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Comment by samvher | Hacker News Reader

In Bangkok it was mainly tuk-tuks taking me to places I didn't want to go and many attempted scams (magicians, dealers in jewels, someone pretending to be police). In Chiangmai I had my worst couchsurfing experience, really unpleasant guy who I went to town with and was dependent on (he took me half an hour or so on the back of his motorcycle) and who got really drunk after I asked him to please stop drinking (because of the ride). He told me not to worry because "if we die we die together" and a couple of times gave the impression of trying to leave without me. Then I ended up in another hotel which turned out to be above a brothel and to have used condoms in the room, but couldn't really leave because I had gotten food poisoning.

I also met some really nice people in Thailand, but I do feel it has been a bit ruined by the wrong kind of tourism.

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Honest question.. why do you go to countries like these ? To me it looks like the risk is not worth at all.. Is being in danger part of the attraction or people really underestimate the dangers of third world countries ?

Thailand is actually quite safe. You are going to find a few horror stories but generally, as long as you stay away from the most common scams (which you can find in all travel guides), you will not be more at risk than in first world countries.

One reason Thailand is safer than most "third world" countries is that tourism is taken very seriously by the government. Most notably, they have a "tourist police" that can be called if you run into trouble.

Also note that most "scams" are just overpricing. Sure, it sucks paying 5 times the local price, but when it is 10 times more expensive in your home country, it is not really a big deal.

Got stuck in a common scam, realizes in the middle of it that I was in a scam with my partner. Mistake to tell my partner that we were being scammed. Partner got depressed, wanted to go home. 3 weeks of sad vacation, have never been more happy to be back from vacation than from that one. Could not "forget" the scam, everything afterwards in vacation circled around the scam. Worth to mention is that my partner was bi-polar so an easy target/never been in a organized scam before that everyone you meet for a coupe of hours are part of it. Probably at-least 20-30 people involved. I guess it could be similar to "The Truman show?"

One year later still feeling sad for not able to protect us from it. Have become extremely suspicious of helpful people/sellers. Had issues with buying stuff since the trip. Not the price/money that is/has been the issue. I wished I never visited Bangkok.

Similar as this one, but for suits instead. (Did not plan to buy it, in fact earlier that day I wonder why/laugh at people that did it, just a few hours later I was one of them. Now I understand them an why it works and will continue to work for 20 more years) https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-thailand/...

TLDR; Thailand suppose to be me an my partners dream trip. Was our worst trip, lead to us splitting up and started to have trust issue. Feeling depressed about it, still sad about it one year later.

It sounds like any bad experience during any type of trip would have depressed you though (don't do drugs!)

I had two run un with tugs on New York city. Family got robbed on Orlando, friends on San Francisco. My wife got scammed at London airport by the officers there.

I’ve had zero run-ins with thugs in NYC in my entire life. What the hell were you doing?

police harassed me and my friends twice in NYC, never had any trouble like that in Asia or Europe.

Getting directions at Port authority

It's beautiful, it's cheap such that you can afford a level of luxury you couldn't in the west, and sure the level of petty crime is higher than the west but it's still at beginner-to-intermediate levels of streetwiseness required.

Apart from the couchsurfing experience none of it was really dangerous, just really annoying.

My reason for going to Thailand was that I had an internship in Australia (I'm from the Netherlands) and I was going to change planes there anyway, so I figured I might as well spend a month in the area. While I didn't like the cities, there were many other nice and beautiful places.

People have different levels of risk tolerance and different interests. I have traveled in a number of poor or somewhat conflicted countries and while it's definitely not always enjoyable, I don't think everything in life is about enjoyment and they were really valuable experiences that shaped my view on the world in other ways. (Not to sound like a disaster tourist - in all cases I was either passing through or working in the area, it's not like I went to watch poverty or conflict.)

Well for one Thailand has a lot of amazing attractions. Beautiful nature, really really good food for cheap, fun nightlife. Sure you get the odd scam or unpleasantness, but it can become a funny story.

Tourism is huge in Thailand, so presumably it's not like people get mugged left and right. However, ‘tourist places’ anywhere do attract lots of pushy folks doing riskless swindles on easy targets who lose self-control right after landing.

It pays to know what you want, to have a permanent bitch-face and a habit of saying no to everything else.

Wow, it looks like you probably haven't been around these places in the world, so let me tell you that while we like to discuss about bad experiences, these places are 100x safer and more enjoyable than the US, which is why we travel there in the first place :)

Helps having someone to guide you.

You will know what to avoid and what to expect

Tuk tuks are always bad deal/tourist attraction, make sure Taxis use meter, don't take any of their suggestions (girls, jewelery, etc) or accept detours

To be safe, use Grab application, - no wasting time trying to speak to the driver asking where you want to go, - no tips (from rounding up the payment), - no taking you places you don't want to go.

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