Arab Motorcycle Racing Business as Usual

[Gaybutton]

This would also account for the elevated state-of-craziness displayed by the Kuwaiti's this season.

ALL of them? I don't buy that. To me that comes across as grasping at straws for an explanation about their behavior. I don't believe their behavior has anything to do with drugs. What would that be - Let's go to Thailand, buy some drugs, and then act like complete morons on motorbikes. Doesn't seem to be a plausible explanation to me.

"You'll have to do better than that."
- Nicol Williamson (Merlin), 'Excalibur'

[Dodger]

I don't believe their behavior has anything to do with drugs. What would that be - Let's go to Thailand, buy some drugs, and then act like complete morons on motorbikes.,,,,,

I guess the alternative could be: Let's go to Thailand - not get high - and act like complete morons on motorbikes.

Nah...I think I'll stick with my first assumption...

[Jun]

The reason the BIB are allowing this to continue (for years now) is obvious: There's money to be made...plain and simple.

Exactly.

The revenue of the motorcycle rental shops ought to support any pay offs.
Several hundred baht per day per motorcycle, plus they presumably retain the customer deposit in case of any non-compliance.

[Gaybutton]

The reason the BIB are allowing this to continue (for years now) is obvious: There's money to be made...plain and simple.

Exactly.

The revenue of the motorcycle rental shops ought to support any pay offs.

I wish I could agree with both of you, but I don't. I don't think the rental shops can afford near enough to pay off whoever. I also see no reason why they should. The Kuwaitis are going to rent the motorbikes, but the rental shops have no control over what they do with the motorbikes. They might be able to pay tea money for the BiB to look the other way about the shops not insisting on the proper licensing and paperwork, but what else would the rental shops care about? Obviously they don't care about the Kuwaitis using their motorbikes to create all this chaos.

Dodger says this goes on because there's money to be made. Made by whom? Paid by whom? How much? And why? Wouldn't these payoffs have had to be taking place for many years now? And if it really does involve payoffs, why don't the residents and anybody else suffering from this pooling their money and paying off to stop it?

If this is a question of tea money, then it must be one hell of a lot of tea money.

The only part of this I agree with is somebody or some entity is allowing this to happen year after year when it seems to me that it would take very little effort to put a stop to it.

You know what else is on my "I Don't Get It" list? Why do they keep referring to these people as "tourists"?

[Dodger]

From what I just read on-line - traffic fines in Kuwait are extremely harsh as compared to Thailand.

As an example - fines for reckless driving in Kuwait are KD 150 (approx. 16,000 THB), and also include legal proceedings and potential jail time up to three years.

Where a similar infraction in Pattaya would only cost them 500 - 2,000 THB depending if the fine is paid at the police station or directly to the BIB (tea money). And unless there was an accident involved there would rarely be any legal proceedings or jail time.

Maybe this helps explain why the Kuwaiti students drive so recklessly with no abandon over here. They're coming to Thailand for the "Wild Times" they can't have at home.

Why am I finding myself relating to that...

[Jun]

Where a similar infraction in Pattaya would only cost them 500 - 2,000 THB depending if the fine is paid at the police station or directly to the BIB (tea money). And unless there was an accident involved there would rarely be any legal proceedings or jail time.

By my reckoning, the motorcycle business could be a good source of tea money for the authorities.

1 Hire fees 150~350 baht per day. They don't need many bikes to exceed the turnover of a small bar & we know the bars pay tea money, so why not the rental shops ?

2 Deposit 2000 baht. Now if the police impound a few motorcycles, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where the money ends up when the Kuwaitis have no motorcycle to return & the rental shops collect them off the police.
[Incidentally, the most frequent visible traffic enforcement seems to be shipping off motorcycles for parking offences. Including parking on the "bus stops". Now the Pattaya authorities don't even bother repainting the zebra crossings when the roads are resurfaced, but somehow the "bus stops" are maintained in excellent condition, despite no buses. Just give that one some thought ]

3 We don't quite know what the rental process is when someone turns up without the correct license. However, if the police "fine" the rental companies, all the rental companies would have to do is request an additional cash payment before renting the bike to someone without a license. So that's another easy channel for tea money.

4 We also have the prospect of direct tea money collection for road traffic offences. As with all their tea money schemes, the objective is not to stop the offences, as the tea money would then dry up.


Finally, other than the tea money, why would the authorities care what happens in the wastelands around Yensabai ?

[Gaybutton]

3 We don't quite know what the rental process is when someone turns up without the correct license. However, if the police "fine" the rental companies, all the rental companies would have to do is request an additional cash payment before renting the bike to someone without a license. So that's another easy channel for tea money.

Unless the penalty starts including impounding the motorbikes. Not everything can be so easily explained away by always insisting everything is all about tea money - or only tea money.

Meanwhile, nobody has addressed my questions: "Dodger says this goes on because there's money to be made. Made by whom? Paid by whom? How much? And why? Wouldn't these payoffs have had to be taking place for many years now? And if it really does involve payoffs, why don't the residents and anybody else suffering from this pooling their money and paying off to stop it?"

[Jun]

Wouldn't these payoffs have had to be taking place for many years now?

We have had the same discussion every year for many years now. Has anything changed ?

Why don't the residents and anybody else suffering from this pooling their money and paying off to stop it?

Perhaps the residents with money might have already moved out of the area ?
Much of the housing around Sunee Plaza doesn't seem very upmarket.
If I had the misfortune to live anywhere near this, my money would be spent on relocation rather than trusting someone to pool tea money from residents and get a result with it. Even if paying for policing were a solution, the only sure thing is that the payments would be recurring.

[Gaybutton]

We have had the same discussion every year for many years now. Has anything changed ?

Yes. It keeps getting worse. And I fully expect the motorbike maniacs to be right back, creating the same mayhem next year and years after that. And then we get to have the same discussion once again . . .

It is apparent to me that whoever is responsible for failing to put a stop to it prefers to let it continue, doesn't see it as very serious, or just doesn't care - take your pick - for whatever reasons, whether it does or does not involve tea money or involves a combination of tea money and other reasons.

[Dodger]

Meanwhile, nobody has addressed my questions: "Dodger says this goes on because there's money to be made. Made by whom? Paid by whom? How much? And why? Wouldn't these payoffs have had to be taking place for many years now?......

This is Thailand.

We all know how corrupt it is.

We all know how long it's been going on.

We all know who pays and collects the bribes.

What else is there to know...