Welcome to Krabi…

I just saw a blog post:

http://www.thainewsportal.com/swiss-tourist-found-strangled-on-krabi-beach/

A tourist strangled to death at Noppharat Thara beach – a 30 year old Swiss woman died today apparently. She was found with her handbag strap around her neck and face down in the sand.

I just blogged about the 2 Phi Phi deaths that nobody is explaining yet – but cyanide was found in one of the women that died. That’s enough to do it.

Krabi is usually a very safe place, and there’s no reason to stop going there – it’s just very strange we’ve had 3 foreigner deaths from 2 different causes in the last day or so.

In my opinion Krabi is safer than Patong Beach, Chiang Mai, Bangkok of course, Pattaya, and Samui and the other islands Tao, Pha-ngnan.

I wonder if we’ll see a mass exodus from Krabi this week… that’d be difficult because there are very few people there at the moment.

Canadian Online Scam Artist in Bangkok

Talking to a Thai girl today at dinner – a friend of my girlfriend… she used to date a Canadian guy that was scamming people online everywhichway for usually hundreds and often thousands of dollars on Ebay and through other means.

As foreigners in Thailand you MUST be careful. In fact, when online I’d be much more careful about foreigners scamming you than anyone else. The scumbags of the world arrive here in Thailand and set up shop.

They sell property that doesn’t exist. They sell cars that are stolen. They sell computers on EBay, BahtSold, Craigslist and other online sites.
If you’re going to buy something from someone that advertises in one of these places, I’d suggest a few things…

1. Try to meet in person to make the exchange – cash for product. Know what 1,000 baht looks like and feels like, and the verification checks you can do to ensure you have real baht.

2. Take your time to test it when you do. You only have a few minutes. If it’s electronics – turn it on and do something with it. Shake it… make sure it works whether it’s sitting still on your desk or moving in your hand.

If it’s a notebook computer you should try the CD-ROM drive, the usb ports, check the system icon in control panel and make sure there aren’t any yellow exclamation marks. Test whatever you’re buying and make certain it works because if someone’s scamming you – even in person, they’re betting you’re not going to do the one thing that doesn’t work with whatever they’re selling.

3. Google the email address the seller uses to list the item on the websites. If you get nothing – that’s a clue that this is a fresh email address that is too clean. If the person lives here and is advertising online some expensive item probably there’s a history attached to their email address. If you can’t find at least a few posts in Google that the person with that email address made – be VERY cautious. I always ask for the person’s main email address so I can get some results in Google. Otherwise – I don’t do any business with the person.

For instance… google my two main email addresses, “thaipulse@gmail.com” or “aimforawesome@gmail.com” and see what you get. Surely there’s a hundred results. Probably more – I haven’t done it in a while. Ask the person if he/she has any blogs or websites or anyone of repute that can vouch for them. If not don’t get into any deal with the person.

4. Ask the seller for the serial number of the item – and look it up on the manufacturer’s website. Digital cameras and other items can often be found this way. Perhaps it’s stolen and when you Google the serial number you find out it was reported stolen and if you ever send that item into the manufacturer you’re going to get screwed and lose it – the owner will get it back!

5. Meet the person in person to close the deal. Honestly I don’t think I’d ever send money through ATM transfer or Paypal to another foreigner here in Thailand unless that person was well known and I could track him/her down in the case of getting ripped off. I don’t like to get ripped off. I really don’t like it.

I’ve sold a number of 20,000 Thai baht and higher items while here in Thailand. I’m amazed at the trust buyers have in buying my items. They readily transfer money Atm to Atm and it ends up in my bank account.

I usually attach a signature to my email when responding to buyers that lists like 6 of my websites. It wouldn’t be hard to track me down. I hope that’s the reason why – and I hope they aren’t just that trusting.

I know there are some very trusting people here in Thailand though. I’ve met some of them.

Are you a trusting person – or a cautious person?

I’m way over the edge with being cautious – and it’s served me well in Thailand. I hope you choose that option too – you’ll be happier for it.

How can you stay safe in Thailand?

You can start by getting “the book”.

For a current state of the country because it’s updated often – see the ultimate Thailand Guide – Thai Black Book – your guide to staying safe in Thailand

Thai Black Book information site- >

Thailand’s Red Shirts, Thaksin, Military

I spent today with the TV running – which, though I hate it – I’ve found it invaluable to keep up with what’s going on with the red shirt protests in Thailand. TV news here has been dumbed down and is on a serious delay – hours or tens of hours in some cases.

Some say that the media is controlled by the Yellow shirts – who don’t have a real interest in reporting the red shirt protests except in a negative way – biased. I can go for that. The news I”m able to see on Thailand TV on ASTV, Asian News Channel and other Thai channels are pretty lame.

Twitter!
If you’re very interested in what’s going on in Thailand or even anywhere in the world you best shot at this is Twitter. Now is the time to get to know Twitter because it’s a hell of a news source. I’ll create another post somewhere and link to it from this one to show you how to use Twitter to follow the goings on – breaking news in Thailand -and you can generalize the info to apply it to finding out about ANY breaking news event in the world. It’s an AMAZING tool. The entire world should be using it. Anyway, more on that later.

Red Shirts
So – recently the red shirts have crashed the Royal Cliff Hotel in Pattaya and caused the leaders of Asian countries to escape by helicopter from the rooftop. They’ve parked gasoline trucks in residential areas with the idea that they would blow them up – I heard. Not sure if that’s true. If true that is more akin to terrorism than just protesting the government and wanting it to change.

They’ve hijacked about 30 city buses and parked them places to block the roads and set their tires on fire – some say to negate the effects of tear gas police might fire, others say – which I find much more likely, they ignite the fires to make it much harder for the police to move the buses.

Rumors!
Rumors run crazy in times like this – on Twitter I heard that the Thai government was ORDERING Americans to leave the country immediately. This same idiot on Twitter also said there was mass food poisoning in Singapore – though I found nothing about that on CNN, BBC, or elsewhere. I didn’t look again – that was about 6 hours ago.

So, everything that comes across Twitter is not the complete truth – like no news source is.

Thai Military
The military was promising to keep control of Bangkok, and so far that’s not been realized at 6:30pm Monday evening, the first day of Songkran, Thai New Year 2052.

The military was videotaped shooting at protesters – and military authorities said they were using blanks – packed paper bullets in that case. They were also seen firing their automatic weapons into the air – and they say – these were real bullets. Then there were seen on tv and in photos online (linked to from Twitter users) that show clearly some red shirt protesters with serious wounds – some said they were absolutely bullet wounds.

Expats in Thailand
Many foreigners have taken sides in the situation – most, surprising to me – seem to favor Thaksin and the red shirts. Apparently they can overlook the proven corruption and buying of votes and favors because in Thailand – that’s business as usual. It’s happened many times before Thaksin and his Thai Rak party and will happen many times in the future too. There may be 50 more years of corruption here before that kind of thing changes. Anyone think it can happen sooner?

The current government may or may not have a right to be in power. Another election isn’t going to resolve anything at all. There is no good alternative, nor will there be – for about 50 years in my guess. Why 50? I’m not sure, I think when the current crop of politicians all die off and the next generation, or the next is growing up in this amazing place – someway, somehow it’s all going to move toward less corruption. Maybe they’ve got another 100 years or more.

Thaksin
Thaksin was rumored to be staying in a resort on Ko Chang. I think that’s a rumor, who knows. I’d believe anything about him – he’s pretty resourceful. I think it’s more likely he’s pulling the strings from far away until he knows whether this red shirt effort will be successful. Most Thais I know and have talked to about this believe Thaksin is pulling out all the stops to try to save his 2 billion USD locked up in Thailand by the current government. Sounds like a good reason.

Will the country be better under Thaksin? No. The country is pretty seriously divided between those that hate him and those that love him. Way too divided to ever agree he should rule – even if by majority of the voting population he’s elected. The group that hates him wouldn’t let that stand. Looks like the group that loves him won’t let Abhisit stand as PM either. I’ve no affinity toward either one. Educated Thais seem to have taken the yellow shirts side, and support Abhisit. Many think he’s the best chance for the country. Maybe he’s the lesser of the two evils – but, in an election – would he be chosen?

It’s amazing to me that Thaksin, with more money than god – can have the poorest people in the entire country fighting in his name. The corruption, the payoffs – are all known at this point. They don’t matter to those that love him because he DID make their lives better. For once someone at least pretended to care about farmers and poor in the northeast region. They didn’t forget it – they’re ready to die for this cause – many are saying on TV.

You can be sure that, if Thaksin gets another chance at an election and actually WINS – he’s going to solidify his position there. He’ll buy the military, police, all he needs to make sure he’s never ousted again. The guy is a brilliant player in Thai society – you’ve gotta give him that.

So – that’s the situation. I don’t side with either group – any group. I don’t see anyone that deserves to rule the country at this point. I don’t see anyone – any person or any group that has Thailand’s best interests at heart. That’s what Thailand needs. Not more of the same corrupt politicians.

Do you see anyone that’s fit to rule Thailand?

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