Recently I was told by a tuk-tuk driver, at 6pm, that the price for a trip along the Karon beach road (which is less than 2km) was B300, and I could either pay or walk!
This trip was expensive two years ago, when it ‘only’ cost B100. Nowhere else in Thailand I have visited would the same trip cost more than B50. Here in Phuket, it’s six times the normal price.
It’s also worth pointing out that B300 is the minimum daily wage, so these intimidating criminals are taking a day’s wage for a five minute trip.
As we have no freedom of choice, such as am extensive public bus service, I instead hired a motorbike for B200 per day, as have many of the now dead and injured who get into accidents on Phuket roads.
The population of Phuket is at the mercy of a bunch of thugs, who are breaking all international laws. They are now also preparing to illegally refuse access for buses from the airport to Kata and Karon. But people of Phuket, there is hope.
You must sue the government for not protecting your rights.
Not only that, the government should be forced to pay compensation to those injured and killed in traffic accidents in Phuket as long as they allow your rights to be violated.
What responsible parent would send their offspring to Phuket? What responsible government would want their citizens to come to Phuket, once they are made aware of the situation here?
If they don’t warn their citizens of the dangers that the “tuk-tuk mafia” cause, they become responsible for their deaths. I’ve made this very clear in Scandinavia, and they have reacted.
Seen many Norwegians or Swedes lately?
I wonder what other countries will be forced to follow suit.
Bob Green