blix99

Has anyone heard what the Canadian autopsy/toxicology determination is on the two unfortunate sisters who died in Phuket a few weeks back?

Uh...and just what sort of sex abuse is this? This really says nothing. If it's abuse of minors, that's one thing... sort of a useless article.

you sick man, "The NIDA poll surveyed 1,235 mothers on the topic" would your comment be so ignorant if one of the 1,235 was your mother

The point is the article is "useless" unless the terms are defined. As it stands without elaboration it is even beyond useless.

For the most part...anyone in the Thai government/administration should look at the expats forums online. The expat community can offer solutions to the problems this country is apparently inundated with. If they don't take sound and good advice/solutions and act upon them, it will continue to revert back to the Thailand of the past, if not worse.

Arrogant nonsense, and just the sort of bilge that will have exactly the opposite of the intended effect.

The suspect is a known criminal who has burglarized homes in many different areas.”

Then why wasn't he in jail? Instead he was out burglarizing more homes and killing people... More wonderful police work. Does someone have to get killed before they do their job?

Just possibly police in Phuket prioritize crimes and criminals like we do in the western world. Do you assume they have infinite resources to track down everyone who has outstanding warrants? Guarantee you we have thousands here in the USA roaming free and with multiple arrest warrants on their records.

Welcome to Thai Visa, we're not all nice but some of us are honest.

I have a poor connection so I have only seen the first video. It looks like you really have a passion for video and you have put a lot of thought and effort into these. I like to see Thailand through other peoples eyes, so I am looking forward to seeing the other ones. The first one doesn't really give any impression of your thoughts or your experience. It is just full of pretty shots and demonstrates you have nice equipment and much better than average video skills. It did not show any of your struggles of travel or give us any sense of being uprooted and placed in a foreign environment. It just seems like you moved from one cozy place to another, it might as well have been down the street.

That being said, it is the first in the series so some of these things might be addressed in the next segments.

I may sound harsh, but I am just offering my critique which is useless if it isn't real.

I think you are very good at the technical just need a little help with connecting us to you.

Good point. Hope the op has not been scared off already but if he is still with us it would very informative if he shared with us the trials and struggles of moving to a foreign land as some here may well be thinking of making the same move.

I'm wondering on the legality of taking these tests. I mean can a Thai cop just walk up to anybody, Thai or Farang, who is sitting/walking in a public place and demand to take a drug test? Wouldn't there have to be some reason to suspect that the person is under the influence of drugs first, such as fighting.

If they really can then Thailand truly is a police state. Beware standing near an ATM lest some BIB arrests you for conspiracy to rob a bank.

Or, they would knock on your door and conduct drug tests...this country is a repressive state!

They conduct these raids during Friday night or weekends where Embassy is close..no one will help you..you cant also bail out until monday..

You can't be serious. A country that allows places like Pattaya and Phuket to exist and thrive is a "repressive" state??????

Sounds like Phuket and Pattaya are ideal holiday destinations - stabbings, murder, drunken orgies, corruption, jet-ski gangs, robberies etc - I can't imagine why anyone would want to visit, let alone live there.

Don't believe everything you read on this board; lots of paranoia and hysteria here. 18 million tourists visited Thailand last year and the overwhelming majority had a great time. As in most vacation spots tourists are the target for scams of all sorts. I was just in New York as a tourist and loved it but, yes, I got scammed once and a friend lost his phone to a pickpocket.....it happens everywhere. Keep your wits about you and you'll be fine. Do stupid things and you will stand out as a potential victim.

Australian woman killed in Phuket

AAP

PHUKET: -- An Australian woman has died in Thailand, after being stabbed by a man trying to snatch her bag.

Phuket Wan Tourism News says the woman, among a group of travel agents from Perth, was walking along a street on the tourist island of Phuket when a motorcycle pulled beside her and a passenger attempted to take her bag.

The woman struggled with the man, before falling to the ground with a stab wound to her heart, the website says.

Another woman walking with the victim received a gash to her arm, and the offenders sped off empty handed.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokesperson says they are aware of the death of an Australian woman in Thailand and are providing consular assistance to her family.

"It would not be appropriate to discuss the case further while a police investigation is in progress," the spokesperson said.

Full story and video: http://au.news.yahoo...lled-in-phuket/

-- au.news.yahoo.com 2012-06-21

I must emphasize strongly that what the tour agents in OZ really need to do is WARN all their clients NOT to visit Thailand.

This bit of violence should be added alongside the two 60+ year old couple in Hua Hin that were savagely beaten to death for 2,000.oo baht

The value of life here has become akin to desperate Thais that have seen a reduction in tourists of more than 65% over the last 4 years - the government and tourism bureau are desperate to have tourism flourish but at the same time allow a populous of criminals prey on tourists with a mindset similar to slaughtering cows just to have another drink or Sang-Som or smoke some more YaBa

http://www.thaitravelblogs.com/2011/12/record-number-of-tourists-visited-thailand-in-2011/

Don't know where your 65% reduction figure comes from but it is way off the mark according to the above link. Not even the airport closure of a couple years back nor the floods of last year hampered tourism to Thailand in any significant way and in fact there has been a steady rise as per the official figures.

............The thought occurred to me that if the girls had ingested anything that they believed to be illegal, e.g., magic mushrooms, then fearing the legal consequences might explain why they never attempted to leave their room to get help when feeling so ill.

My thought too. Hard to explain why one of them wouldn't have sought help unless they were fearful of other consequences.

Pol.Maj.Gen.Jamroon Ruenrom- commissioner of Krabi police conducted a forensic investigation of room #103. The police did not find any trace of violence but found several pills in the room. Including Ibuprofen an anti-inflammatory drug which should be taken with precaution and should not be mixed with alcohol.

A policeman handing out medical advice......a simple search on internet shows:

While it is generally safe to take ibuprofen and drink alcohol, it is highly recommended that you limit the amount of alcohol you drink while taking any medication, especially ibuprofen. Alcohol can irritate your stomach and intestinal tract, and taking ibuprofen or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including aspirin, for an extended period of time can also lead to stomach and intestinal irritation, as well as ulcers and potential bleeding problems"

Instead of all the speculation about Ibuprofen, Magic mushrooms and serial killers, should the police not wait until an autopsy is completed....as publishing stuff like this make them look more incompetant than normal...

Oh sure, then this thread would be filled with rants from the usual cranks about police cover-ups, incompetence and etc. Full autopsies often take several weeks even in western countries.

Did you ever stop to think it might be THAILAND that is losing its Appeal? One poster mentioned "slimy Phuket" another Nana before the prices and pressure raised its ugl head - Pattaya do you need any further hint when at least half the establishments are empty. As usual Thailand is the last to wake up Tourists like the frivolity, the mystique, etc they do not want the Scams, the Hassle, the one sided BiB - they are a moving to brighter and cheaper shores. (Sorry I forgot the most important SAFER)

Uh, where are these "brighter, cheaper, SAFER, shores" ?? Or at least the ones that have some element of naughtiness to them......

how about cleaning up all immoral stuff. I can't recognise how it was only 15 years ago. Last year I went there in the hope to spend holidays with my family just like we did 15 years ago, I was frighten, scared. It's changed so much, thoght we were somewhere else, not Thailand!

Agree. The only time I went to Pattaya, I was totally ashamed to be a farang, utterly disgusted at the state of the shirtless tattooed morons littering the beach, drinking Chang in the sun, and the girls, giving my wife the evil eye. Never again.

Never mind the war on drugs, how about a war on Pattaya; cleaning it up!

Did you not do any research telling you what Pattaya was really about??? Never thought drinking beer in the sun was a particularly immoral act........but I will say it can be unsightly!

Wowwww.... ermmm... Need to get something off your chest?? Did diddums get his arse kicked by a 5'2" bargirl in Phuket for acting like himself in a public place?

You know what we love? - We love guys that come to Phuket and act like degenerates, and then when their <deleted> are handed back to them in a Lunch Bag - go home compllaining that the locals are 'degenerates' - we love 'em...

Back to your mothers' skirts boy - and try not to go through life mistaking your own nasty Bile for Wisdom.

Brilliant, funny post....almost had me spewing my morning coffee....

Hat Nappharat which is adjacent to Ao Nang.

You have the national park right there with great scenary and you are a skiff ride away from Railay which will be a nice daytrip

i'll second that! Great beach, quiet and Ao Nang has everything you might need. And definitely take the trip to Railay---more crowded but you won't regret it.

I believe all these KFC workers knew what the wages were when they went to work and i also believe they knew the benefits so...........whats the problem? If they do not like the deal quit. Unions have ruined the west and looks like it might start in Thailand.

Yep. 30 baht per hour would be the sure road to perdition....

Why there isn't a sub forum for topics of this kind?

Call it the inspector clouseau forum.

Yes, and then the rest of us wouldn't have to be bothered reading their reflexive inane conspiracy drivel every time there is a farang death in Thailand. No police report, no problem---the board members (must be really boring upcountry) will supply all the speculative details we might ever want to read. If they had their own crime forum they could all gather for the metaphorical circle jerk every time there is a questionable death in LOS---project theories ad nauseam (with no real facts to point to of course--except a feeble few paragraphs in the local rag) about police incompetence, police conspiracies, universal Thai loathing of all the simple good-hearted farangs who come to Thailand for the purist reasons, and just the general overall perfidy of several millions of Thais. Seems like the perfect solution both for them and for those of us who prefer to save ourselves the teeth-gnashing caused by accidentally starting to read this nonsense......because, really, once you start reading all the crack-pot theories it becomes almost impossible to turn away.....a little like watching a train wreck......

Definately the worst airport in the world

I guess you've never been to MNL.

Is it one of the top 10 airports of the world? No - probably not. But over the past three years I have formed a very close relationship with Suvarnabhumi - not by choice but by necessity! I have had regional responsibility for the South-East Asian market for a British company for the past three years. I ended up using Bangkok as a hub because of BKK's excellent connections in the region and the fact that it was an efficient airport (not to mention that the Thai market was growing fast and it made financial sense). On average I was passing through BKK at least twice a month for nearly three years. In those 36+ arrivals/departures/transits I have experienced very little of the hassle that some of the posters seem to have on here. In fact part of the reason I chose to relocate to Bangkok about a month ago was that the airport is efficient (especially with the added rail link) which will allow me to go about my business far better than being based in the UK - meaning even more trips through the airport.

I have never waited in an immigration queue for more than 25 minutes and it has never taken me more than 45 minutes from landing to be in a taxi. This despite many of my arrivals coming at the end of the European/Australian Thai Airways 747 arrivals bank in the early morning. I have learned a few tricks - realising that there are two incoming and two outgoing immigration points and that there are screens at each that show the other often less busy queue - and that it pays to pick an immigration queue that isn't full of obvious tourists who may not have filled in their immigration cards.

Yes some immigration people are a bit surly (but they are everywhere - except apparently China thanks to some Facebook-style feedback buttons). Perhaps not everything works as well as it should (but where does it other than Singapore's Changi Airport?). But overall - it's a very good hub that processes tens of millions of passengers in relative comfort each year. And it does so much better than most.

Since I travel so much for work - now mostly in SE Asia but before in Europe, other parts of Asia and North America as well - I have experienced dozens of airports around the world. The only ones I would rate above BKK are in Singapore (obvious choice!), Ottawa (beautiful new terminal and very efficient - though slow incoming immigration on international flights) and perhaps Toronto (thought the walk to the gates in the new T1 feels nearly as far as the far reaches of BKK and baggage seems to take forever to come out).

Nowhere is perfect - especially not in a developing country. I've noticed a lot of people on this thread and other threads like to compare to Changi. Changi is a propaganda piece by the Singapore government and they are very very successful in their effort! It's not fair to compare.

In the meantime - I think a bit of praise for the team at Suvarnabhumi is in order for making this effort. The airport has much improved since I started using it. Reupholstering the seats was a great move - as was adding the big lounge chairs where the security checks on the 2nd floor will be. The addition of the rail link (albeit rather late!) has made my commutes to the airport much smoother without the safety Russian roulette with taxi drivers (though only one has tried to rip me off - a few have nearly plowed into traffic at 160km/h).

And as another poster suggested to some of the cynics on here - how about trying to smile back when smiled at while passing through the airport? The positive attitude that results might even make you see the airport in a new and less grumpy light.

barryFunk

Thanks for a sane perspective on BKK. Though I have only used the airport about 20 times each experience has been pretty enjoyable....as airports go....... and I actually don't at all mind the time spent there. As for the moaners and whiners they will froth at the mouth at absolutely anything relating to Thai public life. One wonders why they bother to live/travel in a country they hold in such contempt.

Oh finally a good news! i was so concerned about going out at night time (but even during the day for that matter), knowing that i might eventually came across one of the very feared "overstayers" , i can cope with almost any sort of issues or dangers, but having to deal with a man/woman which is not a "quality tourist" is already bad enough, leave alone someone which break this vital law! is just too much, nevermind the killers, scammers, abusers,cheaters,thiefs around us, the constant chronic break of safety standards and human rights, etc.., go and get the overstayers that's the real crime in this country, the main priority for the resolution of all major problems affecting the country for sure, thank you amazing Thailand!

What prime idiocy. The Immigration Police have their own very narrow mandate and a separate budget from the other branches of law enforcement in Thailand, it's not a zero sum game by any means. It's a shame so many people lack the intellectual rigor that would keep them from conflating such a hodgepodge of unrelated issues.

Thank you for putting the quoted drivel in perspective---Thai immigration has long needed to enact such enforcement. Cheers.