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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Tourist missing after fall from a raft on rapids in Chiang Mai

    Rescue workers resumed their search of a stretch of rapids in Mae Taeng district of Thailand’s northern province of Chiang Mai today (Saturday), looking for a Belgian tourist who went missing after he fell from a raft yesterday afternoon.


    It is reported that three Belgian tourists took a white-water trip yesterday, but their raft hit a boulder, sending one of them into the raging waters.


    The rescuers said that the tourist, who had been wearing a life vest at the time, was seen floating. A rescuer, posted on the bank to help rafters who may experience problems, threw him a rope, but he could not catch it and soon disappeared. His life vest was ultimately found about two kilometres downstream.


    The search continued until dusk, with no sign of the missing man, and was called off for the night. It resumed this morning.


    At the time of this report, the search was ongoing.

    Tourist missing after fall from a raft on rapids in Chiang Mai | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Jesus, it’s all fun and games until you cannot hold the rope or stay in your vest.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrWilly View Post
    Jesus, it’s all fun and games until you cannot hold the rope or stay in your vest.
    How long before we find out the company organising it had no license to operate?

  4. #4
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    The story in a Thai source is that rescuers threw him a rope, but he refused to get back on board.

    Seems rather unlikely.

  5. #5
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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  6. #6
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Maybe it's just me but I think organising white water rafting when there is a high chance of flash floods from rain upstream is, for want of a better phrase, a bit silly.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat VocalNeal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    How long before we find out the company organising it had no license to operate?
    How is that going to help?

  8. #8
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    I did it there a few years back, you get a full 5 minutes training. Not sure what could have gone wrong.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    They safety you one hunlen percen.

  10. #10
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Lets be honest. One of the things that happens here and in other tourist type countries is people travel and do stupid shit they wouldn't likely do in their home country. So when people travel here they see these low cost extreme type activities and say "Hey, Lets go" never considering what it means. Anyone coming here or going anywhere for that matter should have enough common sense to know what they are getting into and realize that there is likely no liability insurance and there is a good chance that the business operators aren't probably well trained, top flight when going over the safety and the risks. Bottom-line, the participant needs to know their capabilities and if they don't feel safe then just don't do it. Its really not rocket science. The river pics look treacherous at best plus its extremely muddy and anyone of us that lives here knows that when a river swells fast, there is loads of unpredictable debris being carried down with it that is under the surface. You should see that crap I see go floating by when I sit at the spillway.

    Hopefully they find this person but the outcome based on the river pictures doesn't look promising.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stumpy View Post
    The river pics look treacherous at best plus its extremely muddy and anyone of us that lives here knows that when a river swells fast
    And that's key, a class 3 can become a class 4 or even 5 if in flood and i dare say the organisers would have taken no account of this and combined with submerged tree detritus makes it a whole magnitude of higher risk.

  12. #12
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    The Thai news was showing a video of the guy in the water, apparently just after he went overboard, but I can't find it anywhere. He was trapped for a moment under the water and they were having great difficulty getting the raft into a position to help him. He would have tired pretty quickly fighting the strong current and doubt he survived the ordeal.

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by VocalNeal View Post
    How is that going to help?
    I'm surprised I have to explain this, but it stops cowboys setting up shit like this without the required insurance, training, equipment checks and safety protocols, like the Phuket "Jungle Bungy Jump" who smacked someone into the ground and then compounded their error by chucking him into the back of a pickup while he had a broken neck and then driving him to a hospital where he died.
    The next post may be brought to you by my little bitch Spamdreth

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stumpy View Post
    Lets be honest. One of the things that happens here and in other tourist type countries is people travel and do stupid shit they wouldn't likely do in their home country. So when people travel here they see these low cost extreme type activities and say "Hey, Lets go" never considering what it means. Anyone coming here or going anywhere for that matter should have enough common sense to know what they are getting into and realize that there is likely no liability insurance and there is a good chance that the business operators aren't probably well trained, top flight when going over the safety and the risks. Bottom-line, the participant needs to know their capabilities and if they don't feel safe then just don't do it. Its really not rocket science. The river pics look treacherous at best plus its extremely muddy and anyone of us that lives here knows that when a river swells fast, there is loads of unpredictable debris being carried down with it that is under the surface. You should see that crap I see go floating by when I sit at the spillway.

    Hopefully they find this person but the outcome based on the river pictures doesn't look promising.

    One of the issues is that people just blindly assume these things have the same level of regulation you'd expect in a Western country, when in fact at best they have to meet some minimal set of requirements to be allowed to operate, and at worst (and often) it's just some wealthy bandit who has the money to buy a crane, some ziplines or canoes and makes some money out of ill-informed farang.

  15. #15
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    Lived and biked near that river for years. When the flows get high like the photograph shows, there is no excuse in the world to put a raft in, unless of course you have paying customers.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Body of tourist who fell from a raft into rapids in Chiang Mai found


    Rescue workers found the body of a Thai-Belgian tourist today (Sunday), who had fallen from a raft on the Taeng rapids in Mae Taeng district of the northern province of Chiang Mai on Friday.


    According to Pruek Nitikorn, the assistant headman of Muang Kid village, the body was found about 10km from where he fell from the raft during a expedition with two Belgian friends.


    He said that rescuers concentrated their search on boulders in the rapids after they found his safety helmet and life vest yesterday about 2km and 6km from the site of the accident.


    He admitted that the strong current posed an obstacle to the search, but rescuers found the body in the rapids near an elephant shelter.


    The body was then taken to the district hospital for an autopsy.


    Body of tourist who fell from a raft into rapids in Chiang Mai found | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Poor fucker.

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