Russian tourists killed...

A reward of US$3,000 has been offered to anyone who can help identify the killer of two Russian tourists in Pattaya over the weekend.

Having been quick to brand them illegal sex workers the authorities have now confirmed that they were indeed genuine tourists and had no known connections with business of any kind in Thailand. Sadly it seems a very local trait here to brand all people with the same brush, especially when it concerns foreigners. Thereby two Russian women in their early twenties must have been on the game. I feel for their families and friends if they happened to read that account online from various Thai news sources.

I've never been to Pattaya, well once ten years ago but I refused to get out of the car and carried on without stopping. It had a terrible reputation and recently local business leaders there have been making an effort to re-brand it and present a more "family" style holiday destination. Sadly occurrences such as this one are not as rare as they should be and it still manages to retain its old image of sleaze and violence.

Russian tourists killed...