An Australian woman has been arrested in Thailand and imprisoned (in Phuket) for four days because she stole a beermat. Oh except that there is abit more to the story. "Friends" put the beermat into her bag as a joke ... she was abusive to both the staff and the police and she 'ran away' from the police (or ran to get out of the rain according to her family). It was 0200 and she had apparently been in the bar for some time. The bar has an Australian theme.
For years now various friends of different nationalities and myself have competed to see whose countrymen make the worst tourists. I had a Dutch friend who was sure that it was her people, although I have always found Dutch tourists to be exquistely polite. Germans, Japanese, Americans, Norwegians ... and of course Australians - we have all shuddered at various times about the behaviour and attitudes of various countrymen. The bottom line is that as a tourist you are "safe" - nobody knows you and the social mores that more or less keep you in check at home (or in a country where the same language is spoken) do not apply. Thus the standards of behaviour are not the same and in many respects are not expected to be the same (there is a reason for the Parisians leaving Paris in the summer).
But there is something special about Australians in Indonesia and Thailand (and I guess increasingly in Vietnam and Cambodia). These countries are exotic and very different and yet they are close (for a country where nothing is really close). Historically we see them as our playground. They are cheap, have a goodclimate and even though they speak their own language you can get by with english. What many Australians fail to realise is that they are real countries with a real culture - one that deserves respect. There is a sub-concious racism inherent in (apparently) people yelling at the police of another country when you would never do it at home. Plus of course a massive lack of understanding of a culture that values dignity and maintaining 'face' above all. Of course the unwillingness to understand the culture is part of the 'playground' mentality. Put this together with being in a foreign country but with the safety of a bar that looks and feels like home and the freedom of being a tourist and it is not surprising (to me at least) that this particular woman is in so much strife.
When I worked in Cambodia we went over the border repeatedly to the refugee camps in Thailand. I learned then (and very quickly) not to mess with the Thai police. The Thai people are some of the sweetest people around but the police are ... welll police really ... and not to be messed with.
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