other stories going all over Thailand, and the tourists never stopped coming.

even blocking of airports, martial laws, protests on the streets didn;t stop it.

so what are you talking about?

[TomJoad]

Embargo this island and cut off the money supply. Only the foolish would visit this island and support the local economy now.

Actually, Koh Tao was starting to get a little "pricey" the last time I was there.

Maybe if we boycott the island, their prices will come down and the 7/11's will buy generators so I can finally have some ice to go with my Big Gulp.

One can only hope.

[DM07]

This observation will have been made by others: Dimitri Povse is not a very French name. Now I know that you can have a French passport, much like a UK and US one, for all kinds of reasons, without really being from there in a cultural sense. Still...

So isn't Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djorkaeff or Samir Nasri.

Your point is...?

[DM07]

If foreigners just took a few moments and did some research there would be far fewer problems between foreigner and Thai. There are numerous examples all over the web of foreigners just having no common sense. Alcohol does wonders and the lack of common sense hits bottom . Koh Tao and the province of Surat it is easy for anyone with eyes wide open and half a brain to see the mafia is in total control. Just avoid where the majority of foreigners go and all the problems magically and mysterious go away. But the Full Moon Party folks are so out to lunch nothing matters. They seem to care less if all the money goes towards the local mafia. If that is not brain dead i don,t know what is. Foreigners need to take some responsibility for their own stupid actions.

Yeah right...they come here, to enjoy what they are lured in with, have the audacity to drink alcohol and expect NOT to be beaten up or killed!

Stupid farang! Bad farang!

It's not the killers...it's the victims!

[Whidbeyboy]

What is worrying is that other Thais elsewhere in Thailand are surely learning how easy it is to kill westerners.

Right, cause not knowing how easy it is to kill people is what keeps them from going all serial killer on everyone western. Are you serious?

[Whidbeyboy]

If foreigners just took a few moments and did some research there would be far fewer problems between foreigner and Thai. There are numerous examples all over the web of foreigners just having no common sense. Alcohol does wonders and the lack of common sense hits bottom . Koh Tao and the province of Surat it is easy for anyone with eyes wide open and half a brain to see the mafia is in total control. Just avoid where the majority of foreigners go and all the problems magically and mysterious go away. But the Full Moon Party folks are so out to lunch nothing matters. They seem to care less if all the money goes towards the local mafia. If that is not brain dead i don,t know what is. Foreigners need to take some responsibility for their own stupid actions.

Yeah right...they come here, to enjoy what they are lured in with, have the audacity to drink alcohol and expect NOT to be beaten up or killed!

Stupid farang! Bad farang!

It's not the killers...it's the victims!

Agreed that makes no sense whatsoever. I really doubt most tourists would have any idea that mafia are in charge, it's not something they put in the tourist packets.

People go there to have a good time and not be afraid of getting killed cause they don't understand the way the mafia works, that's about the most stupid thing I have ever heard.

[ourmanflint]

Some wildly speculative numbers for how popular Koh Tao is on here. If we take arrivals at Suvarnabhumi as our total number of tourists Thailand gets each year, then the number is 15 million only. It is not 24 million as some are stating. That figure is for "visitors" to Thailand from all borders, most of which are from neighbouring countries and not regarded as tourists.

[kiwikeith]

Whilst the parents have a deep vested interest in their son who died and possibly do not have access to the full facts their statements are very worrying:

The parents of a British holidaymaker who died in suspicious circumstances in Thailand are convinced he was murdered – and the killing covered up to protect tourism.

His parents are battling to disprove the official version of events. They think he may have been followed back to his holiday bungalow and killed. Despite being warned to keep quiet by people on the island, the family have refused to be silenced.

Tracy said: “It seems like they just want to protect their tourist industry but we need to know what happened.”

“For us it’s horrendous, a living nightmare. We have to face the awful reality we might never get the answers we need.

"I just hope that one day someone will get to the bottom of what’s happening on Koh Tao, and what really happened to our wonderful son.”

She added: “We are sure our son was murdered but no one claims to know anything.

"We will keep campaigning for justice. We hope that having Koh Tao in the spotlight might help.”

"We knew he liked a Thai girl he’d met and we wondered if that had caused offence, and that someone followed him and did him harm.”

She added: “The police didn’t look at his room or the area where he was found. There was no attempt to investigate.

"They spent most of their time laughing and joking as we asked questions.”

Tracy said her son Matt was warned there are “powerful people on the island”, and that the family should leave rather than stirring up trouble.

They also heard other holidaymakers had died on the island and their bodies “thrown into the water in the hope they’d be washed away”.

http://www.mirror.co...nvinced-4410135

As I said why was this man murdered-- inconsistent bruising for a massive fall, (if it was murder) what was the motive, what would be the motive for the Frenchman to be murdered ? unless a female / jealous boyfriend scenario or gay involvement or just a plain physco mafia ego maniac killer at loose on killagains island -

The new name for KOH Tao

Killagains island

[maidee]

they got away with it once or already many times (body floating in the sea)

so why not try their luck again and again and again

helps when family is in power...

[SunsetT]

What is worrying is that other Thais elsewhere in Thailand are surely learning how easy it is to kill westerners.

Yes......There was a teenage 'copycat' attack on 2 Germans reported in Udon Thani, and Im told that one has since died:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/777172-german-man-brutally-attacked-in-udon-thani-by-koh-tao-copycats/

Edited January 15, 2015 by SunsetT

[spidermike007]

My Son's have just returned from Koh Tao with friends and said it was a beautiful Island and the people lovely. They loved it I was a bit worried after what happened to the young British couple.They had nothing but friendliness from the local. It is very sad if this is true about Mafia the press it is getting is going to chase people away sadly.

I think you will be OK on Koh Tao as long as you don't go to the two bars that are run by the two brother and have an argument with them!

I think it is safe to say that if you have an argument with any Thai person on the dark island Tao, you are in jeopardy. Never forget, the island is run by five piglet families, and they own all local and state authorities. They above the even the power of the army, since the army has zero interest in upsetting the "elite" (super rich). Be hyper vigilant. There are alot of criminal types, and a major criminal element on that 12th century island.

[PaPiPuPePo]

My Son's have just returned from Koh Tao with friends and said it was a beautiful Island and the people lovely. They loved it I was a bit worried after what happened to the young British couple.They had nothing but friendliness from the local. It is very sad if this is true about Mafia the press it is getting is going to chase people away sadly.

I think you will be OK on Koh Tao as long as you don't go to the two bars that are run by the two brother and have an argument with them!

I think it is safe to say that if you have an argument with any Thai person on the dark island Tao, you are in jeopardy. Never forget, the island is run by five piglet families, and they own all local and state authorities. They above the even the power of the army, since the army has zero interest in upsetting the "elite" (super rich). Be hyper vigilant. There are alot of criminal types, and a major criminal element on that 12th century island.

I think you're overstating the case a bit. But in two months on the island, I had a couple of minor but I think telling experiences that I found unsettling. One was, I was ripped off by a travel agent on my joint ticket back to BKK--paid for air-con train berth, got fan, upper fan no less. If you've travelled the crappy Thai trains on this route you now that upper fan sucks, never mind I was being ripped off. So I politely but firmly asked for the difference btw the two fares back, or the ticket that I paid for. The response was "give me your tickets" (I also had bought a BKK-Chiangmai sleeper ticket for the next night). I handed the old wench the first ticket and she crumpled it up and threw it away and started yelling at me that I was a "bad man." I've had my differences with Thai's over the 25 years I've been visiting Thailand but never had this kind of thing happen. I walked around her to get my balled-up ticket and she rushed for it and threw it further back into her office. I knew if I went back there or pushed things further she could call the police--and everyone commenting on this place should know that there isn't an official police outpost on Koh Tao, the cops there aren't even real cops--and then the cards would be stacked against me. Long-story short I diffused the situation but this woman was acting with impunity and I've never seen that from a travel service/ticket agent.

The other thing was actually 2 or 3 times where I was hassled by taxi drivers or another motorbike rider, a local, over parking my rent-a-bike in the "wrong" spot, and these guys all talked to me like I was a bug they could step on if they wanted to. If you've been around tough guys, real and imagined, enough you know the look, the tone of voice, the signs that tell you they've got the upper hand, and that's how these local guys are. I wasn't surprised to hear many or all taxi drivers there carry guns, the rates they charge are extortionate so it all fits together.

Well, it's pretty much a rule, as my travels have shown me, that <deleted> of every type gravitate to the nice places on earth, be it the great large cities or small islands like KT. It is truly a little gem of an island and there are some perfectly good Thai folks living and working there, but it's covered with all sorts of human garbage which run free around the island. So yes watch your backs and your mouths when you're on Koh Tao.

[PaPiPuPePo]

My Son's have just returned from Koh Tao with friends and said it was a beautiful Island and the people lovely. They loved it I was a bit worried after what happened to the young British couple.They had nothing but friendliness from the local. It is very sad if this is true about Mafia the press it is getting is going to chase people away sadly.

Well, it's pretty much a rule, as my travels have shown me, that <deleted> of every type gravitate to the nice places on earth, be it the great large cities or small islands like KT. It is truly a little gem of an island and there are some perfectly good Thai folks living and working there, but it's covered with all sorts of human garbage which run free around the island. So yes watch your backs and your mouths when you're on Koh Tao.

This was a write-and-run comment and too late to edit I realised I was a little wound-up and got hyperbolic myself. Suffice to say there is an element of parasitic/predatory types in tourist hot-spots everywhere, and the weakness of law enforcement on KT means this element is definitely best avoided, and the recommendation to keep sober as much as possible and the tongue under control at all times.

[spidermike007]

Excuse me, If it is that bad then the Army needs to go down and clean-up the place, feed to bad ones to the sharks or deep six them. The world does not need bad guys !!

Don't you realize by now the army has no interest in rocking the boat, upsetting the elite, or changing the system? That has become obvious. The army is not Mother Theresa. The Tao monsters are above the law, with their.wealth.

[spidermike007]

My Son's have just returned from Koh Tao with friends and said it was a beautiful Island and the people lovely. They loved it I was a bit worried after what happened to the young British couple.They had nothing but friendliness from the local. It is very sad if this is true about Mafia the press it is getting is going to chase people away sadly.

Well, it's pretty much a rule, as my travels have shown me, that <deleted> of every type gravitate to the nice places on earth, be it the great large cities or small islands like KT. It is truly a little gem of an island and there are some perfectly good Thai folks living and working there, but it's covered with all sorts of human garbage which run free around the island. So yes watch your backs and your mouths when you're on Koh Tao.

This was a write-and-run comment and too late to edit I realised I was a little wound-up and got hyperbolic myself. Suffice to say there is an element of parasitic/predatory types in tourist hot-spots everywhere, and the weakness of law enforcement on KT means this element is definitely best avoided, and the recommendation to keep sober as much as possible and the tongue under control at all times.

But you kind of nailed it. In my opinion the Thai people are kind spirited, so some of that is going to shine through no matter where you are. Even if you are in a crime infested hellhole sewer like Tao. But, the prevailing attitude in all of the southern islands is one of arrogance, and a smug character. Very little on the way of good customer service outside of the five star resorts. Samui is much the same. But, there seems to be some order on Samui, even though the police are largely ineffective and incompetent. Not so in Tao. Perhaps too much power is concentrated in a few filthy hands. I will avoid murder island for the rest of this lifetime, and as far as I am concerned that is not long enough.