Musicians from Bi-2 ended up behind bars: what they did in Thailand
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The musicians of the group “Bi-2” spent Thursday night on a Thai paradise island, but not in a hotel, but in a cell at a Phuket police station. And on Friday it’s not the beach and the subsequent tour schedule that awaits them, but the court.
What the artists did, whom many compatriots in Phuket were eagerly awaiting, we learned from those who attended the concert that brought them to jail.
“Your guest performers do not have permission to conduct commercial activities on the territory of our country,” they politely answer at the Patong tourist police department (the most “party” area of the island. – Auto.).
The same thing is repeated at the immigration office. It’s difficult to argue here, because immediately after the New Year, the Phuket authorities issued the “last Thai warning”: illegal work, begging, crowdfunding (raising money for certain projects. – Auto.), as well as violation of any laws of the country by foreigners will now be truly suppressed and punished. Before the New Year, these same words were spoken more than once, but they turned into action in the form of imprisonment, trial, fine and subsequent deportation only in the most egregious cases – major fraud, robbery, murder, etc. But in January everything changed, and it is impossible not to notice it .
“Every day, it’s a show execution,” sighs 26-year-old Vadim, a relocant from Bryansk. It is clear that this is addressed to people like me. And there are many of us here, we all need to feed, and many need to feed their families. Since the New Year, they respond to any knock, no matter where it comes from. And if before January the police mainly responded to illegal hired work or business without Thai participation, now they react directly to everything! I spoke rudely to my wife, the neighbors informed me and immediately welcomed me to the police station for a conversation! Let’s talk and decide whether you should be deported?! And I don’t understand how, knowing this, the concert organizers couldn’t get the invited musicians at least some kind of work permit that was lying around? Even if it’s temporary, they are still here for a few days, and then on to Bali, like everyone else who has already passed us – “Mummy Troll”, Basta, Zemfira (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), Loboda. They have a resort party here. But the “bitushniks” covered him with bars.
The Russian-speaking crowd admits that the Phuket authorities are strengthening themselves on all fronts. On Tuesday, they took six of us for playing poker and “hookah-like” smoking devices. Everyone knows that gambling and smoking devices such as vapes and IQOS are prohibited in Thailand, there are no casinos and you cannot buy smoking tobacco, but this is in a public space. And to go to prison for the fact that six of us sat down to play cards at home is a challenge and a very strong hint. Any “knock” will be a reason for proceedings followed by expulsion.
“The Thais are tired of the problematic contingent,” admits ex-Petersburg resident Marianna, who now permanently resides in Pattaya. – And the problems are mainly from relocants and longsteers. These are either young beggars who are ready to use any tricks to get money. Or the elderly with a small pension in Russia, who come to “improve their health”, but they themselves are always sick with something. And their minimum insurance does not cover the fact that they call doctors to your home almost every day, as they are used to at home. A friend of mine works in a hospital, she says, the worst fear of local medical workers is that a poor foreigner will die in their establishment.
– Yes, but what does our artists have to do with it?! They are not poor and they don’t seem to be going to die!
– It’s a matter of arrogance. Our compatriot named Sasha has been selling tickets here to concerts of all Russian stars since November. The prices went through the roof. But since he accepted both in rubles from Russian cards and in crypto, people paid 25 thousand rubles. per ticket, this is on average. And ballet reached $8 thousand per performance. And in the end, they still haven’t even returned the money for canceled ones! What I mean is that everything is for the sake of profit, and everything is organized poorly. It’s not strange that the guys went to prison.
True, the group’s press secretary for some reason completely denies the detention of the artists. But all the complex conspiracy theories are immediately destroyed by Artem from Moscow, who had been hanging out at a Patong nightclub the day before.
– Yes, before the officially announced concert, they went and performed at “Illusion” (the largest and most popular dance floor on the island. – Auto.), – says Artem. – And it’s not just the whole of Phuket, there’s the whole world, tourists from all over the globe. All videos are filmed and posted. World-famous DJs from all over the planet perform there, all with work permits. And only ours don’t care at all. No wonder, the Thais, after so many warnings, simply could not eat this.
According to the tourist police, our “newest prisoners” were sitting in the same place where the unlucky poker players had been the day before. And they also face trial, fines for violating local laws, and deportation to their homeland. And the Thai gendarmes don’t even know that these are some special Russian stars. For them, they are just another “problem tourists”.
Newspaper headline:
Resort “ches” will lead to prison
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