jackinbkk

I remember KerryK saying on a topic a few months ago that if a Thai policeman would have stopped him in the street and asked him for his ID when he was here 40 years ago he would have laughed in his face. Simply put at that time Thais deferred to foreigners.

Over the years they have grown in confidence and maybe realized that they could ripp the p*ss out of the farangs a bit.

I reckon the Russians are currently living in a bubble because the Thais and Thai police can't get their heads round who they are dealing with. It won't take them long to suss them out then you will find the Russians being subjected to the same level of scrutiny as the rest.

With one proviso........there is a level of organized crime above and beyond the norm with the Russian community. It is one community that would have no compunction in taking on the Thais head to head in the assassination and violence stakes.

There have been some horrific stories coming out of Pattaya of Russian girls being found dead on the beach, I have some friends just returned from Moscow and they were disturbed at the level of intimidation and gangsterism in the country.  These friends of mine, one in particular, are no slouches. This particular friend was over in Moscow to provide protection to a legitimate businessman. he came back and said that there was no half way ground with the Russians, if it's on, it's all in.

For all the pretendy gangsters that we meet in the bars of Thailand, these guys are the real deal. Apparently there are even Russians getting involved in the jet ski scams. You can kind of guess that if they can wedge themselves into that most criminal of enterprises it's either because the Thais fear them, or they are buying their way in. I think it's a bit of both.

Now the pity is that we end up thinking that every Russian is a gangster. Not so, many are highly defensive because they are used to being treated with suspicion by we Westerners. They expect us to be abusive and unfriendly towards them. Their first reaction when you talk to them is to go defensive, and claim they don't talk English in many cases. Try a different tack with them, the next time your at a pool or a bar with Russians around, open a bottle of vodka and whisky and invite them to drink it with you. Show them a spoonful of sugar and you will get sack loads in return.

Don't fear Russians, most of them are just regular people on the holiday of a lifetime, show them a bit of kindness and consideration and you will be amazed at how hospitable they are. Remember, they "fear" us as much as we "fear" them. I would rather befiriend them than fear them. We're going to need them to repel the Chinese when they attack us

ps. Old soldier story coming up, I was on Operation Lionheart in 1984, known as a REFORGER exercise to the US forces. It was the biggest mass movement of NATO troops into Germany since WW2. I think 160,000 troops flew in in 5 days.

Anyway, theblether was on guard duty at a River near Hannover, I was in the Royal Engineers, and we had just built a Bailey Bridge. We were told to expect an inspection visit from the Russian forces, ( they were allowed to inspect to prevent scheduled war games from becoming full scale attacks ) and at that point a helicopter showed up and off stepped about a dozen Red Army generals. They looked like the "evil men" from central casting.

My troop was understrength and I was in charge of the Carl Gustav anti tank weapon and the large bore machine gun ( can't remember the name ) as well as my personal SLR.  At that time I stood 6 foot 2 tall and I was built like a tank, hence why I had the heavy machinery. Laughter ensued from the Russian Generals and the British Brigadier came over to see me, which was a pain in the ass as my hands were full and I didn't know whether to stand to, stay where I was, whatever ( ex-soldiers know you don't salute officers when you are on exercise in case you identify them to the enemy ), anyway the Brigadier told me to stand easy and explained the laughter from the Russians was them looking at me and one of them said " Eff me, I'm not fighting this mob, look at the size of that guy ".

Claim to fame, Yorkshire Television filmed the whole encounter and had a final scene with the camera sweeping round me and the commentator saying " I think we're safe with soldiers like this to protect us ".

theblether was proud of himself.

Just sayin'.

I think that brings the score to: Falangs 1, Thais 938,273,648,738,348,572,627,485,345

Sorry no Pity for the Girl not saying she deserved to die but when you mess with people emotions it is inevitable that bad things will happen just like guys jumping off condo buildings etc this bar girl was 34 years old and most likely done this many many times over since she is a MRS Jantree too so she has been at this game a while this time it caught up with her.

I have seen too many guys get fleeced out of there life savings to feel sorry for these girls anymore, this one paid for it with her life.

DK