TotallyOz Posted March 1, 2011 Posted March 1, 2011 I was talking to a friend who is a policeman in Pattaya. I have known him for many years and he invited me over for dinner last night with his family. I was one of the few that spoke English at the meal but I always chat with him and his son in English as that is my only language. His wife speaks some English but not as well as he does. He mentioned something about the Russians in town and I was surprised to hear him stay they were the majority of the issues with crime and violence in Pattaya. Does this stand to reason? I don't see this in the papers but he insisted that it is correct. Anyone seen any studies on the number of arrests and crime statistics on Pattaya related to nationality? Quote
Guest Thor69 Posted March 1, 2011 Posted March 1, 2011 The Russians have recently had a good run with their stock market and in various businesses. The Russian nouveau riche, haven't learned all their manners and the way to handle their money. Many of the real estate ads are in the Russian language and the developers have hired Russian native speakers to help handle the sales of such properties. What you have is a pile of Russian money chasing many of the property and travel dollars being spent in Pattaya. It is a financial cycle and this changes over time. I suspected that the Russians were creeping into Pattaya and their mafia is taking hold. Hopefully, Thailand can force the mafia out or control their growth before it ruins the place. Not to worry, we'll all go to Vietnam or Cambodia! Quote
Moses Posted March 1, 2011 Posted March 1, 2011 Does anyone still think if mafia now has nationality or geographical borders like it was in prev. century? Quote
Guest loneranger Posted March 1, 2011 Posted March 1, 2011 The primary thing I have noted concerning the Russians in Pattaya is how crude and course they are. This is probably a cultural thing as I have not met Russians anywhere who were refined. Quote
Guest voldemar Posted March 2, 2011 Posted March 2, 2011 The primary thing I have noted concerning the Russians in Pattaya is how crude and course they are. This is probably a cultural thing as I have not met Russians anywhere who were refined. I bet you are not well-traveled man (to put it mildly). Quote
Guest lectricman11 Posted March 3, 2011 Posted March 3, 2011 I have just returned from another wonderful vacation in LOS and am still recovering from the withdrawal. This was our fourth trip over as many years to Thailand and this time it was much different as to the amount of Russians we came across. Up until this trip, all the people from the Russian republic we had met were genuinely nice people. While in Pattaya we had the pleasure to meet a gentleman from Germany. He told us he had spent 15 years living in Russia and spoke fluent Russian. We met him one day while at Dongtan beach. He was telling us that the people that were the problem were the ones from Moscow. He said they were the ones with the money and they didn't care what people thought of them. He said that the Russians that were really nice and friendly were not from Moscow but from other areas and did not have as much money but were vacationing in Thailand because it was less expensive. We had the occasion to meet a few of these people and were really surprised at how warm and friendly they were. Quote
payless Posted March 3, 2011 Posted March 3, 2011 ...He was telling us that the people that were the problem were the ones from Moscow. I think your friend's account is probably pretty accurate. I have a lot of contact with Russians and thank their maker that they are here. They certainly have made a lot of people in Pattaya and elsewhere much better off than they would have been had Pattaya had to exist on the dwindling number of Western European visitors. They certainly outspend the Indians and Chinese. The police/immigration might think that the Russians cause the problems but then about 500,000 come to Pattaya each year. I think the Police remain the most dangerous mafia in Thailand. Quote
Guest kjun12 Posted March 3, 2011 Posted March 3, 2011 I do not fully agree with Payless. While the Russians unquestionable do spend money in Pattaya, it is also true that Russians are the most serious criminal element (other than the police) in all of Thailand and all of the world. Not all Russians are crooks but those who are are vicious. Quote
Jason1988 Posted March 3, 2011 Posted March 3, 2011 A few of my trips to St. Petersburg, Russia were very nice and the people there were welcoming. However, visiting Moscow was quite different. The people in Moscow are peculiar and have that attitude that they are superior. We all know differently but try to convince them! Quote
Guest voldemar Posted March 4, 2011 Posted March 4, 2011 Russians lived through very difficult historic period during which they went several times through total devastation, brutal repressions, lost of ideals to enter the cynical period of almost unprecedented corruption, ugly inequalities, poverty and humiliation for old,lack of purpose for young, terrorism and religious wars. That what Marxism means in reality and that should be a lesson for those in the West who seem to look for inspiration in it. Quote
Bob Posted March 4, 2011 Posted March 4, 2011 The primary thing I have noted concerning the Russians in Pattaya is how crude and course they are. This is probably a cultural thing as I have not met Russians anywhere who were refined. I can understand that as that's been my experience too....although I presume I'm probably wrong in some respects. Sometimes I wonder if part of it is their language as it comes across rather course to people not used to hearing Russian. I remember once seeing this small but beautiful blonde girl who was maybe 18-20 years of age on walking street in Pattaya a decade or more ago. When she opened her mouth to say something, how she sounded (I had no idea what she was saying) shocked me as it came out so rough and course that it didn't seem to fit her pretty little body. While she very likely was just being polite (her body language said that), it sure as hell sounded like she was being extremely crude. Quote
Guest Patexpat Posted March 4, 2011 Posted March 4, 2011 The primary thing I have noted concerning the Russians in Pattaya is how crude and course they are. This is probably a cultural thing as I have not met Russians anywhere who were refined. One of my clients is a Russian owned company on Ko Chang, who freely admitted that the quality of Russian tourist has taken a nose dive due to the availability of cheap package tours. They were not in favour of this development! I guess the comparison is the late 90's when cheap packages allowed less affluent tourists from Europe to come here for two weeka rather than go to Spain or Greece... Quote
Jason1988 Posted March 4, 2011 Posted March 4, 2011 Cheap package tourists are the mainstay of the Pattaya tourism population. As much as we despise the actions of the Russians here in Pattaya, they aren't the only ones that are an annoyance. A lot of the tourists around Pattaya are cheap skates that don't add much stimulus for the local economy. vinapu 1 Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted March 5, 2011 Posted March 5, 2011 Sometimes I wonder if part of it is their language as it comes across rather course to people not used to hearing Russian I think any language can sound coarse and crude depending on how it is spoken and the attitude of the speaker. Personally, I like the sound of the majority of spoken Russian I hear - and I adore the sound of Russian singing, especially the earthiness and the deep throated basses in its religious choral music. But then I like most languages when spoken in a normal, reasoned manner. I'd certainly far rather listen to Russian than a couple of Asian languages - Tagalog and Cantonese - which to me sound coarse even in ordinary everyday speech. I'd love to know why Cantonese sounds so much more vulgar than the more gentle and mellifluous Putonghua in the north of China. It surely can't just be the fact that the former has 9 tones whereas the latter has 4. Quote
Moses Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 I think it is more about social layer than about nationality... Rednecks from USA/Australia will act like Russians as well... But for "rednecks" from USA tickets to Thailand are expensive in time when tickets to Thailand are cheap for "rednecks" from Russia (about $400 2-way) and this make possible to you to watch them at Pattaya's streets... vinapu 1 Quote
Guest kjun12 Posted March 9, 2011 Posted March 9, 2011 Moses has probably nailed it better than any of us who have posted in this thread. A person of any nationality can sound like a jerk or ass as the case may be. Yes, some languages, like Russian and German, can be rough sounding but, as Fountainhall said, if spoken by a more gentle or refined person it can sound better. The particular problem I have with the Russians is that most of those I have encountered have been on the course side. Quote
Guest JamesBarnes Posted March 9, 2011 Posted March 9, 2011 Denny and the Russians Denny and I were sucking on fat cigars and sipping Scotch on his View Talay balcony with its panoramic views of another pleasantly balmy Pattaya evening. This is a regular pleasure carried over from our days as legal eagles in Boston. Quote
