17 replies to this topic

[Surin Nix]

Greetings Subculture®,

So, after a 24 hour journey from the US to Bangkok, and 3 nights there, i arrived on Phuket.

Along with at least 2 other ladyboy admirers i know, i too have succumbed to a case of "Bangkok Belly", and spent all of last night in the bathroom, alone, my body in an almost continuous case of rather unpleasant evacuation from both ends.

I have noticed some interesting things happening on Phuket.

The military regime in place now seems keenly aware of the tourist experience, and i think i rather like seeing the changes currently happening. They include:

AIRPORT
Apparently, there have been numerous complaints that arriving tourists have been conned by immigration officials in plots to extract money. The immigration desks would be woefully undermanned, resulting in extremely long wait-times. "VIP", expedited service could be had, for a price.

That is now finished, with the army in place making sure this doesn't happen....everything also being monitored by cctv.

AIRPORT TAXIS
Those of us who come here a lot know the scams. You're captures by an aggressive taxi driver, who then promptly takes you to a travel agent enroute, against your wishes. Or, you are lied to with tales that "your hotel burned down", or some such nonsense, and of course, the friendly taxi driver then has a better option in hotels for you.

Most new tourists have no idea about the metered taxis at the end of the sidewalk (the honest ones), and it is hard for them to know who is who.

Apparently, the army is now posted outside the airport, reigning-in and fining the taxi scamsters.

THE BEACHES
I have observed that Patong, Kamala, Karon, and Surin beaches are TOTALLY free of chair and umbrella vendors, and the number of beachside food vendors and massage ladies have been dramatically reduced. On Surin beach, my favorite little reggae bar overlooking the beach has been torn down. Only the concrete foundation remains. All beachfront, on-the-sand restaurants are gone.

Jet-ski scamsters are few and far between.

The new regime, i read, wants to implement a much more unspoiled beach experience for tourists. I like it. Be sure to bring your own beach towel though.

PROPERTY SURVEYS
Anyone who comes here much knows it's easy to get scammed in real estate. The government is now commencing official serveys, at low or no cost, to prospective buyers to officially determine that any propective purchase does not encroach on another person's, or on national-park lands. I guess the repercussions of doing so, getting scammed in that way, are obvious.

There are a lot of other changes....zoning changes on city streets that get vendors off the sidewalk, which allow people to actually use the sidewalk for its intended purpose....walking. Apparently, many pedestrians were forcedto walk in the streets to move past the gauntlet of vendors. ...so i am told anyway.

Anyway, that's the lastest from Phuket. The weather is warm, and the ladyboys, as always, are HOT!

[bumgooh]

Nice to see you back in action!

Think that the military is addressing a lot of the right things, e.g.
- corruption incl. questioning the actions of the regional administrations
- taxi mafia
- airport arrival
- encroaching of public grounds
- etc

Though, I don't understand why the removed most of the beach vendors from the beach. OK, it's not a pleasure to have the whole beach covered by beach chairs (four or more rows in the high season) and people trying to sell you food and other stuff every 60 seconds, but I liked the service of the beach chair vendors with drinks and food... don't want to spend my time on the sand.. from my perspective they're overshooting it a little bit...

And though they've removed "all" of the illegal taxi stands you can find official taxis and tuk tuks at every corner... and meter taxis still only at the airport...

Regards,
Bumgooh

[rxpharm]

Surin Nix glad to hear you're enjoying your latest LOS trip! Very interesting to hear your reports of how things are changing in Phuket. After hearing jonnieb's dire comparison of the coup to Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin, one would have thought it would be the end of the world for Thailand.

 

It really shows corruption was so endemic that this may have been the only way to give Thailand a fresh start. There are a number of articles in Bangkok Post and The Nation on this topic.

 

As for the beach businesses - they never had official permits to obtain a license. They were all warned at least 1 month prior that to continue they would have to get proper permits or they would be shut down. What most of them were doing was bribing some official(s) to operate. Many of these official(s) are now being investigated and charged. Hopefully the clean up will be effective and keep going after the coup is done and the new gov't is elected.

[Surin Nix]

Surin Nix glad to hear you're enjoying your latest LOS trip! Very interesting to hear your reports of how things are changing in Phuket. After hearing jonnieb's dire comparison of the coup to Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin, one would have thought it would be the end of the world for Thailand.
 
It really shows corruption was so endemic that this may have been the only way to give Thailand a fresh start. There are a number of articles in Bangkok Post and The Nation on this topic.

Well...consider the source.

I actually had a coversation with an LB recently about potential Hitler and Stalin heavy-handedness, ala jonnieb.

She said: "Are you kidding me? Stop 'Stalin' and be 'Mein" tonight!

[james2035]

Hope they get rid of the Tuk Tuk Mafia in Patong they are complete rip off merchants

[anicon]

..things will slowly go back to the way they were as soon as the politicos get back in power, you can't remove greed from the human (Thai) soul just by changing politicians, remember the words to the song "say hello to the the new boss, same as the old boss", the old money will just be going to new hands that's all..

[jimbo34]

..things will slowly go back to the way they were as soon as the politicos get back in power, you can't remove greed from the human (Thai) soul just by changing politicians, remember the words to the song "say hello to the the new boss, same as the old boss", the old money will just be going to new hands that's all..

 

 This is the big danger.

 

 Responsibility for keeping the island clean and corruption-free should be the responsibility of the local mayors (actually it already is) and any corruption on their part should result in dire consequences - property confiscation, and long jail terms. I just hope the army reinforce this point and act accordingly. Otherwise its just a waiting game for these turds that think they can do what they like. Wait until the army passes power to a civilian government, then everything back to "normal".

 

 There's so much work to be done cleaning the place up, though. I see a vast LED screen erected at the northern end of Beach Road, and a new sign informing us that this is Patong Beach, just in case we had any doubts. Lots of shiny handrails along the pavements. New traffic lights , not working of course, and new pedestrian lights near Holiday Inn/Hooters, that everybody ignores.

All these things will have given somebody a nice kickback. 

 A long way to go before the endemic corruption is eradicated.

 Sadly, such is the thai mindset, i fear it never will be.

[Surin Nix]

...and you being our man-on-the-ground on Phuket, i have to assume you are correct.

Well, at least this year's batch of tourists will have cleaner and less-cluttered beaches for awhile.

How you manage to put up with the BS, i will never know.

Unfortunately, the Aussie owner of this hotel, who has a Thai wife, has succumbed to the mindset, it seems. As a hotel service, they offer laundry service. Drop off, and delivered next day to your room. Worked great first time. It is now 3 days since i've seen my last bundle. He said he'd look into it. Several hours later, no laundry. I went down and asked again.

He said, "oh yeah, i called about that. Seems that the laundry woman's son is in jail, and she is over there now to see him. Can't have cellphones there...and all that". (Interject here a loooong story about the kids drug abuse, and how the owner had 'knocked him upside the head before' - a common theme).

After this ling tangent, i asked "and when might i expect my laundry?".

"No worries mate" he says, "you're leaving tomorrow at 1. We'll have it all sorted out by then". (Yawn).

UPDATE: laundry received. But first i emailed the owners wife (she had always been the one answering emails. Cheerful Thai lady), asked her to look into it too. HE responded testily and said i should have made a bigger deal of it when i was in his office.

WTF? Being harrassed because i wanted my laundry back before departure?

I walked downstairs, looked him squarely in the eye, and asked if we had a problem.

He said no, and just shrugged it off.

I had originally posted in "Lodging and Accomodations. Phuket" that this was an ok place.

As time as passed, it's begun to wear on me. The owner is grouchy and tells endless stories of "cunts" he's put in their place, or busted their heads. I don't walk by without him trying to rope me in for a lecture about his badassness.

The place has more of an atmosphere of somebody's house than a hotel. Thai children running around everywhere, overrunning the pool area. Old grannies lounging in the lobby. The thing is, this place advertises itself as a hotel, not a guesthouse. Strange way of doing things.

Upside: nice balcony, distant ocean view, great nightime beezes.

Overall: avoid Kelly's Hotel on Nanai. Will update my post in the lodging thread soon.

[jimbo34]

Very interesting, and complete analysis, Nick. Thanks.

I think we can scratch this one off the list.

[patrick]

nice report Nix, you do realise that by next week you will be one of the cunts in his stories .

It reminds me of a place we stayed at in Hua Hin last year. Donkeys Rest, I thought it was Donnykeys rest!

The owner was a Brit and as far as we could tell all the other guests were his pisspot mates, he was completely surprised when we arrived, but a quick look on his laptop revealled we were expected, by the laptop anyway! Our room was about 5 metres from the main railway line, just near to a level crossing so of course all the trains had to blast their horns in addition to shaking the room to buggery with the vibrations.

The wierd thing was the place had good reviews on Tripadvisor, he obviously had a lot of pisspot mates. We left after one night

[jimbo34]

With Surin Nix still suffering from some sort of thai fever, he missed his last night at the bar. So, i went round to Kelly's Hotel this morning for a last coffee and goodbyes.

 When i arrived, there was nobody in reception, so i waited. 

 I called out……and waited.

 I shouted up at the rooms above "Nick!", "Nick". Nothing. So i waited.

 

 After 30 minutes this big redneck bushwhacker type swaggers out from somewhere "Howdi maite"

 

 Aha, i thought, this is the infamous "Dan" - this could be fun, winding the twat up with some English sarcasm.

 

"Whaddya want, maite?"

 

 " Just to say goodbye to american Nick"

 

 "Room 403, maite"

 

 "I'll go up then shall i?"

 

 (Shrug)

 

 "You have a lift?"

 

 "Yer"

 

 "Its in this direction is it?"

 

 (Shrug)

 

  Its a shame i wasn't able to spend a bit more time taunting this guy. Has to be the worst kind of welcome i've received from a farang in a very long time.

[patrick]

Doesn't sound like a gentleman from Melbourne, probably a  a redneck from Queensland, very uncoothed.