Phuket sinks lower

[moe666]

Even in your local bar you have to cover your ass. Most assults, murders, and rapes are committed by someone you know and 9 out of 10 times drugs are involved.

[Torurot]

Olekunde said: "i have taken the **cheapest** fare from the airport, a minibus".

Let that be a lesson for the cheap amongst us. 150 Bhat for a 40+ minute ride from airport to Patong, right to your hotel door. They actually get a LOT of business off that little pull. If you have been before just don't go in the door when they stop. They won't force you to, just smile and say you have been before. They understand PERFECTLY. Consolation, on the way back to the airport they don't stop. For those that object to Thais making a little hustle on the way in, Just pay 700Bhat for the private taxis/limo. No stops. On the other hand I've met some very interesting people on the way in & out on the cheap Mini bus.
Guess it depends on your perspective.

Still lets not get started on that F'ing taxi "Mafia" in Patong. Pity they didn't have the Pattaya Bhat Bus system running there!!! That would give them a shake up.

[rob69in]

I am starting to think that I am visiting a different Phuket, you guys do seem to have a lot of problems! Perhaps I just don't see some of the incidents as problems.

I always stay at the Sunhill an excellent hotel, I use there pre booked transport, less than £10 to get me from the airport door to door, no hassles, friendly drivers, no hard sell, & a warm welcome from the staff at the hotel.

As to the Tourist Horde & Gawping Masses, I find the majority pure entertainment, wondering around in a daze, often horrified by the LB's & girlie bars, but they'll be back next year, they are just so scared of admitting they actually enjoyed it. Of course there are some who genuinely hate it, like the Hippos's surrounded by hour glass figurenes & better looking blokes, LB's to you & me, that there partner is struggling not to drool over. Misery Watch entertainment for the few.

Eurotrash drunks & other members of the obnoxicious morons club, are not going to change, so avoid them. If they are in your favorite bar ( which is usually not an LB bar ) choose another, theres only about 100+ to choose from. If they decide to have a punch up don't get involved & frankly the trouble outside Tiger is nothing compared to Nottingham slab square on a saturday night.

Phuket remains firmly on my list of sex pest destinations.

[rob69in]

(Groundhog @ Mar. 07 2007,07:50)

(rob69in @ Mar. 06 2007,16:12) Remember you only get one go at life, this isn't a rehearsal, ...

Indeed, but that go can be of variable duration ... I like to think there is a risk-return trade off that my portfolio of activities somehow optimizes.  

The other point may be just how good you are in a tight spot ... I finished reading Shantaram this winter (highly recommended and soon to be a major movie starring Johnny Depp) and there is a real difference between guys who know how to fight (like Gregory David Roberts) and guys who can fight just well enough to get themselves into trouble.  I think I'm probably the latter, since I really am unwilling to get hurt.

I'm no hard man believe me, but if you are confident & carry yourself well & look like you know where you are & what you are doing then you slip off the radar of many would be trouble makers. You are much less likely to become a victim. Theres even a discovery program about it!

I suppose being in the Brit Army for 23yrs perhaps teaches you a few things & gives you confidence, I don't know. I have been stabbed twice on my travels & robbed more times than i care to remember, so i don't always get away with it.

[Torurot]

Always amazes me that some of our Tourist Horde & Gawping Masses can spend most of the night at say Tequila bar and not even realise they are watching LB!!

[olekunde]

this minibus service, i think it was 450, and we where all hauled into the shop.
cannot say the other passangers i have met on any of these trips was any special or fun. backpackers or family tourists. most first-timers to thailand from what i could gather from their experiences.
inside the shop they they tried to convince me into another hotel even if i told them i knew of a perfect one for 500/night, to which they of course said has no more rooms available. then it was my turn to lie and say i had booked. then came the brocures. then for fun i tried to speak some thai which they totally ignored(but that i can understand), and gave me about a zillion of unbelivable offers which only valid if i bought them there and today
actually i wasn't especially annoyed by this, but this is something i have never come across in pattaya. there are some good times to be had in phuket, but pattaya is much better unless you're a beach bum

[thaibound]

damn,
i thought this thread was a spin-off from the global warming dissertations about heavy footprints sinking the earth beneath the glacier-fed and rapidly rising oceans of the world!
whew. what a relief.
good to know phuket will still be there when i return to get ripped off by cab-drivers and intimidated by drunken euro-trash before retiring to my room with a couple ineffably beautiful ladyboys from crocodile or c&d who will remind me - all night long - of the real reason life is worth living in the first place.

[rob69in]

(thaibound @ Mar. 08 2007,08:00) damn,
i thought this thread was a spin-off from the global warming dissertations about heavy footprints sinking the earth beneath the glacier-fed and rapidly rising oceans of the world!
whew. what a relief.
good to know phuket will still be there when i return to get ripped off by cab-drivers and intimidated by drunken euro-trash before retiring to my room with a couple ineffably beautiful ladyboys from crocodile or c&d who will remind me  - all night long - of the real reason life is worth living in the first place.

[Guest]

I love Phuket and am going there for the 3rd time this year tomorrow. I have never had a bad experience. I plan to take my daughter to the world's greatest beach (Lam Sing), the world's most beautiful hotel (Villa Royale, Kata Noi), elephant riding in the mountain, to one of the best spas I know (Hideaway), shop in one of the cheaper areas I know (near the Gym), and watch, perhaps the only open show of LBs on the planet (Soi Katoey).

As for danger, I cannot believe anyone would compare Phuket to Pattaya. Pattaya is the most violent city in Thailand. Every time I've been there, the next day's paper showed the 12 knifings, 10 shootings, and 50 thefts carried out the night I was there. In the 30+ times I've been to Phuket I've seen only 1 fight between drunken foreigners.

As for stupid tourists, yep, they got them. And they don't have them in Pattaya? Duh? In my observation, while tourists in Phuket are mesmerized newbies who think they are in Europe, the Pattaya ones are near 90% poor drunken white trash.

Russian mafia? Duh? Like haven't you read the papers about Pattaya? The Russian Mafia dominates Pattaya. The Thai Mafia dominates Phuket. Do you really care which one? If you're doing something that will get their attention, well, good luck in any city.

The only thing that pisses me off in Phuket are the over-priced, mafia run taxis. So, guess what? I don't take 'em.

Anyhow, this story is long in the tooth, and for those who keep posting negatives on Phuket, I wish they'd actually visit there once.

[Guest]

Shootings, knifings, robbery, bar punchouts? Sounds like an average day in every American city I know. Personally I practice to the same ways described by rob69in, along with a little good karma and common sense, to navigate through nightlife. Especially in a foreign country!.
Next trip will be through all the lovable dens of inequity -Bkk, Pattaya, and Phuket. The anticipation is driving me nuts!
Wouldnt bother me if news of the old ultraviolence does discourage a few farang and asian a-holes from visiting, but it wont deter me from my main objective at all = scoring early and often in your ladyboy paradise.  
PS - that dude trying to skip-out on his lady drinks in Phuket deserved a shot in the mouth.

[olekunde]

The only thing that pisses me off in Phuket are the over-priced, mafia run taxis. So, guess what? I don't take 'em.

the fastest and cheapest transport is motobike-taxi in patong. 20b get you anywhere around patong. the tuktuk price is quite a shock for those who who are used to the 10b fare in pattaya. dont remember the price but 50b or so for a short drive. in pattaya it's almost vice-versa, from walking street and to pattaya nua(bus station) mototaxis ask for something in the 50-80 range. anyway i always use motorbike cos i like to travel fast when i'm either hungry, horny or want a drink

[Torurot]

Motor bikes are 20 - 40 Bhat from Patong to Nanai Rd, "TukTuks" are closer to 100Bhat to move 50 m or more. Fuckers!

[thaibound]

(olekunde @ Mar. 08 2007,00:06) i always use motorbike cos i like to travel fast when i'm either hungry, horny or want a drink   

maybe it's just me, but i'd feel safer getting gangbanged by the entire march preview crowd than riding helmetless on the back of one of those motorbikes in thai traffic!

for an extra 100 baht, i'll stick to at least 3 wheels and live to fuck another batch of preview girls.

[dummy_plug]

(ziggystardust @ Mar. 08 2007,09:08) The only thing that pisses me off in Phuket are the over-priced, mafia run taxis. So, guess what? I don't take 'em.

So how do you get around then? Not being sarcastic...just really interested. I didn't note any other viable options last time I was in Phuket. Any insight would be appreciated.

[dummy_plug]

(prime rib @ Mar. 08 2007,13:56) Shootings, knifings, robbery, bar punchouts? Sounds like an average day in every American city I know.

With a few exceptions, I think you are infinately safer in most if not all American cities in this regard.