Thailand News

Clip of Thai-speaking ‘farang’ complaining about Phuket taxi fares goes viral

Published

5 years ago

20/06/2016

Samui Times Editor

Clip of Thai-speaking ‘farang’ complaining about Phuket taxi fares goes viral | Samui Times

A clip of a Thai-speaking westerner complaining about expensive Phuket transport has riled up emotions on social media.

The video clip, with a length of two minutes and 29 seconds, was initially uploaded by Facebook user, Jack Brown on Saturday afternoon (June 18) and by Sunday morning had amassed more than 105,000 views and 11,000 Likes.

The clip was later uploaded to his Youtube channel (see below).

Also known as Jack Dekfarang, Jack Brown rose to a popularity among Thais and Thai-language learners on Youtube and Facebook over the past few years for posting clips of himself speaking Thai with a clear yet distinguishable accent, commenting on various topics and issues.

He’s been featured on a number of segments of Thai TV talkshows, telling the hosts and cameras how much he loves Thailand and Thai people, in Thai with an “adorable western accent”.

In his latest viral clip “What happened with Phuket taxis” [translated from Thai เกิดอะไรขื้นกับแทกซี่ภูเก็ต], he is filming himself while walking down the street.

He claims to be in Kata, on the southwest coast of Phuket, where he explains that he will take a short taxi ride back to his hotel, at a distance of about 1 kilometre, just to “demonstrate how expensive Phuket taxis are”.

At the end of the trip, the taxi charges him B200, and Jack pays it without incident, but doesn’t end the clip without giving his two satang’s worth, in Thai, suggesting that something needs to be done about expensive transport in Phuket.

The clip was later shared on a Thai-language Phuket news and complaints group, where it recieved mixed reactions.

Some Phuket netizens agreed with Jack, that something needs to be done, “before tourists don’t come back”, while others criticized the westerner for failing to agknowledge the difference between private transport options (such as tuk tuks and taxis) and public transport options (such as sawng taeos) which they pointed out are available in Phuket for between B20 to B40 per trip.