AdultKing

I go to Thailand every year and have travelled around the rest of South East Asia extensively. It depends where you go, dogs used to be everywhere in Bangkok but there's less of a dog problem there now than there used to be.

Monkeys are more of a problem up north or in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Even in Phnom Penh theres a big monkey population in fairly built up areas. I've never come across a monkey in Bangkok.

That said, I have had two incidents that led me to have to go through a 5 shot rabies post exposure course of injections.

The first one was ten years ago when I was bitten by a snarky dog at Din Deang (suburb of Bangkok). It wasn't avoidable, I didn't see the dog before it got me. It was late at night, it came out of a sub soi and had a go at me.

The second one was my fault, where I was at an outdoor bar and stood on a dogs leg. The dog was laying at the bar and I didn't see it.

Both times all I did was wash the bite then headed down to Bumrungrad Hospital, where for 2000 baht I was seen, assessed, given post exposure injection and sent on my way. However if this happens to you it is important to continue the injections to the very day they are due.

Mosquito repellant helps. Some people are more attractive to mosquitos than others. I never seem to get bitten. In the major centres nobody takes malaria medication and even out of the major centres you can't take it forever.

If you're out at night or early morning and you find the mozzies annoying then simply use some decent repellant and they'll stop biting.

Malaria is less of a risk in Bangkok than it would be in other areas.

The thing I would worry about most is (1) get decent travel insurance before you travel and (2) get the shots I suggested in my previous post. Although many people go without shots and live to tell the tale, it's not a risk I would take - because if you were unlucky enough to come into contact with some bad water and didn't have typhoid vaccinations for example then you'd be regretting it.