TotallyOz Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 Australian Jack Hansen-Bartel didn't see the punches coming when he suffered horrific injuries to his face, ending his work as a part-time model and plans to enter a Melbourne university. "I had no ability to defend myself as I was hit with cowards' punches," he says. How 20-year-old Hansen-Bartel's life turned into a nightmare from that night on Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand in June reveals a dark underbelly in southern Thai resorts that are promoted as paradises and attract tens of thousands of Australian tourists each month. The case has sent alarm bells through Thailand's expatriate community amid a spike in the number of murders, rapes and assaults on islands such as Samui and Phuket, including the gruesome hacking to death of British tourists Hannah Witheridge, 23 and David Miller, 24, on Koh Tao on September 15. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-jack-hansenbartel-a-victim-of-thailands-brutal-underbelly-20141003-10psqf.html#ixzz3FGNj9dZ4 A truly interesting read. Quote
farangyai Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 Sorry, I did not think it was a truly "interesting" read at all. The article is poorly written with very ambiguous statements IMO. Punches from ?, bottle-wielding Brit, man with a Taser, graduates from a Chinese International School of unstated ethnicity, Mafia,???. I did not note any clear conclusion as to who did what and where they were from. Where were his five friends and his brother during all this? Were they all drinking? A few more facts would be a bit more informative than a sensationalist hodgepodge. I also did not see the relationship to Gay Thailand. Quote
TotallyOz Posted October 5, 2014 Author Posted October 5, 2014 To me, the interesting thing is the image that Thailand is getting on the world stage. It wasn't just the recent murders of 2 young adults that were killed and one was raped but it was the parade of the "confessions" from the 2 men. IMHO, there is a lot of shit that goes on in LOS that gets swept under the rug and no reporting on it. I think it is better to have a more open discussion on the dangers that exist in Thailand. Yes, I feel safe when I am there. But, I am also not young and not out at late hours of the night. For those people, and lets face it, that is the appeal for so many, the dangers are there and the more cases that are reported, and discussed the better. The story did not seem to be gay at all. But, it does relate to clubs and there are many gay ones. If one thinks that this only happens to straight tourists, you are mistaken. Quote
Alexx Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 I find the title of that article misleading, first and foremost he was attacked by fellow foreign visitors to that nightclub. Nothing to do with "Thailand's brutal underbelly". I don't dispute that there is such an underbelly, but except for the mysterious "Soi Owner" who entered the picture later, I don't see much of it in this particular story. Also, regarding the "ambulance", these guys really shouldn't be confused with professional paramedics in the West - that they quite literally ran away when they saw that their patient is in a frenzy doesn't surprise me. They probably just didn't know how to handle such a situation; what they really excel in is picking up dead bodies and delivering them to the morgue. Quote
colmx Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 these guys really shouldn't be confused with professional paramedics in the West More likely they were the Thai equivalent of the US Ambulance chasing lawyers Their job is to listen to the police bands - find an accident victim and bring them to the hospital that pays the most kick backs Quote
