Thailand - dangerous for farrang?

Another bad situation happen in Hua Hin and when Thai people hit ore/and kill a farrang......the police doesnt do anything about it

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/view-story.php?sid=503

Depends how you live I guess....

Lived in a 20 Million baht house & he is taking a Thai tradesman to court over the disputed bill of 20,000 baht...
Sometimes it is better to put things down to experience.....

Well it depends, a long time ago I was advised to seek a Thai person to oversee builders advice i took, my contract was with him, he ensured the workers did as they were told and I paid him for expenditure. If i had a probelm it was with him, he dealt with the builders. So he got paid at the end, when i wasn;t happy i told him he knew he was not getting paid until the job was done to my satisfaction. hence a good job was done, sure i had to do some titivation myself but then I did the same in the UK as well nowt new there.

As for Thailand being dangerous for a farang ( or foreigner ) depends on where you live and what you do. me I have been attacked once following an altercation at 0300 hours, apart from that nothing, I am more scared of being in a traffic accident and of being bundled into the back of an ambulance and not arriving safely at a hospital than I am of being attacked.

Dont know other places/areas in Thailand.

Just want to say that Udon Thani is save and 'cool'

It may be 'save', but is it safe, in particular, at the lower end of Thanon Adulyadej?

Thailand is very dangerous if you don't know the rules, does not matter where you are in the country. Confrontation with anyone here can be very serious. Take it easy, smile, keep calm and stay low key. Be very careful if you are doing business here, more so if it involves a lot of money. A person I know was shot for trying to sue a developer regarding his house. He did not die but is paralyzed from the neck down. Thailand can be a great place but the rules we have at our home countries do not apply here.

Thanks for all the comments in this thread!
After having lived many years as an expat is my opinion on that Thailand is a high risk country to live in. If we add up the violence with traffic and other dangers as electrical installations, etc., one can directly conclude that any casual situation is a potential danger to life. Of course, one can prevent much so that you can not get into trouble but it depends not only on yourself. The risk of violence may in part be prevented and even some situations in traffic. However, still remain many risk elements that actually make everyday life to a potential danger to life. You can not prevent idiots in traffic is coming over on the wrong side and kill people, you can not prevent someone stoned Jabba madman trying to steal your hard earned money and kill / injure yourself or that you die in the shower in a hotel somewhere of an electric shock. This, together with the authorities do not seem to care about a farrang murdered or die in another way, means that a farrang life is not worth much and that the attitude of the authorities will result in more expats are murdered or die under mysterious circumstances in the future.
later last night killed four Swedish youths when they were traveling in a car from Phuket toChumpong. The murder was carried out by a truck driver who drove on the wrong side of the road. Youths died instantly along with their 26-year-old driver from Udonthani. Truck driver deviated from the site, possibly because he was under the influence of alcohol oramphetamines. He will probably not be punished for this atrocity and no one will comfortyouths sad parents or ask them to apologize for taking their children's lives. This is one of many everyday events where expats are dying unnecessarily. Along with murder and other violence, Thailand is a high risk country and farrang have to be carefull in every situation!

Tend to agree with all that say Thailand is dangerous for many aspects of life but don't see it is any more dangerous for us than the native population. After all they use the same roads, the same lethal electricity supply and even get the same shoddy workmanship we get .The only thing that makes us more at risk is by expecting people and things to be the same as they were back in our home countries.We make it more dangerous for ourselves by this presumption. Therefore we can reduce the risk by understanding and accepting this difference. It is part of the assimilation process. If you want to live here you must first condition yourself to it.You must become Thai, blend in with the natives. Now that doesn't mean doing as they do, but accepting what they do is normal for them if not you. If you want to congregate in areas which are simply conclaves of your home countrymen you will stand out and be a potential target. Whether that's in towns like Pattaya which attract many, or nearer home in Udon, in the two predominate bar complexes, you are sticking your head up over the firing line, so of course you may become a target.As the Thai would say . It's up to you .

Thailand is not a lot more dangerous than most farrang countries
I know of a owner failing to pay contactors in Oz and been made to step off 2nd floor
Alice Springs in Oz is not a safe place after dark
parts of USA I visited 20 years ago are a whole lot more dangerous than Thailand and I can only think it has got worse
LOS is still afriendly helpful place if you do the right things and smile

These sort of articles rather annoy me as death is a fact of life so no one can escape it.
Newspapers & on line blogs have very little interest in the truth of a situation, they require sensationalism to get people to their pages.
Is Thailand a hugely dangerous place??
The figures would suggest that for UK visitors & residents, not, but that being elsewhere in the world could even be more statistically secure, if only minutely.
Here are Foreign and Commonwealth Office British behaviour abroad report 1 April 2008 - 31 March 2009 figures.
They suggest that the dangers of visiting or living in Thailand are minuscule - given that many of the death cases will be from natural causes & would have happened to the individual where ever they were..
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... OR2c#gid=0
If anybody wants to check the figures...

Less than one tenth of one percent of the UK visitors & residents in Thailand have a serious problem during one full year...

It does seem as though Business Related People are in the fore front of these Nasty Attacks. Thai's do not like Foriegners doing business in there Country, and do not take Critisizm kindly. Sadly the Authorities see fit to turn a Blind Eye not realising what Damage it does to their Image and Overall Reputation around the World. In years to come (and I don't think too far away) when the Westerners all move else where with their Money, there will be many Thai's who will ask "What Happened" as most don't understand what they and their Countrymen are doing. We in my Country are called Racists for not wanting certain People from around the World to take to Boats and Force themselves on us and spend many years as a Burdon on the Public Purse. But show Violence of any kind toward these People, and the Full Force of the Law will come down on you. It's a Shame this Countries Leaders are so weak, or do I dare say "Stupid" that they don't start turning things around before it's too late ... just my two bobs worth ....

This thread is about a guy who obviously had no idea about the country he moved to and I bet came with a superior attitude to the locals. He builds an expensive house, fails to pay the contractors and gets wacked? Did he expect them to work for free and be happy about it? Did he take the cheapest quote? Did he hassle them to lower the price? He was a carpenter so he would have noticed the quality of workmanship, he should have gone and got a quality expensive joinery company to achieve the required finish he wanted, with a contract and retention clauses.

I have had a construction business in Thailand for sixteen years, we build expensive houses for foriegn clients, we have our own labour and use Thai contractors for M&E and joinery works and a constant list of Thai's for various fabrication and supply. When we issue a contract or employ a contractor we make sure our requirements are completely understood. There are the day to day headaches here, much the same as working in Aus, I was a carpenter and licensed builder there for fifteen years, I have no problem doing business here, I still enjoy working with the Thai's, I am always polite and treat them as I liked to be treated.

The only dangerous thing I find here is the roads.

coxo wrote:This thread is about a guy who obviously had no idea about the country he moved to and I bet came with a superior attitude to the locals. He builds an expensive house, fails to pay the contractors and gets wacked? Did he expect them to work for free and be happy about it? Did he take the cheapest quote? Did he hassle them to lower the price? He was a carpenter so he would have noticed the quality of workmanship, he should have gone and got a quality expensive joinery company to achieve the required finish he wanted, with a contract and retention clauses.
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Did you find it ok for the Thai workers to kill a farrang as soon they dont agree to the bill as well?

When it comes to the bill (heavy sum) it looks like he really pay for quality workmenship....the bill looks higher then eurostandard to me!

Kjellsnell, I made the choice to live here, I enjoy living here, if you follow the rules you dont have a problem. As I dont know the spec of his house I can say that materials cost the same here as anywhere, labour is cheaper but when they have to do it ten times it can cost more.