An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Phuket plague
Pattaya has a deserved reputation for sleaze and vice. But if you actually live here, and have no interest and sleaze and vice other than as a spectator sport; Pattaya can be a reasonably civilised place place to live (and of course, if you have a pathological interest in sleaze and vice; you will be very happy here).
But try telling that to someone from Phuket. Oh no, Phuket is the place to be. With massively expensive housing and a better class of tourist, people in Phuket see their island as a much more desirable destination. But it’s not going so well at the moment.
The annual spate of drownings seems to be exacting an even higher toll this season; and the carnage on the beaches has been supplemented by two deaths on a white water rafting trip.
Two Canadian sisters have been found dead in their hotel room in a condition that indicates poisoning of some sort.
A sixty year Australian woman, walking in a group near her hotel at 22:30 was stabbed and killed in a robbery attempt. The same evening a British man was also stabbed; but survived.
And if all that is not bad enough, the Phuket Chamber of Commerce has warned that a plague of flies could be about to overrun the island. Mountains of garbage landfills are being blamed for the increase in the buzzing blighter population.
Sounds like a wonderful place; but I think I’ll stick with Pattaya for now.
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about 11 months ago
The Aussie woman stabbed was a travel agent on a sponsored jaunt with 9 other travel agents. The Australian media is going nuts (way more then normal) over this and it is the top story on every news report on TV, radio and in print.
about 11 months ago
I do not know where the myth that Thailand is a peaceful heaven comes from. Last week a Thai guy wanting to be reunited with his ex-wife after 7 years did shoot the all family (except is beloved ex-wife) and 2 neighbors. Not in Pattaya of course. I lived for 8 years in and near Pattaya and I am very happy living since 1 year in Khon Kaen city.
about 11 months ago
A trip no doubt sponsored by TAT to encourage Aussies to come to Phuket, and one gets murdered. Not quite what TAT had in mind. Whenever anyone I meet asks where where to visit in Thailand I always tell them to avoid Phuket at all costs. The authorities obviously have interest in clamping down on the mafia gangs there, be it jet-ski scams or taxi rip-offs. I really have no idea, with all the bad publicity the place has received for years, why anyone still goes there.
about 11 months ago
And news coming out now of another stabbing on the same night ………..
PHUKET: — A British tourist was stabbed in the back on the holiday island of Phuket on the same night that an Australian travel agent was killed in a botched bag snatch.
Mohamad Zubair Edwa, 37, said he was riding home from a bar in Chalong on the south of the island on Wednesday night when he was confronted by three men on a motorbike who blocked the road in front of him.
One of the men dismounted and, as Mr Edwa attempted to ride around the man, he was stabbed in the side, causing a deep wound and extensive bleeding.
“As I was riding [away], I touched my back, and there was blood all over my hand. A lady saw me, she called an ambulance. She said ‘I think you should go to hospital’,” Mr Edwa, from Cambridge, told Thailand tourism news website Phuket Wan.
The attack at 3.30am came just five hours after Perth travel agent Michelle Smith was fatally stabbed in the heart during a botched bag snatch less than 10 kilometres away.
It is unclear whether the two attacks are linked, however the two cases are remarkably similar in that the victims were both confronted by men on motorbikes who stabbed them.
about 11 months ago
Thanks for that Sid, but the second stabbing was actually mentioned in my post:
“The same evening a British man was also stabbed; but survived.”