A clip of a Thai-speaking westerner talking about expensive Phuket transport has gotten tons of likes, shares and comments on social media.
The 2:30 minute video clip was initially uploaded by Facebook user Jack Brown on Saturday afternoon and, by Sunday morning, it had amassed more than 105,000 views and 11,000 Likes.
The clip was later uploaded to his Youtube channel.
Also known as “Jack Dekfarang,” Jack Brown is an internet idol amongst both Thais and Thai-language learners on Youtube and Facebook. Over the past few years he has posted 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 Thai TV talk shows, telling the hosts and cameras how much he loves Thailand and Thai people, in his 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 one kilometer, just to “demonstrate how expensive Phuket taxis are.”
At the end of the trip, the taxi charges him THB200, and Jack pays it without incident, but doesn’t end the clip without giving his two cent’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 received 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 acknowledge the difference between private transport options (such as tuk tuks and taxis) and public transport options (such as sawng taeos, or open-sided public vans) which they pointed out are available in Phuket for between THB20 to THB40 per trip.
No matter how you feel about the price of island transport, his accent when he speaks Thai is pretty cool.
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