Just wondered how you people down in Phuket are coping,

in the aftermath of the troubles further south.

Best wishes from the Pattaya forum.

I dont think any of us see too much difference. The only people that are affected are hotel owners as some tourists have cancelled their trip to Phuket although we are far enough away from where the pronlems are

Your in good hands mate, Fatter than Harry has secured the area, Basher is currently out on manouvres and I am 24/7 looking for Mad Frankie who has gone AWOL - come done, pull up a pew and kick back - your in safe hands!

I wouldn't be too sure about that. There have been a lot of cancellations for July/ August. I have had several "come home" phone calls, and emails. The same for other people. Rember what SARS did two years ago (although there was none in Thailand) and then chicken flu last year ( 8 died in the Northeast).

This is real and in the South. A very bad low season coming up.

Lets look back to 9/11. I was there that evening (day time NYC) and there were more people than in Nov and Dec. Dec was a dead zone... If people are afraidn the sky is falling stay home. I think that Patong is safe, just left 2 weeks ago and will return in 5 weeks.....Does this mean we'll get 500Baht LT's????

Yippie!

Went out and about tonight, had a look around, didnt goto patong. Not so many tourists, just the usual 15 coaches of japanese watching the sunset at sunset point

Nobody around otherwise. Lot of places have closed up for low season.

Havent heard any stories of people rushing off home cos of the goings on down south, but its certainly not going to be a plus point for people chooseing here as a holiday.

Anyway, if the uprising were gunna go anywhere, they would go to Pattaya first, so hows the front line looking?

The Gents protecting the rear, you have nothing to worry about, no, really, honest...

http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=3450

will say it all.

Sars, Chicken Flu, Iraq War, Trouble in the south - basically it all means nothing to me - I dont need the tourist dollar - I love that there are hardly any tourists

I am coping well thanks....... Phuket IS safe!

Seems Wolfie as got me at the rear again - demoted to rear admiral and surrounded by seaman.

When I left Phuket a month ago to work in Ban Phe it looked like a ghost town. Business was off precipitously. The nitelife zones in Patong look like a disaster waiting to happen, as are Pattaya and Bangkok nitelife zones. Another Bali style attack can't be off the books for the jihad brigades, which is certainly why western state dept's have issued advisories against travel to s. thailand, and people are staying away in droves. The govt's inability to deal effectively with the situation hasn't helped.

I think the future is still bright for Phuket, but not the near future. I think it's a good place to invest, and sharp people should seek to turn the current situation to their long term advantage.

For anyone thinking of going to Phuket, I'd say it is generally a safe and very pleasant place to spend time. Just be careful and limit your time in the Patong nitelife zone, and no worries. Places like Surin and Rawai are fantastic, and definately safe.

I nipped down to Phuket last week for a few days. stayed at Nai Yang beach as usual. Boy was it deserted!!! A beautiful beach and only me and my GF on it!! Stayed in the Pearl Village hotel (as usual) and you could count the guests on 1 hand.

Where's Nai Yang?

Exactly!

Nai Yang is the beach near the airport, there's never really many people there in low season anyway. You lads be careful, there's an awfully unpredictable rip tide all down the west coast during the low, errr...green season, I'll be very angry if I hear that any of you have drowned. If you do go for a swim take a pair of fins with you, that way you can get out of any rip, plus you can pretend to be flipper whilst cutting through the surf - be careful of the sound effects though, it can put off potential partners.

Simon what are they charging you to stay at the Pearl Village hotel? Driven by there a bunch of times and always considered looking into it.

I am becoming quite enamoured with Khao Lak of late as well, as I am trying to stay in places away from Patong these days, and its not so far to drive to Khao Lak direct from the airport, once I've eaten up as much Burger King whoppers as possible.

Latest deal looks brilliant - the new Le Meridien at Khao Lak has an opening special rate of 999 baht per night until end of June. Will try that when I come back in 10 days or so.

Tonight Phuket was great, has a couple of beers with me mate The Gent in Karon, alone I had another in Greenman and had to leave as some pisshed up Brit thought he could sing really good with the band.... he couldn't!! I was driven out!

Went onto Freedom Bar, empty but the barmaids (not hookers) are a good laugh.

Came home to a nice malt whiskey... beautiful wife asleep on the sofa, I ain't pisshed, so I will have a great day tomorrow with no hangover ...

Doesn't get much better than that does it?

Happy basher

Well, if I were a Muslim terrorist in the South with a carbootfull of Ammonium Nitrate and detonators (which they have, stolen from a quarrying company) then for maximum Bali-like impact I would set it off in Bangla Road, preferably in the Tiger when an American Navy boat is in.

One good thing about Phuket is that there is only one (surface) way in. And Phuket's finest have a checkpoint there !

You look too young to be driving a car with a boot full of bombs.... was it some form of abuse in your womb days?

bash

Well I havent seen to many navy boats lately. They seem to go to either Pattaya or just Singapore or Goa. Maybe we get lucky and leave us alone.

By the way. i just got a present from a friend who came over from Florida. Its a cap with the pictures of Bush Sr and Bush Jr with the text: Dumb and Dumber

Phuket no change, it's still the same, here is too many "good" muslims and they don't want to ruin their business with terror

Phuket no change, it's still the same, here is too many "good" muslims and they don't want to ruin their business with terror

Good to hear!!

Well, if I were a Muslim terrorist in the South with a carbootfull of Ammonium Nitrate and detonators (which they have, stolen from a quarrying company) then for maximum Bali-like impact I would set it off in Bangla Road, preferably in the Tiger when an American Navy boat is in.

One good thing about Phuket is that there is only one (surface) way in. And Phuket's finest have a checkpoint there !

You forgot the diesel to mix with the ammonium nitrate (ANFO ammonium nitrate / fuel oil).

And I thought the authorities were going to turn Bangla into a pedestrianised area?

Not been on the island for three years now, since I stopped serious diving (and got marrid, but that's incidental).

Agree that the Muslims in the area have too much invested in business to want any disturbance, but it is the nutters from outside, with no interest in what their co-religionists are doing, that will cause the problems.

But everyone is missing the point. The Thai Muslims in the South (Southern Songkhla and all the provinces south of Songkhla) who are making all the noise are separatists.

They have a unique language and culture that is different and separate from the rest of Thailand. They want to protect this unique culture from assimilation into Thaksin's and previous government's views of how the south should be. This struggle has been going on for a thousand years or so.

Thus, as separatists, the Southern Muslims are fighting against the government of Thailand. Their targets are not tourists or Westeners...their targets are the ones who are trying to repress and squash their ideals and demands of recognition. Thus, the Thai army, police and various government institutions are the targets.

But, there is always the possibility that other foreign terrorist groups have or will seek refuge in the South of Thailand due to the lax security. But this has not been proven yet.

Thus, we should not jump to conclusions and deem the Muslims of southern Thailand as petty terrorists but as a people who are trying to protect their identity. Although, the recent bombings of such soft targets as Buddhist Temples and Government schools was counter-productive and will eventually strengthen Bangkok's determination to suppress them (especially now that the World is watching).

when does the new CENTRAL store will be complete, im planning to get a space in there