Warning! Don't walk the streets alone at night
Nakima was in Thailand for four weeks: Pak Chong, Khon Kaen, Kalasin, Khorat, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Kanchanaburi.
It was his fourth time in Thailand, he knew Bangkok fairly well and he has a lot of experience with other Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong. Because he is half Indonesian, many Thais mistake him for a Thai, which makes him less noticeable as a tourist.
On the last evening before his departure, he wanted to go to the Glow Nightclub on Sukhumvit Soi 23, a place where they mainly play techno and hard house. Nakima was drunk and that probably killed him. Here's his story.
I thought: I can walk for those three minutes
I was walking on the street around 23:XNUMX am (perhaps not wise). A motorcycle taxi had dropped me off at the beginning of soi XNUMX. From there to the nightclub is about a three minute walk. The motorcycle taxi asked me if it was the right place where I should be, but I thought: I can walk for those three minutes.
Soi 23 runs in a bit of a Z shape, making it look like it's three streets. Somewhere in the middle you have Soi Cowboy. There were still a few bars open and there were a lot of tuktuks, but there were no people there and all the shops were closed there. Apparently a perfect place for a robbery.
A Thai man approached me and asked where I was going
It took place on the corner of the Glow Nightclub. A Thai man approached me. He asked where I was going. I found this very strange as it was not a taxi or tuk tuk driver. I ignored the man and continued walking. Five seconds later I was jumped from behind by him and thrown to the ground. Before I knew it, the man started pounding the back of my head very quickly.
Then three men came along and started kicking and hitting me, in less than thirty seconds I must have had forty or fifty blows. In the end they took my wallet out of my pocket and then drove off at lightning speed on two scooters.
I immediately called 1155 (the number of the tourist police) but no one answered.
The tourist police didn't really take me seriously
The next day I went to the tourist police station (next to the National Stadium) and explained my story to them. There I got the impression that they didn't really take me seriously; I was told they couldn't help me because it involved violence.
They gave the address of the Wattana District Police and told me to go there. Since it was my last day, I didn't have time for this and left it at that.
Mad at myself
I'm actually more angry with myself than with the robbers, maybe I could have prevented it. Maybe I shouldn't have been drunk, maybe I should have just gone to my hotel (I just came from a party held by a Thai friend and his colleagues in Lat Phrao district), maybe I should have looked around… I can do a lot think of things how I might have prevented it but yes: happened happened.
By the way, this was the third time I walked in soi 23 around this time. This was also my fourth time in Bangkok, so I know the city quite well. In Thailand I feel free and at home and that's why I wasn't careful enough, that's the mistake I made.
Thailand is a beautiful country but it has a very dark side and I would like to warn other people about that.
More information
Thailandblog joins Nakima's warning. More information can be found in the attached pdf Do's and don'ts in Thailand and in the posting Thailand is not Terschelling.
Sad case.
A year ago in Bangkok, a farang was hit on the head in broad daylight in a quiet side street of Sukhumwit by 2 ladyboys. He fell and heard them say (The man speaks very good Thai) "Oh dear, he's dead, run!" “. He wasn't robbed. He was able to stagger to a 7/11, they called an ambulance and the hospital did the rest. Reported to the regular police; the tourist police are there for other matters. But the birds had flown.
But this can also happen to you in every city in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the world. Shouldn't but it happens.
So the advice is always to be on your guard and as the writer says, don't do it when you are drunk. Just not getting drunk is even better. But that is not a guarantee either, so take a (motorcycle) taxi.
If I'm drunk and well behaved and don't hurt anyone, they just have to keep their paws off me. Worst is, with 3 or 4 men, the heroes! If I misbehave or offend someone, then I shouldn't beep afterwards. Still ridiculous if you want to walk that they still require you to take a taxi for your safety!
Well a bad experience. Sounds like it's pointless to blame yourself afterwards that you should have done things differently. Crime, whether or not with violence, is everywhere. I still remember the leaflets in New York hotels with specific instructions if you planned to go for a walk at night. In some parts of Africa you can't even drive your hand outside the car window because they just as easily chop off that hand to get the watch or rings. Thailand is clearly not as friendly as it used to be. I remember when I could just leave my bags in the pickup while I was shopping on my way to my hotel 10 years ago. I wouldn't do this now either. The service provided by the tourist police has also deteriorated rapidly. In the past they would take you to the normal police and assist you in filing an official report there. Fortunately, there are also plenty of beautiful and pleasant places to stay in Thailand.
Moderator: Your comment should be about Thailand.
Well things like that happen everywhere. As a rule, it shouldn't matter whether you're drunk or not; a robbery is a criminal offense and that is not allowed. You can also ask yourself the question, many people do that, is it my own fault: no. Someone who assaults you is to blame and you are the victim.
Whether you provoked the oevral and could have prevented it is another matter, but the nuances are very sensitive.
The robber chooses an easy victim, so he has a better chance of succeeding in his malicious intent. A drunken person, older, infirm, you read it every day in the newspapers.
But it is always advisable to seek medical help for a check-up. For example. Even a light tap on your head can cause a blood clot in a vein. If that clot gets stuck somewhere in your brain, you have a cardio vascular accident (CVA), a stroke. If that clot gets stuck in a vein in your lung, it's called an embolism.
Furthermore, theft with violence is sometimes covered by your insurance. Travel insurance, … With me even in fire insurance (option theft with burglary, also applies to hotel rooms, and theft with violence in the street). A report to the police is then required after a medical check-up to submit your claim. Have already had it. At night in the Dusit district (BKK) after visiting a café.
Fortunately, it turned out well for Nakima, but there are those who have not been so lucky.
@Noah…. take a taxi for safety? Haha… and what if the driver robs you? So that's what I had 2 years ago when I went home at midnight. Got the barrel of a gun pointed at me. I was just a little faster... took the gun you learn at the police and gave him 2 blows on the head. He passed out and I was able to walk and watch for the next taxi. This brought me right home. Having a party now? Then I sleep there too!
Haha @ Dave, nice! Does have your story, what if the taxi driver robs you. Your next sentence is, look for another taxi…..Do you trust this one? Let's not look for something behind every tree.
That's right, but let's not draw general conclusions from individual cases, no matter how terrible they are.
With individual examples you can support any theory, but the relevant question is whether it is a rule, a pattern, or whether it is rather an exception?
An additional question is whether it is better or worse (read: more dangerous) to walk on the street in Bangkok than in Antwerp or Rotterdam?
To ask the question is to answer it immediately!
I'll give you the answer: 100% no!
@ Pat A sensible person avoids risks. The list of do's and don'ts is mainly intended for tourists visiting Thailand for the first time. The longer you stay in a country, the better you can predict the risks, but even with that you can be pretty wrong, as the example of Nakima shows. Thailandblog's advice is: don't walk alone or in pairs on the street in the evening and at night.
A comparison with other cities in the world, such as my birthplace Rotterdam, does not make the situation in Bangkok any safer.
Dick, I follow you, but if the risk is soooo small, then I ask whether the advice is necessary.
Then you suddenly have to view / weigh up a lot of other theoretically completely harmless things as a risk and it then becomes livable.
Replace Bangkok with Rio De Janeiro and I agree you're not alone on the streets at night.
You even talk about walking the streets with two at night!
With all due respect, but apparently I experience Bangkok as a different city.
I want to do the experiment: walk alone on the street 1000 times at night, pretending that I am drunk, lots of gold around my neck, etc…, with a camera at a distance.
I bet I won't get mugged once.
What is advice worth then, Dick?
@ Pat At the risk of chatting. Thailandblog gives advice. You can ignore advice. It is not about how you or I experience Bangkok, because I have lived here for several years. We give the advice to people who have no experience with Bangkok yet. Do you think that's unwise advice? Not me, because in recent years I have written numerous news items about robberies that could have been prevented. But some people think: nothing can happen to me.
Nice idea, that experiment. But hypothetical situations produce hypothetical results. They prove nothing.
Since I'm still not familiar with the forum rules, I will respond very briefly:
1) I'm really sorry about what happened to you. Being physically attacked is something you never forget and has an impact on your person.
2) Being angry with yourself is completely wrong, because you are the victim.
3) Have traveled to every country in the world and lived in some.
WELL, if there's one country IN THE WORLD (and in my opinion there's only one) where I want to walk alone every night, in any neighborhood, with no matter how much wealth around my neck, no matter how drunk, it's THAILAND and by extension Bangkok.
I would like to continue with this, but then it becomes a polemic and I understand that this is not allowed.
Regrettably.
@ Pat. I feel safer in Bangkok than in Antwerp. Sense of security is relative. But I have only encountered 20 regrettable fact in 1 years of Thailand. In Antwerp on time 10 times as much. Immediate answer to your question. Regards!
@Noah… I really don't understand your "looking for something behind every tree" comment. Look, if you are about 35 km from home, you will have to look for another taxi. I am not afraid and “yes” I do trust the average taxi driver so I “didn't look for something behind every tree” and this driver brought me home neatly. What I want to point out rather is to just use your common sense in dark remote areas. It is a worldwide problem, but as a white person you are simply an attraction in these kinds of countries. In short, keep your wallet at home and put some money in your pocket because every wallet contains things that you do not want to lose if it happens to you.
Yes, all nice, but what if you are alone, just like me. I have also often been alone on the street in Bangkok, even when I was still in a relationship, I had never experienced anything, of course I had known. Yet now that I hear these stories over time I have to adjust my vision about Thailand.
I also sometimes walk the streets alone at night in BKK and I feel totally safe. I can't say that in the Netherlands, in the big cities. There I am regularly harassed by, let's say, North African macho guys, who find it necessary to make you indecent proposals and who get dirty. I have NEVER experienced that in Thailand. Of course, bad things also happen in Thailand, as described above. But I dare say that this is relatively less than in many other countries, including our cold little country. I think that in Thailand you are more likely to deal with scams with (water) scooters, corruption, etc. in terms of crime than being robbed.
Have they heard of the phrase “senseless violence” in Thailand? Don't think so, there will always be a reason behind it - money, revenge, cleaning up. In the Netherlands and Germany and probably other countries in Europe, you can get beaten up on the street because you have a too long nose or because you are gay or whatever.
My own daughter was beaten in the face when she lived in Düsseldorf and was regularly threatened and treated aggressively even when she was still living at home. In the Netherlands. She really isn't someone who looks or is violent.
I took her with me to Thailand a few years ago and let her walk in and around Kao Sarn Road with a few youngsters without hesitation. She arrived back at the hotel at four in the morning and was having the time of her life. Was neatly brought to the hotel by one of the new girlfriend.
I have also been in Bangkok for many years. Avoid lonely streets or short cuts at night and stay on larger roads. So nothing ever happened to me. And I was never drunk on the street either.
In Brazil I have already been robbed twice (pickpockets). My daughter lives there and has already been robbed twice (both times with a gun in front of her). If she lived in Bangkok, I would worry less.
And here you could also defend yourself, without major consequences. In the Netherlands you have to let yourself be beaten up or killed, because if you hit back, you will also be fined.
No, I'm not worried, but use my mind. Nothing is excluded. Not even in Thailand.
As a former sailor I have visited many countries and large cities. I walked in Thailand as early as 1957 in Bangkok. Also at night because a sailor often went out long and late. One thing I always did was put some change in my wallet and the big step I distributed money under the soles of my feet in my sock, so if they robbed me they would only get some small change. But nothing ever happened to me.
Furthermore, you should always be careful if you are alone at night in Bangkok. And everyone knows if a Thai man or woman comes to you of their own accord and asks you the Farang something, you can expect trouble. I can say from experience that the risk of being robbed in Bangkok is really no greater than elsewhere in Thailand.
But sometimes you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and then you're just a victim.
tourist police are a joke, now also backed up. In the past, they would take you to the normal police and assist you in filing a report there. Now the tourist police often even find a Dutch person sitting behind a leo in a cafe.