Busking in Phuket Town

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I found out on “Stick Boy Bangkok” that photos were circulating in a Reddit forum, showing a European man (“a farang”) with two young children busking in Patong, Thailand.

His signs said he was trying to raise cash to cover insurance costs for his daughter’s operation.

Immigration Police Step In

Almost immediately, Lukas Matena, the farang, was told that foreigners collecting donations is illegal, and that he had to go to the embassy to seek help. Lukas explained:

“We arrived in Phuket on January 4 We were inside Chalong temple. I was parking the motorbike and did not know Rebeka had decided to cross the road by herself. A car coming from the inside the temple hit her and caused three fractures in her jaw.

We were to have left Phuket last Thursday, but because of the accident we have to wait until our daughter gets better.”

Rebeka had to have two operations. The driver’s insurance covered the 800,000 baht hospital bill (around £16,000 / $24,000), but the family needed extra for their extended stay in Thailand.

The Result

Lukas had busked for one night only, “in case of excess medical bills not covered by the insurance”, but stopped when he discovered that the insurance would pay for everything.

However, forums began to buzz about what he should have done:

Why didn’t he have travel insurance to cover his family? Why did he busk “in case of” insurance excesses, and not wait until afterwards? Why should it be illegal for a father to look after his kids by busking in this way? Surely he should be commended!

…and yet, then people began to explain that they’d seen him busking before the accident, back in December, and he was using his kids to hat the crowd. This is definitely against the law. He’s a freelance UX designer and globetrotter.

So, he broke the law, he brought his young kids to Thailand, without travel insurance, and got them to help him busk, and was breaking the law. Buuuuuuuut, they were entertaining people, and probably having a great time.

Irresponsible parent, or awesome holiday maker?