Canadian bashed up by PHUKET Taxi driver
none
Photo by phuketwan.com
Phuket Has Too Many Tuk-Tuks, says Police Chief
By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
IVAN ANWAR says he will come back to visit Thailand again, but he will
give Phuket a little more thought before making a decision.
Perhaps when the bandages come off the wounds on his face, inflicted
in an altercation with a tuk-tuk driver, he may feel more affection
for the island where his holiday went wrong.
''Thailand is not the problem,'' said the 51-year-old Canadian, who
has taught English in Tokyo for 16 years. ''Thailand is a wonderful
place for a holiday.
''My wife and I come here often. We thought we'd give Phuket a try
this time . . . I can't work out why transport here is so expensive.
''It was a one-minute ride. I would have walked if I'd known it was
that close.''
Mr Anwar and his wife arrived on the island on January 4, spent one
night in a small hotel in north Patong, but decided to move because
there was too much noise after dark.
So they planned to move to quieter Kalim yesterday. Mr Anwar said that
when he and wife hailed the tuk-tuk about 1pm, they agreed on a 150
baht fare to move to their new hotel.
But when he arrived on the beachfront in Kalim and realised how short
the jouney was, he walked to the passenger's side of the driver's
cabin and complained loudly.
''It was such a short journey,'' he said he told the driver. ''150
baht is too much.'' The driver's friend and the driver had a brief
conversation in the cabin, Mr Anwar said.
The driver left his seat, walked around to Mr Anwar, and punched him
in the face repeatedly. When Mr Anwar tried to kick the driver, the
driver's friend restrained him by grabbing his arms from behind.
The staff at the hotel saw what was happening and called the police,
at which point the tuk-tuk driver took off.
Another tuk-tuk took Mr Anwar to hospital while his wife checked in at
the hotel.
''He broke my $650 sunglasses,'' Mr Anwar said. ''I don't think
tourists expect to be attacked when they come on holidays. If it
wasn't for the tourists, the tuk-tuk drivers would have no jobs.
''I still don't understand why he chose to punch me rather than talk.
That seems to me to be unnecessary violence for no good reason.''
Mr Anwar will fly to Hong Kong and Tokyo tomorrow. His wife is heading
for New Delhi.
The accused driver, Tadsanarid Damtong, 33, was to be held in a cell
at Kathu Police Station in Patong overnight after Governor Wichai
Praisa-ngob intervened in the case and prohibited bail being
permitted.
Natdanai Chaowana, a prominent tuk-tuk owner in Patong, told Phuketwan
yesterday: ''In Patong, everybody knows that it's 200 baht just to
start the engine of a tuk-tuk.''
When asked why the cost was so high, he added: ''Look at the economy
of Phuket, everything is expensive here.''
Khun Natdanai said Khun Tadsanarid should be allowed bail ''because he
is a Thai. Nobody knows yet who is right and who is wrong in this
case. Let the court decide.
''In some cases people kill each other, and they are allowed bail.''
Khun Natdanai said Mr Anwar should have also been charged because the
driver said Mr Anwar insulted him, and struck the first blow.
Khun Tadsanarid comes from Krabi, although tuk-tuk organisers on
Phuket usually say only locals are employed as drivers.
Patong police chief Colonel Grissak Songmoonnark said that there were
too many tuk-tuks on Phuket. He said there were about 500 in Patong
alone, not including unregistered vehicles.
''Two hundred tuk-tuks would be enough for the whole island,'' he
said.
''Problems arise because of the rivalry between the tuk-tuk groups,
which means they often cannot make pick-ups so return trips are
usually made empty.
''The return trip empty is built in to the price. It should be 150
baht to travel from Karon to Patong, but because the driver has to
return empty, he charges 300 baht.''
The structure of village-based monopolies in the tuk-tuk trade needed
to change, he said. Vehicles should be registered to go from zone to
zone once the numbers are drastically reduced, he said.
The economic downturn should have reduced the number of drivers
because fewer tourists are coming to Phuket, and they are spending
less money.
Instead, the opposite has happened. There are many more drivers . . .
and some of them charge excessively high fares because they sometimes
only have one fare a day.
Phuketwan believes the times has come for Thailand's government to
intervene to rationaise and modernise Phuket's outmoded transport
system before serious damage is done to the tourism industry.
Runge11
"none" <opl...@yahoo.co.uk> a �crit dans le message de groupe de discussion
: 0fdfca67-785f-424b...@21g2000yqj.googlegroups.com...
Good Soldier Schweik
wrote:
Rather an interesting account. I say "interesting" because nearly the
same account was published in the Phuket English language paper, with
the addition of photos of the driver displaying his stomach showing
extensive bruising which the driver attributes to being attacked by
the passenger. The account above states that the driver's friend
prevented the passenger from kicking the driver.
cheers,
Schweik
(goodsoldierschweikatgmaildotcom)
maxwell
>>
>>
>> "none" <opl...@yahoo.co.uk> a ï¿œcrit dans le message de groupe de discussion
While the truth may be on one side or the other, or somewhere
in-between the two accounts, it appears 'none' has (at least of late) a
preference for rooting out bad news of Thailand, especially that which
features farangs done wrong by malevolent Thais.
Ah, well . . .
Cheers,
-maxwell
Good Soldier Schweik
wrote:
>Good Soldier Schweik wrote on 1/16/2010
>> On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:16:46 +0100, "Runge11" <phi...@bigfoot.com>
>> wrote:
>
>>>
>>>
>>> "none" <opl...@yahoo.co.uk> a �crit dans le message de groupe de discussion
Apparently there is not much dissension over what happened. Both
parties seem to agree that the Passenger negotiated a price to take
him to a destination; the Driver agreed. Off they went. When they
arrived the Passenger declined to pay as in his opinion the length of
the journey didn't justify the agreed tariff. The Driver felt that the
original contract should be honored. Things deteriorated.
The only difference seems to be who hit/kicked first.
cheers,
Schweik
(goodsoldierschweikatgmaildotcom)
maxwell
> maxwell wrote:
>> Good Soldier Schweik wrote
>>>> "none" <opl...@yahoo.co.uk> a ï¿œcrit
>>>>> Phuket Has Too Many Tuk-Tuks, says Police Chief
>>>>> By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
>>>>> Wednesday, January 6, 2010
>>>>> IVAN ANWAR says he will come back to visit Thailand again, but he will
>>>>> give Phuket a little more thought before making a decision.
<snip>
>>> Rather an interesting account. I say "interesting" because nearly the
>>> same account was published in the Phuket English language paper, with
>>> the addition of photos of the driver displaying his stomach showing
>>> extensive bruising which the driver attributes to being attacked by
>>> the passenger. The account above states that the driver's friend
>>> prevented the passenger from kicking the driver.
>>> cheers,
>>> Schweik
>>
>> While the truth may be on one side or the other, or somewhere
>> in-between the two accounts, it appears 'none' has (at least of late) a
>> preference for rooting out bad news of Thailand, especially that which
>> features farangs done wrong by malevolent Thais.
>>
>> Ah, well . . .
>> Cheers,
>> -maxwell
> Apparently there is not much dissension over what happened. Both
> parties seem to agree that the Passenger negotiated a price to take
> him to a destination; the Driver agreed.
A contract.
> Off they went. When they arrived the Passenger declined to pay as in his
> opinion the length of the journey didn't justify the agreed tariff.
Breach of contract.
> The Driver felt that the original contract should be honored.
Correct.
> Things deteriorated.
> The only difference seems to be who hit/kicked first.
Understood.
Still, the first wrong was the Canadian's.
. . . while I doubt that after staying in his lodgings, he'd get away
with paying less than the agreed-to price of his room, by claiming it
hadn't been worth as much as the quoted rate . .
> cheers,
> Schweik
Cheers,
-maxwell
Good Soldier Schweik
wrote:
>Good Soldier Schweik wrote: :
>> maxwell wrote:
>>> Good Soldier Schweik wrote
>>>> "Runge11" wrote:
>
>>>>> "none" <opl...@yahoo.co.uk> a �crit
A slightly interesting follow-on to the Tuk-Tuk situation.
Yesterday my boat was in Ratanachai shipyard. My wife and I took a
visiting farang to lunch. Took a couple of motorcycle taxis from the
Yard to a Chicken Rice restaurant, 50 baht a head. After eating we
were looking for a ride back and a Tuk-Tuk came buzzing down the road.
Waved it down. "How much to Ratanachai?" "Where is that?" "Why don't
you know?" "I'm from Patong" "Back over there about a kilometer, or
so." "100 baht" "Can you do it cheaper" "Nope." O.K.
The point is that the motorcycle taxi cost 150 baht (50 baht a head)
while the Tuk-Tuk was only 100 baht......
Who ripped off who :-?
P.S. the "Bangkok price" would probably have been about 20 baht a head
cheers,
Schweik
(goodsoldierschweikatgmaildotcom)