Flashermac Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 Instead of the war on drugs, next time Takky can have a war on Phuket tuk-tuk and taxi drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 Hi, It's a fucking disgrace that this is still going on. No doubt this involves kickbacks to plenty of high ranking officials. Mind you, the songthaews in Samui are pretty mercenary as well in their prices. Not heard of them beating up people though. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 Hi, It's a fucking disgrace that this is still going on. No doubt this involves kickbacks to plenty of high ranking officials. Mind you, the songthaews in Samui are pretty mercenary as well in their prices. Not heard of them beating up people though. Sanuk! They are mercenary indeed and unfortunately I do know of a situation or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waerth Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 Exactly the reasons why I have never been to Phuket or Samui in my 12 years here. Have only been there for work which means everything is arranged. Pattaya is a lot more laid back that way. Even Thai friends of mine complain about Samui and Phuket. W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 last year in phuket i rented a honda jazz (david car rent, a respectable rental company), next month a toyota vigo, point is it avoids all the bullshit with tuk tuks, unless you crash into one!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 Exactly the reasons why I have never been to Phuket or Samui in my 12 years here. Have only been there for work which means everything is arranged. Pattaya is a lot more laid back that way. Even Thai friends of mine complain about Samui and Phuket. W Once you know about the potential problems, you can work around it. Imho, no need to avoid such places but follow your own plan and avoid situations where you need to use public transportation or keep it to a minimum. When I travel around Thailand I usually go bu means of my own car or rent local motorbikes. Imho, PTY can cause lots of problems as well, on pretty much any level, especially if you don't know your way around 'the Thai way' of doing things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioman Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 last year in phuket i rented a honda jazz (david car rent, a respectable rental company), next month a toyota vigo, point is it avoids all the bullshit with tuk tuks, unless you crash into one!!! Sounds like a recommendation LP. Good for me anyway. I spent a year in Phuket, 1999. Lived in town and in Patong for about 5 months, was driving and never had any hassles back then though I always thought of it as the Costa Del Thailand. For the last year or so I have been thinking of going back for a couple of nights, got hotel points to burn and a GF who's never been but the whole public transport tuk tuk thing puts me off. Renting a car would be way better, even if more expensive, I don't mind paying more to get more and we could see and do so much more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted September 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 When I was younger, I had a couple of holidays in Fiji. Very civilized, friendly hotel and taxi staff, no nightlife to speak of, great beaches and coral reefs, cheap. So whilst Phuket may have beaches, the transport mafia and euro-trash that get reported again and again, keep me from visiting. If I need scum I go to Patters, where I can hire a bike without being beaten. (to date, there's always the future) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 Thailand doesn't seem to care about western tourism Actually I think tourist are very sensible in regard to the price-performance ratio when they book their holidays. When prices go up and service goes down tourist will move to a different country. We see this in Europe every few years. In regard to LOS regardless of the constant stream of negative news (scams, deaths in Patty, airport shut down, shootings in the streets, e.g.) LOS still offers a lot of value for money. And it seems that LOS has been able to build an extremely strong image as the Land of Smile, an image which is still gilding the dark side of the society. As an opposite example see Cambo: People still associate the country with Khmer Rouge, land mines, atrocities, e.g.. Cambo has only Angkor as (known) positive factor, while LOS is associated with many very positive images like pristine beaches, great food, beautiful women, jungle trips, cheap clothes, e.g. And as we see with other countries, if tourists don't hear bad news about their country of choice for a few months, they will book the holiday. Furthermore most tourists will never hear about the scams in Phuket, strange deaths in Patty and dangerous conditions on the road before their trip anyway. Therefore in my opinion as long as the hotel and food prices don't explode tourist numbers won't go down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozpharlap Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 Yes, ignorance is bliss, but with modern shows and internet, the bad stories about LOS grow and grow, however, a lot of the young people don't seem to read much at all, newspapers, e-news etc ... and those tourist numbers seem to be increasing... but true, the value of the buck always seems to be a paramount factor for lots of travelers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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