Farang killed in Nakhon Si Thammat

[Pescator]

Hi Lord Toad,

 

Of course you are right about that.

However, quite are number of thais are very well off also by european standards these days and they certainly have no problems going around flashing expensive jewellery, watches, gold and cash too for that matter. I guess they gain face this way although we would probably think of it as a tad vulgar.

Actually I found it much more common for thais to display their wealth than it is to most farangs.

 

NSK is as you say not a touristy place and the guy got killed because of his expensive camera.

But then again a girl was killed in a very touristy place in Krabi, where they are very used to tourists. She was killed by the boat driver for the ridiculous sum of some 1.000 baht.

 

I`d say that It all boils down to this. He/she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Cheers

Hua Nguu

 

[gobbledonk]

Apologies re Detroit - I'm sure its a lovely place in broad daylight and with a Police escort ...

 

Seriously, Chicago and other Rust Belt cities seem to have enjoyed a revival in the last 10 or so years, but Detroit seems to have missed out. Any comments ?

[BadaBing]

Says artiew:

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Any comments ?

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Sure I do , but let's not hijack a serious thread... :hubba:

 

BadamakingalistBing

[Guest]

Big things are big targets so this why I bought a small digi cam it is as thin as a credit card and does the job, and after I take the pic I slip it back quickly into my pocket, without people having a clue what I had in my hand.

[Guest]

The notion that Thailand is "safe" is fundamentally wrong. It's only "safe" in so far as there's much less random violence than in the West (in all likelihood you won't get beaten or shot just for the heck of it), but aim-driven violence (to get at someone's wealth, to get rid of business competition, revenge etc.) is more rampant than in the West. Officially, there are 5-6 thousand murders a year in Thailand, but it is suggested that the real figure is about twice that high - which on a per capita ratio makes Thailand much more dangerous than the US. If I'm not mistaken there are currently about 16000 murders per year in the US, and about 2000 each in the UK (having about the same number of inhabitants as Thailand) and Germany.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

No, the safe times are not over. Back in the '80's, I remember a Japanese honeymoon couple were picked up on arrival by what was called at the time a "black-plate taxi" (not registered with the airport), and he immediately drove them away to a spot where he robbed and brutally murdered them both. In 1988, a female farang belonging to an organization I was associated with (although I had never met her) was laying out on a beach way down South, when she was raped repeatedly and brutally beaten by a boat crew. They had tried to beat her to death, but she lived. They had tried to make it to Malaysia in their boat (although they were Thai, pirates I think), but were intercepted in time by the Thai navy.

 

These are just two examples I know of. I know many more. My point is that such incidents have happened repeatedly over the course of the years, and every time they happen, someone asks if the safe times are over now. They just don't happen with the same frequency as in the West. Thailand is JUST as safe as it ever was, but that doesn't mean that these kinds of incidents can't happen here. The trick is to be cautious without being paranoid. It's easy to let down one's guard in Thailand, especially if one has just arrived here from traveling through some of the other countries in this part of the world. The vast majority of people just do not run into this type of bad luck, though, and that will not change in the near future that I can see.

[spirit_of_town_hall]

I KNOW this guy, his normal job so to speak is as chef, or at least that is what his proper job was before he started writing!!!

 

I have spent some time with him in Lamai and have been to the Thermie with him on a good few occassions.

 

Incidentally for what it is worth, he drank a hell of a lot and could make a speactacle of himself, always in a harmless way though.

 

Poor guy.

 

STH ::

[limbo]

Hi Siam Sam,

 

I think you make some good points.

In my opinion in each country where there's the amount of tourism that Thailand has, once in a while some people will be in the wrong place and the wrong time, and it doesn't necessarily has to be in Thailand.

Italy, Germany, any country it can be.

 

Looking at the total amount of tourists and the number of people that get murdered out of this total number, I guess the % is very very low.

 

Limbo

[gene1944]

A point of clarification:

 

According to both the Nation and the Post, the Finnish guy was stabbed when he resisted in handing over his camera BAG which had a camera in it. So, the 4 killers did not really know what they were trying to steal and were just going after his BAG.

 

By the way, one of the suspects has already been caught (a 20 yr old) and the other 3 suspects were named in the paper.

[trooper]

World is a small place, I also have many friends that knew this guy.

 

I've been to places like Rio de Janeiro where I almost shit into my pants when walking alone in certain areas. Compared to that and many other country I've visited I have always found Bangkok and Thailand in general very safe. I just think lately there have been more incidents that could make one think it's turning to worse. Even my friend was nearly stabbed in Bangkok last year when going to see her girl in some suburb in BKK. Maybe those incidents have always been there but this is just my feeling about it.