Patong - The Wake

[NamKangMan]

 

Had a chat with a friend the other day about the Chinese tourists, and the whole "zero baht tourists" debate.

 

I told him it would be very interesting to know just how much ThaiBev's sales, and Singha Corp's sales, and some other big alcohol stake holder company's sales have declined on Phuket in the last 2 to 3 years, as compared to previous years, before the TAT started targeting the Chinese market, after the rapid decline of the western tourist market on Phuket. 

 

He basically said, the decline would have to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, not baht, dollars.  initially, I disagreed, and then, after some consideration, told him he was probably right.  

 

On a more local level, I would guess the alcohol suppliers have also seen a big decline.  If any member knows someone working locally in the industry, it might be interesting to inquire.

 

I put this post forward as just yet another small indicator of another industry not seeing so much revenue from Phuket as they have seen in the past, which would tend to indicate a future trend. 

 

[hansgruber]

Interesting sequel to my Patong thread. 

I approve. 

[NamKangMan]

16 hours ago, hansgruber said:

Interesting sequel to my Patong thread. 

I approve. 

 

In my opinion, it will be a long time before we see a sequel to this thread.

 

"Patong - The Resurrection." 

 

             ????

[grumpyoldman]

1 minute ago, NamKangMan said:

 

In my opinion, it will be a long time before we see a sequel to this thread.

 

"Patong - The Resurrection." 

 

             ????

Mate, you missed the pat on the back for old boy HG.......clearly the inventor of the thread, or...........dumbsh**t bored.

[NamKangMan]

4 minutes ago, grumpyoldman said:

Mate, you missed the pat on the back for old boy HG.......clearly the inventor of the thread, or...........dumbsh**t bored.

 

If what you suggest is true, how come HG hasn't posted for so long?

 

I doubt a TV suspension would last that long.  ????

 

[hansgruber]

1 hour ago, NamKangMan said:

 

If what you suggest is true, how come HG hasn't posted for so long?

 

I doubt a TV suspension would last that long.  ????

 

I have been in Phuket prison on remand for a traffic accident in which 2 local underaged kids died on a motorbike who crash into me. 19 months waiting in prison for my day in court. 300,000 bail bond i did not have it. 

Was not my fault and did not bow down to pressure for money compensation. I refuse all offers for help. Even 50,000 baht i can get out if i admit my guilt. No way. I will deported from my life here for something i did not have fault. 

I get to court to represent myself and win the cases. Charges thrown out and i have been vindicated and free to leave. 

I never give up my fight. 

Paid nothing not one baht and freedom is mine now to enjoy with clear conscious.  

The legal system is fair here. Is what i can say. My faith is restored 100%. 

I was suspended on thaivisa yes but all i had to do was provide email that is valid. I could not do it from prison. 

My advice to all is get dashcam front and rear windows. Your life can get turned upside down in a heartbeat. 

 

I wish to say no more in this topic. 

Thanks for welcoming me back grumpyoldman. Xoxo

 

 

 

 

[xylophone]

2 minutes ago, hansgruber said:

I have been in Phuket prison on remand for a traffic accident in which 2 local underaged kids died on a motorbike who crash into me. 19 months waiting in prison for my day in court. 300,000 bail bond i did not have it. 

Was not my fault and did not bow down to pressure for money compensation. I refuse all offers for help. Even 50,000 baht i can get out if i admit my guilt. No way. I will deported from my life here for something i did not have fault. 

I get to court to represent myself and win the cases. Charges thrown out and i have been vindicated and free to leave. 

I never give up my fight. 

Paid nothing not one baht and freedom is mine now to enjoy with clear conscious.  

The legal system is fair here. Is what i can say. My faith is restored 100%. 

I was suspended on thaivisa yes but all i had to do was provide email that is valid. I could not do it from prison. 

My advice to all is get dashcam front and rear windows. Your life can get turned upside down in a heartbeat. 

 

I wish to say no more in this topic. 

Thanks for welcoming me back Old croc. Xoxo

 

 

 

 

 

Jeez, what a saga and feel so sorry that you had to go through that before being vindicated.

 

Your strength of character and your courage speak volumes about the man you are.

 

May I also take this opportunity to welcome you back to the thread and a normal life.

[hansgruber]

10 minutes ago, xylophone said:

 

Jeez, what a saga and feel so sorry that you had to go through that before being vindicated.

 

Your strength of character and your courage speak volumes about the man you are.

 

May I also take this opportunity to welcome you back to the thread and a normal life.

Thank you. 

I could not have done it without food coming from my wife daily and books to read. Steven King must have crazy dreams.  

They allow people to bring you 3 meals a day. 

Prison food and maybe i give up. Its putrid. 

Now i will make merit at the temple and be thankful for what i have. 

All the best xylophone. I like your take on Patong so update us with more. 

[NamKangMan]

3 hours ago, hansgruber said:

I have been in Phuket prison on remand for a traffic accident in which 2 local underaged kids died on a motorbike who crash into me. 19 months waiting in prison for my day in court. 300,000 bail bond i did not have it. 

Was not my fault and did not bow down to pressure for money compensation. I refuse all offers for help. Even 50,000 baht i can get out if i admit my guilt. No way. I will deported from my life here for something i did not have fault. 

I get to court to represent myself and win the cases. Charges thrown out and i have been vindicated and free to leave. 

I never give up my fight. 

Paid nothing not one baht and freedom is mine now to enjoy with clear conscious.  

The legal system is fair here. Is what i can say. My faith is restored 100%. 

I was suspended on thaivisa yes but all i had to do was provide email that is valid. I could not do it from prison. 

My advice to all is get dashcam front and rear windows. Your life can get turned upside down in a heartbeat. 

 

I wish to say no more in this topic. 

Thanks for welcoming me back grumpyoldman. Xoxo

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting story.  I can't find any news article about this.  Did it happen on Phuket?  Glad you survived your time.

 

"The legal system is fair here. Is what i can say. My faith is restored 100%." - mmmmm, after being incarcerated, for a motor vehicle accident that was not your fault, and demands for compensation made from you, of which the police get a commission, so you could regain your freedom, how can you say "The legal system is fair here?"

 

I think you may mean "the judicial system is fair here" which I am sure many would disagree with, particularly in relation to civil matters, but you are entitled to your opinion. 

 

However, the criminal "legal system" involves the fair and impartial and competent investigation of crime by police, in which the outcome of their investigation can not be corrupted. 

 

If the accident was truly not your fault, and I tend to believe it wasn't, because it's a common occurrence that the farang is extorted, even when not at fault, in accidents here, don't you think the "legal system" on a whole, has failed you?

 

In relation to a dash cam, I totally agree.  I would also add, should anyone be involved in an accident here, the first thing to do is email the footage to a friend or family member, with the view of making it public, should the police do as they have done in your case, arrest and incarcerate you, for the purposes of extortion. 

 

That footage has to stored offsite immediately, otherwise, it's as good as it never existed.  

 

[LivinginKata]

3 hours ago, hansgruber said:

I have been in Phuket prison on remand for a traffic accident in which 2 local underaged kids died on a motorbike who crash into me. 19 months waiting in prison for my day in court. 300,000 bail bond i did not have it. 

Was not my fault and did not bow down to pressure for money compensation. I refuse all offers for help. Even 50,000 baht i can get out if i admit my guilt. No way. I will deported from my life here for something i did not have fault. 

I get to court to represent myself and win the cases. Charges thrown out and i have been vindicated and free to leave. 

I never give up my fight. 

Paid nothing not one baht and freedom is mine now to enjoy with clear conscious.  

The legal system is fair here. Is what i can say. My faith is restored 100%. 

I was suspended on thaivisa yes but all i had to do was provide email that is valid. I could not do it from prison. 

My advice to all is get dashcam front and rear windows. Your life can get turned upside down in a heartbeat. 

 

I wish to say no more in this topic. 

Thanks for welcoming me back grumpyoldman. Xoxo

 

 

Jeez. That's terrible. Years ago my wife and I were involved in a building permit irregularity. Into police station and squeezed for money to make it go away. At least we could afford our bail money. We had to report to the court every 6 weeks awaiting our trial date. The government lawyers tried to squeeze us. We siad no thanks we will pay what would be a small fine. Many months later case dropped and bail returned.

 

And we both do have forward dash cameras. And I would not drive any car without bail bond money in the insurance policy. 

 

Welcome back.

 

[madmitch]

Welcome back Hans Gruber. I'm happy that you survived your ordeal and seem to be less than vindictive towards those that got you incarcerated.

 

I'm about to order two dash cams on Lazada!

[billythehat]

6 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Jeez. That's terrible. Years ago my wife and I were involved in a building permit irregularity. Into police station and squeezed for money to make it go away. At least we could afford our bail money. We had to report to the court every 6 weeks awaiting our trial date. The government lawyers tried to squeeze us. We siad no thanks we will pay what would be a small fine. Many months later case dropped and bail returned.

 

And we both do have forward dash cameras. And I would not drive any car without bail bond money in the insurance policy. 

 

Welcome back.

 

Interesting note about the bail-bond item addition but is this available to tourists who rent vehicles there? Is it advice you would offer to your guests to consider should they fall foul of the ‘fair’ Thai legal system? My first driving experiences in Thailand were in the north-east and back then I never thought about too much about it apart from the fact that I assumed I was fully insured…very different experience though driving west from Nong Khai to Mai Sai 20 years ago compared to Phuket.

[LivinginKata]

2 hours ago, billythehat said:

Interesting note about the bail-bond item addition but is this available to tourists who rent vehicles there? Is it advice you would offer to your guests to consider should they fall foul of the ‘fair’ Thai legal system? My first driving experiences in Thailand were in the north-east and back then I never thought about too much about it apart from the fact that I assumed I was fully insured…very different experience though driving west from Nong Khai to Mai Sai 20 years ago compared to Phuket.

 

Getting off topic here. Insurance here in Thailand is for the vehicle and any legal driver. If the insurance has this bail bond option then applies to any driver. I suspect that many of these 'road side' operators don't bother paying for that cover. The big companies do. That's why I never ever rent a car on the so called cheap. I have walked away from some small renters once wife has read the contract fine print written in Thai.

 

Edit. My wife has 2 rental cars with full insurance include bail bond.  

[billythehat]

4 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Getting off topic here. Insurance here in Thailand is for the vehicle and any legal driver. If the insurance has this bail bond option then applies to any driver. I suspect that many of these 'road side' operators don't bother paying for that cover. The big companies do. That's why I never ever rent a car on the so called cheap. I have walked away from some small renters once wife has read the contract fine print written in Thai.

 

Edit. My wife has 2 rental cars with full insurance include bail bond.  

Off-topic? …possibly, but useful information to the green newbies who may catch a glimpse of this and pass it on. A hotel owner I know has a list of don’ts that he gives to his guests; dealing with ho’s, taxis, jet skis, humourless diving instructors and so on; I will ask him to add this nugget to the list.

[Patong2]

Hans

What a horrible tale and you sound so positive.

Amazing

Your story needs its own thread, it is so important to be aware of what can go wrong.

Thanks for telling.

Best of luck and you must have a lovely lady.

[xylophone]

Confined to my apt at the moment due to some sort of allergy (I seem to get this about this time every year) so I thought I would add something to the “Wake” thread………..

 

 

Went to Bangla about a week ago and what was glaringly obvious this time was the number of younger folk milling around the place with many of them knowing all the words of the “rap” (crap) music that was playing in some bars, including the endless stream of profanities. Suffice it to say that the usual haunts of the previous older generation were not doing well at all.

 

 

And if you add to that the increasing number of Indians/Pakistanis, then it would be fair to assume that bar owners weren’t rolling in money at this moment in time.

 

 

I was tempted into a go-go bar by a friend of mine and was surprised to see the number of girls there with “plastic puppies”, in fact all of them had the implants, apart from one whose boobs looked a lot more like spaniels ears, and she was probably one that needed them the most!

 

 

Having said that the girls in the place outnumbered the punters by a fair few and from what I learned, it was pretty well par for course in that soi recently.

 

The Bar Funk bars had come along a little since the last visit, but if you consider that to get where it is, has taken about four months, then progress has been very slow indeed??

Moving around a little, I noticed the burger bar in Nanai, which seems to be shut as often as it is open, seems to be mirroring the popularity of its several predecessors, so how long it stays open remains to be seen.

 

Even Da Moreno, which usually attracts its fair share of diners, has been a bit slack on a few nights however I do hope they stay open because their pizzas are great. Whereas at the other end of Nanai I have yet to see any more then a handful of diners in total in the reopened pizza restaurant there.

 

There seems to be steady stream of cheap Chinese tourists frequenting guesthouses/small hotels in Nanai and they are noticeable by the fact that they walk three and four abreast along that road and it surely won’t be long before some truck barrels around one of the corners scattering them like skittles, and it will be their own fault.

 

A couple of days ago a friend told me that he’d heard that the police/immigration were doing checks on the bars and some guesthouses in Nanai and I thought that might be the result of Big Joke now taking over the reins, and sure enough today I see that two overstayers have been arrested in lodgings in Nanai and I’m sure there will be more to follow, this quite probably from the southern end of Nanai where the “undesirables” seem to congregate.

 

Nearly got bowled off the motorbike yesterday when I just managed to avoid two huge thick metal plates (about 3 m²) which had been in place over drains in Soi Sainamyen and its extension, seemed to have lifted from the welds. They were unsafe at the best of times and surely an indication of extremely poor workmanship and road maintenance, and if something isn’t done soon, there will be some nasty spills I’m sure.

 

Speaking of nasty spills, I had my first one here about a week ago, when I was riding on the back of a motorbike taxi, coming home from Bangla, and I have to say that the motorbike taxi guys who usually bring me home are very good indeed, and always looking out for my welfare, but this was a new young guy and probably didn’t know the ropes!

 

In attempting to drive up my very steep driveway, he lost the bike and almost did a backward flip with it, which in turn made me do exactly the same and over I went, ass-over-head, clobbering my head on the concrete as well as landing heavily on the small of my back, not to mention ripping a 12-inch gash in my calf.

 

I laid on the ground for a few minutes, unable to move and not really knowing where I was, but when I started to come round a little I was terribly worried that I had broken my back or similar because I couldn’t feel anything in my legs, but the feeling slowly returned and the young driver managed to help me to my feet, very unsteadily so I may add, and he was assisted by a nice Thai guy who had seen the accident from the nearby family Mart and had also come out to help.

 

They sat me down for a few minutes enquiring after my well-being and with the taxi driver guy uttering, “sorry papa, sorry papa” so many times that I felt sorry for him and told him not to worry as I would be okay, not really knowing that I would at that particular time!

 

Eventually I was able to climb the steps up to my apartment and immediately took two paracetamol tablets and cleaned the gash in my leg, showered and then applied some antibiotic ointment to it. I took some anti-inflammatories for a few days and also got onto some antibiotics because the gash wasn’t healing as quickly as I would have liked, however now all seems to be well apart from a bit of a stiff back.

 

Just goes to show that one can be as careful as one wants, and I believe I have here, having ridden a motorbike and driven a car here for 11 years, but still the unexpected can happen and as I’ve often said, it’s not always your fault.

 

The more I think about it the more I think how lucky I was when I relive the moment I did a backflip off a motorbike onto a concrete driveway and then tumbled down it for quite a way, at the age of 71, yet did not sustain anything serious in the way of injuries.

 

I want to be around for a lot longer to see exactly what Patong transforms itself into, because I, like others and particularly Hans Gruber who started the original thread, and Patong2, are puzzled about what it is and about what it’s trying to be??

[billythehat]

7 hours ago, xylophone said:

Confined to my apt at the moment due to some sort of allergy (I seem to get this about this time every year) so I thought I would add something to the “Wake” thread………..

 

 

Went to Bangla about a week ago and what was glaringly obvious this time was the number of younger folk milling around the place with many of them knowing all the words of the “rap” (crap) music that was playing in some bars, including the endless stream of profanities. Suffice it to say that the usual haunts of the previous older generation were not doing well at all.

 

 

And if you add to that the increasing number of Indians/Pakistanis, then it would be fair to assume that bar owners weren’t rolling in money at this moment in time.

 

 

I was tempted into a go-go bar by a friend of mine and was surprised to see the number of girls there with “plastic puppies”, in fact all of them had the implants, apart from one whose boobs looked a lot more like spaniels ears, and she was probably one that needed them the most!

 

 

Having said that the girls in the place outnumbered the punters by a fair few and from what I learned, it was pretty well par for course in that soi recently.

 

The Bar Funk bars had come along a little since the last visit, but if you consider that to get where it is, has taken about four months, then progress has been very slow indeed??

Moving around a little, I noticed the burger bar in Nanai, which seems to be shut as often as it is open, seems to be mirroring the popularity of its several predecessors, so how long it stays open remains to be seen.

 

Even Da Moreno, which usually attracts its fair share of diners, has been a bit slack on a few nights however I do hope they stay open because their pizzas are great. Whereas at the other end of Nanai I have yet to see any more then a handful of diners in total in the reopened pizza restaurant there.

 

There seems to be steady stream of cheap Chinese tourists frequenting guesthouses/small hotels in Nanai and they are noticeable by the fact that they walk three and four abreast along that road and it surely won’t be long before some truck barrels around one of the corners scattering them like skittles, and it will be their own fault.

 

A couple of days ago a friend told me that he’d heard that the police/immigration were doing checks on the bars and some guesthouses in Nanai and I thought that might be the result of Big Joke now taking over the reins, and sure enough today I see that two overstayers have been arrested in lodgings in Nanai and I’m sure there will be more to follow, this quite probably from the southern end of Nanai where the “undesirables” seem to congregate.

 

Nearly got bowled off the motorbike yesterday when I just managed to avoid two huge thick metal plates (about 3 m²) which had been in place over drains in Soi Sainamyen and its extension, seemed to have lifted from the welds. They were unsafe at the best of times and surely an indication of extremely poor workmanship and road maintenance, and if something isn’t done soon, there will be some nasty spills I’m sure.

 

Speaking of nasty spills, I had my first one here about a week ago, when I was riding on the back of a motorbike taxi, coming home from Bangla, and I have to say that the motorbike taxi guys who usually bring me home are very good indeed, and always looking out for my welfare, but this was a new young guy and probably didn’t know the ropes!

 

In attempting to drive up my very steep driveway, he lost the bike and almost did a backward flip with it, which in turn made me do exactly the same and over I went, ass-over-head, clobbering my head on the concrete as well as landing heavily on the small of my back, not to mention ripping a 12-inch gash in my calf.

 

I laid on the ground for a few minutes, unable to move and not really knowing where I was, but when I started to come round a little I was terribly worried that I had broken my back or similar because I couldn’t feel anything in my legs, but the feeling slowly returned and the young driver managed to help me to my feet, very unsteadily so I may add, and he was assisted by a nice Thai guy who had seen the accident from the nearby family Mart and had also come out to help.

 

They sat me down for a few minutes enquiring after my well-being and with the taxi driver guy uttering, “sorry papa, sorry papa” so many times that I felt sorry for him and told him not to worry as I would be okay, not really knowing that I would at that particular time!

 

Eventually I was able to climb the steps up to my apartment and immediately took two paracetamol tablets and cleaned the gash in my leg, showered and then applied some antibiotic ointment to it. I took some anti-inflammatories for a few days and also got onto some antibiotics because the gash wasn’t healing as quickly as I would have liked, however now all seems to be well apart from a bit of a stiff back.

 

Just goes to show that one can be as careful as one wants, and I believe I have here, having ridden a motorbike and driven a car here for 11 years, but still the unexpected can happen and as I’ve often said, it’s not always your fault.

 

The more I think about it the more I think how lucky I was when I relive the moment I did a backflip off a motorbike onto a concrete driveway and then tumbled down it for quite a way, at the age of 71, yet did not sustain anything serious in the way of injuries.

 

I want to be around for a lot longer to see exactly what Patong transforms itself into, because I, like others and particularly Hans Gruber who started the original thread, and Patong2, are puzzled about what it is and about what it’s trying to be??

…and they say those ‘Lucky Amulets’ are a waste of money and I will gladly advise on the design of a furnicular rail tram to assist in your access and egress to your pad after a night on the sauce.????  Glad to hear you’re not pushing up the Daisey’s and thanks for the Patong updates. As to what the transformation will be is a tricky one due to the eternal babbling of the blind talking to the deaf.

 

 

[The manic]

On 6/25/2017 at 12:56 PM, Destiny1990 said:

Yes there are still trees standing now but they can be cut off and give more priority to tuktuk parking and an extra lane so big touring busses can drive full speed along the shore.its be done in other coastal cities so why not Patong?

There are no Tuk tuks in Pattaya! There is no parking on Beach Rd beach side. Nothing in your post is correct. Have you ever been to Pattaya?

[Destiny1990]

10 hours ago, The manic said:

There are no Tuk tuks in Pattaya! There is no parking on Beach Rd beach side. Nothing in your post is correct. Have you ever been to Pattaya?

Manic listen Patong is not located  in Pattaya it belongs to Phuket.

i only wanted to say since they kinda have destroyed Pattaya beach road in a 5 lane highway. So why not do the same with Patong beach road? Meaning Less pavements, less trees, more lanes for cars and more parking for Tuktuks.

not a blue sea but a red sea off parked tuktuks is what we came for.

[NamKangMan]

On 10/15/2018 at 2:03 PM, Destiny1990 said:

Manic listen Patong is not located  in Pattaya it belongs to Phuket.

i only wanted to say since they kinda have destroyed Pattaya beach road in a 5 lane highway. So why not do the same with Patong beach road? Meaning Less pavements, less trees, more lanes for cars and more parking for Tuktuks.

not a blue sea but a red sea off parked tuktuks is what we came for.

 

"not a blue sea but a red sea off parked tuktuks is what we came for." - I see your point. 

 

The tuk-tuks can become a tourist attraction in their own right.  People will come to see the drivers play cards and drink Thai whiskey, as the majority of tourists drive past them in coach buses. 

 

Whilst independent tourists can take selfies with them, and post the photos on their Facebook page, saying these guys are the reason we are never coming back to Phuket.  ????

[Destiny1990]

12 hours ago, NamKangMan said:

 

"not a blue sea but a red sea off parked tuktuks is what we came for." - I see your point. 

 

The tuk-tuks can become a tourist attraction in their own right.  People will come to see the drivers play cards and drink Thai whiskey, as the majority of tourists drive past them in coach buses. 

 

Whilst independent tourists can take selfies with them, and post the photos on their Facebook page, saying these guys are the reason we are never coming back to Phuket.  ????

They should atleast be parked out of sight or be demolished or pay 50 bht parking fee an hour..

i like see them all gone personally 

[NamKangMan]

38 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

They should atleast be parked out of sight or be demolished or pay 50 bht parking fee an hour..

i like see them all gone personally 

 

Although they are smaller, they should be circulating around the tourist areas, and along the coast, in the same way the Pattaya baht buses do. 

 

Many tourists like that lawless "edge" and freedom that Thailand offers.  They like the break away from their Nanny States.  So not all tourists need an air conditioned metered taxi with seat belt, although they should be available, but they know when these guys are ripping them off. 

 

Rather than driving for the shift and earning a decent salary, they would rather lounge around all day and wait their turn to rip off one foreigner for more than then the average days salary that other Thai's are paid for working a shift. 

 

Thus, the majority of tourists to Phuket are now in coach buses. 

[Destiny1990]

3 hours ago, NamKangMan said:

 

Although they are smaller, they should be circulating around the tourist areas, and along the coast, in the same way the Pattaya baht buses do. 

 

Many tourists like that lawless "edge" and freedom that Thailand offers.  They like the break away from their Nanny States.  So not all tourists need an air conditioned metered taxi with seat belt, although they should be available, but they know when these guys are ripping them off. 

 

Rather than driving for the shift and earning a decent salary, they would rather lounge around all day and wait their turn to rip off one foreigner for more than then the average days salary that other Thai's are paid for working a shift. 

 

Thus, the majority of tourists to Phuket are now in coach buses. 

In Patong nearly all is walkable just need minibus for connecting to the other coastal cities Karon, kata etc..have a hop on hop off system but unfortunately the Tuktuks got lot of back up power. They want park sit on their ass claim their territory and look stupid. I never see people ride them.

[simon43]

As a comparison to the tuk tuks in Patong, here are the equivalent in Mandalay. Clean,  cheap,  using GPS to calculate the cost of the journey, friendly drivers who speak English.

[Old Croc]

18 hours ago, simon43 said:

As a comparison to the tuk tuks in Patong, here are the equivalent in Mandalay. Clean,  cheap,  using GPS to calculate the cost of the journey, friendly drivers who speak English.

Would it get up Patong hill with 3 drunken Aussies in the back?

[steelepulse]

20 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

In Patong nearly all is walkable just need minibus for connecting to the other coastal cities Karon, kata etc..have a hop on hop off system but unfortunately the Tuktuks got lot of back up power. They want park sit on their ass claim their territory and look stupid. I never see people ride them.

 

There is the smart bus which goes from the airport to Rawai along the beach route.  I know people that take this and they say it's great.  You can hop on and hop off pretty much anywhere along the route. Now if the local tuk tuk thugs would allow for better advertising of this service, that is a different subject.

[LivinginKata]

11 minutes ago, steelepulse said:

 

There is the smart bus which goes from the airport to Rawai along the beach route.  I know people that take this and they say it's great.  You can hop on and hop off pretty much anywhere along the route. Now if the local tuk tuk thugs would allow for better advertising of this service, that is a different subject.

 

Yes there is a smart bus, BUT it only stops at one place at each beach town. And payment is by a prepaid card system. Fine for a savvy local, but not for a new tourist. 

[steelepulse]

1 minute ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Yes there is a smart bus, BUT it only stops at one place at each beach town. And payment is by a prepaid card system. Fine for a savvy local, but not for a new tourist. 

According to people I know that take the bus, the driver will stop anywhere along the route.  I do agree though that the payment system sucks.  They need to have some sort of machine where you can pay by cash, coins, or another payment method.

[LivinginKata]

3 minutes ago, steelepulse said:

According to people I know that take the bus, the driver will stop anywhere along the route.  I do agree though that the payment system sucks.  They need to have some sort of machine where you can pay by cash, coins, or another payment method.

 

That's good to know that driver will stop if pax wants to get on or off. I suppose they need to drum up all the fare revenue they can as i always see them running empty or near empty. I want this system to work and expand. See these buses often and they appear to be on the schedule listed as per app. We need more like this all over Phuket.

[xylophone]

50 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

Would it get up Patong hill with 3 drunken Aussies in the back?

No esp if they are the size of the influx of overweight Aussies I have been encountering here recently!!!!

 

And no disrespect to the Aussies OC, as many of the Kiwis are not much better!