The Secret Tourist

[Gary & Nok]

On 4th August at 9pm the BBC1 show "The Secret Tourist" is doing a bit on why so many British tourists have accidents on scooters in Thailand.

I have no idea how much of the 1 hour show is taken up with this story but it might be worth a look.

[millermac]

It's not just the Brit's to be fair. Whilst in Phuket there was a horrible accident, right outside my hotel, where a Thai girl slid off her bike in the pouring rain into the path of a car and had most of the lower part of her leg ripped off. The screams will haunt me for a while. I think people just go too fast for the machine and the conditions, sometimes also mixed with booze (not in the ladies case). The roads are not that bad but maybe the warnings could be better. They were having a big clampdown on people not wearing helmets whilst there but people still were ignoring the law one guy was telling me how he had been fined twice for not wearing his helmet
Thanks for the heads up on the program.

[thailand bear]

Sounds like Secret Tourist is about scams ..,
No doubt they will find a bunch of 20+yobs who have smashed up Hire scooters and dont want to pay.
I never believed the Bravo/Virgin show about Squaddies getting scammed over damaging a Jet Ski.
We saw a group o Newcastle"s finest damage two last year and refuse to pay, Even when the Thai Royal Police arrived and demanded to see Passports it took some more grown up Brits to convince them
"Pay up or go to Jail"

[Lucky]

I watched last nights programme and was not impressed. A lot of contrived material and things taken to the extreme in order to justify common place grievances.

[peterinkendal]

Think that is a little unfair lucky.

There were some important issues regarding scams.

In particular the exhorbitant charges and unnecessary treatment handed out by qualified doctors. 180 euros for a 10 minute consultation for a tummy bug???? 160 euros a day for antibiotic injections?????
this is just ripping off travel insurance companies that can only result in more expensive policies.

.....and the boat trip scam......I have never been caught on that but can see how so easily one can get caught, and good warning for all.

[WolfySteve]

Well come on then, spill the beans Pete, what's this boat scam all about ?

[KhunIanB-UK]

WolfSteve, difficult to summarise, but if you want to spend a few hours on my luxury cruiser whilst watching the show in the cinema suite on the lower deck it might more sense, there will be free booze and champers for you and you can buy a ticket for £40 to cover the full day, at this point a well respected forum member comes and posts that they have been on the cruiser and what great value so here's another £40 for another go, meanwhile I tell you there's limited spaces and better decide whether you want to go quickly... Then you turn up at the dockside to find an empty space where the boat is meant to be, but all is okay because you can get Matthew Albright's autograph :-) I meant to watch the new series of the Real Hustle because I'm sure I would fall for some of these scams.

[Gary & Nok]

Bump

On tonight

[Gary & Nok]

Oh well, about 5 minutes on the perils of hiring scooters in LOS. Interesting for those that do hire them but otherwise not much to write home about.

[caller]

Well it was more than 5 minutes as they jumped between Turkey and Samui. Nothing new really to those clued up, but helpful to those that aren't. Did what it said on the label. Place looked a dump though.

[the gardener]

but otherwise not much to write home about.

I,m not sure. I got nicked in Krabi town not so long ago for not wearing a helmet. Lots of paperwork at the cop shop. I went down to Aonang later and found dozens racing around with out helmets. The incident on the programme was a painful reminder about getting payouts on the insurance. I had a boil on the bum years ago, do i need to declare it to the insurance company.
I found it amazing that the family had a 21k bill for hospital treatment. The company used every way to avoid pay out. Does nobody ever take the companies to task in the court room ??
I have a couple of pre existing conditions but then again how many of us don,t ? Start declaring conditions and watch the premiums rise. Some won,t even give you a quote at all.

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/travel-insurance/worldwide-annual-insurance-policies/index.jsp

[peterinkendal]

The scariest bit for me was the disgraceful state of health with lots of e-coli all over the place....think this was marmaris but it could have been any hotel in any town in any country

[bristolgeoff]

no different if you are too rent a car, check the goods before they drive away.seen it many times in cm.the only thing i seen in cm is bad accidents with tourist involved.what will they be paying to the rent company.

[the gardener]

I remember renting a jeep in phangan once and told to test it before i agreed which one i wanted. Testing the brakes on vehicles almost alongside the dockside seemed a bit crazy. It was raining at the time.

[Natty]

Have not hired a scooter/bike in Thailand for years now but have hired a couple of cars and do use our Honda Wave when back home (always smile at Yamaha calling one of their bikes the "Smash"), fortunately I have a full MC licence from a long time ago.
I wonder how many people from the UK bother to get an IDP before they travel, another chance for the travel insurance not to pay in the event of an accident/injury/hospital bills?
A lot of travel insurance require the driver to have a full MC licence if you are a passenger on the bike!!

[bristolgeoff]

i,am lucky i have my own bike in cm,also a full bike and car license in thailand as well as the uk license.if i do hire a car i check all over before i drive away.it is a shame that some tourist do not check ,just look at last nights program

[sumrit]

I thought one of the best comments was when the Thai police said that in the previous year they had 'safety tested' over one million bikes.

It shows just how lucrative the 'tea money' business is

[bristolgeoff]

the program is more about hotels,cleanness,food hygenie and swimming pools.package holidays.the scooter bit was just a fill in maybe

[tomjones]

Sounds like Secret Tourist is about scams ..,
No doubt they will find a bunch of 20+yobs who have smashed up Hire scooters and dont want to pay.
I never believed the Bravo/Virgin show about Squaddies getting scammed over damaging a Jet Ski.
We saw a group o Newcastle"s finest damage two last year and refuse to pay, Even when the Thai Royal Police arrived and demanded to see Passports it took some more grown up Brits to convince them
"Pay up or go to Jail"

I went to Phuket last year and saw the same people featured in the program scam an arab guy,telling him he had broken the cover on the storage well.Trouble is they had done the same scam to an Irish guy one hour before.