Re: Avoid Thailand for Vacation!

[Gambitt]

$3k reward for capture of gunman who killed Thailand tourists
 
 Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
 by CARMEN SANCHEZ - CDNN Travel News Editor
 PATTAYA, Thailand (26 Feb 2007) -- Police have offered a $3,000 reward for the capture of the gunman who brutally gunned down two female tourists on a beach in Pattaya.
 
 The two women, Livbov Svirkova, 25, and Tatiana Tsimfer, 30, were gunned down on Jomtien Beach in front of the Dragon Beach hotel on Saturday night.
 
 Previous reports by Thailand's state-controlled media attempted to link the victims with prostitution and drugs, however, police have now confirmed that both women were ordinary tourists on their first holiday in Thailand.
 
 Police said they were trying to find out if the victims had somehow become involved in a conflict with Pattaya's notorious crime gangs.
 
 Police also told CDNN that security cameras in the area confirm reports by a hotel staff that the gunman fled the scene of the crime on a motorcycle.
 
 Despite multi-million dollar advertising campaigns aimed at promoting Thailand as Asia's most attractive holiday destination, violent attacks against foreigners have increased sharply in Pattaya, Phuket and other popular resort areas throughout Thailand.

[bmnichol]

That's awful news. I think there has been trouble in Pattaya before. I was surprised to read that tourists in Phuket had trouble. I guess these people don't realise that if they drive the tourists away they don't make any money. Glad I went when I did.

[mojitomiss_cuba]

I personally wouldn't let this deter me from going on vacation in Thailand. Thailand is still a dream vacation for me and one that I really, really hope I will one day fulfill
 
 But then I live in the COTU and violence is very much a part of this city. I would hope that tourists would still come to the city that I find incredibly fascinating and this very isolated (I hope) incident in Thailand will hopefully not deter tourists from visiting there.
 Same for me as Mexico. The recent incidents there would not deter me from going there either. Living in Toronto, you have to have a sense of street smarts. There are areas in TO that I wouldn't go to by myself or late at night. Common sense. Use it at home and away  :)

[lizzylobs]

Thailand just doesn't attract me at all   :roll:   ..I don't know why ..I've got friends who rave over it but it just doesn't do it for me   :th:

[Gambitt]

Thai man arrested, charged with killing tourists
 Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
 by CARMEN SANCHEZ - CDNN Travel News Editor
 PATTAYA, Thailand (1 Mar 2007) -- Police arrested a Thai man and charged him with the murders of two female tourists who were gunned down on Jomtien beach in Pattaya last Saturday.
 
 Police said the suspect has confessed that he tried to rob the women and shot them when they started screaming for help.
 
 The suspect was identified as Anuchit Lamlert, 24, an unemployed man who lives in Chon Buri and has been arrested many times for robbing tourists in Pattaya.
 
 On the day the tourists were killed in Pattaya, Anuchit was free on bail after he was arrested and charged with robbing a Korean tourist on January 27.
 
 The break in what Thai authorities described as a difficult case came when Anuchit's girlfriend, 21-year-old Nongluck Sudta, went to police and told them that Anuchit came to her apartment and said he had just shot two people and needed a place to hide out.
 
 Within hours, police tracked down Anuchit in a rented room in Sri Racha and later found his Honda Wave motorcycle, the same model identified in a security camera video of the murderer fleeing the crime scene.
 
 Police are now searching for the murder weapon, a Chinese-made Norinco pistol, where Anuchit said he threw the gun away after shooting the tourists.
 
 Despite the confession, a police source said the investigation is continuing on the basis of other leads suggesting the motive for the killings may not have been robbery.
 
 The victims were frequently seen with a Russian man in his 40s who is married to a Thai woman and owns a tourism business based in Pattaya.
 
 Police believe the Thai woman may have hired Anuchit to kill the tourists because she thought one of them was sexually involved with her husband.