According to Facebook user Grittapohn Chattreesagoon, he and two of his friends, all from Phuket, went to visit the Emerald Pool (Sa Morakot), an archaeological site in Krabi, last weekend. The gatekeeper charged Mr Grittapohn’s friends B20 each. Mr Grittapohn, who had only payed B20 to enter the park on previous occasions by just showing a local driver’s licence to verify being a local resident, was told to pay B200.
“My friends told the staff that I’m from Phuket and pay local taxes like everyone else, but he insisted that I must pay B200 because I am a farang. That was when we decided to leave the place immediately because we only wanted to take a few photos and continue driving home anyway,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
A parking lot tenant and other locals later approached the three men and asked them why they were leaving so soon. After the three men explained, the tenant told them that Emerald Pool recently installed a new management team which performed poorly. The tenant and other locals then apologised on behalf of Emerald Pool and asked Mr Grittapohn to help look into why the park collected a lot of revenue each year and yet very little of it is used to improve the local park.
Upon the urging of local Thai residents Mr Grittapohn decided to post a complaint addressed to the local officials who oversee the park to kindly look into both matters.
Park officials later replied that the present park policy states foreign nationals must pay a park entrance fee 10 times higher than Thai nationals regardless if they pay taxes.
Most of the park revenue is also divided up and sent to other parks around Thailand to pay for expenses.
“I am a Phuket resident. I can read Thai clearly but have to experience this. It’s like racism. Please share my experience so local officials and the management team will know about it,” Mr Grittaphon wrote.
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