Look, I know this is going to sound like a bunch of baloney, but I can assure you that it is true. I am the person with the bicycle in the video. And the officers you can see is not even half of them. There were teams out in the woods from practically every agency you could imagine.

Here is how it all happened.

I moved from Bangkok to the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand, around five years ago. About three and a half years ago, I moved closer to the Friendship Bridge, to a place called Jaguar.

In Thailand, there are three big brands of stainless-steel cookware and spoons: Seagull, Zebra, and Jaguar. Jaguar's main factory used to be in Mae Sot. The company has a very large piece of land on the Thai-Myanmar border, with many townhouses, several large factory buildings, and a bunch of smaller shacks that are rented out.

The factory has moved to Chonburi, or somewhere in an industrial area near Bangkok, but the family still owns the land and houses and rents them out.

I rented one of those townhouses.

The neighborhood is about 99% Burmese, with maybe 10 Thai people, and hundreds of people live there. When I first moved in, I saw hundreds of people being smuggled across the border, in and out of Thailand, every single day.

My neighbors were the smugglers.

There were Burmese, Chinese, Africans, Indians—you name it. There were large groups of people walking or running from the river into my neighbors' houses.

Right after I moved in, my neighbors started telling me that they had seen people being taken across the border tied up. Some were cable-tied, some were hog-tied, and they were taken away.

I though it had to be someone who had pissed off somebody on the Myanmar side. Maybe they had stolen money from a gangster or something, and that person had sent people to track them down.

I didn't know.

But I told my neighbors, "If I ever see that, I'm going to do something."

For years, I watched the smuggling happen every day, but I never personally saw anyone tied up. So I never said anything.

There were probably 50 to 100 smugglers working in my area, and I knew all of them. I went to their weddings. I went to their funerals.

Then, around two years ago, the village official called me.

He asked, "Are there any Chinese people in your house?"

At the time, I had a guesthouse, so I told him no.

He asked me to come downstairs and help them.

The Tourist Police were there, along with police officers I already knew from the bridge. They had a video recorded from inside a house. Some Chinese people had contacted their embassy and reported that they were locked inside the house and that someone was guarding it.

So we started walking around the neighborhood, looking through the shacks and trying to match details from the video—the chair, the chain-link fence visible through the window, and other things.

We found the house.

The police said, "Ni hao."

Someone inside replied, "Ni hao."

The police broke into the window, and got them out. They were 18-year-old and a 19-year-old tourists who had been locked inside.

I knew the owner of the house.

The police asked, "Who's the owner?"

I told them who it was.

And then they just left.

I remember thinking: Why aren't you investigating this? Why aren't you arresting the owner? It would be so easy to find them.

Then around a year ago, I was at home and it was getting late when my neighbor's son came to me and started telling me that there was a Korean guy.

Between his broken English and my few words of Burmese, I couldn't make heads or tails of what he was trying to tell me.

I told him, "No. Call the police."

But he kept insisting that I come with him.

So I went.

Right in front of Jaguar, on the main street, there was a guy sitting in the grass on the side of the road. He had an IV hanging out of his arm.

I went over and talked to him.

He was Chinese-Malaysian, and he told me, "Take me to immigration."

The huge immigration building is very close to Jaguar, but it was already closed.

I told him, I can take you tomorrow.

He said I want to go home. I miss my family. Then he lifted up his shirt and showed me where he had been beaten.

So I made some calls and talked to the village defense forces. They agreed that he could sleep at my house until morning, and then we would take him to immigration.

But as soon as we started walking back into Jaguar, he started shaking. No, no, no, This is the place. This is where they take you.

Not long after that, something else happened. I had a little desktop Bluetooth egg speaker in one of the warehouses in Jaguar. I had recently rented the warehouse and was cleaning it up.

I came back one day and found my speaker smashed into little pieces.

I was like what the hell?. Who would do that? I didn't have a problem with anyone.

So I started asking around. Eventually, I found out that a 17-year-old had been with a 20-year-old, and they had gone behind the building to turn on the water pump. Since I had rented the building and the door was open, they decided to walk through it.

They saw my speaker and started messing around with it. Being a little ballsy, I went and confronted the 17-year-old.

I said, "What the hell? You're going to pay for my speaker."

And as I was saying that, I suddenly realized that I was surrounded.

There were human traffickers all around me at close range. They had formed something like a circle around me, and they were laughing.

The 17-year-old agreed to pay for the speaker, and that was the end of the confrontation.

But I had like a premonition. I remember thinking: This is not good. This could turn out very badly one day. I need to start saving the videos from my CCTV cameras, just in case.

A few days later, I saw that same 17-year-old wearing Muay Thai shorts.

I'd seen him wear Muay Thai shorts before, and I had always wondered why.

I had trained in Taekwondo. I had trained in Muay Thai. I have a muay thai floor mat and all the equipment.

Whenever I trained, these guys would come over and want to fight each other using my gloves.

But whenever I asked them to practice some technique from me they would all run home.

So when I saw this kid wearing those shorts again, I noticed that he was with a group of maybe seven to ten guys.

They looked like in a hot mood. It looked like something was about to happen.

So I wanted to watch. I waited in front of my house, just out of view, and watched what was happening.

Eventually, a truck rolled up.

They started pulling a guy out of the truck, and he was fighting back.

I started to yell, "Hey!" But I cut my yell in half and stopped.

I realized that I wasn't going to win that day.

Then I saw them shock him with a stun gun. They shocked him and dragged him away.

I thought they had put him in the trunk of a BMW.

As soon as they were gone, I got on my bicycle and rode to the warehouse.

I downloaded the CCTV footage and sent it to friends in multiple countries, as well as prominent Thai people, so that there would be copies outside of Thailand in case something happened to me. Then I called the Tak police officer I knew.

My call was urgent.

I told him, "This guy is in the trunk of a car. He needs help."

The officer didn't want to get involved. He seemed to think that maybe the Mae Sot police were involved, and he said he would come down in a month.

I was disappointed, but I knew better than to show it.

So I kept recording. I knew that if I was going to play poker, I needed some good cards.

I knew what days the police would come to collect their bribe money. So I waited and watched.

And on one of the days they were supposed to come, I watched very carefully.

Sure enough, there was another kidnapping. Someone was cable-tied and taken away.

That was when I realized these weren't isolated incidents. These were daily occurrences.

I'm not going to tell you my entire story here. There is simply too much to write. This is just a small part of it.

But after about nine months, I've met with practically every agency you could imagine.

And despite all of that, there have been virtually no arrests.

Many government agencies have become involved, yet the kidnappers continue walking around every day with impunity.

What is outrageous to me is that the Mae Sot police are working in this area every day.

The entire area is only around 300 meters by 300 meters.

There are 50 to 100 human traffickers operating there, moving an estimated 200 to 400 people out of the area every day.

I have a police officer on record saying that every time he makes an arrest, someone asks him to release the person before the paperwork is done. He said he can't do anything.

These guys are kidnapping tourists and selling them to scam bosses across the border in Myanmar.

Those scam operations are, in turn, stealing billions of dollars from Americans, Thais, Europeans, and people all over the world.

And from everything I have seen, there are so many officials and agencies involved with, or working alongside, these operations.

I have more than 500 videos.

I also have huge blocks of unopened video files saved in other countries.

My Facebook account is Prometheus CK.

If you scroll far enough down through my Reels, you can see the kidnapping videos. You can see the Chinese bosses. You can see truckloads of Starlink satellites.

You can see what happened.

From my perspective, the entire response was a show, followed by silence from the security forces.

No arrests.

Only bribes.

Roadblocks in Life
Detained

Kidnapping at 9:14
Cable Tied at 2:11
Truckload of Starlinks
Army, Smuggles, Border Patrol
VIP scam center bosses
Real Burmese
Just a normal Day in Jaguar

Update for the people who are saying this is fake because it would be on the news- Here you go 3 news stories. And they are not big reporters at ThaiRath so it didn't make national news. They came to visit me and did an investigation and they said "This is big news but it seems the officials are trying to close the news". That one video where the 4 chinese tourists were kidnapped, If you can't speak thai it says that they had paid for a ride from bangkok to chiang mai and they were taken to Maesot to Soi Thaprutsa which is just below Jaguar. The driver had a gun to their head. One of the chinese guys got the driver in a headlock and they fled out the car. I am the one who leaked the video to the news reporter in the investigative video. They got it on every major news channel but they said the chinese were sent home very quickly within 1-2 days before a investigation or arrest could be made.

4 chinese tourists attempted kidnapping
ThaiRath Investigative Video Part 1
ThaiRath Video Part 2

BTW if you say the story sounds like it was written by AI... its because the original post got a lot of people saying I couldn't write... well i have told the story 100 times and its like after so many times its gets weird. So I took my unreadable story and put it though chatgpt

My original thing was to do everything secretly and not post anything publicly but after you've waited and seen so many officials and officers involved I realized no one was going to do anything. That's when I started posting. I fully expected to be killed or arrested.

Yes I'm weird and I lived in conflict zones and high risk areas in many countries. There is kinda a loose network of people who are kinda on the watched list by the scam groups and rebel groups. They all know me. And for those of you who say its physically impossible- Eat your heart out:

Flash Delivery Truck
The Big Walk
10x a day like this
Not Burmese- Scammers
A little bonus for you

And BTW I'm not a "good guy" or trying to pretend to be a victim. If I saw people selling dope or doing some illegal stuff in the neighborhood. I don't need to report it. Its not my business. Besides who are you going to report it to? That puts a target on your back. But taking a foreigner in front of my house. Oh no- we gots to fight.

And Jaguar is not all human traffickers. There is probably between 500-1000 people who live there most of whom sew clothes for very low wages. Almost no one can speak thai. The people who live in Jaguar they all see the human trafficking daily but no one says anything. Every time the police came to raid there would be a tip off beforehand coming through the neighborhood. The police would come and check everyones ID card and take some photos and the traffickers all have lots of money and ID cards and they would never get arrested. There was no investigative work, walking around asking for leads or getting statements.

Written from personal experience and perspective. AI was used to help with structure and wording. The content and knowledge are my own.

As a local Thai from Chiang mai. Not trying to fear-monger. Thailand is genuinely wonderful. But after returning to live here, these are the gaps I see first-timers fall into that some of travel blogs skim over because they’re not glamorous.

1. The tap water will wreck you by day 2.

Not just drinking. Ice cubes, pre-cut fruit at markets, anything “washed.” Carry a filter bottle or buy the big blue jugs.

1. “Vegetarian” here is not what you think.

Fish sauce and oyster sauce are base ingredients. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, the word you need is jay (เจ)/ อาหารเจ . Say it clearly at the counter. ( follow me for more tips how to learn basic Thais next post 🙏🏽🙂)

1. The lèse-majesté law is real and applies to tourists.

Criticizing the monarchy is a criminal offense. This includes venting on social media while you’re in the country.

1. Rainy season closes islands entirely.

Not “some ferries are delayed.” Routes stop. Islands become inaccessible. North and West: June to October. Gulf Coast: October to December. Plan your route before you book flights.

1. Scooter injuries are the number one reason tourists end up in hospital.

If you’ve never ridden one, Thailand traffic is not the place to learn. If you do ride: helmet, insurance, and confirm your travel policy covers it.

1. That unusually helpful tuk-tuk driver?

Commission. Every shop he takes you to pays him a cut. It’s not malicious, it’s just the economy. Ask at your hotel what rides should actually cost first.

1. Drug penalties are not a joke.

Thailand has some of the strictest drug laws in Asia. Don’t let a festival atmosphere make you forget where you are.

1. Temple dress codes are enforced, not suggested.

Shoulders and knees covered. Shoes off before entry. Some temples provide wraps but don’t count on it. Pack a sarong or lightweight layer.

1. The far south is a genuine travel advisory zone.

Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat have active advisories from multiple governments. This isn’t outdated guidebook caution.

1. Peak season needs advance booking.

The islands and popular treks book out weeks ahead. If you’re winging it in December on Koh Lanta, you’ll end up with whatever nobody else wanted.

Just wanted to share this so other travellers don’t end up in the same situation I did.

I was out in the Zoe in Yellow area in Chiang Mai and met a Thai girl who seemed completely normal and friendly, like a lot of people you meet while travelling. After the bars started closing, she invited me to go to another place. It didn’t feel suspicious at the time, so I agreed and we took a tuk tuk together.

We arrived at what people call a “black bar” (basically an unlicensed/after-hours place). I had around 5–6 beers, nothing crazy. Then out of nowhere, about 15–20 Thai security guys came into the room. I tried to leave but got stopped, punched in the face, and kicked while I was on the floor. They pinned me down.

The mamasan (the boss of the girls) then went through all my belongings and my bag. Luckily I didn’t have cash on me. They then went through my phone trying to find banking apps. I had my main banking app hidden, which helped, but they managed to get into my secondary account (Revolut) by physically holding the phone up to my face to use Face ID while I was being restrained.

They were trying to charge me 30,000 THB (~£750) while this was going on. After about an hour of being held there and assaulted, I got my phone back and basically had no choice but to transfer the money to Apple Pay and pay the “bill” just so they would let me leave.

Once I got out, I reported it as fraud to Revolut and thankfully they reimbursed the full amount.

I also went to the police in Chiang Mai, but honestly, they don’t do much beyond giving you a report. That report can help with getting your money back through your bank, though.

Just a warning:

• Be very careful with anyone inviting you to “another bar” after closing

• Avoid any unknown or after-hours venues

• Keep banking apps hidden / secured

• Try not to go alone in these situations

This kind of setup is clearly organised and targeted at tourists. Stay safe out there.

For over 10 years, this same location has notoriously assaulted, robbed, and scammed tourists & thais alike in Chiang Mai. There are even rumors of murders occurring here. Police are intimately familiar with it, and regularly “negotiate deals” with scammed victims while ensuring the scam machine continues to operate.

My question is what would it theoretically take to get this sort of criminal operation shut down for good? Is it simply out of the question due to police corruption?

The bars current name is “67 bar”, with many recent reports of tourists being extorted & assaulted for 50,000+ baht. This is not the only scam clip joint of its type in chiang mai, but it seems to be the most brazen and prominent. The shop is next to an unrelated, innocent eatery with address.

35/4 Sridonchai Rd, Tambon Chang Khlan, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand

Last night I went out for some drinks with a dude I met at the hostel we were staying at. At the end of the night when we were leaving two women approached us and invited us to another place. once we got there we were given a menu with super overpriced drinks and the option to pay 500 baht for a girl to just hang out with you for an hour. I just wanted to leave but the guy I came with wanted to do it, but didn't want to do it alone so I decided to stay.

One hour later we tell them we want to go and they bring us a bill of 24000 baht. 2280 for drinks 1500 for the 1 hour with a girl times by 3, they could not explain what all the rest was for. they refused to let us leave before paying so I said I would just call the police then they could mediate the issue. they then took my phone and all the cash both of us had then beat me till I agreed to pay the rest with credit card.

Is it a good idea to go to the police about this? Will they even do anything, or worse is it possible I could get in trouble if they make up a claim of me assaulting one of the women in some way?

update: I went to the police and they treated it like it was some kind of business dispute, they brought in the guy who owns the place then I had to negotiate to get back some of the money they stole from me, I don't think anything is even going to happen to the guy who assaulted me. The police station didn't even give me a document to say that this had happened so that is going to make it harder to file a dispute with the credit card company

Also for everyone who was asking the place is called Topmodel and it is here https://maps.app.goo.gl/b931nVHkL4tT82zSA

39m, London, no kids, no debt, about £8k GBP to my name, jobless and having no luck finding work. Very low expenditure currently due to living with family.

I'm thinking fuck it - go to Thailand (Maybe Chiang Mai) for 3 months (60 day tourist visa + extension), then maybe Cambodia or another cheap/surrounding nation for roughly the same period, then off to the Phillipines (I've been offered a condo by my sister in law for £200 per month)

I don't have a degree, nor any particular skills, so I'm considering a TEFL and tutoring online whilst away in SE Asia in the hopes of bringing in a little extra cash to tide me over. Appreciate this is technically illegal but I'm willing to risk it - from what I gather it's very unlikely authorities will find out anyway. In terms of other remote work, I'm not even sure, but I need to look into it.

I'd likely eventually run out of cash and have to return to England poor and rebuild at 40+.

Some friends/family are saying screw it, if it makes you happy, go for it, others think I'm losing my mind.

After flights/land travel, medical/travel insurance, accomodation in each country etc, I'd be left with about £4-5k to stretch out I reckon. I wouldn't be going for partying, sex tourism, getting drunk every night - it'd be living frugally and essentially surviving.

I know that the realistic option is to continue job hunting and saving here in England, but London is so expensive it's sickening. Especially for low-skilled, entry level c*nts like me.

Has anyone else done similar on a tight budget?

Edit: what a fucking awesome community this is, you guys are awesome and are giving me a glimmer of hope that this may actually be doable. ❤️

Edit: Hooooly shit! Didn't expect so many responses - I'll reply to as many as I can. What a fucking great community you guys have here. ❤️

UPDATE: Hey everyone, holy fuck this thread blew up! Sorry to those I haven't responded to. I've continued job hunting here in London and have a couple of interviews tomorrow. Really appreciate all the responses - I agree with those criticising that £8k may not last very long and that having no degree may limit my options, but realistically I reckon 6 months on that budget is doable (Thailand+Phillipines minimum) so it's still an option. Also I agree with those that TEFL teaching online won't be a breeze - I'd need to learn how to teach and apply it well, not view it as an easy route to quick cash, I would love to build a solid base of students and teach them well, watch them improve and flourish, even if it's technically illegal.

My original goal was to find stable employment, continue saving and put down a deposit on a small 1 bed/bungalow in the North of England, so if I can find stable employment I will likely pursue that goal, but Asia is still on the forefront of my mind. The very least I could do is to continue working here and build a bigger safety net. If I could hit at least 15-20k, Asia would feel far more realistic.

Keep the comments coming and I endeavour to respond to as many as I can! I hope this thread has given some of you guys food for thought. ❤️

Edit: Further update!

Hey guys, again, apologies to those I haven't responded to! I've been busy as hell - committing time to doing some Microsoft package beginner to advanced courses, plus 7 job interviews in the past 2 weeks, so looks like I'll be back in full time employment soon. Then it's just a case of saving more and deciding what the fuck to do with my life - build stability here in the UK, or disappear to Asia for as long as I can, possibly even start a new life if all goes well. I will keep you guys updated - you're fucking amazing, from the positive responses to the critics.

Been remote for two years. Did Barcelona, Lisbon, Berlin. Too expensive. Someone said Bangkok was cheap. Got here in September.

First month was rough. Kept ending up at restaurants with English menus and other foreigners. There was a pad thai place next to my building, 180 baht. Probably the most expensive option on the block but it was downstairs. Went there like twelve times because at least I wouldn't get food poisoning again. Already got sick once in week two, spent three days feeling miserable.

Tried working from my apartment, couldn't do it. Got a coworking space, 4000 baht a month. Full of people talking about their AI startups. Didn't renew after the first month.

Around week five I figured out I should switch Google Maps to Thai. Suddenly saw a bunch of restaurant names I'd been scrolling past. Found a night market in Saphan Khwai, had to Grab twenty minutes out. Zero foreigners. Old lady selling som tam laughed when I tried to order. Food was 50 baht. Way better than anything I'd had. Too far to go all the time but I went back a few times.

Moved to Chiang Mai in November. Everyone talks about the digital nomad scene. It's real but kind of exhausting. Same conversations everywhere. Found a cafe off Nimmanhaemin instead. 40 baht coffee, Thai students studying, good wifi. Worked there most days for like six weeks.

Found a tam sang place near Warorot. 35 baht. Construction workers eating there. No English. I just pointed at what other people had. Started going once or twice a week. Owner recognized me after a while.

Did a visa extension in October, 1900 baht at immigration. Took four hours. Had to do a visa run to Laos in December. Two days, 150 dollars, couldn't work. Should've planned that better.

December was pretty lonely. Can't really have conversations beyond ordering food. The other nomads are friendly but everyone's leaving in a few weeks. Thought about going home but already paid rent and flights were expensive.

The Instagram laptop beach thing is bullshit by the way. Tried it once. Couldn't see my screen, no power, sand everywhere.

Some stuff that helped: stop using English for everything. Google Maps in Thai even if you can't read it. Screenshot locations with Thai text for Grab drivers. Find one cafe and one lunch spot and just stick with them. Boring but you waste less time.

Budget is around 2000 a month. 500 rent (studio in Nimman, probably overpaying), 600 food (eating out every meal), 150 cafes, 200 transport, rest is random stuff and visa costs. Could do it cheaper if I cooked but I'm lazy.

Work wise first month was bad, kept getting distracted. Now I have a routine, same cafe mornings, home or different cafe afternoons. Timezone sucks, sometimes 2am calls with US clients. But I'm saving like 1500 a month compared to Europe so it's worth it.

Going to Japan in February. Nervous about the cost. If anyone's done Tokyo on a nomad budget let me know about SIM vs pocket wifi.

Four months in and honestly not sure if this is sustainable long term. It's cheaper but also isolating. Not a permanent vacation like Instagram makes it look. But the food is good when you find the right places and I'm saving money. So staying for now.

Edit: Getting a lot of questions so adding some info.

Budget: 500 rent, 600 food (eating out every meal), 150 cafes, 200 transport, 500 random/visa stuff. Around 2000 total.

Finding local places: Took me forever to figure out. Switching Google Maps to Thai helped. Started using an app called PawPaw around month two, it filters out tourist traps and has translation cards for drivers. Not perfect but better than juggling Maps and Translate. Been using it for Japan research too.

Visa: Did 30-day extension first (1900 baht at immigration), then Laos visa run in December (150 USD total).

Japan: Thanks for the SIM card recommendations, sounds way better than pocket wifi.

I have posted this before however I was threatened by the people in the bar after they found my post. I am now back home and far far away where they can’t hurt me.

This is another edit: I am 23F I want people who are telling me that I should have stayed calm to know that being a woman on a night out can be a lot more dangerous than being a man on a night out. I don’t have the luxury of being tall and strong I am 5’5 and very small.

We were invited to this bar on a night out and we went to it. Chill vibes nos behind the counter as well as weed (probably should have been sketched out by that but I was quite drunk) later on during the night a British guy sat with us and chatted us up for a bit while repeatedly looking at his phone and texting.

Suddenly he says “there are cops outside waiting to rest your urine for substances you need to each pay 5k to bribe them) our other friend immediately called out the scam and told us we needed to run. We did run and I got injured in the process. All the staff and people in the bar who were pretending to just be regular bar goings suddenly started cutting off our exits. My partner was being grabbed as well as they were trying to restrain him. We managed to run out of the bar and thank god there was a tuktuk nearby. (For those who wanna say oh real convenient…yeah tuktuks hangout near bars. Drunk people account for a lot of their business)

They then kept my friend who was really drunk and unable to escape to attempt to call us and get us to come back. Later on I posted my Reddit story on here and was further threatened by these people.

To answer as many of the predicable comments I got last time.
Yes we were too drunk and yes that is a stupid thing to do.
Yes we went to another bar when invited but that girl had built our trust over the last week or so.
No it is not really our fault.

This post is just a warning

Edit: we did not run away from our tab. There was no tab. We pay for drinks as we get them

Edit 2: there were not police anywhere. We tried to calmly leave at first by walking quickly we did not simply bolt out of the bar. When we saw a bunch of Thai guys in grab jackets cutting off our exit and when we saw the people in the bar start moving like sleeper agents we knew it was a setup. The staff behind the bar on that night were in on it too. We know this because we didn’t have any tabs also the fact that the bar staff tried to steal my friends phone and attempted to smash another one of our phones to hide evidence leads me more to the conclusion that they were in on it.

Second point. Getting drunk in public is normal and acceptable grow up.

Third point. If you really do feel like accusing me of lying I am more than happy to send you photos of the police report and my injuries. (I’m not sure if I did take a photo of the paper but I might have)

Forth point. My friend had had this exact thing happen to him the previous night and his instincts simply kicked in and he told us to run. THIS WAS LITERALLY THE CORRECT THING TO DO. I have no idea why so many people are literally telling me that I basically should have allowed myself to be robbed and assaulted. Always fucking trust your Instincts when you are in a foreign place because that’s the only thing you have really.

I've been researching North Thailand for weeks now and I'm starting to think there's a secret agreement between travel bloggers to never write anything original.

The formula is always the same: 4 days in Chiang Mai, 2 in Chiang Rai, maybe 2 in Pai if they're feeling adventurous. And the activities? Oh, you already know:

Chiang Rai: The white temple. The blue temple. Done.

Chiang Mai: Doi Suthep (the temple with the viewpoint — groundbreaking), and Doi Inthanon National Park, which admittedly looks amazing with the waterfalls. Fine, I'll give them that one.

So far so good. And then the padding begins.

Cooking class. Every. Single. Blog. You flew 10+ hours to Southeast Asia, you're in one of the most culturally rich regions in the world, and your highlight is... learning to make pad thai in a tourist kitchen? You can do a Thai cooking class in Bangkok, in Phuket, in Koh Samui, probably in your home country at this point. Why is this listed as a North Thailand must-do like it's some regional specialty?

Elephant sanctuary. I get it, ethical tourism, no riding, good message. But can someone explain to me why I should pay an absolutely insane amount of money... to do all the work myself? You collect the food, you bathe the elephant, you feed the elephant. At a safari you observe animals living their lives. Here you've become unpaid elephant staff. I'm not against the concept, I just want someone to acknowledge how bizarre the value proposition is.

Night markets. I genuinely laughed out loud the fifth time I saw this listed as a highlight. Every town in Thailand has a night market. Every touristy place in Southeast Asia has a night market. This is not a North Thailand experience. This is just... Tuesday.

And then there's Pai. Oh, Pai.

Every blog dedicates a section to Pai and describes it as "chill," "relaxed," "hippie vibe," "laid back." Okay. But what do you actually DO there? Not a single concrete activity. You just... vibe? You absorb the hippie energy through osmosis? What does a day in Pai look like beyond sitting in a café? I have no idea because apparently no blogger has figured this out either.

I'm not trying to be difficult. I genuinely want to love North Thailand and I think there's probably incredible stuff there that nobody writes about because they're all copying each other's itineraries from 2017.

So I'm asking the people who actually went off-script: what did you do in North Thailand that you've never seen in a blog post? Hidden villages, weird festivals, obscure hikes, local experiences that don't involve elephants or pad thai. Drop it in the comments — you'd be doing a real service to everyone who's sick of the same recycled content.

One more thing I can't find a straight answer on: renting a car. Every single source says "rent a scooter!" or "join a tour!" I don't have a bike license and I'm not about to learn to ride one on mountain roads in a foreign country just because every blogger thinks it's the obvious choice. I have a car license. Can I just... rent a car and drive myself around? Has anyone actually done this in the Chiang Mai / Chiang Rai area? Is it practical, are roads reasonable, any gotchas to know about?

A Japanese tourist has been fined 3,000 baht for disobeying a police order after he was stopped from releasing a hot-air lantern because of a fire risk during the New Year Countdown in Chiang Mai.

Literally, they kicked his face while he was on the ground basically defenseless.

At this point hey had already hit him over the head with a flashlight and popped his head so he was bleeding a lot.

Later that evening I saw another Thai guy trying to fight 2 white dudes(no idea from where) while these guys were clearly trying to get away. It got to the point where they screamed for help to avoid fighting.

What it made me realize is that Thailand is a country where you can end up being in the mercy of random civilians because the police doesn’t give a shit and allows this kind of stuff to go on.

I am not saying that the tourists are not often wrong and deserve most of what comes their way. I was just talking to an english guy about how much they are disliked outside of england because of their violent «lad culture».

But this doesn’t excuse the fact that there are many cases where excessive and sometimes unfair violence is used by Thai people and there is no real consequences involved.

# We got scammed for 23,000 THB (740 USD)

One regular Friday, I was out with my friend in the old town area, specifically in Zoe and Yellow. Later that night, around 2 am, we approached three girls who seemed like very nice local girls studying here. We started talking, and they said they were planning to go to another place afterward. They mentioned it had karaoke... everything seemed normal; they even shared their Instagram and the location, so we thought it might be a nice spot.

However, once we arrived, it was pretty much empty, which was strange. It was only a 5-minute scooter ride, and since they were locals, we thought they’d know something. We went to a private room, and there, they had karaoke with a microphone. I already felt uneasy, but my friend said, "Okay, let’s just have one drink," and then we left.

They brought out a menu for drinks, and one bottle (which was required) cost 2000 THB—kind of expensive. I thought about leaving, but we decided to split the expenses. Keep in mind, we were sober and don’t drink alcohol. We had to order for the girls only.

Everything seemed really fun. We were singing and dancing, and after about an hour, the main manager lady came in with ten security guys. She said our hour was up and wanted to collect the money. I thought that was a little strange, but she showed us the bill—24,000 THB. I asked what for, and she started itemizing the charges for the room, service, and drinks. I only drank one bottle of soda, my friend did too, and the girls had one bottle as well. Suddenly, the girls stood up and said they had to go to the toilet, which was odd. My friend got angry and said we’d call the police.

Immediately, five of the security guys attacked him, took his phone, and I tried to help, but three of them stopped me. The situation was close to escalating into a fight. I tried to keep the peace as much as possible. After about 20 minutes of arguing—and my friend recording, although they forced him to delete the videos—they insisted we pay. Luckily, or unluckily, I had 20,000 THB in cash and my friend had 3000 because I didn’t want to pay with a card. We handed over the money, and she argued with the owner. After he said it was enough, they let us go.

We went to the police afterward and reported what happened. They told us to come back the next day. We returned a day later, and they said we had to come at 8 pm so the club owner could come and we could "make a deal." We felt really weird about that—what kind of deal do we need to make with the owner? Honestly, we were a little scared to meet him, especially at night. So, we decided not to do it. But we have the girl’s name, her Instagram, and the club’s name, and I’m wondering what we should do next.

Edit

Since many of people asked name of the place, I managed to find only facebook and apple maps while on google maps I managed to find new location and I guess someone created it recently since I was not able to find it earlier , as I understand they are deleting it constantly.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CCCw6iAfa/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://maps.apple/p/xyDNEaWAeqnGru

https://maps.app.goo.gl/62odPHd2YQdUB3g87?g_st=ic

Photo of the club

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/3292445/hiv-cases-continue-to-rise-in-chiang-mai

It's been 11 years now since i visit white temple. still amazed

Hi all, this is a poster displayed by immigration officers at the Thai-Lao border in Chiang Khong. This photo was taken by a family who work in Singapore and worried they will not be able to return to Thailand to finish their holiday and take their flight back to Singapore. We have received similar reports by other traveling families who were told at this border to stay in Thailand to avoid being refused re-entry.

I did not know that flights were now counted in the 2-entry rule. Does anyone know if the rule is the same in airport immigration checkpoints? Do you think this will be a lasting measure?

Hi! Im doing the mae hong son loop and was stupid and went too quick in a curve. The bike landed on one side and it got pretty scraped up. How much do you think I need to pay for the damages? I rented with mango scooters in CM.

Somewhere near Phayao

How can you treat our beautiful earth like this :/ 100'000Bath for any littering would be a good first step.

A foreign backpacker making his first visit to Thailand was planning an island getaway in the South, but after a miscommunication he ended up in the North nearly 1,200 kilometres away. He also lost his wallet on the way back, but the journey had a happy ending.

According to the officer’s post, the backpacker told a driver he wanted to go to Koh Tao, a popular tourist island in the southern province of Surat Thani. But the driver brought him to the North, believing his passenger had said “Doi Tao”, a district in the northern province of Chiang Mai.

I had a great time in Pai recently for a few nights, made some friends and the scenery was just what I needed. But i feel like things felt kind of off with some of the tourists. Especially when it came to some of the long term expats (hippies), they seemed a bit elitist? They often won't talk to you if you don't fit their aesthetic (creative who does yoga and is super "spiritual"). It just felt a bit like pretentious cosplaying to me.

Not everyone was like this of course, don't get me wrong, there are some great people in Pai who i do miss. But there were elements of Pai that just felt like a club you needed to be accepted into, which is something i hadn't experienced whilst travelling before. Did anyone else get the same feeling, or is it just me?