Russians and Arabs in “Fine” Town-UPDATE

• By Peter Lloyd
• Opinion | Opinion Articles | Pete’s Peregrinations
• 91 days ago
• 8

I thought I would feature this article (below) which I wrote recently about Thais in Pattaya, especially police, seeming to be sacred of mixing it with, or taking money off, Russians in situations where another nationality would be backhanded and "problemed" to death.

What prompted this was the recent reports of an allegedly high ranking Russian government ignoramus attacking a waitress in a Walking Street bar, when he lost his seat to some other people after he paid his bill to leave.

After he throttled the waitress, the police were called, and anyone would be justified in thinking the Russian would be taken to the cleaners.

Not so. The police didn't bring charges, no money was reported to have been paid, and the case was closed.

No assault charge was threatened; the police, apparently "could do nothing".

Oh to be a Russian.

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As a resident I hate Pattaya’s high season, but as a columnist I love it, as incidents of street drama, cultural misunderstandings and public incidents go off the charts.

Take last high season, when I was interested to see Russians walking off unscathed or financially untaxed from many situations where an English-speaker would have been floored (physically) or taken to the cleaners (financially).  I also noticed Arabs being fined to death at every opportunity.

One evening I saw a Russian guy who had been stopped on a motorbike by a policeman on Beach Road.

The stopped motorbike was blocking traffic, the Russian was unable (or unwilling) to understand the policeman’s hand gestures to take the bike to the side of the road, and the policeman began to move the bike himself, at which point the Russian got off and began aggressively squaring up to him.

I stayed to watch as a group of nearby motorcycle guys began to edge excitedly forward, presumably to attack the Russian if he hit the policeman.

I have a theory that Thais in one-on-one situations are actually scared of Russians, seeing them as macho, confrontational and uncompromising, and their lack of English language skills means that a satisfactory negotiated outcome cannot be certain from a Thai point of view, and even if it were, it is far from clear whether most Russians could afford to pay whatever swingeing penalty would be imposed.

So many Thais, in authority and general scammers, seem to back off in confrontations with Russians.

For example, there is a famous jet ski scam story, backed up with photographs on the internet, of a Russian woman and her boyfriend facing down the jet ski robbers on Pattaya Beach and walking away without paying anything.

Also witness the number of Russian women the subject of bag-snatching who fought back last high season, making the thieves’ job difficult for them (but upping the levels of extreme violence needed to get a result).

I think Thais find Russians difficult to read, impossible to understand, unpredictable to risk-assess, and dangerous in a fight.

And so it proved this time, with the Russian on the motorbike, squaring up to the policeman. The policeman tried to make himself understood to the uncomprehending Russian, who towered over him, babbling in Russian and shaking his head, as the policeman tried (in Thai) to make the real or imagined case for writing the Russian a traffic ticket.

In the end, after much huffing and puffing on both sides, and a very “in your face” aggressive style of negotiation from the Russian, he was subsequently waved on his way, without a ticket.

The taxi guys looked gutted.

Further down the road, only minutes later, outside Royal Garden Plaza, I observed three Arab guys, two Thai women and two Thai police volunteers arguing on the pavement.

It transpired that one of the girls alleged one of the Arab guys touched her bottom as they walked past. She was quite upset, but the Arabs, all sporting bushy beards, were having none of it. The police seemed in a quandry as to what to do as there were no other witnesses, and one of the Arab guys was arguing their case in very articulate English.

However I felt the Arabs were going to lose that argument, when money would be paid either as a fine or compensation.

In general, and in stark contrast to Russians, I think the police love having Arabs here. I saw many motorbikes with Arab riders being pulled around town last high season, the riders loudly and with a sense of outrage protesting their innocence, only for the police to completely ignore them and issue a ticket anyway (rightly or wrongly, I don’t know).

The fact that Arab motorbike riders are some of the most dangerous in the city might make the ticketing blitz a form of economic karma.

But I’m sure the police know the average polite, well-off, English-speaking Arab tourist is good for the money, as opposed to the hassles and uncertainties they may encounter in shaking down a more impecunious, threatening Russian.