Thailand forum

I don't like the word scam in this context. In many places in the world local officials try and impose fines on tourists for technical breaches of the law and most people just pay up to keep the peace. Usually it comes under the umbrella of corruption as the money doesn't go to Government coffers - not really a scam.

In this case, people have clearly broken the law and someone is simply trying to extract money out of them. I say good on them for giving it a lash!

You hardly ever see a Thai walking and smoking a cigarette in Bangkok ... it's nearly always tourists and Westerners smoking on the streets so I guess it's natural they get specially targeted for fines. There are designated areas where you can smoke (bins provided) outside some shopping malls but mostly there's nowhere to throw away your cigarette butt ... take a tin or something to put it in if you must smoke while walking on the street.

The pictures in Richard Barrow's piece were taken on the BTS skywalk. This is one of the few places in Bangkok where pedestrians can actually walk rather than shuffle along at a snail's pace because there are no obstructions like street vendors, food stalls, stairwells, beggars, lamp posts, bill boards and busy traffic intersections blocking your path. The skywalk provides living proof that Thais can walk just as fast as Westerners when they want/are able to. I'm pretty sure it's forbidden to smoke, eat or drink on the skywalk so just lighting up a cigarette without even littering could get you fined there.

On the congested pavements/sidewalks of Bangkok it's a different matter. Street vendors chuck their rubbish on the street or down the storm drains (which causes flooding in the rainy season) with apparent impunity. This could be because they are renting their spot on the pavement from the "owners" ... who are the boys in brown I think?

As a follow up to the Spectrum article I posted about, Spectrum talked to head of the ministry in charge of this. He said it should be a warning the first time and refuse to pay the fine. He also said to look for a "real" policeman and report the wrong doers. He doesn't say that his department will look into the problem. So it's up to the tourist to fix the problem.

Agreed with exacto that racial profiling is not a good thing, and yes this is another example of the foreign tourist being taken advantage of... Yet, it's not the greatest example because the tourists are in fact doing something wrong. Littering is also illegal in most (if not all) of the countries where these foreigners come from, so they should know better. I don't smoke anymore, but when I did I never chucked the butts on the ground, no matter what country I was in. Perhaps some of these tourists wouldn't litter in their home towns, but they feel it's okay to do it in a "dirty", "developing" "third world" country. Thus, maybe some of the tourists are also taking advantage of the situation? It seems that many of them certainly act in idiotic ways - while in SE Asia - that they otherwise wouldn't in their home towns. While scamming and profiling is not good, people do need to take responsibility for their actions. Just more food for thought...