Thailand forum

Waiting for the reply from Somtam2000

hey k,

we still haven't heard all the details of the recent unhappiness where somtam was almost robbed, but if i had to guess, i suspect that even he'd say travelling around thailand and asia is still reasonably safe and certainly safer than travelling around any major city in the united states, for example.

personally, i've only ever had trouble one time, in vientiane, when i was mugged. but even then, i was doing something foolish at the time by riding a bicycle around town with a day pack perched ready to be snatched in the basket.

there are always reports of tourists being the victim of some crime in places like thailand, but i think by and large it is a very small amount, particularly when you consider how many of us there are tooling around the country and how wealthy even a backpacker is compared to an average person.

when travelling in asia, use good sense just like you would anywhere else. don't have too many valuables with you and definitely don't parade them around for everyone to see. watch your surroundings and stay alert, keep good control of your day pack on public transport, and don't ever get sloppy drunk in public, stuff like that.

keep your valuables in the berth with you on the overnight train. even so, while i'm sure it happens, i've never heard of theft on trains being a problem. if you take the first class sleeper, you can bolt the door to your compartment and have an even higher degree of safety.

i just finished up an 8-week visit to thailand and laos, including three weeks where i was travelling completely by myself and never had any problems. in short, be alert, but there is no need to be alarmed. hope that helps. cheers.

Crime is certainly not "rampant." Like Somtam and Exacto say, yes there is "petty" theft and scams, but even that is far from "rampant." The closest thing to "criminal" activity that's ever happened to me is either when I gave a taxi driver a 500 baht note and he gave me change as though I'd paid 100 baht and then refused to give me the rest of the change, or when a street dog chased me while I was on a motorbike and kept jumping up trying to nip my feet. :0

One thing I often tell people is that the level of violent crime is very, very low in SE Asia. You have to worry about things like people snatching your bag out of the basket of your bicycle, or from under the seat of your train, or trying to scam you in to paying more than normal for a given service, but you don't have to worry so much about being robbed at gunpoint and things like that. Coming from the States, where violent crime is so high, I've always found this to be a nice aspect of SE Asia, even the big cities. I've said over and over that I literally feel 10 to 20 times safer walking around Bangkok or Saigon than I do walking around New York City or Washington DC, or even most smaller American cities.

To answer your question of flying or trains, trains are generally cheaper, but often not by much. If you can hook flights on Jetstar and/or Air Asia, you can often fly for very cheap. However certain routes that these airlines don't do can be pretty pricey.

I've lived here for coming up on three years and done all manner of stupid ****... you name it, caution has not been my middle name. And I have never had any trouble at all. Ditto my friends here. If you aren't doing anything malicious, this is the easiest place to get along I've ever been, and I've lived in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the US. Be nice, ne friendly and it's pretty easy to get along here. Not to say there are no dangers, but they are few and far in between. For anflos traveling here, I think it's a very safe environment.