Random Foreigners Being attacked by gangs

[Topcatta]

Haha PP, SC and NP!!! Even when you are innocently in your hotel these exotic Thai women hypnotize you with their vaginal pheromones to come and have a look at the neon lights and just when you get out of the taxi or metro it hits you that She is pulling you into the bar with all her Pussy power and is there to abuse you...Stay away!!!

[buddha]

Gadfly:"And when someone makes this sort of comparison (Thailand vs Jamica), the expression 'damning with faint praise' comes to mind."

 

Why is this comparison [Thailand vs Jamica] any less valid than the comparison of Thailand vs. United States?

 

I made the comparison of Thailand vs Jamica. Both popular tourist destinations, similar climates, and both less developed than where the majority of the visitors are arriving from. Seems like a valid comparison.

 

I'm going to excorcize myself from the debate. I have already offended one poster by asking a question. I know how to and am able to take care of myself, know the dangers that surround me, and lets face it there are way, way, way too many 'easy targets' out there for me to be targeted 'randomly'.

 

Watch your back and have fuuuuuunnnnn!!!!!

[MaiLuk]

My sense of it is that thailand is fucking dangerous. Place yourself in the wrong location and you are asking for big problems. Piss off a thai and you might be shocked at the result. As GFly pointed out, the thais don't say its dangerous in BKK just to hear themselves talk.

 

The good news is this: contrary to the claims in this thread that hanging around hookers and p4p bars will lead to problems, in fact the opposite is true for us farang. In BKK you can hang around lower sukhumvit in the bars or out during all hours and have no problem. Ladyboys trying to pickpocket you is not violence and it's extremely rare. Its frequency is thoroughly exaggerated on this board IMO.

 

Should go without saying if you are the type who likes to drink and mouth off, or otherwise cause trouble (such as ripping off or slapping the girls around, or breaking a bottle of whiskey in a bar and then just walk off :hubba: ) then nowhere in thailand is safe for you, not even lower Suk.

 

I agree with Cent, the p4p girls in LOS are among the safest in the world if you play things straight.

 

 

[Gadfly]

Why is this comparison [Thailand vs Jamica] any less valid than the comparison of Thailand vs. United States?

It is not a question of the validity of this comparison, but the relevance and significance of the comparison. Let me explain.

 

This is just a guess, but I suspect there are many more members here from the US (or Western Europe, which is the other place I mentioned) than Jamica. Actually, it's not a guess, since I am pretty confident there are very few, if any, members here who live in Jamica (but if there is a large contingent of Jamicans on this board who regularly travel to Thailand, please let us know). This is why the comparison is not particularly relevant.

 

The comparison is not significant or, as I put it, 'damning with faint praise', because Jamica has a nasty reputation for violence. (Again, our 'Jamican members' should feel free to chime in if they disagree.) To my ears at least, saying a place is safer than Jamica is not saying much.

 

OK, on the positive side, I do agree with a comment Mai Luk made about how punters are relatively safer in Thailand. I have been making jokes about the argument put forward here about how Thailand is very safe, provided you stay away from bars frequented by foreigners, avoid the west side of Pattaya, etc. (because its such a hilarious argument to make on a board like this). But seriously, I do think that, relative to high crime areas in the US, the red light districts here are probably relatively safe, although not nearly as safe as many punters believe. And that is really the problem.

 

The reason I added the "although..." comment is because this comparison is again damning with faint praise. Saying a place is safe compared to South Central LA is not saying much.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Gaddie,

 

Let me say this then, as a comparison. If they had a place like Pattaya or the BKK nightspots ANYWHERE in America, it would probably be 1 hundred times more dangerous than in Thailand. I remember the old Combat Zone strip in Boston. This was a street that had all the strip joints on it, a leftover from the old days where the pols (who were likely getting paid off, as well as the cops) zoned this area just for this 'nightlife' entertainment for gentlemen. It was not called the Combat Zone for nothing. It was wild. There were fights nightly, deaths even a lot of the time. Robberies, pickpockets, scammers and thieves, mafioso thugs throwing their weight around, shootings and stabbings, hookers and pimps and druggies and drunks, all thrown into a few/couple blocks of downtown Boston. It was great. I loved it, but it was dangerous, at times, very dangerous. I remember a friend of mine getting ripped off from a pro there in one of the bars, getting so pissed off he went out to his car and came back with a .45 he had in the trunk and pistol whipping the bartender to get his money back, alternating at pointing the pistol at the door bouncer and smashing the shit out of the bartender until he got his money back, then hightailing it out of there. It was insane and it was deadly, and it was a serious nightlife scene with hookers and drinking and drugs, much the same that NanaPlaza is today in downtown Bangkok. I saw people get killed there (beaten to death over some stupid drunken shit). I saw other people pull out guns and threaten each other with them. I saw guys get stabbed there. It was a nasty place, but hey, you could get blown or laid as well. If America ever went back to those days and did make another nightlife area as this place was, like Bangkok has, it would be the same shit.

 

Thailand is tame compared to that old strip of stripjoints and clipjoints in Beantown. It is very civilized in comparison. I don't know what it is, but maybe it is the Asian take on sex, and the sanuk factor of the Thais. Yeah, it can go to shit easily, but not nearly as easily as it would back in the states. Hell, I'd rather walk drunk through the KlongToey slums than sober and armed in many, many (make that ANY), American big city slums. And it IS much safer in the states now than it was 10, 20, 30 years ago! (Mostly due to a very substantial increase in the police forces, not through any lack of violence and violent people, and also due to the fact that many of the worst of the criminals are doing hard time for a long time in prisons there.)

 

I have no idea of what Amsterdam nightlife areas is like. I've never been there. I would be interested in hearing how safe that is, or in Paris, London, Frankfurt, etc. All cities comparable to Bangkok. Since you don't like the Jamaica comparison, which city would you like to compare to Bangkok that has a sex scene for the safety of the punters who go there?

 

Bangkok is extremely safe when you figure in the amount of punters going there, the amount of extreme poverty there and the close proximity of the largest slum in the country, the lax police presence, the amount of alcohol consumption and drugs, the amount of hookers on the streets--the 'freelancers', the stupidity of the government closing hours, which sends thousands of drunken punters and drunken and/or drug-addled hookers into the streets when they are at their probable worse state of inebriation, and many other things I could probably cite that if that was happening anywhere in the states would be a recipe for utter disaster and mayhem.

 

Can shit happen in Thailand? Sure can. But not on the scale that it would happen in the states unless there was a HUGE police presence to keep the order and protect the people involved in that scene. Open a full out city of sleaze like Pattaya in the states and it would be worse I'd bet.

 

I was just in Pattaya for a full week. We went out every night to the bar areas all over Pattaya. I had not ONE problem at all, and this is Pattaya, not Bangkok. Pattaya, the city of all the murders and shootings and all we hear so much about. I saw a few drunken farangs being taken care of by the police and paramedics (these guys were legless) during that whole time there. Not one fistfight. Not one problem that had me on edge and looking around me for ways to avoid the problem and making me fear for my safety.

 

This so-called problem of violence in Thailand AGAINST FARANGS is being blown totally out of proportion to what the reality is in these threads. Now if we want to talk about Thai on Thai violence, that is another matter.

 

Random violence occurs, no debate from me on that. And, it has increased, or at least the REPORTING of it has increased, especially on the internet where we can get firsthand info from other punters who have had bad experiences. But, if you go out in Thailand with a few intelligent friends who aren't out to cause trouble, can hold their liquor, have some sense and know how to handle themselves in dicey situations and more important, know how to avoid problems through different ways and means and behavior, you can for the most part be pretty much assured that you will not have a problem in Thailand unless you become a victim of random violence, which is impossible to avoid when the shit goes down.

 

JMHO.

 

Cent

[..]

Cent, old bean. That's what I have been saying for months. Maybe your eloquence (sp?) will make the point?

 

Regards,

SD

[Central Scrutinizer]

SD,

 

Hey, meant to call you tonight! When you coming up? If you can.

 

Hopefully this will end some of this talk in this thread. Who knows.

 

Cent

[..]

I responded in the Tony Jaa thread...

 

End the debate? 555555555555 You slay me bro'!

 

Cheers,

SD

[Bangkoktraveler]

cent said

[color:red]"Random violence occurs, no debate from me on that. And, it has increased, or at least the REPORTING of it has increased, especially on the internet where we can get firsthand info from other punters who have had bad experiences. But, if you go out in Thailand with a few intelligent friends who aren't out to cause trouble, can hold their liquor, have some sense and know how to handle themselves in dicey situations and more important, know how to avoid problems through different ways and means and behavior, you can for the most part be pretty much assured that you will not have a problem in Thailand unless you become a victim of random violence, which is impossible to avoid when the shit goes down."[/color]

 

Suadam, I believed the bulk of this debate has been on your position that [color:blue]random violence [/color]does not occur in Thailand. Now we can all rest this debate being we all now agree that random violence can and does occur.

 

[..]

I have NEVER said never. I have said very unlikely. NOT the same. The problem here is that guys like you think in absolutes, black & white, where I see things in shades of gray.

 

Very rare is something 100% true 100% of the time. Anything can happen. I may win $1M in the lottery, someone does most every week. But most likely not. Same same with random violence...tho' I believe even less chance of a truely random violent act happening than winning the lottery (there's 99.99999% a reason: robbery, grudge, etc.). And not just in Thailand, but anywhere.

 

Regards,

SD