Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing what can only be described, because it is being described as Consul talks regarding what I often describe as Foreigners Behaving Badly here in Thailand. Let's just jump in. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from The Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com. Before jumping into this, really quickly, just as an aside, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, and it's called Pancake Palace. As the name implies it's breakfast anytime. We also have American Diner style food. It's American style breakfast although we do have an English breakfast, but we also have again American Diner style food like hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, chilli bowls, grilled cheese sandwiches, tacos and we have also got Coca-Cola in glass bottles; if you're interested, links are in the description below. 

Now jumping back in, thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Governor holds consul talks to tackle bad tourists behaviour. Quoting directly: Phuket Officials have convened foreign consuls and key agencies for high level talks aimed at addressing rising concerns over inappropriate behaviour by some international visitors, with Governor Nirat Pongsitthithavorn warning that all foreigners must strictly comply with Thai law." Quoting further: "The seminar titled: 'Integrating Confidence and Safety for International Tourism Consular Operations in Phuket Province', was held at the Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town today (April 30)." Let me just stop right here real quick. This is a Governor, a Provincial Governor in Thailand convening talks with Consuls, Consular Officers of foreign nations. So this is basically, this is pretty serious stuff okay. This means that there is serious concern at high policy making levels here in Thailand about a lot of the behaviour that we've seen. I have talked about this. Over the past two years, going back two years ago and prior, if you heard about like a major fight or something breaking out - even places in like Pattaya and things - I mean you might hear about that once every two to three months, and don't get me wrong, things happen, but I'm talking about these real sort of like viral video type things that you see these people busting out into these like street brawls and stuff, that used to be very rare. And then in the past 18-20 months, we have just seen a huge uptick in this.

I mean when I first started doing Foreigners Behaving Badly videos, I viewed it as kind of almost a novelty that was something I could get a little bit of extra content out of it and it was pertinent to sort of the thrust of the channel. Now I mean there's no shortage of this stuff. Now I expect we are going into low season and things and with the world energy situation being what it is and travel costs going up, we may see some of this stuff decline, but look, the point I'm trying to make, and I've been talking about this for a while, authorities here in Thailand are not unaware of this stuff, and they are taking it seriously. When a Provincial Governor in a heavily tourist dependent province or tourism dependent province, basically summons consuls from overseas to discuss the appropriateness of foreign behaviour in Thailand, that's a pretty big tell that at a policy level at least here in Thailand, folks are concerned about this, let's put it that way.

That said, quoting further: "Chaired by Governor Nirat, the meeting brought together Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Sinlert Sukhum, consular representatives, and officials from security, administrative and tourism-related agencies, as well as private sector stakeholders. The talks focused heavily on tackling behaviour by foreign tourists that disrupts public order and damages Phuket's reputation as a world-class destination. Governor Nirat made clear that while Phuket welcomes visitors from around the world, those staying on the island must respect local laws and social norms. Quote: "Foreign nationals must abide by Thai law. There will be no special treatment," he said. He instructed all relevant agencies to strictly enforce regulations, particularly in cases involving public disturbances, traffic violations, illegal work, and other conduct affecting local communities." 

So now again, what are they concerned about? Public disturbances, traffic violations, illegal work. Again, I've seen foreigners over the years say, "oh well it's only if you're taking a Thai job"! That's not what the Thais have ever been concerned about. It's any foreigner coming into their country and working at all; it's illegal. It's their country; it's how they view it. It's not a matter of some one-to-one or non-zero-sum game thinking or something like that. That's wishful thinking on the part of those who want to just shirk off or just kind of disregard Thai law and think it's not going to be a big deal. Well, if you get caught it's going to be a big deal, and increasingly they are - again, public officials here in Thailand are taking steps most notably by having high-level discussions with their foreign counterparts on this stuff, one of them being illegal work. 

Again, the thing to take away is if you are coming to Thailand, it's a good idea, if you are coming to Thailand to work, you really need to get into proper work authorization, be in compliance with the law or find yourself having problems. Quoting further: "and other conduct affecting local communities. The Governor also addressed concerns circulating on social media suggesting that some foreigners believe legal problems can be resolved through financial means, firmly rejecting the notion." Yeah, I have felt this way for years. This whole notion that, I did a video sometime back where there was some woman, foreign woman saying, "my money, built your country", and it went super viral because the Thais were just angry, as all get out: myself included because it was nonsense. But it's this whole attitude that "oh I am a foreigner, I can just come here and I can do whatever I want, just throw some money at it and these Thais will..." No! I don't know if any foreigners have ever heard concepts like Kreng Jai, and things like that in the Thai sort of paradigm. There are certain things in Thailand that are worth more than money. I mean the national sovereignty of the country for one thing. But at the end of the day this notion that you just come here and, "oh do whatever you want; you have just got to slide somebody a little something and everything will be all right", it's not how it works here. It never has been really. I get all the stories and things oh this happened this one time and dah, dah, dah... When it hits the fan and I've dealt with this myself over the years, when it really hits the fan, at the end of the day Thai Law is what it is, and you have to deal with the consequences of not being in compliance with Thai law.

Meanwhile, and the thing to take away from this video and understand is high level officials are meeting; they're meeting their foreign counterparts to make it clear at an official level that bad behaviour in Thailand is not going to be tolerated and I expect we are going to see more law enforcement implications for this in the future. That being said, it remains to be seen, so we'll certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.