Why were we told off in Thailand?

[TigeToo]

Still trying to work this out …

We were staying in Krabi. DH and I decided to go for a walk one night and when we got back two of the hotel “night watchmen” were out looking for us with torches. We were escorted back inside, the receptionist told us off saying it’s very dangerous to walk around at night (it was a pretty rural area, not very populated). We were then escorted back to our bungalow and told not to leave again and if we wanted anything we should call reception.

Any ideas??! DH thought she said something about king kobra but I assumed that was a joke … !?

We ran over a rather large snake on our moped on Ko Samui. It has already met it's end as car roadkill, but it gave me the absolute willies

I would be cautious about cobra. Never encountered one myself but have had rattlesnake issues living in the USA and they are scary without the ability to spit! Listen tk the staff

When I was in Kenya a guy who had lived there all his life told me you have to go stomping along in the dark so they slither away.

Anyway, I wouldn't be walking along any dark paths at night in places like that.

Krabi is supposed to be really safe, more so than Phuket.
Id assume the hotel guys know more than tour operators and others on holiday there, so I’d take their word for it.

No one ever went searching for us on night walks in the jungle or Bangkok, lucky you have such attentive staff at your hotel

It's odd that you weren't warned in advance not to go out (on foot, at night, at that particular time, whatever) and that you went out without anyone stopping you and THEN they discovered that you were gone and sent someone after you. It would make much more sense to tell you in advance not to go out and offer to escort you, call you a taxi/tuktuk, etc., rather than having all the work and worry of looking for you after you'd gone.

My guess is that either (1) someone was supposed to brief you on dangers of the local area and how to move around and somehow that didn't happen OR (2) something unusual was going on at the time, and a staff member was sent to the individual bungalows to warn guests not to go out, found that you were already out, and raised the alarm.

The apparent scolding may just be cultural miscommunication (they were worried about you, not angry), or it could have been that they thought you HAD been warned/knew the risks and had gone out anyway, causing them extra work.

Purely anecdotal, but I had a strange experience several years ago (not in Thailand) where there was sudden and unusual unrest (shooting, tear gas, etc) in the area. My hotel and the local (VERY tourism-dependent) community wanted to keep it quiet so they were telling everyone to "stay indoors, it's not safe - there's a temporary warning, we'll let you know when it's OK to go out again" but wouldn't say specifically why, even afterward.

@HerbalTeaAndCake most snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them, obviously there are some outlier right fighty bitey bastards and others who prefer a tree or a nice snug bit of your car, but a good careful stompy walk, lets snakes know you are coming and they would generally prefer to not get trod on, so will move out of the way if possible.
Looking on the bright side if there is a King Cobra around they have a penchant for eating other snakes

This is also pertinent OP:

apple.news/AhfOLohOgRMizoZsH8eDxfg

• it's basically the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices updated advice about travelling in Thailand and it warns about the dangers of tourists getting increasingly targeted.

My brothers ex wax from Thailand. Kill first then rob was what happened there according to her. All middle class people lived in gated communities with guards.

We stayed in Phuket pre covid and our resort had two + checkpoints to get in and out of on the main drive. I didn’t notice them incoming during the daytime, but the resort driver took me to the night markets one evening and they were very noticeable then with barriers down, coming and going.

He made light of it, but I asked a friend later on who lives in Thailand what it was about. He said it is considered that westerners staying in the resorts are wealthy and can be targeted for kidnapping. I don’t know how often this happens, but he is a well educated and good mate married to a Thai lady, so I don’t doubt his word.

I visited CHIANG RAI (the white temple with glass/ mirror mosaics covering the whole building) and the security screamed as me for touching a tiny piece of mosaic/ mirror. He did this down a microphone from about 30 metres away! 😱

Ps- I stayed in a £4 a night hostel in Thailand for 6 weeks and went out partying at all hours. I felt pretty safe 😊

I’ve been to Thailand many times and never been asked not to walk around at night - in fact, we were out more at night than during the day. I’d take her comment about a king cobra literally given the weirdness of the situation! Could it be that there’s one in the area lately? Thailand is usually very safe for tourists and crime against them is taken very seriously by police (because tourism is so important for the country’s economy) so robbing tourists is hardly worth the punishment you’ll get, from what I’ve been told anyway. So I’d be shocked if it was just a general risk of crime - unless, again, there had been a problem with new recent cases in the area.

Same! From reading these posts, I’m wondering if maybe drunk backpackers in the cheap hostels aren’t considered rich enough to bother robbing or kidnapping 😁

When I was in Costa Rica we weren't 'locked in' but if going out after dark both our guide and the hotel staff were insistent that we walked with a torch and made noise (talk, heavy steps) for fear of venomous snakes in the road.

her English wasn’t great and she was very animated, plus we were caught off guard by the fact that we were seemingly in trouble so no I didn’t ask, wish I had though

So why didn't you ask the next day?

Same here with cheap aces in SE Asia.
They either assumed I was skint or didn't care if I got robbed/bitten by a snake!
Never had any bother at all times of night running around drunk

The king cobra thing was probably "thank you". In Thai it's kahp kuhn kah (not spelled like that!!) which sounds a bit like king cobra.

As English was her second language, and you say it was not great, she might not have been across the nuances of verbs, so went for the imperative as, in fact, what she was doing was warning you. She would most likely go for active, not passive modes, which can sound more aggressive.

I guess she knows her local area better than you. Not wanting guests to die is both human decency and basic business sense.

@TigeToo chances are that it was dangerous to leave the hotel. Perhaps there were indeed cobras, or violent gangs around who target westerners, specifically Brits.

You weren't bring told off, but looked out for. Be thankful.

Why don't you ask reception why you were told to stay in the hotel?

A snake encounter reported every 15 minutes in Bangkok - and this was just 6 months ago.

I've def heard of snake warnings at Thai hotels.

Well this is the strangest thing. I was in Krabi once and I actually saw a king cobra. This is very odd. I’ve just read another thread where things go in slow motion and someone saw Concorde flying. Then I read this one. Krabi to me will always remind me of the King cobra.

This. If you were confused you would've been better asking her. Plus tourists often do dumb things so she was probably being extra cautious

3-4M king cobras are not utterly uncommon in Thailand, showing up even in housing estates. Take this as "advice well given, and with your well-being at heart," and let it go.

Probably because it is disrespectful rather like going into a synagogue or mosque and touching the ark or a Koran.