Share your experiences about Russian tourists

[GooMaiRoo]

The number of Russian tourists entering Thailand has surged in recent years. Although I've had limited personal contact with them, I must say that I've succumbed to prevailing bigotry and Hollywood stereotypes. I have images of Thailand being overwhelmed by sullen, alcoholic mafia types and pallid, charmless hookers. Has anyone here had experiences (good or bad) with Russians in Thailand? I'm curious because I want to know how this bodes for the future of tourism in Thailand. Generally, would you rate Russian tourists as better or worse than your average farang?

[November Rain]

Don't think they've made it to Hua Hin. We get plenty of Finns, though - will that do?

[Butterfly]

Worst of the worst, you don't want to deal with them. Exceptions are rare.

[good2bhappy]

Average farang tourist in Pattaya?
No way can anyone be rated worse!

[Jet Gorgon]

Strange lot. Lots of gold, perfume, makeup on the girls, lots of gold, open-to-chest shirts with lots of hair and gold, perfume and snarly smirks on the men. Shades, cell phones. No manners as we know them. And they steal all the deck chairs.

[chinthee]

Actually, in the past few years, the quality of Russian tourists has improved a lot, at least in Phuket. They spend more money at the restaurants than other Europeans and bring their families. Also, young professionals are quite common. I've seen a noticeable improvement in the quality.

Now, as far as Pattaya, well, we've all heard about the quality there.

[good2bhappy]

Funny thing about the Russians in Pattaya is they bring their totty from back home! Don't play the BG scene.

[Rattanaburi]

A Russian working here told me she thinks most have benefited from the mafia in Russia.

[Marmite the Dog]

Scumbags, the lot of them.

[pickel]

They remind me of white trash who've won the lottery.

[peterpan]

The beauty of living in the sticks, they don't come here and hopefully never will.

[Texpat]

^Yeah, Pete, don't think I've met one in Udon, Nong Khai in two years.

But to be honest, I'm not out looking for them either. Pattaya sounds like a nice place for them.

[Told Stool]

Strange lot. Lots of gold, perfume, makeup on the girls, lots of gold, open-to-chest shirts with lots of hair and gold, perfume and snarly smirks on the men. Shades, cell phones. No manners as we know them. And they steal all the deck chairs.

This is mostly due to the sales of their excess Cold War military materiel to terrorist nations.

[chinthee]

I was sitting at an outdoor cafe a few days ago in Patong and listened to a conversation one young Russian guy was having with his "business associate" back home. He was obviously dealing drugs, and he assumed nobody around him understood Russian. I lived there for many years and am fluent.

I do enjoy my little diversions.

But seriously, most of the conversations I hear (I walk on the beach a lot and hear many of them) seem to be from normal professional people. I think most of the mafia types must be up in Pattaya.

[Thetyim]

Funny thing about the Russians in Pattaya is they bring their totty from back home! Don't play the BG scene.

Maybe they bring them to sell

[Marmite the Dog]

But seriously, most of the conversations I hear (I walk on the beach a lot and hear many of them) seem to be from normal professional people. I think most of the mafia types must be up in Pattaya.

I thought the Russian idea of a 'normal professional person' was a Mafia type?

[chinthee]

^Actually you have a good point. Just as the American mafia transformed and got into legit businesses, so too have many of the bad boys in Russia. They were able to buy respectability after raping and pillaging in the early years. It's hard to say what background lies beneath most of them with money.

[Wallalai]

This is mostly due to the sales of their excess Cold War military materiel to terrorist nations.

I didn't knew russians were selling to USA.

[Gallowspole]

^ Naughty! (but nice)

There were 4 or 5 of the most skankiest girls I'd ever seen at the Pattaya Water Park and a couple had track marks around their ankles. That was in fact the last time we went there, now it's the Hard Rock Hotel swimming pool we go to. Don't get many of them sorts in there, what what.

[DrAndy]

I was recently staying on a small island beach, with good snorkelling

every day a big boatload of Russians would be tipped out on the beach and left for a few hours. In general, they looked nouveau riche, probably because they were. Mostly middle class. One bunch was made up of flight controllers. We did ask them how any planes could be flying that day in and out of Moscow, but they said there were more of them back home...ha ha

just typical tourists, ignorant and over-charged

[jizzybloke]

Last time in Pattaya i was having a nice relaxing massage (MrsJ with me so no funny stuff) and the peace was shattered by 2 noisy ignorant fuckwit Russian creatures (father and son apparently) telling anyone who'd listen how many BG's they'd shagged between them in the last week, the only good thing about them is they make the chav scum football hooligans look slightly better!

[sabang]

There are a few complaints around about some Russians having boorish manners. They seem to get into trouble about the same as other nationalities, based on their numbers. They mainly keep themselves to themselves, of course a lot don't speak any English anyway.

As for the reputation of them not spending money, thats basically nonsense. If you go up to the Royal Cliff resort, which ain't cheap, it's at least half full of ruskies. Ambassador City, the largest resort in the Pattaya area, is mostly Russian these days. They just spend their money in different places.

[sabang]

Incidentally, a few times you hear 'bad Russian' stories, they're not Russian at all. They can be Finnish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Polish and so on. Our knowledge of Russian is probably worse than theirs of English.

[mrsquirrel]

Strange lot. Lots of gold, perfume, makeup on the girls, lots of gold, open-to-chest shirts with lots of hair and gold, perfume and snarly smirks on the men. Shades, cell phones. No manners as we know them. And they steal all the deck chairs.

They are talking about Russians not Germans.

[phunphin]

Russia listed 30 new billionaires last year, must have 1.1 billion to get on it....
How many beer swilling poms are on that list??