Lobbed in bursting at the seams Phuket where the driving skills are so bad that two people were killed and 81 injured during New Year road accidents in what was called the Seven Days of Danger Road Safety Campaign . During the period , police fined 7859 people for traffic offences : 187 for dangerous or reckless driving , 213 for running red lights , 137 for drunk driving, 213 were caught using mobile phones while driving , 506 without seatbelts.
One odd offence here is "ghost driving " which is described as driving opposite to the flow of traffic , which sounds exceedingly dangerous . On January 13 it was reported that a 21 year old female student had been killed when her motorbike was hit by a taxi driven by a man asleep at the wheel .
Of interest to Queensland is publicity given to conservationists alarmed at the damage being done to local coral reefs by the many "Try Dive " operators , there being a crackdown on such operations. On New Year's Eve a large King Cobra snake was found fighting with another cobra under a central Phuket restaurant .
A crocodile got into the many and varied end of year activities when it chomped on the hand of a man at Phuket Crocodile World and went into a death spin with him .
Over the holiday period there was chaos at Phuket Airport with huge queues where the rudeness of some - many - travellers who barge in ahead of people lined up is irksome and would result in a firm rebuke if tried in Australia .
A surprising number of overseas visitors appear to commit suicide soon after arrival , jumping from hotels common . A New Zealander was found at the bottom of a 20 storey hotel , described by police as an apparent suicide .
A truly bizarre death was that of a Kazakhstan tourist who died after falling from the balcony of a fifth floor hotel room in Patong. Police found no signs of struggle in the hotel room or ransacking . However, there were 12 empty bottles of Thai rum and three empty beer cans , empty wine bottles and other empty grog bottles .
Hotel staff said he had checked in alone and only ever went out for food and alcohol. Investigations showed the man on November 24 had updated his Facebook with a post which said : Dear Santa, I have been well-behaved all year , (so ) reward me with a trip to Thailand-a couple of weeks to behave badly ."
In another strange episode , busy Phuket City police became involved in the case of the "Forgetful monk" , who caused a scene at a bank when he tried to withdraw 20,000 baht , forgetting that he had taken out the money the day before . He refused to leave the bank until he got the money although there was only 109l baht left in the kitty. A nervous security guard called for police reinforcements who discovered he was indeed a forgetful monk . A photograph appeared in the Phuket Gazette showing the robed monk , leaning on the bank counter , with the police , who sorted out the problem and dropped him off at a bus station after he apologised to one and all .
