Originally Posted by Johnny B

The first thing we encounter after customs in Thailand is probably a Taxi ride to our destination,there is lots of information telling tourists not to use private cars at the Airport.Licensed cars are available and display their license numbers in their cars,they are cheaper and disputes can be sorted out by visiting the taxi office at the Airport.The couple at Krabi would not have been robbed had they been a little less casual in their approach to choosing transport.Sorry to be blunt but every country has it's wrong doers and cheats.In Manchester we have plenty of overcharging going on within our own taxi driving fraternity.If you get off the train at Piccadilly Manchester,you could be forgiven for thinking all Mancunian's wear turbans and over charge their unsuspecting punters.There are also people every day of the week posing as taxi drivers in our major cities.I include London in that as well,they over charge people and have been attacked and robbed as well. We also have corner shopkeepers in Manchester who hate us,and and very often speak in a strange tongue when we visit their shops.I can't understand what they are saying ,but you can bet it's something they wouldn't repeat in English.The corrupt customs official is a different matter ,I am not without sympathy for the people who have suffered at the hands of these thieves at all.But lets not forget if they had only had 1 sleeve of fags as the rules state,well we wouldn't be having this discussion would we?We all need to remember we are guests in a strange country when we visit Thailand,there is a lot of poverty in Thailand and people sometimes take desperate steps when faced with the opportunitty to make 1 years wage in a very short time.There is lots of information out there telling us all to be aware at all times,it's madness not to excercise more caution when travelling than you would at home.I got lost in Bangkok one night and we finished up in a very very run down area,it was all getting a bit worrying,the wife popped into the only shop around to get some water,whilst I tried to remember where we had gone wrong.Dressed in shorts and looking very touristy in an area which I doubt any tourist has ever seen before.There were engines on the side of the road in a state of semi repair etc.My wife appeared with a frail looking Thai shopkeeper,what an advert for Thailand he was.He spent ages telling me which way to go even going back into the shop to get paper and pencil and drawing a crude map explaining which road I needed to follow.This guy spent ages wasting his time trying to help someone he must have known he was never going to meet again.The water we bought from him was the cheapest we have ever bought in BKK, I think it was 20 baht.So lets not get too carried away with the bad press we are hearing about at the moment,there are some very kind people in Thailand,but we need to excercise caution when stepping into Taxi's,crossing borders,anywhere in fact where we don't have control of the situation ourselves makes us vulnerable to dishonest people.I have been told that the Police themselves in Thailand sometimes don't recieve their wages,and as a result they set up road blocks and issue on the spot fines untill they have their wages.I have no proof this actually happens ,but if it does maybe the customs are expected to make their own wages when the Thai government have spent all their cash as well.