Warning to the Thais: Beware the often odd thinking of tourists
In regard to the Swedish man who "allegedly" killed a New Zealander in Pattaya and somehow ended up back in Sweden, unpunished, there might be an emerging problem with tourists worldwide, especially with those from the UK, the US, and Scandinavia.
British tourists, young and old, seem to exhibit more childish behaviour than, say, 10 years ago.
A while back I had a run-in with two young men (or blimps) from Leeds who were acting so immature in a club that it seemed like their excursion to Thailand was the first time they had been away from their TV sets and let out of the house.
Those are the kind who get their heads cracked by a Thai who does not think that their antics are so funny – and I feel that more of that might happen in the future.
American tourists seem to move in and take over wherever they are, having an incessant need to explain “the rules” to everyone, even though they might have been in the country for the first time for only a few days.
A few American tourists in a restaurant or in a club somehow manage to make it impossible for anyone else to have a quiet conversation or any privacy at all.
Then there is “American humour” … and what more can be said about those who laugh hilariously at their own jokes while others sit wondering, not even having wanted to be thus entertained in the first place?
Face the fact that Americans think that they own Thailand, if not every other tourist destination.
A drunken or even slightly tipsy Scandinavian tourist, from my experience in Thailand and in the EU, can convey the most murderous thoughts imaginable in conversation, as if having been in solitary confinement and finally able to put those dark thoughts into action while away from home and in a foreign country.
Nothing is more constant than change and the changes that I have seen in some tourists have not been all for the better – so Thais will also have to change attitudes and actions in response to those tourist changes.
Guy Baker
Bangkok
