£35 bribe paid at Phuket airport!

Hi all. Became a member a few months ago after booking my holiday to Thailand and concerned over the vaping laws. Well we landed 5 hours ago and as we exited customs they decided to scan all our luggage. I had broken down my gear and spread it out but they spotted it! A young man advised me it was illegal to vape in Thailand, to which I showed stunned ignorance. He led me and my luggage back into the hall and took me down a corrider and into a small room with 2 trollies of the crapiest looking gear and hookah pipes and advised me my gear would be confiscated, unless I would like to keep my gear? Of course I said and he said if I paid 1,500BHT I could do this, in a small room with no cameras. I told him I only had sterling and he produced a calculator and agreed to £35, which I paid. Please let this be a warning to all and let anybody you know that this will be my first and last trip to Thailand and I will spend my hard earned money in other more descerning countries around the world!!!

 

Checked luggage Siam. I had a mod, 2 tanks and 400ml of juice. The stealth vape in my pocket wasn't seen. I was concerned about transferring in Doha. Heathrow didn't give a toss but on transferring in Doha there was no second security check, so if I had carried it all on board I may have got away with it as they weren't asking for all the hand luggage to be x-rayed. Who the hell x-rays luggage that has already been checked before u get on the flight after u have landed!

 

First time that we heard about this at Phuket Airport, but if you saw two trollies with gear confiscated it has been going on for a longer period of time without us knowing it.

Thailand will never learn how to keep tourists happy during their stay here with things like this going on, but they simply don't care how many tourists they scare away they just think it was a pleasure doing business with you getting some money in their pockets.

 

Exactly Konvict, first and last time I will visit this country! The gear they showed looked like it had come from a bring and buy sale and I wouldn't have paid 10BHT for the lot but there was a lot of it. I'm now just worried when we leave in 2 weeks.

 

I'd try to forget about it and enjoy my holiday, which I'm sure you will!

 

I'll try taotoo but do they scan checked luggage at Phuket when u enter the airport or does it just disappear at check in lie it does in London. I'm concerned enough to leave everything I haven't used here, which will cost a bit!

 

Thanks for your reply Siam but I'm a bit confused. When u say security scanners do u mean the walkthrough body scanners, hand luggage scanners or main checked luggage? What would u recommend as the best way of packing my gear? I have a mod with 3 spare 18650, a tank with 3 spare glasses incase of breakages (Wismec Theorum) and an ileaf all in 1 build battery with a small removable tank, plus left over juice?

 

There all in 100ml bottles which is the maximum so OK. Could give some to my wife and 80 year old mother in law so we all end up in the sh*t! ☺