Russian man arrested off Phuket working as illegal tour guide
Eakkapop Thongtub


22-year-old Giorgiy Shokhadze was caught leading a group of tourists on a tour of Wat Suwan Khaha cave in Phang-nga.

PHUKET: -- A 22-year-old Russian man was arrested in Phang-nga yesterday (Jan 11) for working illegally as a tour guide when was caught taking 12 Russian tourists on a tour of the province’s popular Suwan Khuha cave tourist attraction.

Phang-nga tourist police, led by Capt Kritsathon Uthong, arrested Giorgiy Shokhadze who was working a a tour guide for Anda Adventure and conducted a tour at Wat Suwan Khaha cave in Krasom sub-district in Takua Thung, Phang-nga.

Police seized a from Giorgiy a list of attractions his employers take tourists, one notebook, two maps and ten tour brochures.

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/russian-man-arrested-off-phuket-working-as-illegal-tour-guide-55753.php


-- Phuket News 2016-01-12

Great job!!! Those despicable illegal tour guide crimes need to be stamped out once and for all!!! Forget about Thai bag snatchers, tourist murdering island kingpins, violent tuk tuk, taxi and jet ski mafiosi, Thai drug and weapon pushers, south-bound bombers, tourist murdering cops, shady murder investigations, tourist ripoffs, raping monks, get away with murder hiSo kids, irresponsible - mass murdering mini van, truck, VIP bus and lorry drivers, slave trade fishing fleet owners, security guard gun waving Rambos, teenage killing machines on pimped up illegal racing bikes in the night without lights, gun fights between teen gangs, increase of theft and violence in Thailand... We caught an illegal Russian tour guide, yeah!!!! Thailand gonna be safe, finally - how great!!!!!!!

...they really should leave it all to the Thais....

...how else could they possibly experience being driven off the road...or worse...

I live in Jomtien Beach and see this every day, ..Russians promoting tours and acting as guides that before only Thai people were employed to do. If I did this, I would be in jail so fast my head would spin, but Russians have been doing this for ages with no consequences!

3 'men' posing with a captured kid... if Thais would speak decent Russian, I could understand but so, it's just a farce.

haven't the police got better things to do than arrest a Russian tour guide I am sure there must be other things they can do far worse things to sort out they have their priorities all wrong they should concentrate on the drug runners and all the illegals working in the entertainment business .

I live in Jomtien Beach and see this every day, ..Russians promoting tours and acting as guides that before only Thai people were employed to do. If I did this, I would be in jail so fast my head would spin, but Russians have been doing this for ages with no consequences!

I don't see the problem? Many countries that have large numbers of tourists from say Japan, Korea or China, it has become quite normal to employ say Chinese, Japanese or Korean tour guides. There are not enough Thais speaking Chinese (nor Russian or probably Japanese) but the Thais still believe that only they should be able to act as tourist guides? If Thailand wants huge numbers of Chinese or Russian tourists, Thailand will have no choice but to allow Nationals from those countries to work here too, simple!

There are not enough Thais speaking Chinese

There are enough Thais speaking Chinese, and there are enough Thai tourguides speaking Chinese.

Great job!!! Those despicable illegal tour guide crimes need to be stamped out once and for all!!! Forget about Thai bag snatchers, tourist murdering island kingpins, violent tuk tuk, taxi and jet ski mafiosi, Thai drug and weapon pushers, south-bound bombers, tourist murdering cops, shady murder investigations, tourist ripoffs, raping monks, get away with murder hiSo kids, irresponsible - mass murdering mini van, truck, VIP bus and lorry drivers, slave trade fishing fleet owners, security guard gun waving Rambos, teenage killing machines on pimped up illegal racing bikes in the night without lights, gun fights between teen gangs, increase of theft and violence in Thailand... We caught an illegal Russian tour guide, yeah!!!! Thailand gonna be safe, finally - how great!!!!!!!

This is why the illegal tour guides are arrested in the first place. It's not really about the Russian taking a Thai's job.

It's so the Thai's can get access to the tour group in order to rip them off and scam them.

Great there are so many people with inside knowledge of the tourist industry. I certainly do not and am curious to know how posters know there are not enough Russian / Chinese or other language Tourist guides? Every country has the right to protect / create tourist industry jobs and I would certainly like to see more Thais representing their country this way rather than in go go and beer bars etc

Great there are so many people with inside knowledge of the tourist industry. I certainly do not and am curious to know how posters know there are not enough Russian / Chinese or other language Tourist guides? Every country has the right to protect / create tourist industry jobs and I would certainly like to see more Thais representing their country this way rather than in go go and beer bars etc

The "go go and beer bars" ARE the tourism industry in Thailand.

Great job!!! Those despicable illegal tour guide crimes need to be stamped out once and for all!!! Forget about Thai bag snatchers, tourist murdering island kingpins, violent tuk tuk, taxi and jet ski mafiosi, Thai drug and weapon pushers, south-bound bombers, tourist murdering cops, shady murder investigations, tourist ripoffs, raping monks, get away with murder hiSo kids, irresponsible - mass murdering mini van, truck, VIP bus and lorry drivers, slave trade fishing fleet owners, security guard gun waving Rambos, teenage killing machines on pimped up illegal racing bikes in the night without lights, gun fights between teen gangs, increase of theft and violence in Thailand... We caught an illegal Russian tour guide, yeah!!!! Thailand gonna be safe, finally - how great!!!!!!!

Drug dealers, murderers & others are generally paraded & pointed at most days but they are mostly low level types as the kingpins involved in all the really heavy scams never seem to get arrested. It will be a great leap forward the day they start parading, putting on trial & actually jailing them without the usual 10+ years for cases to get heard.

There are not enough Thais speaking Chinese

There are enough Thais speaking Chinese, and there are enough Thai tourguides speaking Chinese.

Congratulations - you've just won this week's award for enigmatic statements.

Great job!!! Those despicable illegal tour guide crimes need to be stamped out once and for all!!! Forget about Thai bag snatchers, tourist murdering island kingpins, violent tuk tuk, taxi and jet ski mafiosi, Thai drug and weapon pushers, south-bound bombers, tourist murdering cops, shady murder investigations, tourist ripoffs, raping monks, get away with murder hiSo kids, irresponsible - mass murdering mini van, truck, VIP bus and lorry drivers, slave trade fishing fleet owners, security guard gun waving Rambos, teenage killing machines on pimped up illegal racing bikes in the night without lights, gun fights between teen gangs, increase of theft and violence in Thailand... We caught an illegal Russian tour guide, yeah!!!! Thailand gonna be safe, finally - how great!!!!!!!

Catching Tour guide is a lot easier than Cleaning up the LOS

Well, congrats boys! You should be very proud of catching this semi-illegal worker criminal. Hats off for you.

Great OP, maybe corruption tomorrow.

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My hobby is birding. And I know many Thai tour guides. They are constantly complaining about this. I would imagine the Thai tour guides are starting to turn these people in. Some of these birding tour guides make hundreds of dollars / day! It is bigggg bucks for wildlife tours in Thailand. With this kind of money involved, you can bet this will be getting more and more common IMO.

Great job!!! Those despicable illegal tour guide crimes need to be stamped out once and for all!!! Forget about Thai bag snatchers, tourist murdering island kingpins, violent tuk tuk, taxi and jet ski mafiosi, Thai drug and weapon pushers, south-bound bombers, tourist murdering cops, shady murder investigations, tourist ripoffs, raping monks, get away with murder hiSo kids, irresponsible - mass murdering mini van, truck, VIP bus and lorry drivers, slave trade fishing fleet owners, security guard gun waving Rambos, teenage killing machines on pimped up illegal racing bikes in the night without lights, gun fights between teen gangs, increase of theft and violence in Thailand... We caught an illegal Russian tour guide, yeah!!!! Thailand gonna be safe, finally - how great!!!!!!!

for sure there is things to add...a fake thai tour guide who can speak russian.......?

I don't understand what did this guy of Georgian origin do wrong? Did he steal? No! He did an honest job taking care of Russian group of tourists. I've seen many times how Thais try to deal with Russian tourists and they purely fail because of the language and culture barrier. In my opinion this is nonsense persecuting people for doing an honest job. Thai police should better focus on real problems, like real crime!

3 'men' posing with a captured kid... if Thais would speak decent Russian, I could understand but so, it's just a farce.

I agree with you. No matter how illegal it is for a foreigner to work in Thailand without a permit, the collective mindset that such a pic conveys is despicable. What it says, loud and clear, about Thailand and the Thais is not something that will boost their image.

Knowing how eager this country claims to be when it comes to encouraging tourism, this is just another case of total schizophrenia.

Incidentally, I remember about 20 years ago in most European countries where tourism is a major 'industry', a clear difference was established legally between 'tour leader' and 'tour guide'. Foreigners were not allowed to guide but they could 'lead' a group around. This allowed for a certain amount of flexibility, especially with groups that spoke rare languages.

Group tourism, which admittedly is a mediocre form of tourism but does bring cash into local economies, requires such 'tour leaders' because humans in groups often tend to forget they have a brain of their own. The rule in Europe was that, when those groups visited a list of sites, they were required to hire a local guide in addition to their leader. Which is what the employer of this young Russian guy should have done, OK, but instead of arresting the guide, the cops should look further up the line. Mind you, they probably will, and guess what they will demand ...

Great there are so many people with inside knowledge of the tourist industry. I certainly do not and am curious to know how posters know there are not enough Russian / Chinese or other language Tourist guides? Every country has the right to protect / create tourist industry jobs and I would certainly like to see more Thais representing their country this way rather than in go go and beer bars etc

The "go go and beer bars" ARE the tourism industry in Thailand.

Rubbish,maybe that's all you see.30 million tourist come to Thailand,if they all went to the bars,the bars wouldn't be whinging and moaning about lack of customers,would they.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Island, a tourist clutching her bag is being dragged up the hill to Kata!

Topic referring to Royalty removed.

Great there are so many people with inside knowledge of the tourist industry. I certainly do not and am curious to know how posters know there are not enough Russian / Chinese or other language Tourist guides? Every country has the right to protect / create tourist industry jobs and I would certainly like to see more Thais representing their country this way rather than in go go and beer bars etc

The "go go and beer bars" ARE the tourism industry in Thailand.

Rubbish,maybe that's all you see.30 million tourist come to Thailand,if they all went to the bars,the bars wouldn't be whinging and moaning about lack of customers,would they.

Take the sex trade out of Thailand and the Thai tourism industry would collapse.

Picture non-alcohol "Buddha Days" 365 days of the year - this would be very similar to Thailand without the sex trade.

Bars, restaurants, guest houses, hotels, cafes etc - all gone broke and closed.

Many of the millions of tourists you speak of come to Thailand's for its bars, not its beaches.

Great job!!! Those despicable illegal tour guide crimes need to be stamped out once and for all!!! Forget about Thai bag snatchers, tourist murdering island kingpins, violent tuk tuk, taxi and jet ski mafiosi, Thai drug and weapon pushers, south-bound bombers, tourist murdering cops, shady murder investigations, tourist ripoffs, raping monks, get away with murder hiSo kids, irresponsible - mass murdering mini van, truck, VIP bus and lorry drivers, slave trade fishing fleet owners, security guard gun waving Rambos, teenage killing machines on pimped up illegal racing bikes in the night without lights, gun fights between teen gangs, increase of theft and violence in Thailand... We caught an illegal Russian tour guide, yeah!!!! Thailand gonna be safe, finally - how great!!!!!!!

Catching Tour guide is a lot easier than Cleaning up the LOS

Yes, somewhat alike gambling always topping the 'crime stats' ..

Great there are so many people with inside knowledge of the tourist industry. I certainly do not and am curious to know how posters know there are not enough Russian / Chinese or other language Tourist guides? Every country has the right to protect / create tourist industry jobs and I would certainly like to see more Thais representing their country this way rather than in go go and beer bars etc

The "go go and beer bars" ARE the tourism industry in Thailand.

Rubbish,maybe that's all you see.30 million tourist come to Thailand,if they all went to the bars,the bars wouldn't be whinging and moaning about lack of customers,would they.

Take the sex trade out of Thailand and the Thai tourism industry would collapse.

Picture non-alcohol "Buddha Days" 365 days of the year - this would be very similar to Thailand without the sex trade.

Bars, restaurants, guest houses, hotels, cafes etc - all gone broke and closed.

Many of the millions of tourists you speak of come to Thailand's for its bars, not its beaches.

No one here is saying the sex industry in Thailand is not huge. Ands its unlikely to change anytime soon. However it seems that some people do not want Thais to develop and have opportunities like people in their own countries.

I feel safe now that I know my borsch is safe and sound.

@ ICECOOL

Correct.

Issan is kept poor for a purpose, that is, for an endless supply of women to the sex trade in the tourist destinations, from which the Thai elite profit immensely.

Sadly, the Thai elite make a lot of money out of having Thai women NOT representing Thailand in any other way but through the sex trade.

Post removed.

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There are not enough Thais speaking Chinese

There are enough Thais speaking Chinese, and there are enough Thai tourguides speaking Chinese.

This is a load of crap ! My Thai partner has a degree in Mandarin Chinese, used it daily with her late father who came from China many years ago. And still is not able to get a job as a tourist guide, they have their own.