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Photo: Motorcycle bomb damage in Hat Yai, September 2006 What's On This Page?
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Thailand - Hazards Page 2Political Unrest and Insurgency in the South
Problems in southern Thailand aren't new. The provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani were once a semi-autonomous state. The people living there are mainly Muslim and have closer ties with nearby Muslim Malaysia than they do Thailand. There are more Mosques than Wats in the region and many people speak the Yawi dialect instead of Thai. Problems flared up again in January 2004. An incident on 28th April 2004 escalated the violence and another incident on 25th October 2004 resulted in this conflict being a concern for everyone in Thailand, not just those in the affected provinces. I don't want to go into the details here as it is still too upsetting for me but everything has been recorded and one day I may publish my views and interpretation of events. I would advise tourists against travelling to the deep south, that is, the provinces mentioned above but of course it is a personal decision. With regard to what will happen elsewhere in Thailand after the incident on 25th October 2004, who knows? So far though (January 2005) the violence has remained isolated within the three affected provinces. The tourist industry is a huge source of revenue for Thailand so the authorities will do what they can to protect it. However, bear in mind that threats have been made and there exists the possibility of something happening. To be directly involved in a terrorist act means being in exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time and the odds against this happening are long. Statistically, travelling on the roads in Thailand represents a far greater risk to life and limb than terrorist acts but many people don't think like that. The vast majority of Thais are extremely peace loving and gentle and this includes the vast majority of Thai Muslims. I still don't consider Thailand a dangerous place and I can't think of many places left in the world now where the threat of terrorism is non-existent. Vigilance and common sense will go a long way in keeping you safe. Thailand Islamic Insurgency - link to the GlobalSecurity.org web site
One of the Khmer Rouge's legacies on the Thai/Cambodian border is unexploded landmines which present a significant danger once you go off the beaten path in affected areas. Bandits also operate in the area. As recently as April 2005 the northern army region deployed heavy weapons on the Burma border near Mae Hong San following attacks by Shan rebels. (Source The Nation 19th April 2005). I have visited areas of Thailand which border Laos, Burma and Malaysia and not seen the slightest hint of any problems but it is advisable to be careful. Another problem with borders is that they close occasionally, as happened at Mae Sai for a short time after the September 2006 coup.
I have heard exactly the same thing from other sources. The basic message is that if a Thai can cheat and get away with it, it is something to be proud of and not ashamed of. This isn't just in Thailand either. It is not unusual to hear about Thais abroad who are involved in scams. Six Thais were arrested at a casino in the Cambodian town of Poipet near the Thai border in January 2005 after using an electronic device to cheat while they were gambling. In April 2005 several Thais living in Los Angeles were involved in a car theft ring. They had good credit records and were paid US$1,000 to lease very expensive cars. The cars were then fitted with GPS tracking systems and stolen later by the gang they were working for to be sold on. The list goes on. These are the big scams but at a lower level it is just the same. Ignoring red traffic lights is OK if you can get away with it, as is cheating in school exams. It pains me to point out things like this about an entire nation of people but it is an unfortunate fact that there are many dishonest Thais. By not pointing out such facts visitors will continue to get cheated so I feel obliged to tell the truth and not paint a rosy picture of Thailand like the glossy guidebooks do. The problem in Thailand for visitors (and Thais themselves) is that there is very little distinction between what is an acceptable con and what isn't. Everyone would probably agree that it is wrong for a tuk-tuk driver to offer cheap sightseeing tours and coerce people into gem shops to be conned. They would probably also agree it is wrong to cheat in casinos. But what about a language school which says it has innovative teaching methodologies and then just drags any old teacher in off the street to teach? Isn't that a con as well? Because of the notion of face in Thailand it is perfectly acceptable to dress something up to make it look good but this pleasant image bears no resemblance to the reality. The Thais are lovely people in general but be very careful who you put your trust in and take nothing at face value. This all sounds terrible, saying Thailand is a country full of cheats. Why is it then that foreigners love the place so much and why is it that so many Thais seem such nice people? It's because they are basically good people individually, and they are not inherently dishonest, but when you consider certain facts it is actually quite predictable. Thai society puts a lot of emphasis on the concept of face so it is important for them to wear nice clothes and gold and ride around on new motorbikes or in new cars. The majority of the population earn barely enough to survive though and they have no chance in life to make a lot of money honestly. Despite this they are subject to a continual media onslaught showing rich people living fabulous lives. Just to make them feel even less worthy, in every commercial break they are told that to be happy in life it is necessary to have white skin as well as lots of money. They are then made to believe that all foreigners are fabulously wealthy so trying to get a share of that money is quite acceptable. The ironic thing is that of all the world's religions and philosophies, Buddhism probably has the best analysis of this cycle of unhappiness and how to deal with it. Thais don't need to explore the religions and philosophies of the world to understand that grasping and craving leads to suffering and cessation of that grasping will stop the suffering. It's all there, if only they would pay attention to the real meaning of their own religion and shun the gods of consumerism.
For those who don't know, the gem scam involves being offered gems at a very cheap price. The victim is told the real value is far higher than the gems are on offer for. They are normally also told of a bogus contact in their home country who they can contact easily once they get home for assistance. All they have to do is buy the gems 'cheap', take them home and sell them for a huge profit. Of course, the gems are actually worth nothing or next to nothing. Some tricksters can appear to be really nice people but that's the art of it. They are called 'con-artists' because they gain your confidence. On my very first trip to Thailand a friend and I got conned by two young lads in Bangkok who said they were English students and offered to show us around in return that they could practice their English with us. It sounded like a good deal and started off as a nice day until they got us into a very uncomfortable situation with a river boat driver who claimed that we had chartered the boat for our personal usage. At the end of the boat trip he stopped 10 feet from the bank and wouldn't let us off until we had paid an extortionate amount of money. We realised after the event that the two lads had colluded with him to orchestrate the situation.
Now that the gem scam is so well known it would appear that one of the favourite scams these days involves cheap tailoring (one of my personal hates in Thai tourist areas). Of the various activities farangs do when they visit Thailand for a vacation, a popular one is to buy made-to-measure clothes. The shops are normally run by Indians and they take out adverts in in-flight magazines these days to start getting at tourists even before they arrive in Thailand. The adverts typically offer packages, such as two suits, two shirts, two silk ties, two leather belts and a safari suit. This will be for a fixed price, normally expressed in US dollars. (One advert I saw said that the price included materials and stitching. Wow. I wonder if they'd give me a price on two suits, etc. without any materials or stitching?). As far as I am concerned, nothing irritates me more in tourist areas than constantly being approached by Indian tailors. But more than the annoyance factor, a lot are tricksters apparently. The ploy they use is to deliver clothes just before visitors are about to depart and there is no time to take any corrective action for faults or shoddy workmanship. Be careful. I'm sure it is possible to get real bargains but it's also possible to waste money on rubbish and the salesmen are extremely persistent. They will invariably offer to collect guests from their hotels, they are very good at convincing tourists to buy something and they won't take no for an answer. One of the favourite ways to get unsuspecting tourists into scam situations is through tuk-tuk drivers. Tuk-tuk drivers approach tourists in the street offering a one hour sightseeing tour for Bt20 or something. It seems like a great deal but the ridiculously cheap price is of course too good to be true. At some stage of the 'tour' you will be taken to a gem or tailor shop. The people there will seem very friendly and nice of course. They'll give you a drink, ask some polite questions but all the time they are just trying to soften you up for the hard sell. These situations can get very uncomfortable and be difficult to get out of. For taking you there the shop owner will give the tuk-tuk driver a commission of course. Sometimes I have to admire the ingenuity of Thai scamsters. As a potential scam whoever would have thought of trying to sell moisture-absorbent pellets as uranium? Fake Rolex watches, Levi jeans and gems, yes, but fake nuclear materials? It happened in Nakhon Pathom in early May 2005 when seven Thai men were arrested. Amazing but true.
I have found the situation in Bangkok to be very different. As an actual means of transport they are virtually redundant because they are noisier, less comfortable, less healthy, slower and more expensive than metered taxis. In addition, there are now the options of taking the BTS or subway. Whenever I have tried to negotiate a fare with a Bangkok tuk-tuk driver he has always tried to rip me off so I've ended up getting a taxi. If they would actually stop trying to rip off tourists and offer fares that are cheaper than taxis they might get some business. The truth of the matter though is that with so many gullible tourists around they are not interested in honest work. The other thing I don't like about Bangkok tuk-tuk drivers is that so many have tried to involve me in scams. Who are the people who hang around the Khao Sarn Road and other tourist spots, such as Jim Thompson's house, trying to lure tourists into scam situations with promises of cheap sightseeing tours? It is always tuk-tuk drivers. After being persistently hassled by tuk-tuk drivers in Bangkok to go on one-hour sightseeing tours for Bt20 - which are obviously scams - I took one of them to task. He was actually very direct and told me that the deal involved visiting two Indian tailor shops. (In my opinion, the only people in Bangkok that register lower on the slimeball scale than tuk-tuk drivers are Indian tailors.) By delivering tourists to these places he would be given five litre fuel coupons so that's his incentive. You could look at this as a cheap way of doing some sightseeing by just not buying anything at the tailor shops. However, you can guarantee that the Indian tailors - having paid a tuk-tuk driver to get you there in the first place - are not going to allow you to walk away easily without buying something first. Personally I hate these high pressure sales situations and don't think they are worth getting into just to save a few Baht but you may feel differently. A tuk-tuk ride is fine for first-time visitors and I would urge Thailand virgins to take a short ride just for the experience but beyond that first ride I honestly wouldn't bother and I would actually suggest steering well clear of them.
My patience is wearing pretty thin with these guys. Where I live in Songkhla province they have decided to raise the standard fare around town from Bt10 to Bt15. OK, it's not a lot - Bt5, but it is a rise of 50%. Their justification is that oil prices have gone up thus raising the price of petrol and diesel. They operate in a cartel system so there is no competition. The tuk-tuk mafia in Phuket is well known but the drivers do the same in other places. All the drivers raise their prices together and give passengers no option but to pay the increased fare. When I first encountered the increased fare it wasn't a long way home so I told the guy I would walk. He shouted, "Kee niaow," as he drove off. It's the Thai for 'stingy'. I just laughed. A fare increase to offset rising fuel prices is fair enough except that tuk-tuks don't run on petrol or diesel, they run on LPG. It was possible that LPG prices had risen too but I suspected not by as much as 50%. I happened to be passing a petrol station and called in. Thailand, like many poor countries, still offers full service at petrol stations and I spoke to a couple of lads working on the pumps. I asked how much tuk-tuk fuel was per litre and they told me Bt26. I asked how much it was last month and they told me Bt25. A quick calculation in my head gave me a figure of 4% for the price rise. Everyone complained when the government removed part of the subsidy on fuel prices but commercial drivers have done OK. Prices for diesel went up by about 20% from Bt15 to Bt18 a litre but the standard sawng-thaew fare went up from Bt5 to Bt7, or 40%. Now on to a specific tuk-tuk incident which is still fresh in my mind. I decided to take a look around the local Macro store as I hadn't been there before. I knew exactly where it was in relation to my location at the time - about a five minute ride down a straight road - and I knew that sawng-thaews went along that route. I asked a couple of sawng-thaew drivers if they were going there but they weren't. I guess they planned to turn off before Macro to go to the bus station. A tuk-tuk driver was lazing around and asked where I wanted to go. I told him and I asked how much. My estimate for the fare was Bt15 but I expected him to tell me Bt20. He told me Bt50. I thought I might have misheard what he said so I asked him again. I did mishear. He actually said Bt150. Some days I might just have walked away but he caught me in a bit of a grumpy mood and I rather laid into him - verbally of course. Looking straight at him, I asked him if he was joking, "Poot len, chai mai?" With a stupid grin on his face he told me he wasn't. My barrage continued. The general advice in Thailand is not to show any anger or emotion but sometimes it's good to let off steam and rogue tuk-tuk drivers are fair game in my book. A Thai guy then walked by and asked me where I was going. (This is very common, people will ask you all the time, "Bpai nai?") I told him and he told me I could get a sawng-thaew for Bt7. I thought I could but I had asked the wrong ones before. I pointed out the cheat and told my new friend the fare he had quoted me. "He was joking," the guy said. "No he wasn't," I replied. I jumped in the next sawng-thaew but not before letting the tuk-tuk driver know where I was going and how much the fare was. Bt7. I wasn't wearing my T-shirt which says, "I'm a stupid farang who has just arrived in the country. Please feel free to charge me as much as you like," but unfortunately I can't do much about my physical farang appearance. It angers me that there are so many good-hearted, honest Thais doing back-breaking work on building sites around the country for Bt150 a day yet this lazy bugger thought he could earn the same in five minutes just because he was dealing with a farang. Even more annoying are the stupid farang tourists who just hand over their money. If they weren't so stupid then the situation wouldn't exist.
A visitor to the site who has given me some excellent advice made a few comments about lying in Thailand. He now lives in Hua Hin with his second Thai wife after leaving his first Thai wife in England. He knows Thailand and the Thais pretty well. One thing he told me was that all Thais lie and even if it is easier to tell the truth they will still lie. I know this sounds an awful thing to say. Those visitors who have been for a vacation in Thailand and met wonderful, honest Thai people will be horrified to hear such a statement but after living in Thailand for a while myself I can't disagree. If you visit Thailand for a short time you see one facet of the country. Come to live here for a while though - not as a tourist - and it is very different. Lying in Thailand doesn't always have the same negative connotations as it has in the Western world. Sometimes the lie is for financial gain but sometimes Thais lie for other reasons. If a taxi driver in Bangkok tells you that somewhere you want to get is closed or that you can't get anything to eat at a certain place it is probably a lie and he wants to take you to another place where he will receive a commission for taking you there. Before you go somewhere try to find out a little from guidebooks, a trustworthy local, your hotel or the TAT office to get the lowdown. If someone on the street or a taxi or tuk-tuk driver tells you something else, treat them with suspicion. Tuk-tuk drivers and unmetered taxi drivers will often lie to foreigners about fares. The best thing to do is find out from the locals what a fare should be before you take the ride. "Go hok" is the Thai phrase for lie and is one that I use more than I want to. Taxi drivers may also lie about there not being public transport available. Phuket Town bus station is a favourite place for this. They will tell you there aren't any buses to the beach and the only way to get there is by taxi or tuk-tuk and will charge you whatever they think they can get away with. The truth of the matter is that several buses and sawng-thaews go to the beaches from the local market which is just a few minutes walk away from the bus station and they cost next to nothing. If you are a foreign man and get involved with Thai bar girls almost everything they say will be a lie. "I love you" and "I miss you" get trotted out all the time verbally and in mobile phone text messages. They will lie about other men they are involved with, lie about their financial situation, lie about having children, lie about how long they have been in the job. The lies are not restricted to bar girls, mind you. Sometimes lies are told not to deceive but to protect. The Thai cultural qualities of 'face saving' and politeness should be remembered. If a Thai thinks that by telling you the truth, you or they will lose face, or that you won't like the truth, you may be given a less truthful but more palatable version of the facts. The Thai doesn't want you to feel bad so won't tell you something that will make you feel bad. For a foreigner coming from a completely different culture this aspect of Thailand can be very frustrating but it gets easier to deal with if you try to understand some of the reasons behind the lies. Not every lie has a reason though. I still haven't figured out why, in the space of 24 hours, one of my girlfriend's colleagues invented a story about me leaving a bar with a girl on the back of the girl's motorbike. Nor could I understand why a strange girl I had never met turned up at my apartment and told reception I hadn't paid her for a massage she supposedly gave me the day before? (My friend Dave from Hua Hin believes the two were working together. The motive for the girl was to split up my relationship so she could move in with me and the motive for my girlfriend's lying colleague was that the girl would give him some money if he assisted in her quest).
Here's an interesting one and a different spin on the lying theme in Thailand. Normally, when talking about lying in Thailand, it is about Thais lying to foreigners. Many farangs complain about Thais lying to them and, as I explained above, there are various reasons why they do this. But should you lie to Thais in certain situations or is honesty always the best policy? The person I have got to know best in Thailand is my girlfriend and I have run into a few problems with her over telling the truth. The Western view is that honesty is the best policy and that if you only tell the truth you don't have to remember what lies you have told. Anyway, this was what I was brought up to believe. My girlfriend, like many Thai girls, is jealous and possessive. She hates me having anything to do with other girls if the other girls are attractive and single. However, being Thai she is realistic and knows that I will meet other girls. It's just that she doesn't want to know about it. She has therefore told me, in so many words, to lie to her. There has not been anything going on with the girls I have met so I have not tried to conceal them from her because I have nothing to hide. My view has been that if I am open and tell the truth it is the best thing for both of us. Her view is quite different. She doesn't tell me I can't associate with other girls but, at the same time, she doesn't want to know about them. In effect, she wants me to lie to her in order to protect her feelings. If I talk to a girl while she isn't around she doesn't want to hear about it later. If a girl calls me on the phone and she asks who called it is best for me to lie even though she has nothing to fear from hearing the truth. In the West we might refer to these as 'white lies'. It is not telling the truth in order to protect someone else's feelings. In certain situations in Thailand therefore, honesty is not always the best policy.
Because of their financial situation most Thais cannot afford cars so there are a huge amount of motorbikes. Bikes, being bikes, are inherently more dangerous than cars as there is no protection if they get hit. The Thais are appalling drivers. They basically do what they want on the roads and there is negligible law enforcement. Most of the time they get away with their stupidity but it goes without saying that eventually their luck will run out. It's bad enough at the best of times but when young, testosterone-laden Thai males are factored into the equation it gets even worse. The injuries and fatalities are not just paper statistics. When you visit Thailand you will see lots of people with scars on their arms and legs, the result of motorcycle accidents. I have also spoken to many people who have been directly affected. The diving company I have used in the past stopped renting a certain dive boat because the owner had been killed in a car crash. The father of one of the receptionists where I used to stay was killed Christmas 2003 in a car crash and my girl friend heard a few days later that her cousin had been killed in a car crash. A dive shop owner I met in Koh Samui very nearly lost his life in a motorcycle accident. It is no joke. When you first come to Thailand you realise that it is crazy but you think they know what they're doing. It's only when you find out about the carnage on the roads do you realise they don't. Just before writing this I took a 10 minute motorcycle taxi ride to a restaurant I like on the other side of town. On that short trip the guy committed enough traffic offences to lose his license in most countries but this is Thailand so of course everything was perfectly normal. He didn't stop once at a road junction to give way. He is not unique though, they all do the same thing. They pull straight out on to the road and hope that vehicles coming along give way. Most of the time the other vehicles do give way but all it takes is one person not to be paying attention (sending an SMS message on a mobile phone or something) and the bike will get hit. This 'Thai traffic merge' technique terrifies me but it's just the way things are here. It's scary. In Bangkok and the provinces recently there has emerged a craze for street racing. At midnight or later when the roads have quietened down young lads race their motorbikes up and down. The noise can be awful. The craze was started apparently by a Hollywood movie 'The Fast and the Furious' which has become a cult. For some riders the motivation for participating is the thrill of speed but for other riders and most of the spectators the draw is the Asian love of gambling. Thousands of Baht are bet on each race. In some towns the police don't do anything but I did read in the paper there had been a crackdown somewhere. The police set up a roadblock. A policeman was injured and the rider of the bike that injured him was charged with attempted murder.
In the UK I know one person who has been involved in a motorbike accident but in the UK driving standards are much higher, far fewer people ride bikes and when they do they wear protective clothing and crash helmets. In Thailand I meet people all the time who have been involved in accidents or who have lost friends and relatives in accidents. As I said before, it is no joke. It is a serious social problem in Thailand. Here are some interesting statistics courtesy of The Nation for road accidents over the 2004 New Year period. In that short period of time 902 people were killed (73% male, 27% female). Most of the vehicles involved were motorcycles - 77%. By varying age group, those killed were: Under 20 (35%); 21-30 (33%); 31-40 (17%); Over 40 (15%). Most accidents occurred between 6pm and midnight (35%). The rest of the accidents occurred at the following times: Noon - 6pm (30%); 6am - noon (18%); Midnight - 6am (17%). These figures are just for the fatalities and don't take into account the thousands of people who were seriously injured, some permanently. I'm not making this up and I don't think I'm over-reacting. It hurts me that there is such a senseless waste of life, especially young life. Every time I see a mangled motorbike on the road after an accident it turns my stomach and it is a sight I have seen far too often in Thailand. Then again, my feelings change when I see some of the worst examples of stupid, dangerous driving I've ever seen and I think to myself that if people drive like that they deserve to die. I've written some more about driving in Thailand on my Random Thoughts page.
The first thing they do is add a huge exhaust tailpipe. It makes no difference to the performance of the car but that's not the point; it makes a lot of noise (which is desirable) and they think it looks good. All over Thailand there are garages that specialise in adding large tailpipes and you will find that many vehicles have them - even some tuk-tuks. The next piece of customisation is a naff plastic body styling kit and a huge, pointless spoiler. Proper sports car manufacturers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars designing spoilers and testing them in wind tunnels to improve aerodynamics and increase downforce. Thai boy-racers just stick a big plastic wing on the back and have done with it.
The movie 'The Fast and the Furious' achieved cult status in Thailand and inspired a culture of street racing. Thai boy-racers drivers have no respect for the safety of other people as they turn the streets into race tracks. You may be thinking that this is the case all over the world wherever young males drive cars and that if you give a young, testosterone-laden male a car or motorbike he will naturally try to drive it as fast as he possibly can. I wouldn't disagree but there is a subtle difference in Thailand. In other countries with lots of traffic police, speed cameras and red light cameras it won't take long for the drivers to be caught, prosecuted and banned. The difference in Thailand is that there are no cameras and very few police. The young kids drive as fast as they want with impunity because they know that nothing is going to happen to them. The only thing that will stop them is killing themselves or other people. It's a crazy situation.
Checking Your Brain In At The Airport And Forgetting To Collect It Hundreds of Americans and Europeans are killed on the roads of Thailand every year while on holiday. That is a fact. When you start hearing the details behind some of the accidents though the stupidity starts to defy belief. What happens is that people develop a different mentality, purely due to the fact they are on holiday in Thailand. I have mentioned elsewhere in these pages about the euphoric feeling I used to get just being in Thailand. It goes eventually, after a long stay, but for many years I had this amazing feeling every time I was in the country and the feeling used to last for the duration of my visit. I can therefore empathise but it does well to try to exercise a degree of common sense. According to police reports in the newspaper many of the tourists involved in fatal accidents were high on cocktails of Viagra tablets and alcohol when they decided to jump on a poorly maintained motorbike they didn't know how to control properly without the appropriate license or insurance. Many did not wear a crash helmet or have any protective clothing and were not familiar with Thai driving 'techniques'. It's a disaster waiting to happen.
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