Beware of Tourist Bus Trips.

I was told about this last year, but I doubted it at the time. Now today on Thai television there is another incident of the same thing.
It would appear that some tour buses are robbing their passengers after putting them to sleep with something in the air-con system.
The incident today says that everyone on the bus, a large type double decked, was sleeping and were robbed by the driver and assistant. They went through everyone's belongings without anyone knowing what was going on.
I don't know what type of sleeping drug was put through the system but this must go on quite a lot.
In the incident that I was told about last year, one of the passengers did not go to sleep and saw what was going on. However they thought it better to pretend to be asleep and only spoke about it later. I do not know what the outcome was.
Both incidents were trips from Bangkok to Chaing Mai.

[TrongpaiExpat]

I had always assumed the the drivers of those big rigs were on there own supply line of happy gas given the way they drive. They just move from lane to lane with no regard to the small vehicles traveling on either side, I am big: I can take what ever lane I want, when I want.

Encounter on of these behemoths on an open road and watch out. The vortex alone will sweep you off the road as they pass you driving 3x the posted speed limit.

There have been rumours for years about people being gassed in camper vans. Experts say this is not possible as the mixture has to be precise.

Too much and you kill some, too little and no effect.

never let facts or common sense get in the way of a good urban myth

From Tues 25th Bangkok Post
20 sleeping tourists robbed

SUNTHORN PONGPAO

Sasin Click Here!

AYUTTHAYA : Twenty foreign tourists were robbed in their sleep on a bus and awoke to find they had been left in the middle of nowhere in Bang Pa-in district early yesterday morning.

Local police came to help the tourists from Europe and the US after four bus crew stole their belongings and abandoned the bus after parking it on the side of the Asian Highway about 6am.

The victims said they took the bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok on Sunday night with four male staff, including the driver. Exhausted by the trip, the tourists fell asleep during the night, unaware of the plot to steal their belongings.

It was believed the driver stopped the bus by the roadside early in the morning and the crew stole valuables, laptop computers, cameras, hand-held game consoles and cash from seven bags, totalling more than 150,000 baht, before fleeing.

Police contacted a tour agency on Khao San road where the tourists bought their package deals. The agency did not manage the bus in question but had outsourced to a bus company.

The outsourced bus owner, Sirada Boonme, 26, said the bus belonged to her father's company.

After hours of negotiations with the tourists, she agreed to pay compensation of half the amount that had been stolen in cash and the rest by bank transfer.

She refused to give any details about the bus staff. Police suspected Ms Sirada's father might be one of the four men.

There have been rumours for years about people being gassed in camper vans. Experts say this is not possible as the mixture has to be precise.

Too much and you kill some, too little and no effect.

Correct - while passengers may fall asleep exhausted, effective gassing through the a/c system is impossible. It is as imprecise and impractical in a bus as it is in a hijacked plane or a theatre.