Hi all,
3 days into my trip to Phucket.
1) So far, I have a 600 euro charge on my credit card which I know nothing about. Will have to report this as fraud
when I get home to get the money back, and has wiped out a lot of available credit for my holiday.
2) Went to a petrol station and saw the little prick put in 20 litres of gas. He then cleared the meter and tried to charge
me 1500 baht when the total cost should have been closer to 900 baht. He finally relented after a tourist police officer (who
didn't really give a $hit either) arrived.
3) 500 baht to get from the airport to my hotel. Now I am being quoted prices of 1400 baht to get back, and there are NO
other transport options around here apart from car rental. Apparently this is normal because the taxis run a cartel
and governing forces on the island don't care what they charge or public transport. An Australian tourist was recently assaulted in a dispute over a fare. Lovely for a tourist to have dealings with the aptly named 'taxi mafia'.
4) The diving here is about twice the price as it is in the Gulf.
5) You have two extremes across various tourist resort locations - either completely dead at night or rotten excesses of the
likes of Patong beach where you get harassed every 30 seconds to see a ping pong show.
6) The island is horribly overly-developed, and there has obviously been zero regard for long term planning. Traffic control
is very poor with gridlock occuring at all hours of the day in numerous locations.
I suppose it is an ideal location if you're looking for a bad version of the Canary Islands, or some other tacky package holiday further abound. The land of smiles - where everyone wants to put their hand into your wallet simply because you're just a dumb farang.
3 days into my trip to Phucket.
1) So far, I have a 600 euro charge on my credit card which I know nothing about. Will have to report this as fraud
when I get home to get the money back, and has wiped out a lot of available credit for my holiday.
2) Went to a petrol station and saw the little prick put in 20 litres of gas. He then cleared the meter and tried to charge
me 1500 baht when the total cost should have been closer to 900 baht. He finally relented after a tourist police officer (who
didn't really give a $hit either) arrived.
3) 500 baht to get from the airport to my hotel. Now I am being quoted prices of 1400 baht to get back, and there are NO
other transport options around here apart from car rental. Apparently this is normal because the taxis run a cartel
and governing forces on the island don't care what they charge or public transport. An Australian tourist was recently assaulted in a dispute over a fare. Lovely for a tourist to have dealings with the aptly named 'taxi mafia'.
4) The diving here is about twice the price as it is in the Gulf.
5) You have two extremes across various tourist resort locations - either completely dead at night or rotten excesses of the
likes of Patong beach where you get harassed every 30 seconds to see a ping pong show.
6) The island is horribly overly-developed, and there has obviously been zero regard for long term planning. Traffic control
is very poor with gridlock occuring at all hours of the day in numerous locations.
I suppose it is an ideal location if you're looking for a bad version of the Canary Islands, or some other tacky package holiday further abound. The land of smiles - where everyone wants to put their hand into your wallet simply because you're just a dumb farang.
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