The Changing Of The Guard On Lower Suk ....

[gobbledonk]

Sweet Jesus - a country of 60 million pulls 22 million tourists in 12 months and the powers-that-be still do nothing about the scammers in places like Patong ? I know the vast majority of these tourists aren't punters (a frightening prospect indeed ...), but they walk the same streets as I do and see the same shit.

 

I guess coming from Russia, China and Korea gives you a different perspective : buyer beware - but the jet-ski brigade and their mates in motorcycle hire should have been in jail years ago. Massive export earner and these clowns are prepared to risk it all. Might not be able to do much about the cops, but surely they can curb the most blatant scammers.

[think_too_mut]

Top 7 sources of tourists - 6 Asian countries and Russia, now amount to more than the entire tourist population in 2001. None of them was in top 20 back then.

 

 

At the airport, it's all cleaned up, no touts. Airport - home - shopping malls - own car - Hua Hin good hotel.

Not a single scam, if it were my first visit I would not know what scams people are talking about.

 

Knowing the scam are well and alive, somehow I doubt that tourists from the top 7 countries are being scammed. Somehow I believe that privilege is, if not reserved for, then for classic Sukhumvit - Pattaya tourists of the yester decade or what has remained of them. Don't know of new scams, they appear to be old ones and built around then dominant tourist population and still targeting them.

 

Even more probable is - those engaging in activities like motorbike and jetski hire are not from the top 7 countries. Either risk averse while travelling or cash strapped and simply don't get exposed.

 

What everyone was exposed to were soi dogs, the shame of any place that allows them to exist. Somehow, they seem to be cleaned up, seen a handful only. A friend who visited Bangkok for a week in May, could not believe they (soi dogs) had ever existed (he was around Phloenchit station and along the BTS).

[TheCorinthian]

Sweet Jesus - a country of 60 million pulls 22 million tourists in 12 months and the powers-that-be still do nothing about the scammers in places like Patong ? I know the vast majority of these tourists aren't punters (a frightening prospect indeed ...), but they walk the same streets as I do and see the same shit.

 

I guess coming from Russia, China and Korea gives you a different perspective : buyer beware - but the jet-ski brigade and their mates in motorcycle hire should have been in jail years ago. Massive export earner and these clowns are prepared to risk it all. Might not be able to do much about the cops, but surely they can curb the most blatant scammers.

 

This was about our #1 complaint at the embassy. The conversations with the local cops about it were just funny. (And infuriating.)

[huumlaar]

UK USA has stayed pretty static, Australia has had a big increase, tired of Bali? Laos also, you see it in Udon, some many Laos number plates!

[Flashermac]

From what I saw, it seems every little shop owner in Wiengchan goes to Udorn about twice a month to stock up. Much of what you see being sold in Laos is from Thailand. I wouldn't call that tourism.

[think_too_mut]

Canada gets 16 million vistors a year and there are claims 10 mil are Americans crossing to buy cheaper medicine and tank fuel. Still, counted as tourists.

 

What is important here is "presenteism"; that those tourists have changed the places where they go. If it were not for a stray dogs, 2 years ago I would think Pattaya is Sochi in Russia.

[panadolsandwich]

I don't trust reviews. Most people don't know what's good for them, or else they are too priggish. I've been to places that are absolutely fantastic where some pipsqueak has impugned them because he didn't like the staff - a reflection no doubt of his own flaws - reviews don't stop there - lacking basic social skills is the least of it! I've read review after review of people I would clinically diagnose as being obsessive compulsive. I'm sorry to say that I can always tell when an American reviews. They seem to have this almighty stick of righteousness stuck up there arse (note not ass), and, *and* particularly the middle aged American woman - a demon of such surprising ferocity I wonder sometimes that hotels don't just bluntly refuse them entry. I know if I owned a hotel, I would try to weed them out. They'll demand five star service in a one star hovel, and why do they insist on talking so loudly? They really are cunts - in the true definition of the very word, but try telling them that... I just called one a fucking cunt once - and the harridan had the gall to take it as an offer for a rendezvous - add dimwitted to the list.

 

Whilst I won't mind Nana hotel for a bout of debauchery - I would hardly take my family there.

[JaiRai]

My first time in BKK my friends told me to stay at the Nana hotel - while smirking between themselves. I found out why soon after - felt like I entered a throwback to the 70s swingers period and encountered some of the most greasy oddballs I've seen in awhile hovering around. Left after two days. One of those things you should probably experience to see for yourself but I'd shoot myself in the face before bringing a family or kids there.

[panadolsandwich]

And that's what it is JaiRai - an icon - like a trip back in time as you say to the seventies. I felt nostalgic so inquired about a room, but they were full. Also they were quoting nearly 3000 baht - which is entirely unreasonable in my book. The Dynasty is solid competition and not bad value all things considered.

[Flashermac]

The Nana is indeed a trip back to the 1970s. It was built as an R&R hotel during the VN War and it shows it! I know retired GIs who will only stay at the Nana, since it feels like home to them.

 

p.s. Ask the staff about the "haunted rooms" - the ones no BG will set foot in.