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FWIW Koh Tao was the worst place I had the displeasure to stay at in Thailand. The taxi basically dumped us in the middle of the jungle because he got pissed of

FWIW Koh Tao was the worst place I had the displeasure to stay at in Thailand. The taxi basically dumped us in the middle of the jungle because he got pissed off he couldn’t find our hotel and threatened us with baseball bats when we didn’t want to get off. I thought they were leaving us there for their accomplices to mug us. We reported it to a police station that we found on our long walk back where all the cops were dozing off and took no notes of what we were saying. We left that island the next day, it was the lowest point of our trip and a big contrast with everywhere else where people were very nice. Never setting foot on that island again.

samvher 6y ago
Interesting - I also traveled around Thailand and had basically only good experiences in Koh Tao (the diving there is gorgeous), but a number of bad experiences mainly around Bangkok and Chiangmai (never setting foot there again! :) ). Specific events definitely color our impressions of places!
- baby 6y ago
  What happened? I’m convinced my girlfriend almost got abducted at the airport by w fake cab.
  - samvher 6y ago
    In Bangkok it was mainly tuk-tuks taking me to places I didn't want to go and many attempted scams (magicians, dealers in jewels, someone pretending to be police). In Chiangmai I had my worst couchsurfing experience, really unpleasant guy who I went to town with and was dependent on (he took me half an hour or so on the back of his motorcycle) and who got really drunk after I asked him to please stop drinking (because of the ride). He told me not to worry because "if we die we die together" and a couple of times gave the impression of trying to leave without me. Then I ended up in another hotel which turned out to be above a brothel and to have used condoms in the room, but couldn't really leave because I had gotten food poisoning. I also met some really nice people in Thailand, but I do feel it has been a bit ruined by the wrong kind of tourism.
    - leaveyou 6y ago
      Honest question.. why do you go to countries like these ? To me it looks like the risk is not worth at all.. Is being in danger part of the attraction or people really underestimate the dangers of third world countries ?
      - GuB-42 6y ago
        Thailand is actually quite safe. You are going to find a few horror stories but generally, as long as you stay away from the most common scams (which you can find in all travel guides), you will not be more at risk than in first world countries. One reason Thailand is safer than most "third world" countries is that tourism is taken very seriously by the government. Most notably, they have a "tourist police" that can be called if you run into trouble. Also note that most "scams" are just overpricing. Sure, it sucks paying 5 times the local price, but when it is 10 times more expensive in your home country, it is not really a big deal.
        katten 6y ago
        Got stuck in a common scam, realizes in the middle of it that I was in a scam with my partner. Mistake to tell my partner that we were being scammed. Partner got depressed, wanted to go home. 3 weeks of sad vacation, have never been more happy to be back from vacation than from that one. Could not "forget" the scam, everything afterwards in vacation circled around the scam. Worth to mention is that my partner was bi-polar so an easy target/never been in a organized scam before that everyone you meet for a coupe of hours are part of it. Probably at-least 20-30 people involved. I guess it could be similar to "The Truman show?" One year later still feeling sad for not able to protect us from it. Have become extremely suspicious of helpful people/sellers. Had issues with buying stuff since the trip. Not the price/money that is/has been the issue. I wished I never visited Bangkok. Similar as this one, but for suits instead. (Did not plan to buy it, in fact earlier that day I wonder why/laugh at people that did it, just a few hours later I was one of them. Now I understand them an why it works and will continue to work for 20 more years) https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-thailand/thailand/stories-of-scams-in-bangkok-and-thailand-the-gem-scam-tailor-scams https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-thailand/... TLDR; Thailand suppose to be me an my partners dream trip. Was our worst trip, lead to us splitting up and started to have trust issue. Feeling depressed about it, still sad about it one year later.
Uberphallus 6y ago
To offer a counterpoint, my worst experience in 2 weeks through Thailand was with a hostel run by British expats. The description of the room was completely different from the room, extremely hot and humid even by Thailand standards, the windows wouldn't lock and could be opened from the balcony (accessible from other rooms), and the room just had bedding: no wardrobe, no drawers, no hangers, nothing (the pictures showed rooms with some basic amenities). On top it wasn't cheap either. When we raised the concerns, the manager was both extremely drunk and non cooperative, which awarded shitty reviews. We didn't even spend there the night and took the last minute cancellation fee as a loss. They replied with made up stuff about us being violent and threatening. Despite that, the place had (and still has) raging reviews from bogans, as it has a bar with plenty of beer variety on the ground floor running basically 24/7.

samvher 6y ago

Interesting - I also traveled around Thailand and had basically only good experiences in Koh Tao (the diving there is gorgeous), but a number of bad experiences mainly around Bangkok and Chiangmai (never setting foot there again! :) ). Specific events definitely color our impressions of places!

baby 6y ago
What happened? I’m convinced my girlfriend almost got abducted at the airport by w fake cab.
- samvher 6y ago
  In Bangkok it was mainly tuk-tuks taking me to places I didn't want to go and many attempted scams (magicians, dealers in jewels, someone pretending to be police). In Chiangmai I had my worst couchsurfing experience, really unpleasant guy who I went to town with and was dependent on (he took me half an hour or so on the back of his motorcycle) and who got really drunk after I asked him to please stop drinking (because of the ride). He told me not to worry because "if we die we die together" and a couple of times gave the impression of trying to leave without me. Then I ended up in another hotel which turned out to be above a brothel and to have used condoms in the room, but couldn't really leave because I had gotten food poisoning. I also met some really nice people in Thailand, but I do feel it has been a bit ruined by the wrong kind of tourism.
  - leaveyou 6y ago
    Honest question.. why do you go to countries like these ? To me it looks like the risk is not worth at all.. Is being in danger part of the attraction or people really underestimate the dangers of third world countries ?
    - GuB-42 6y ago
      Thailand is actually quite safe. You are going to find a few horror stories but generally, as long as you stay away from the most common scams (which you can find in all travel guides), you will not be more at risk than in first world countries. One reason Thailand is safer than most "third world" countries is that tourism is taken very seriously by the government. Most notably, they have a "tourist police" that can be called if you run into trouble. Also note that most "scams" are just overpricing. Sure, it sucks paying 5 times the local price, but when it is 10 times more expensive in your home country, it is not really a big deal.
      - katten 6y ago
        Got stuck in a common scam, realizes in the middle of it that I was in a scam with my partner. Mistake to tell my partner that we were being scammed. Partner got depressed, wanted to go home. 3 weeks of sad vacation, have never been more happy to be back from vacation than from that one. Could not "forget" the scam, everything afterwards in vacation circled around the scam. Worth to mention is that my partner was bi-polar so an easy target/never been in a organized scam before that everyone you meet for a coupe of hours are part of it. Probably at-least 20-30 people involved. I guess it could be similar to "The Truman show?" One year later still feeling sad for not able to protect us from it. Have become extremely suspicious of helpful people/sellers. Had issues with buying stuff since the trip. Not the price/money that is/has been the issue. I wished I never visited Bangkok. Similar as this one, but for suits instead. (Did not plan to buy it, in fact earlier that day I wonder why/laugh at people that did it, just a few hours later I was one of them. Now I understand them an why it works and will continue to work for 20 more years) https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-thailand/thailand/stories-of-scams-in-bangkok-and-thailand-the-gem-scam-tailor-scams https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-thailand/... TLDR; Thailand suppose to be me an my partners dream trip. Was our worst trip, lead to us splitting up and started to have trust issue. Feeling depressed about it, still sad about it one year later.

Uberphallus 6y ago

To offer a counterpoint, my worst experience in 2 weeks through Thailand was with a hostel run by British expats. The description of the room was completely different from the room, extremely hot and humid even by Thailand standards, the windows wouldn't lock and could be opened from the balcony (accessible from other rooms), and the room just had bedding: no wardrobe, no drawers, no hangers, nothing (the pictures showed rooms with some basic amenities). On top it wasn't cheap either. When we raised the concerns, the manager was both extremely drunk and non cooperative, which awarded shitty reviews. We didn't even spend there the night and took the last minute cancellation fee as a loss. They replied with made up stuff about us being violent and threatening. Despite that, the place had (and still has) raging reviews from bogans, as it has a bar with plenty of beer variety on the ground floor running basically 24/7.