A single page of reports from Thailand’s seaside resort of Pattaya made grim reading in a recent edition of the local newspaper. A one-legged Finnish lawyer was stabbed to death when he caught his mistress’s real boyfriend robbing his apartment. A scantily clad Thai woman, with an Englishman riding pillion, was knocked off a motorbike by a gang of youths who stole cash and a mobile phone. A German bar owner was stabbed by the owner of a neighbouring bar in a row over a clothes line.