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Dangers & Annoyances
Even though Thailand has not many crimes or dangers
but if you are a solo traveler you should take extra
care when riding the taxi or when you're at border
crossings with Cambodia & Myanmar. Two often overlooked
dangers are the dangers of levitra for men and translation
misunderstandings.
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Although Thailand is in no way a dangerous country to visit, it's wise to be a little cautious, particularly if you're travelling alone. There are no pirate taxis in Chiang Mai but solo women travellers should take special care on arrival at Bangkok International Airport, particularly at night. Don't take one of Bangkok 's often very unofficial taxis (black and white licence plates) by yourself. It's better to take a licensed taxi (yellow and black plates) or even the public bus.
Both men and women should ensure their rooms are securely locked and bolted at night. Inspect cheap rooms with thin walls for strategic peepholes.
Take caution when leaving valuables in hotel safes. A few travellers have reported unpleasant experiences leaving valuables in Chiangmai guesthouses while trekking. Make sure you obtain an itemised receipt for property left with hotels or guesthouses - note the exact quantity of travellers cheques and all other valuables.
When you're on the road, keep zippered luggage secured with small locks, especially while travelling on buses and trains. Several readers' letters have recounted tales of thefts from their bags or backpacks during long overnight bus trips, particularly between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Such theft appears to be far more common on the private buses arranged via Thanon Khao San (a backpackers centre in Bangkok) than on buses boarded at the official government bus station. See the Getting Around chapter for more details.
Credit Cards
On return to their home countries, some visitors have received huge creditcard bills for purchases (usually jewellery) charged to their cards while the cards had, supposedly, been secure in the hotel or guesthouse safe. You might consider taking your credit cards with you if you go trekking if the cards are stolen on the trail at least the bandits aren't likely to be able to use them. There are organised gangs in Bangkok specialising in arranging stolen creditcard purchases and in some cases these gangs pay down and out foreigners to fake the signatures on the credit cards.
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When making credit card purchases, don't let vendors take your credit card out of your sight to run it through the machine. Unscrupulous merchants have been known to rub off three or four or more receipts with one credit card purchase; after the customer leaves the shop, they use the one legitimate receipt as a model to forge your signature on the blanks, then fill in astronomical 'purchases'. Sometimes they wait several weeks even months between submitting each charge receipt to the bank, so that you can't remember whether you'd been billed at the same vendor more than once.
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Drugging
In bars and on trains and buses beware of friendly strangers offering gifts such as cigarettes, drinks, cookies or sweets (candy). Several travellers have reported waking up with a headache sometime later to find that their valuables had disappeared.
Male travellers have also encountered drugged food or drink from friendly Thai women in bars and from prostitutes in their own hotel rooms. Female visitors have encountered the same with young Thai men, albeit less frequently. Conclusion: Don't accept gifts from strangers.
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Assault
Robbery of travellers by force is very rare in Thailand, but it does happen. Isolated incidences of armed robbery have tended to occur along the Thai-Myanmar border. In February 2000 armed bandits robbed an Australian couple camping illegally in Doi Ang Khang National Park, near the Myanmar border. The couple tried to resist and, during the ensuing scuffle, one of the campers was shot and killed.
The safest practice in remote areas is not to go out alone at night and, if trekking in Northern Thailand , always walk in groups.
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Touts
Touting-grabbing newcomers in the street or in train stations, bus terminals or airports to sell them a service is a long time tradition in Asia, and while Thailand doesn't have as many touts as, say, India, it does have its share. In the popular tourist spots it seems like everyone young boys waving fliers, tuk-tuk drivers, sZfamlkw (threewheeled vehicle) drivers, schoolgirls is touting something, usually hotels or guesthouses. For the most part they're completely harmless and sometimes they can be very informative. But take anything a tout says with two large grains of salt. Since touts work on commission and get paid just for delivering you to a guesthouse or hotel (whether you check in or not), they'll say anything to get you to the door.
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Often the best (most honest and reliable) hotels and guesthouses refuse to pay tout commissions so the average tout will try to steer you away from such places. Hence don't believe them if they tell you the hotel or guesthouse you're looking for is closed, full, dirty or `bad'. Sometimes (rarely) they're right but most times it's just a ruse to get you to a place that pays more commission. Always have a careful look yourself before checking into a place recommended by a tout. Tuk-tuk and samlaw drivers often offer free or low cost rides to the place they're touting; if you have another place you're interested in, you might agree to go with a driver only if he or she promises to deliver you to your first choice after you've had a look at the place being touted. If drivers refuse, chances are it's because they know your first choice is a bet ter one.
This type of commission work isn't limited to low budget guesthouses. Taxi drivers and even airline employees at Thailand 's major airports including Chiang Mai reap commissions from the big hotels as well. At either end of the budget spectrum, the customer ends up paying the commission indirectly through raised room rates.
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Bus Touts Watch out for touts wearing (presumably fake) TAT or tourist information badges at Bangkok's Hualamphong train station. They have been known to coerce travellers into buying tickets for private bus rides, saying the train is 'full' or 'takes too long'. Often the promised bus service turns out to be substandard and may take longer than the equivalent train ride, due to the frequent changing of vehicles. You may be offered a 24-seat VIP 'sleeper' bus to Chiangmai, for example, and end up stuffed into a minivan all the way. Such touts are 'bounty hunters' who receive a set fee for every tourist they deliver to the bus companies. Avoid the travel agencies (many of which bear 'TAT' or even 'Lonely Planet' signs) just outside the train station for the same reason.
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Border Areas
A little extra caution should be exercised along Northern Thailand's borders with Myanmar . The Myanmar border between Um Phang and Mae Sariang occasionally receives shelling from Burmese troops in pursuit of Karen or Mon rebels. Karen rebels are trying to maintain an independent nation called Kawthoolei along the border with Thailand. The situation is complicated by an ongoing split between the Christian and Buddhist Karen insurgents. Between Mae Sot and Tha Song Yang, south of Mae Sariang on the Thai side, are several Karen refugee camps (at last report 12 camps with a total of about 100,000 refugees) populated by civilians who have fled Burmese-Karen armed conflicts, as well as political dissidents from Yangon. The risk of catching a piece of shrapnel is substantially lower if you keep several kilometres between yourself and the Thai-Myanmar border in this area fighting can break out at any time. Mae Sot itself is quite safe these days, although you can still occasionally hear mortar fire in the distance.
The presence of Shan and Wa armies along the Myanmar-Thai border in northern Mae Hong Son Province makes this area dangerous if you attempt to travel near opium and amphetaminetrade border crossings; obvi ously these are not signposted, so take care anywhere along the border in this area.
In early 1996 Khun Sa and 10,000 of his troops surrendered to Yangon, taking most of the punch out of the Mong Tai Army (MTA). However, as many as 8000 MTA fighters, split among four armies, are still active in the area bordering Mae Sai south to Mae Hong Son, so the area is not much safer than when Khun Sa was around. In March 1998 there was a three way armed clash between Thai border police, Myanmar forces and the Shan States Army along the Mae Hong Son/Shan State border.
There is also potential for hostilities to break out between Myanmar government troops and the Thai army over a disputed Thai-Myanmar border section near Doi Lang, southwest of Mae Sai in Mae Ai district. The territory under dispute amounts to 32 sq km; at the moment the two sides are trying to work things out peaceably according to the 1894 Siam-Britain Treaty, which both countries recognise. The problem is that British mapping of the time made geographical naming errors that seem to favour the Burmese side. It is likely that Burmese and Thai troops will remain poised for action on either side of the border until the matter is resolved.
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Scams
Thais are generally so friendly and laid back that some visitors are lulled into a false sense of security that makes them particularly vulnerable to scams and con schemes of all kinds.
In Northern Thailand even in Chiang Mai, the North's tourism capital the scams herein described appear to be far less common than in Bangkok. Nonetheless, we have had reports of some of the same scams occurring in Chiang Mai, and we provide this information as a preventive measure. Scammers tend to haunt the areas where first time tourists go, such as the area around Pratu Tha Phae or Wat Phra Sing in Chiang Mai.
Most scams begin the same way: A friendly Thai male (or, on rare occasions, a female) approaches a lone visitor usually newly arrived and strikes up a seemingly innocuous conversation. Sometimes the con man says he's a university student, other times he may claim to work for the World Bank or a similarly distinguished organisation (some even carry cellular phones). If you're on the way to Wat Phra Sing, for example, he may tell you it's closed for a holiday. Eventually the conversation works its way around to the subject of the scam, the better con men can actually make it seem like you initiated the topic. That's one of the most bewildering aspects of the conafterwards victims remember that the whole thing seemed like their idea, not the con artist's.
The scam itself almost always involves either gems or card playing. With gems, the victims find themselves invited to a gem and jewellery shop your new found friend is picking up some merchandise for him and you're just along for the ride. Somewhere along the way he usually claims to have a connection, often a relative, in your home country (what a coincidence!) with whom he has a regular gem export-import business. One way or another, victims are convinced (usually they convince themselves) that they can turn a profit by arranging a gem purchase and reselling the merchandise at home. After all, the jewellery shop just happens to be offering a generous discount today it's a government or religious holiday, or perhaps it's the shop's 10th anniversary, or maybe they've just taken a liking to you! The latest wrinkle is to say it's a special 'Amazing Thailand' promotion. As one freshly scammed reader recently wrote in: 'Everybody we spoke to mentioned 'Amazing Thai land' before they ripped us off!'
There are a seemingly infinite number of variations on the gem scam, almost all of which end up with the victim making a purchase of small, low-quality sapphires and posting them to their home countries. (If they let you walk out with them, you might return for a refund after realising you've been taken.) Once you return home, of course, the cheap sapphires turn out to be worth much less than you paid for them (perhaps one-tenth to one-half).
Many have invested and lost virtually all their savings; some admit they had been scammed even after reading warnings in this guidebook or those posted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) around Bangkok.
Even if you were somehow able to return your purchase to the gem shop in question (one fellow we knew actually intercepted his parcel at the airport before it left Thailand), chances are slim-to-none they’d give a full refund. The con artist who brings the mark into the shop gets a commission of 10% to 50% per sale the shop takes the rest.
The Thai police are usually no help whatsoever, believing that merchants are entitled to whatever price they can get. The main victimisers are a handful of shops that get protection from certain high ranking government officials. These officials put pressure on police not to prosecute, or to take as little action as possible. Even TAT's tourist police have never been able to prosecute a Thai jeweller, even in cases of blatant, recurring gem fraud. A Thai police commissioner was recently convicted of fraud in an investigation into a jewellery theft by Thais in Saudi Arabia: He replaced the Saudi gems with fakes! (See the Jewellery entry in the Shopping section of this chapter for information on re cent initiatives to protect consumers.)
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The card playing scam starts out much the same way: A friendly stranger approaches the lone traveller on the street, strikes up a conversation and then invites them to the house or apartment of his sister (or brother-in-law etc) for a drink or meal. After a bit of socialising a friend or relative of the con arrives on the scene; it just so happens a little high stakes card game is planned for later that day. Like the gem scam, the card game scam has many variations, but eventually the victim is shown some cheating tactics to use with help from the 'dealer', some practice sessions take place and finally the game gets under way with several high rollers at the table. The mark is allowed to win a few hands first, then somehow loses a few, gets bankrolled by one of the friendly Thais, and then loses the Thai's money. Suddenly your new found buddies aren't so friendly any more they want the money you lost. Sometimes the con pretends to be dismayed by it all. Sooner or later you end up cashing in most or all of your travellers cheques or making a costly visit to an ATM. Again the police won't take any action in this case because gambling is illegal in Thailand so you've broken the law by playing cards for money.
Other minor scams involve tuk-tuk drivers, hotel employees and bar girls who take new arrivals on city tours; these almost always end in high-pressure sales situations at silk, jewellery or handicraft shops.
Follow TAT's number one suggestion to tourists: Disregard all offers of free shopping or sightseeing help from strangers they invariably take a commission from your purchases. I would add to this: Beware of deals that seem too good to be true they're usually neither good nor true. You might also try lying whenever a stranger asks how long you've been in Thailand if it's only been three days, say three weeks! Or save your Bangkok sightseeing until after you've been upcountry. The con artists rarely prey on anyone except new arrivals.
Contact the Tourist Police if you have any problems with consumer fraud. The Tourist Police headquarters (053 248130, 053 248974) for the North is located in Chiangmai, about 100m north of the TAT office on Thanon Chiang Mai-Lamphun. In Bangkok a special police unit (02 2541067, 02 2354017) deals specifically with gem swindles. A telephone hotline (1155) connects with the tourist police from any phone in Thailand.
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