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The public is being bullied and woman and girls are sexually abused in the name of Songkran. For sure every decent family will stay away from such hooligans. When they submit Songkran to be considered as an heritage festival to UNESCO, they failed to inclued this sexual abuse and violence as part of the current Songkran culture. If they had done it, then it would be perfect to reflect the exact current situation. No point in grumbling now. Let all the shop and business owners go after and whack those who are turning a peaceful and enjoyable Songkran into a chaotic and violent event. If one person is whacked by 100 people, then the charges are not severe. No point in waiting for law and enforcement to take its path. Sometimes such incidents need instant act to nip in the bud.

It is not a matterof old or new....such things can always happen to innocent tourists. It is the message that matters and not the article......I know for sure you will reply for this......

Yep, that could be a problem. All my 'work' is done in the house here on my computer, which is why I can reply so quickly as I am writing software code for about eight hours a day I get a ping when a new email arrives, it is good to take a minute or two break.

As an Expat it stops me going about my normal daily business. This year has seen very little control of festivities.

That is far too long, now I understand why you don't like it.

It goes on for 10 days in Pattaya because Soi 6,7 and 8 always start early totally different class of tourists (Chav's) in Pattaya during Songkran.

"The good news The Purge (Songkran) is over for another year as of midnight last night in Pattaya." Wow, it goes on for that long. In Phuket, the Thais who make up most of the revellers only do it for one day. The farangs in the small tourist areas do it for two or three days I think, we did it for one day but we were cowering in the car as we drove through the crowds with the thousands of other cars in the parade going at a snail's pace. "And the Chav's and Gimps and the rest of the undesirables have returned to the Council Estates they call home just in time to sign on at The Benefits Office for their job seekers allowance." Whaaa some of your comments make me laugh.

"They have a total of two posts and the other one was about an incident that happened two years ago." Are you referring to @UpUp comments? "An early entrant from the AN invasion?" I have not heard of that, what is it?

I've had some very nice wines at decent prices from Wine Connection, and from The Barrel in Chiang Mai. Sometimes the only thing I can get my hands on is Mont Clair from Seven Eleven though, which will do in a pinch but definitely needs ice to water down the piss flavour. Aperol Spritz is a go-to for my wife as well. I was impressed recently with the advancement of cocktail offerings all over Thailand.

For more than 15 years my wife and I have been arguing about how to enter and drive through and out of a roundabout. To Thais, it's just a circular intersection. Stop! Stop! Defeating the intended purpose of a roundabout. I fail to understand the reasoning of the person quoted in this article about how one-way traffic is responsible for a downturn in tourists. It's a specious argument, at best.

The entire Chonburi area lost a large number of quality cash paying tourist over the last 9 days of Songkran.

Surely you don't mean DRIVERS being confused with one-way traffic, so it must be pedestrians that have trouble. They must be pretty dumb to not be able to acknowledge that vehicles are on the road and either heading towards them (get out of the way) or trying to run them down from behind (also get out of the way). Having shown my preference for drivers, I now look at what I see in our big city and can honestly say it is amusing. Most drivers can't spell roundabout, let alone drive through one.

And do you say the same thing when it's a Russian man (no hyphen), a Kazakh, a Ukrainian, an American, a Thai, an Indon, a Malaysian, a Cambodian, a Laotian, an Australian compatriot, or any other nationality?

They have a total of two posts and the other one was about an incident that happened two years ago. An early entrant from the AN invasion?

This from almost 2 years ago. Don't you ever look at the date the article is published? Oh, that's right. Comment on everything as if you're omniscient and don't need to actually read the article. Got it.

Next time, pick it, check the wallet for any personal Identification. If nothing, either drop it at the police station or take the money and throw away the wallet and enjoy a couple of beers at the nearest 7 eleven.....no point in being naive

The good news The Purge (Songkran) is over for another year as of midnight last night in Pattaya. And the Chav's and Gimps and the rest of the undesirables have returned to the Council Estates they call home just in time to sign on at The Benefits Office for their job seekers allowance.

You obviously do not know Phuket, I think you might be getting it mixed up with Pattaya. Plus have you considered seeing a doctor with such a stupid comment, I did not mention morals at all. I was obviously referring to bad behaviour. So you think the 14 million visitors to Phuket every year consisting of families, couples, and groups all have bad morals, you really should be making that doctor's appointment as soon as possible.

You're a foreign man who lives in Phuket, the seediest place on Earth. I don't think you can stand on the moral hill about what is and what is not giving foreigners a bad name.

My partner is on the way there now, gone for ten to fourteen days, I just dropped her at her sister's house in Phuket and the whole family is going, she can go whenever she wishes as we are not joined at the hip. It depends on the village, in this one, there is nothing at all to do plus I have a very bad reaction to mosquito bites, they understand why I stay here, they want to see the sisters/daughters and they are not bothered if I go or not. I think you Americans would call it a one-horse town, except there is not even a horse in this one. Plus no one in the village speaks English, they all speak Southern Thai, completely different from standard Thai so I am just in the way at family meetings as they all want to speak to each other in the local natural language. There is one guy who speaks English, he is a German who is married to my partner's sister and they live next door to the mum, they built a house with a twelve-foot solid wall (with a small sliding gate) all around the house and so on the previous times I was there I hardly ever saw him.

The police get paid out of the profit. That's why they didn't help. What you do in this situation is you ask them to fill in the paperwork, then kindly mention courts, judges, publicity and embassies, and dwindling tourist revenue, and then see how willing they are to continue their scam. Not very willing, is the answer.

Nice area.

Another English-man in trouble

I frequent Kamala Beach in Phuket But I've noticed so many more low clasd European tourists the last 2 years My friend owns a pub and attributes that to the weed being legal I smoke weed but would never base my holiday around it When it was illegal I smoked it occasionally when presented but didn't search it out Now that it's legal I buy a little and have a little each day or every other day

Those social issues have nothing to do with the decriminalization of cannabis. In the USA social assistance and access to healthcare is very dependent upon local and state funding. In New York state, upstate New York does not offer the services that wealthier downstate New York does. Many people are sent for care in hub care centers and the greater New York City area is one of them. Many US states offer few medical resources or social assistance to the poor, e.g. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana. People in need move to regions where they can access such assistance and where people are less harsh to them. California is the largest economy in the USA, it is also the dumping ground for many of the other US States social problems. Easy to point the finger, but the cause of the problem is the refusal of local counties and states to address their own social problems. This has been going on for the past century. Remember the dustbowl of the dirty thirties? That's when hundreds of thousands of destitute midwesterners moved to California.