Why so many gated estates with private security in Hua Hin?

[Khundon1975]

We didn't live in a gated community as such, our house on Naebkehardt, was in a compound of 4 houses on the beachfront and the owner, who has a weekend home there, employed a security guard who was on site from dusk till dawn and also did odd jobs like opening the gates for us and keeping the road swept, he also stopped any unauthorised cars parking in our car ports. He patrolled the gardens at night with a torch and was very vigilant in his work.

We did not have to pay anything for the guard, or the gardener (who was the wife of a local town councillor) and we never had any problems with thieves and vagabonds all the time we lived there.

Anyone wanting to get into our house, only had to wait for low tide and they could simply walk along the beach, up the steps and straight into our garden but no one ever did, except for the damn dogs, which were stopped when we had the sea wall raised and a gate was put at the top of the steps.

The palace guards and local police visited us about once a month to check that all was ok but I don't know if that deterred any would be thieves or not.

Personally, I would never want to live in one of those gated communities and as for the guards on the gates, why pay someone to sleep, because that is what most of them do at night! You are far better off, if you do as many farangs do and live within the local mixed community. Make friends with them and they will be your eyes, ears and police force, when you are away.

[cookmanchef]

I lived in one of the walled compounds to the West of town for about 3-4 years but we never had a security guard, owners decided it was pointless as they usually just sleep all night and couldn't see the points of entry that the thieves would use anyway. There were a couple of burglaries that I heard about, both occurred in the daytime when an owner had gone to pick up/drop off kids, one of the owners had a dog that was asleep in the front garden at the time so please don't assume that protects you.

I sold up and moved out into the country and much prefer it both in terms of quality of life and safety. Those only spending a part of the year here and leaving the house closed up for months on end should consider buying a resort house, many more staff around than a housing estate and also busy with rental guests most of the time, add to that a rental income and it is a much better all around solution.

[tonymaroni]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned if you call the police to say my house has just been burglarized that doesn't mean they will come out to check, look for suspecta etc.

You are more than likely on your own. So paying a couple bucks for maybe some security doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Tony