Don’t even think about renting a jetski ‎in Pattaya: Kip Keino

Dan Winther

I, for one, will be boycotting Pattaya and Phuket until jetskis are permanently unavailable for rent at those places.

Perhaps there are some jetski renters who are not ripping off tourists, but the whole business is under a dark cloud and needs to be completely snuffed out. As a frequent visitor to Thailand since 1984, I advise other visitors to join in the boycott. There are better places to visit, which don’t have police in collusion with extortionists, fleecing tourists for tens of thousands of baht on a daily basis.

Tourists from India and the Middle East seem to comprise most of the victims, though the beach thieves will openly steal from any unwitting tourists. At the least, foreign embassies should put out travel advisories, warning their citizen travellers of the state-supported extortions.

Phuket and Pattaya police are helpless to intervene, either out of fear of the extortionists, or because they themselves are in on the scam. Top politicians in Bangkok are equally as ineffective, and appear to have no idea (or don’t care) that the daily jetski rip-offs are a black smudge on Thai tourism.

Kip Keino

Ban Nam Lat

Related posts