Advertisement
Published: October 16th 2010
We took a thirteen hour coach journey from Bangkok to Krabi on the west coast of southern thailand....I was all for a 90 minute flight but i guess that means I'm not a proper backpacker yet!
The journey was not half as bad as anticipated until about half way through when we had a stop off. When we got back on the coach, someone had closed all the curtains on the coach and one of the guides walked down the isle putting everyone's hand luggage on the floor. Everyone assumed this was because it was going to be a bumpy journey from then on - how naive we were!
It was night and the lights were turned off and the coach carried on it's journey...one of the other backpackers suddenly yelled out....one of the thai men had been crawling along the floor trying to steal from peoples' hand luggage by their feet! We think we caught him before he got to any of those bags...
....however the coach continued at what felt like 20 miles an hour and it stopped off about every half an hour. I suspected they were raiding the rucksacks that everyone had put in the main hold... when we finally got to our destination it transpired that they had. They had been through most of the rucksacks...mine had been locked so they hadn't got into it but my PAYG mobile was in Tim's rucksack and had disappeared.
There was not a lot we could have done differently but it was a good early lesson in the potential dangers....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0343s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
turkishraf
Raf Jah
Good warning
Hello There, Raf here. I commend you on your warning. I was in Bangkok a few days ago and there have been numerous incidents of the bags being opened by someone in the hold and robbing stuff. A friend of mine had $600 stolen along with alot of other stuff. The driver is always in on it. I think the next time it happens the passengers should seize the driver at the next stop and demand that the police arrest and vigorously interrogate him. I live in Africa, and thank goodness this has not happened there, as the law of the locals is much harsher. If they catch a theif in Southern and Central africa, he tends to end up a victim of summary justice. Good luck with your travels and stick to the airbusses or trains! Raf