http://www.stickmanweekly.com/StickmanB ... omAfar.htm
EMAIL OF THE WEEK - You roll the dice and hope for the best.
Getting off the plane here most tourists have no idea what kind of risks they are taking and facing. You are rolling the dice big time, with the odds of winning maybe just slightly higher than Las Vegas. Whether it's getting onto any kind of public transport, visiting any large venue with a lot of people, to the extent of just renting a room for a night or a villa for a longer period of time. I mean what could happen, we're on holiday, relax. So here's a timely story to bear in mind. Two years ago two Australians rented a house. Whilst out having dinner their rented house and all their belongings were burnt to the ground. The police decided that the cause was probably old faulty wiring so they weren't asked to pay for the house. They returned to Australia, and came back to Thailand for a vacation only last week. This was to be a 2-week vacation, ending in them starting already-arranged new jobs in Australia when they got home. When they got off the plane in Phuket, the police threw them in jail on a warrant that had been written in-absentia. A friend has bailed them out for 100,000 baht per person. Then the police said, "You're to pay the landlord 1.3 million baht to replace his house." At the police station, the landlord showed their signature on a rental agreement in Thai which said that anything that happened to the house, including tsunami, arson-loving landlords, and bandits, was the responsibility of the tenants. So he's delaying their return to Australia and their new jobs, and these dumb schmucks are paying that rich Thai landlord Aus$50,000 (THB 1.3 million), which is all their savings, right down to the last penny. The embassy provided a free lawyer (they say he's worthless), but won't otherwise intercede on their behalf.
would they do it back in Oz...no because its The LOS and everything is 'smillie friendly people'...Amazing Thailand.
