POLICE are hunting two killers who knifed to death an Australian woman in a bag snatch gone wrong on the Thai holiday island of Phuket this morning.
Michelle Smith
The woman - identified as Perth mum Michelle Smith - struggled, but held on to her bag.
She died outside her hotel after suffering a 10cm knife wound to the heart. The two men sped off on a motorcycle about 10.30pm local time (1.30am AEST).
Another woman was also slashed on the arm, but was treated in a Phuket hospital and allowed to leave early today after receiving stitches.
Both women were in a group of 10 travel agents from Perth who had arrived on Phuket on Monday to inspect the five-star Katathani Beach Resort, which dominates the small bay at Kata Noi, south of Patong and Karon, on Phuket's west coast.
The motorcycle pair attempted to snatch the bag in the narrow road outside the resort but fled empty-handed.
The wounded woman told police later: "We were walking single-file along the road, coming back from dinner. These guys had gone past a couple of times, and that started to bother us.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mor...-1226403664513
4 more years!
Was going to post that myself. What the phuck is wrong in Phuket? Drownings, poisonings, stabbings. Foreigners dropping left 'n right
10 travel agents, 9 remaining.
Don't think they will be recommending traveling to Thailand to anyone.
We could all sit outside on banana lounges discussing the best way to rebuild a 4WD transmission and agree, through shared stories of conquests supporting our assertions, that there is no basis to the proposition that those least assured of their persuasions are the first to condemn others for theirs.
Where is Mayor Crew when you need him?Originally Posted by cluezo
Phuket is a dump-hole. I didn't like that place at all. Before I went I asked a few posters and was assured it is better than Pattaya. I have never been to Pattaya, but I highly doubt it is better.
Well, I hate fucking murderers and I hope they shoot them.
"You really want to save the planet?...the next time you see a hybrid car with a childseat... smash the window, remove the childseat and replace it with a box of condoms..." Doug Stanhope
---------------------------------------------------------
bad press:
Phuket and Phi Phi, Twin Paradises Where Tourists Are Being Turned Off
By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
News Analysis
PHUKET: Two wonderful tropical holiday islands, two intense turn-offs for tourism. That's Phuket and Phi Phi today in the wake of mystery deaths on one island and a series of needless tourist drownings on the other.
The authorities on both Phi Phi and Phuket have a good idea what the problems are. Local councils do care, but mostly when it suits them. Local authorities are reactive, not proactive.
It's time for a change, for the sake of Thailand's tourism industry - and for the sake of saving lives.
In the 21st century, where news travels everywhere instantly, there are two approaches that can be taken to these kinds of issues.
The first: ignore the problem, pretend it doesn't exist, and hope it goes away.
The second: accept that there's a problem, investigate it thoroughly, and if necessary get help to solve it.
The world's media is more intensely focussing right now on the mysterious deaths of two young Canadian sisters, Audrey and Noemi Belanger, on Phi Phi.
But a lot more attention is also going to be paid to the six drownings of tourists at Phuket beaches in the space of just a month and a day.
On Phi Phi and Phuket, the warning signs have been there that these deadly issues will occur again and again unless authorities react in an appropriate manner.
On Phi Phi, the still-unsolved deaths of American Jill St Onge, 27, and Norwegian Julie Bergheim, 22, in 2009 were followed last year by five more mysterious deaths in Chiang Mai, including New Zealander Sarah Carter, 23.
Thailand's tourism officials eventually realised how damaging the deaths could be for Chiang Mai tourism and had them fully investigated, despite efforts by some locals in Chiang Mai to simply cover up the deaths in hope the tourists would came back.
Thailand today should throw everything it has in the way of experts in toxicology and epidemiology into finding the causes of death of the two young Canadians, found dead in their resort room last Friday.
Even the 20-somethings who have made Phi Phi a must-see island destination and constitute the world's most adventurous travellers are likely to be turned off by Thailand if these latest mysterious deaths are not solved.
On Phuket, the continuing serial deaths of tourists in ''rips'' during the monsoon season highlights the lack of coordination and will in seeking solutions.
Today the body of the latest drowning victim, a Western man plucked too late from the surf at Nai Harn beach yesterday, lies in Vachira Phuket Hospital, unidentified . . . and another mystery.
Everything the authorities have done so far is half-hearted. Some beach councils have posted warning signs. Others have not. Some Phuket resorts warn guests about the dangers of drowning at this time of year. Others do not.
To entice tourists from around the world to Phuket as a ''year round beach holiday destination'' without warning them of the dangers is bordering on criminal.
Phuket authorities, faced with six drownings in the space of a month and a day, must now get serious about finding a solution - or face a gigantic tourism turn-off that will see monsoon season occupancy rates plummet.
Where is the crisis meeting, aimed at seeking solutions? Where are the telephone calls from embassies, outraged at these unnecessary deaths? Where are the leaders of tourism organisations, calling for improvements immediately?
As tourists old and young travel, the two things that they value above all else are security and safety.
The past week's events on Phi Phi and the past month on the beaches of Phuket have proved that more must be done on both tropical holiday islands.
Don't lose focus on the big picture...you are, for whatever reason, focused on Thailand...so you're tuned to events that happen here...switch your focus to any other place and it will be the same...there is no inordinate amount of bad shit happening in any one particular place...but placing ones focus in any one place can make it seem so...
Simple example...you buy a white minivan...all of a sudden there seems to be 1000s of white minivans out there...but before you bought a white minivan you never noticed white minivans...the number of white minivans didn't change...your focus did....
Drownings, poisonings, stabbings happen everywhere and probably at a steadily increasing rate due to the global financial situation...
Oh thank you doctor ...
This is the more sound solution for Thailand...with the erosion of human attention spans comes the erosion of memory...by next season all will be forgotten by the masses...Maybe the Thais are not as simple and backward as some imagine them to be...
---Update---
any time Jerry...
Australian drowning stats for 2011.
Royal Life Saving - National Drowning Report 2011 - Infographic Summary
Australian beaches have signs and well trained life guards and people still swim outside the flags and outside the beach patrol hours and drown.
I don't think the drowning deaths can be solely attributed to bad Thai management.
Im suprised this shit doesnt happen More often. Big fat juicy tourists waddling around a third world country amongst incredibly poor people.
This is it... The apocalypse.
^^ Australia also has about a billion times more coastline.
Even the Thais are saying enough is enough and we still get the "yeah, but, no, but, yeah, but don't think Thailand is any worse than anywhere else" posts every time.
How many hotels have you stayed at in the West where people had been electrocuted in the shower?
I sleep in the daytime, I
Work in the night time, I
Might not ever get home
Welcome to Costa Rica.....the new and improved "Suicide shower".....nothin' more refreshin'...
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