crobe

And here is where the problems start

The majority of foreign tourists do not purchase local sims for a short stay - they rely on wifi for their facebook postings and if anything use a roaming package - but overhwlmingly they want to keep their own number so that they receive the messaging from their apps - and if there is an emergenxy fronm eople back home, that they can be contacted.

Most foreign tourists do not want to go to the trouble of contacting all their contacts to say they have a new number for a week.

So the only way to enforce this is to get the telecm operators to block all foreign roaming - which is why Thakom is now going to see them.

But foreign roaming is a huge revenue for these companies which they will not want to give up

If they block all foreign roaming phoines then there will be a backlash from foreign business people coming to Thailand.

So Thakom goes to True and talks to the CEO - who calls his boss Charoen at CP, who calls Prayut and this is all dropped.

It is actually easier for the telecoms companies to trace foreign roaming sims than to set up new systems for a different class of Thai sims

I expect this will be like the requirement for visitors to put a contact phone number on their immigration card when they came into the airport - caused so much trouble and delays that it was dropped in a couple of weeks.

A couple of times I have taken guests to this gogo in LK Metro, to be fair the girls are of a fairly high quality - a lot of long legs there - and so this is why my guests go there.

This is the way the scam works there.

You sit down and order drinks - guest drinks are about 120-150 baht depending on what you have

A couple of girls come by and sit down with you - OK - so you buy them a drink each.

The lady drink prices are a bit higher than in most of the GoGos in Pattaya (they are normally about 100-150 baht - in Showgirls it is about 200 baht and they are still only drinking soda water).

So the bill for a round for 5 people is about 700-850 baht and you see the stubs in your bin

Your girls go to dance and the other dancers come past as they come off - some shake your hand - but you have drinks there for the two girls so they dont sit down.

Your girls finish dancing - you have one or two more drinks and the stubs in the bin are up to about 2000-2500 baht.

You say you are leaving and get the checkbin, and they go away with the stubs and come back with a till receipt.

The till receipt is about 1000 baht higher as there are more lady drinks on there - one for each of the girls that shook your hand as they walked past.

As we were three guys when we objected then they backed down, but if you are guy on your own then the ruckus starts with the mamasan as she says you agreed to the drinks for the girls, and then if you refuse to pay the bouncers lay in.

The scam is the mamasan and the girls

To respond to "teacher"

Where am I getting my information from?

The police report

Where is the evidence that was not produced at the first court trial

A witness statement from one of Sean's so called "friends"

"Teacher" seems to want to put forward the case from Sean's perspective, almost the same as his lawyer argued in court and the fact that there was no corroborative evidence leading to an attempted murder charge.

Now we have one of Sean's friends giving evidence against him.

"teacher seems a bit too keen to defend him, maybe he doth protest too much"

As far as I can understand from the police report (which admittedly lacks some clarity), the original charge brought before the court was of attempted murder, but the Thai judge put a lot of enphasis on the suspected weapon (wrongly quoted by some as an iron bar - it was in fact a tyre iron or in english a wheel brace) and this was translated into Thai as a "short metal club".

There was some back and forward (Police said the forensics proved short metal club, Sean's lawyer argued that he hit his head)

Due to the weapon not being a gun or a knife and the uncertainty over the weapon the judge found that there was insufficient evidence to convict on a charge of attempted murder but allowed an appeal to go forward so that the lesser charge of assault. With a new witness statement confirming the use of the weapon this was increased to the equivalent of aggravated assault and this is what he has now been convicted of.

He can, and probably will, also appeal this sentence, but his case may hinge on getting the informant to retract their statement, as an assualt and an 'accidental injury" wuld lessen the sentence to a shoirt prison term or a fine and deportation.

There has been some new evidence in the form of a witness statement.

According to the Thai language report from the police one of Sean Tillsleys friends who was at the bar that night has corroborated the police account that Sean hit Mr Pickles with an iron bar (presumed a tyre iron) after following him from the bar after a minor traffic incident. The friend - unnamed in the police report- has detailed a confession from Sean after the event

While hearday evidence such as this would not be allowed in other jurisdictions it is in Thailand.

No honour amongst these "friends"

RIP

There is a report in Scottish newspapers of a man with the same name and from the same area going missing a couple of years ago.

Possibly had some personal or psychological problems

Depression and mental health are issues that are almost intractable and difficult to treat or help people without restricting their freedom of movement.

I feel for his family who have obviously been concerned about him before.

"recommends"? Make it an "order/expectation" otherwise no one will do it!

Thai thinking; it's only a recommendation, we DON'T HAVE to do it.

But sounds good for happiness of Thai people.

The government agency I work with has been limiting the travel for the past 9 months. I have been to some conferences (paid by me) where there is an empty chair with the Thailand name on it - so it is not true that people will not do it because it is only a recommendation

A big difference when 2 years ago everyone over a certain level (including me) got to fly business class - I can;t remember the last time I did.

He appears to be saying that this should apply to domestic flights only....not much of a hardship for flights of less than 90 minutes duration. The real drain on the budget is for international business class travel and particualrly so if choosing TG and their inflated fares

Economy on domestic and in ASEAN, business class allowed elsewhere was the message coming down to my government department yesterday.

The real effect is that some (not all) government departments are scaling back the travel - this will hit Thai badly as their biggest revenue stream is from the government officials

Any schools wishing to have drones as part of the curriculum can contact the Thai space institute GISTDA at Sri Racha.

They have programs including buliding and programming their own drones, aerial survey, high altitude balloons (startups for up to 90,000 feet altitude) and the support of one of the US major aerospace companies.

They can even learn about controlling space craft as part of their curriculum and recently held a three day "hackathon" for students to design instruments to go on drones and balloons.

JKenn wrote

"As I wrote in my original post, I believe it is primarily the way the British dealt with the legitimate grievances of the republican/nationalist communities that caused the IRA to return to prominence after it had been on the verge of disappearing."

You are incorrect.

The historic mistreatment is used as an excuse for violence it is not the cause of it - people do not take up violent acts because of what they read in history books, but because of the society they are brought up in and the political agitation of those around them, or possibly injustice occurring to them personally.

The historic abuses, while true, feed into the narrative of sectarian violence which is the true source of the terrorism in Ireland.

For example, one of my friends is an Irish protestant in Cork - every day on the way to school the catholic parents would line their children up to spit at them as they passed - every day - just one small example but it shows how the sectarianism and religious intolerance are the true root of the problems in Irish society.

And the US funding of PIRA was in exactly the same class - feeding the endemic sectarianism, while trying to cover themselves in a blanket of support against historic colonialism

One of the main stumbling blocks to integrating Ireland over the past 80 years, from before the partition onwards, has been the refusal of the Ireland government to secularise and remove the influence of the catholic church - which led the NI protestant community to fear that they would be subject to catholic ordinance - again the religious perspective feeds in to the partisan narrative.

Cabinet papers show that under these circumstances, including protection against reprisals, then the British would have agreed to a united Ireland parliament., after a period of home rule.

This is not to say that there were not just as many obstacles placed from the nationalist side, both during the early 20th century and particularly in the 1968-1969 period which culminated in the deployment of UK armed forces - or that collusion between the forces, RUC and protestant community was not an impediment - however this should be seen as being part of the overall climate including terrorist incidents on the UK mainland as well as in NI, until the Omagh bombing from the real IRA and the signing of the good Friday agreement.

....

You mention 850+ years, this is pushing the outer limits a bit, significant immigration from England to Ireland, in particular, the population of Ulster with settlers, started in the 16th century with the confiscation of Irish lands by Henry VIII and his successors, the numbers before that were quite small. This was a process basically of militarily confiscating lands owned by the persons living there at that time, and granting them to English/Scottish settlers to suit England's economic purposes. However, this is also a process that occurred in a time period 400-500 years ago and obviously nobody today is responsible for that. I was also born into a land (US) that was confiscated from its inhabitants by European immigrants. I do not consider myself responsible for that having occurred, but I do consider myself responsible for understanding any legitimate historical and current grievances that this population (referred to usually as "native americans") may have as a result of that process.

My problem with you is that you start from the premise of colonisation, which you rightly say mainly took place in the late 16th century - at the same time as a lot of colonisation to other places - the USA included.

A lot of IRA sympathisers start from this premise of "get the British to take their people out of Ireland" without recognising that these people have been there for may generations - and to hold them responsible for the actions of their ancestors is quite ridiculous.

If you wanted to remove the British from Ireland, then should it be reciprocal - all Irish and their descendants in the UK for the last 300 years to be rounded up and deported, and what about the mixed marriages - are they Irish or not?

The same could be said for the Europeans colonists in America, they are not "native Americans " and so by your arguments have no legitimacy - they should not be allowed to vote, only a native american should be president, and all the land rights for the whole country should be returned, regardless of how long people have been there (shades of Mugabe perhaps)

And you would also believe that it would be justifiable for native Americans to form an armed militia and bomb central station killing scores of innocent people in respect of how they have been treated over the past 300 years and heir lands being stolen.

While you may like to comment and make pronouncements about Ireland - somewhere that you do not live - what have you been doing to correct the historic injustice in your homeland - precisely nothing

I respectfully suggest that you turn your attentions closer to home rather than hypocratising here.

Mudcrab, whoever you are. You commented on my msg., you said get a job? So can you tell me how you know I'm not working? You clairvoyant or something. You also said get a job and dream about living Thailand? What makes you think I want to live in Thailand? I suppose you live there, your working, paying taxes? So I presume your a foreigner living in Thailand, so you must be either rich, or working to live there? If your working I'd bet my bottom dollar you don't pay any taxes there, so for you to tell me to get a job and start paying taxes, sounds a bit rich! excuse the pun. I wouldn't mind betting if the #hit hit the fan, you'd go scurrying back to wherever you come from.

What makes him think you want to live in Thailand is the fact that you are posting on a Thailand board you dumbass!

You keep referring to Thailand as "there" so you are obviously not in the country - so what connection so you have other than spouting nonsense and making yourself sound like a pre-pubescent idiot.

Your are just an ignorant troll with nothing better to do - waste of space

Censoring the press, oppresses citizens - you mean like PTP with threats of prosecutions for clicking likes on anti-Shin social media posts; or the red militia attacking people who expressed opposing views?

No, I mean where are the studies, polls and links that support your absurd and patently false claims that a huge majority of Thais enjoy living under armed oppressors?

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/nida-poll-shows-general-prayuth-favoured-prime-minister

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2014-07/28/content_17932427.htm

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/military-juntas-popularity-rises

Most of these are NIDA polls - I hope these links are allowed as other sources are not allowed

Whether you feel that these polls are true or not they do support Baerboxers point but I wait to see you link to referencing the last Thai election as being the most fair in SE Asia.

\maybe you were thinking of the statement by the Asian network for Free Eelections which commended the 2011 poll but also said

"ANFREL issued a statement Tuesday noting there were some flaws in the election, including cases of violence, intimidation and vote-buying that it urged authorities to handle appropriately."

NIDA polls are garbage!

Ah, you say, dismiss anything that supports the Junta but claim anything that supports PTP has value (such as the past 6 national elections).

Drivel I reply.

If the NIDA polls were anywhere close to being accurate there would not be the fear of elections by the Junta and anti-democrats that there is.

The simple fact is if 90% of the people support the Junta there would be elections tomorrow, they would win in a landslide and implement whatever reforms they wanted to unopposed and within the bounds of the law, instead we have a continuation of martial law and censorship and and end to democracy and free speech.

NIDA polls are garbage.

The majority of Thais, though not all supporters of Thaksin or PTP are supporters of Democracy in the true sense of the word, not some dodgy Thai style crap.

Any poll can be dismissed as garbage, but you are the one that asked for them

The July poll was conducted by Suan Dusit, another similar poll by KrungThep (Bangkok University) cannot be linked as it was reported in a paper that is not allowed to be linked to here.

Please go ahead and also call these garbage but then tel me which polling organisations you do trust, and their results relating to the current regime (Thai opinion not external)

You talk about democracy but fall into the classic trap of all anti-democrats - rubbish he opinion polls that do not agree with your point of view.

Or perhaps, like the Yingluck government in 2013 you would prefer to issue "polls" that 68% of people were happy with the rice subsidy scheme, even though no such poll existed.

You say that the majority of Thais are supporters of democracy - obviously you are not one of them (Thai or a supporter of democracy)

Stig, its almost seems that Red Apologists can pull any kind of study or poll out of thin air when it suits them.. so can you provide a link for us to read for ourselves... No ... I thought not.. And out of the 67 million Thai people living in this country, the huge majority seem happy with this present government.

As a farang it has Nothing to do with me, I can go home whenever it suits me. Personally , I feel a lot safer with this government in place... but, roll on the new constitution.. Long live the King.

Where are your studies, polls and links to prove a "huge majority seem happy with the present government"? You can't dismiss h90 by holding him to a standard that you don't even meet yourself. How or why on earth did you feel unsafe under elected governments? The accusations against the Reds are basically all financial (and false) - nothing at all about endangering expats. If you feel comfortable living under a coup government that censors and oppresses its citizens you probably won't be welcome "back home" anymore as yours are not the views that civilised countries welcome. Long live the King and short live the Junta.

Censoring the press, oppresses citizens - you mean like PTP with threats of prosecutions for clicking likes on anti-Shin social media posts; or the red militia attacking people who expressed opposing views?

No, I mean where are the studies, polls and links that support your absurd and patently false claims that a huge majority of Thais enjoy living under armed oppressors?

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/nida-poll-shows-general-prayuth-favoured-prime-minister

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2014-07/28/content_17932427.htm

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/military-juntas-popularity-rises

Most of these are NIDA polls - I hope these links are allowed as other sources are not allowed

Whether you feel that these polls are true or not they do support Baerboxers point but I wait to see you link to referencing the last Thai election as being the most fair in SE Asia.

\maybe you were thinking of the statement by the Asian network for Free Eelections which commended the 2011 poll but also said

"ANFREL issued a statement Tuesday noting there were some flaws in the election, including cases of violence, intimidation and vote-buying that it urged authorities to handle appropriately."

@Baerboxer

You

You'd need to be incredibly dumb to actually believe violence could win over the long term. It never has and many of those who live by the sword die by it. Thatcher, I think, despised the IRA for the cowardly murders of people including her friend the WW2 hero Airey Neave, But she realized the the IRA, INLA, UDA, UVF and UFF were not the entire population. You can't strife for a fair and just society in the UK and leave out Ulster.

Martin McGuiness and Ian Paisley saw this, and were able to put the past aside and work hard together to achieve real progress. Dinosaurs like Adams were sidelined.

Do you know of any politician who isn't two (or more when necessary) faced?

Me

The IRA didn't murder Airey Neave, that was the INLA.

Adams hasn't been sidelined and is still a leading figure in the movement to unite Eire after the unilateral partition of it by the English, thankfully a peaceful movement.

Thatcher was one of the most despicable politicians of the recent past. All politicians lie I agree but her lies destroyed communities.

However that all said I agree with your condemnation of violence.

It is never a solution.

Thatcher was a politician I will never forgive but she wasn't stupid and realised that violence had failed.

All sides including the govt have blood on their hands because of the violence perpetrated by the paramilitary groups. All of them.

That is past.

A treaty was signed.

Peace has been achieved.

We all need to move on.

Was it the INLA who murdered Neave? They claimed responsibility although other theories exist. Anyway he was murdered, probably by Irish terrorists which I'm sure Mrs Thatcher would have noted.

You may view Thatcher how you want to, from an Irish perspective, but she took over a UK that had become the sick man of Europe being completely <deleted> up by trades unions that had been infiltrated by the extreme left. She was the medicine the UK needed at that time, however unpalatable that may have been. She was democratically elected, the longest serving PM of the 20th century and the only woman to hold that office. So, many did not support your view. Like many, she arguable went too far in the other direction.

Violence creates more violence as a response, which creates more violence. A vicious cycle. Once someone becomes embroiled it's hard to break out of. Adams still spouts the old rhetoric. He's held in check, and pushed south of the border. Understandable. McGuiness, has the intelligence and honesty to admit the wrong doings, on all sides, of the past and expresses correctly how things that seemed right at the time, can be seen to be so wrong later.

A deal was done, an agreement signed. There are dissidents and criminals hiding under political banners who still need dealing with. This warrant jumper is possibly an example. Peace anywhere is fragile - just look at how quickly violence has erupted all around the world.

One poster on this thread supports the idea of political violence, and even advocates it in support of a united Ireland, even though the majority in Ulster want to remain part of the UK. Whilst people think like that violence will always be just below the surface.

... and the majority of people in the Republic want to see Ireland reunited again. So who do we listen to? The wishes of the people of Ulster or the people of the Republic? I know! Why don't we listen to what the "majority of people on the island of Ireland" want... both from Ulster and the Republic.

But if Ireland were a united country would it let the north have a referendum on independence as we have just see with Scotland - or are they not as democratic as the British?

Just to put people clear on this - from someone who actually knows.

The reference to NASA is to have an integrated organisation to manage the space program - at the present time there are three organisations - GISTDA the largest is under the Ministry of Science and Technology and came out of the GIS and mapping area so concentrates mostly on Earth Observations but is now getting into Navigation and Science, the Space Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of ICT is the one that regulates Thaicom, and the military have a department called DIST (department of intelligence and Space Technology).

Putting these three together into a civil/military structure like NASA is the idea.

Most people do not know that Thailand has already its own satellite (Thaichote or THEOS-1) in orbit for monitoring the earth (not Thaicom), but this is now over 6 years old and needs replacing

It was built by Astrium (now Airbus) of France who are one of the international companies at the space center in Sri Racha. Other international companies are migrating there and there may be shortly an announcement of one of the major US Aerospace companies moving in - the challenge is to get the partnerships working so that this international expertise can be transferred to Thailand with new projects.

As to not allowing people to work there because they are not Thai - I know of a least one falang who is working there at the moment.

Thailand will never replicate NASA, or ESA, or the Chinese space program, because t does not have the budget to do so, but it can, like many other emerging nations make a contribution.

The Indians recently built a Mars probe for around $29m, Dubai is launching a Mars program, I am not saying that Thailand should try to put a Thai on the moon or go to mars, but they could participate in some interesting programs.

The value of such a program is not so much in the spacecraft built, but in the encouragement of students to go into science, software, higher technology careers otherwise it will be surpassed, not just by Singapore, but by Indonesia, Malaysia and even Vietnam who are all investing in space programs to drive their technology standards upwards.

Is Thailand trying the dangerous game of playing potential investors off against each other to get the best deals ?

China has its foot in the door and may have something to say about it.

Dead right........China won't allow this to happen.........!!

Just face saving PR ........

You have no idea how the Thai Government works.

Yes, they are looking to give the East-West routes to japan because they want to have balance - these have been in discussions for some months now.

In my job I get direct instructions from the Minister that if one project goes to the Japanese or the Chinese we have to balance it out, otherwise we risk the overall investment.

The Thai governments have always felt that their handling of the Brits and French to maintain independence is the way to continue with international affairs, it is just the great game again with different players.

My main concern is lack of coordination on these projects.

By my calculation we now have 3 different schemes for rail to Rayong - the Nong Khai-Nakhon Ratchasima-Kaeng Khoi-Map Ta Phut line agreed with the Chinese - the AoT plan to connect Suvarhnabumi to U-Tapao, and the new East-West line Phu Nam Ron-Kanchanaburi-Bangkok-Rayong.

There needs to be some coordination on the use of a single route otherwise we could end up with overlapping plans for 6 lines.

I think many of us do actually have a very good understanding of how the Thai government, and others, work.

It's just very unfortunate, that so many projects owned and operated by Thai governments of the past, turn into disasters eventually.

The Thai government' experience with rail transport is totally disgraceful...........I take it you work for the Ministry of Transport.......

I'm sure a prospective JV partnership would havethe foreign partner nervously wondering how the Thais could cooordinate such large infrastructure projects as the 3 different routes you mention.

No I don't work for the MoT, but I have, and still do, work for other ministries and APOs.

You have completely missed the point.

I was not commenting on the implementation of past projects but on the policy at the moment, which I have knowledge of and you have none.

I do, however, agree with you that the coordination of 3 projects is a challenge to Thailand, which is why I raised my concern

You have added nothing of value.

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If there one thing I have learnt over the years it is that a Chinaman never gives money away without some form of pay back assured,

The Chinese are not giving anything. They will have 80% equity in the rail project and to payback the Chinese, Thailand will pay them 80% of the revenues until the project is paid offf. Since the Chinese will also design and construct the project, it's a great deal for them.

The deal will be structured as part Thai government funding, part soft loan from the Chinese, and partly a PPP (Public-Private partnership) for the operations and development of stations and facilities along the route.

The ratio of the above is still to be decided, but it may mean that the Thai government would only have to guarantee around 20% of the total cost of the project at the outset.

My concern is the interest rate for the Chinese soft loan - recent deals have been at around LIBOR +2.7% which is quite high (because t is a variable rate loan), so they should make sure it is a much lower rate as a fixed interest rate - better than the US EX-IM bank rates or the ADB.

The Japanese funding agencies have a fixed rate of 0.6% for a 40 year loan for countries in Thailand's bracket, and a variable rate below LIBOR.

One project in Myanmar is quoted as having failed due to the high interest rate demanded by the Chinese

Is Thailand trying the dangerous game of playing potential investors off against each other to get the best deals ?

China has its foot in the door and may have something to say about it.

Dead right........China won't allow this to happen.........!!

Just face saving PR ........

You have no idea how the Thai Government works.

Yes, they are looking to give the East-West routes to japan because they want to have balance - these have been in discussions for some months now.

In my job I get direct instructions from the Minister that if one project goes to the Japanese or the Chinese we have to balance it out, otherwise we risk the overall investment.

The Thai governments have always felt that their handling of the Brits and French to maintain independence is the way to continue with international affairs, it is just the great game again with different players.

My main concern is lack of coordination on these projects.

By my calculation we now have 3 different schemes for rail to Rayong - the Nong Khai-Nakhon Ratchasima-Kaeng Khoi-Map Ta Phut line agreed with the Chinese - the AoT plan to connect Suvarhnabumi to U-Tapao, and the new East-West line Phu Nam Ron-Kanchanaburi-Bangkok-Rayong.

There needs to be some coordination on the use of a single route otherwise we could end up with overlapping plans for 6 lines.

Hard times has fallen all over the world due to the economic situation.

Hope things change in the near future, because it's not good either for Pattaya or any other city in the world.

Nope.

Not everywhere.

Putin's Russia is in economic meltdown.

I hope strong man dictator Putin withdraws from Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.

I hope Putin stops scapegoating gays and blaming problems that he created on gays and the west.

How about that?

Jing, understand your animosity towards Putin, but that is only your personal problem.

For Russians living in Russia, ruble crash has had little affect.

It only affects those who travel overseas, which would be easily fixed in a few months, airfares by Aeroflot would be cheaper.

You can also forget Crimea and Eastern Ukraine was NOT under his control, but would not surprise me if it will be from now on.

Like it or hate it, Russians filled up restaurants, hotels and were major players in real estate market.

With them been gone, there is noone to fill their shoes,which very possibly does mean restaurant closures, hotel closures and abandoned construction sites.

Too many selfish people fail to see the big picture and goat about ruble crashing without realizing the consequences for EU. After all Russia was HUGE market 400 billion in trade per year

Not true,

It will affect people in Russia greatly - they mainly export oil and gas and import just about everything else (except basic foods), so these import prices are doubling in the last coupe of months and could still increase even more.

Added to that the increase in the interest rates from 10.5% to 17% overnight and there will be a lot of people in debt aswell.

As to the fact that there is no-one to fill their shoes, did you not see that the tourist figures from China were up 58% - and if you have ever been on an Airasia flight from China to Bangkok (as I was last week), you will know that they are an order of magnitude worse in their manners than the Russians, quite a lit of whom were ill-mannered, but also quite a few nice couple and with kids.

But the Pattaya people are adaptable - expect to see all those restaurant, day tours and airport run signs suddenly change from Cyrillic to Chinese script.

I will wait to see if they actually tear it down or magically have "delays" while everyone forgets about the news story.

That's my take on this one as well. Delay, waffle, delay, appeal, more paperwork. IMHO it will still be there next year.

Nice place by the look of it too.

http://residence.aetashotels.com/

As someone who stays regularly in the Aetas hotel and the Aetas residence I can say that this is honestly one of the best hotels to stay in around bankok without going to the ridiculous prices of the 5-star establishments - it is very good value for the price.

While I applaud the adherence to the law in all cases I find the complaints in this case to be a bit hypocritical - as they come from a cetain group of people with a NIMBY attitude from when it was built

If we look at the law that says this residence should not be there because of the small width of the soi not allowing buildings over 8 storeys then that is OK, but the Aetas is not the cause of most of the traffic problems on the Soi.

There are entrances off the Soi Ruamrudee to the All Seasons place (with 4 buildings including the Conrad hotel over the stipulated height including one of over 30 storeys) and the Plaza Athenee which has two buildings of over 30 storeys - and these cause a lot of the traffic problems

These developments are so large that they go all the way through to Wittayu Road and therefore have their "official" address on Wittayu road (even though the Athenee is a lot closer to Ruamrudee). All Seasons is used by taxis and other cars as a convenient cut-through from one to the other which is where the main traffic problems are.

If the law is to stop the traffic problems then at least the Ruamrudee entrances from these developments should also be closed off at the same time as they order the demolition of the Aetas - but probably will not happen because the vocal NIMBYs have not complained about these buildings

Enforce the law the same for all or not at all

Looks like some kids just a in a bit of fun don't look like much harm really

There is a bike road race takes place on the slip road of hwy 36 as you come off motorway 7 in front of the regents school.

We have been through it a couple of times on the way home late at night and you don't see them until you drop off the bridge over the highway and then they are all over the road.

My greatest fear is that they are sometimes out of control and even if you slow down you nearly end up hitting them as they are weaving all over the road - the harm will actually come to them as in any confrontation between a bike and a car the bike will lose.

It is a great temptation to just keep going at normal speed come what may, but you would not want to take the consequences of having to confront about 50 of them when you have your family in the car.

no harm - my a*se

If they are going to spend 8bn Baht on this program then they need an independent feasibility study along the lines of the Ministry of Science and Technology study for THEOS last year, not an internal committee. And as to cooperating with GISTDA for the operations, this is a good idea, but as far as I know GISTDA have not been informed about this