hardy1943

This sounds like an old Bush tax cut, fore super wealthy only

I suppose if you keep saying the same thing over and over again, you may begin to believe it.

HMM, did you even bother to read the article? Khun Chai is saying that there will be a economic downturn in thailand, especially for the middle class, but that tourism will not continue to drop off. We have seen a sharp recovery from almost a 58% drop in biz in the rsta district, the oriental at one point in time was at a 1% occ, oriental dhara devi was at 24%, the intercon at 20% ect ect occupancy has increased fairly rapidly over the last few weeks, granted its not where it should be but weekly growth has improved, so no the world isnt gonna come to a end because the airports were closed for a few days

Dead Cat Bounce ? What are the figures like after Xmas? These reports fly in the face of on the ground evidence. What luck? another opportunity to utter those immortal words: wake up smell the coffee!!!

Up here in Chiang Rai they are lucky if occupancy is 50% this week, they used to be fully booked and used to increase the room rates by 50% during the holidays

They are really a joke LOL

Last week, I saw a bank teller reject a 1,000 bank note from a depositor at Chiang Rai.

Yup, instead of keeping it and contact the authourities he gave it back to them with a smile.

Saw the same thing in Chiang Rai at Siam Commercial bank someone trying to pass a counterfit $100 US bill.

Could not beleive it just gave it back to them,in any first rate country they would want to know where you got it from.

Just keep on dreaming. To face a kangaroo court it will never happen

If this becomes true - it is serious.

I love it. The ruling PAD shot themselves in the foot. Nice job you elite idiots

So, Thailand will have a right wing military backed "Democratic" party led government after all. Big surprise. They are doing a great job in Myanmar, let them have a shot at Thailand. What's the fuss?

Exactly, they are already best friend and party together

Let's be honest: During the Thaksin 'era' a lot of good things happened.

Yes, Mr. T. was obviously corrupt and onviously he absued his power for his own good, but Thailand went into a lot prosperity and economic growth. Yes or no?

Suppose, you were in his position in a country as Thailand, wouldn't you do the same?

I would!!

He gave the poor hope and treated them like real human being and they will never forget it.

The country club boys.. PAD.. STAND FOR ME AND MYSELF AND I. The hel_l with the poor.

Just look what they did the last few month. Completly ruined the Thai economy for years to come.

Nazis which is what they are pure and simple...

I second that motion

If the people who supported the PAD at the beginning now understand what a monster they help to create, at least something good can come out of this.

They are a bunch of thugs and moron. They even make Bush look like a genius.

Those poor overworked bureaucrats need a break from shuffling papers.

Be great having the town empty for 5 days though.

Thats why we need 5 copies of everything. I do think shufflingpapers makes them feel important.

I often think, who has the market of selling the papers, seem like a lot of waste on the enviroment.

Don't let yourself be fooled.

This is Thailand.

It's all bout the money.

At the end of the day , it doesn't matter who you support or who you vote for , you fools.

It's about hte next Benz for the next Mia Noi, you morons.

Usually the mia noi gets something a bit less than a Merc, if only to show the respective positions of the mia luang and the mia noi and to fit with her cute image. But your overall point stands.

Einstein would have said " it's all relative " .

Nevermind,. I know a lot of Thai so called Hi-So's who have bought( where the money comes from is the real question) Mercs or Beemers for their many Mia Nois.

Thanks for being smart enough not to not let them fool you .

None of them , on either side of the current political divide, gives a shit about democracy, people's welfare or Thailand's international reputation.

It's just about making sure they get their disgusting nose in the trough , next time around .

Now you can choose to wear your yellow or red blinfolds 24/7, but it ain't gonna change nothing.

Right on !!!!!! Anyone that thinks different is a fool.

Apparently Yingluck Thaksin's sister is utterly shocked when she is not named new supreme leader of Peau Thai.

Things get weirder and weirder

Edited to add: Yongyuth Wichaidit the dude elected was at the Dem press conference yesterday so I guess the Dem coaliton is now off as Peau Thai resort to extreme measures to retain power

Lets face it, this whole thing is a joke, got to live here even to beleive what is going on.

Now you'll see the election with a brand new squeaky clean "PPP". (Run by Thaksin of course).

Did you think that they haven't been waiting for this?

yeah, my dear friends.......Long live PPP and Taksin.... surely the people of Issan

Next time they will win by a larger margin lol

Oh please, every political party in Thailand "breaks the law". Just about every high ranking government official "breaks the law". Just about every high ranking police officer "breaks the law". Just about every high ranking military officer "breaks the law". And quite frankly, the judiciary of Thailand has never been without its dirty laundry and it too has always been under the influence of one political faction or another. What has changed is that Sondhi has used his media power to demonize the opposition and so now we have the pawns of both megalomaniacs, Thaksin and Sondhi, wearing their gang colors avowing to destroy the opposition. So the chess game will continue. All that has happened is that one side got some leverage over the judiciary who then threw the board up in the air to mix up all the pieces and start anew. But the stalemate will continue. There is no good news here for the Kingdom and the Thai people.

nicely put.

I agree. Amazing Thailand. Thugs still in airport. Other found giulty by a ???????? court. What is that Aussie animal lol.

I empathize with those pasengers but I wonder why most do not simply get on the train to Penang. Get a bus from there to KL and leave from there.

Is the average tourist that hopeless?

On a different tack I hope the Thai travellers to Mecca managed to get out. Some of them may have saved for years for their one ond only trip of a lifetime.

Why, stay here collect 2000 Baht per person a day and laugh at their incompetence

To give you some idea of how these protests are affecting the ordinary foreign tourist, I am just back at my computer after spending the majority of the past 2 days at Phuket Airport, - in my role as a volunteer Tourist Police officer.

Of course, Phuket Airport is open! But the airport is chaotic, both due to the closure of BKK airports and the lack of available flights/seats back to European airports or to KL and Singapore.

There are thousands of stranded tourists, some who have exhausted their funds, some who are old and some with tired children - all trying to get out of Thailand and back to their homes.

Maybe you say 'what's a little delay for them? so what - this is all about fighting for democracy in Thailand etc etc blah blah blah'

The point is - when and if PAD achieves what they purport to be fighting for, there won't be much left to savour!

Do you really think that any of these tourists will return to Thailand in the future? Of course views are biased and tempers short right now. But in 6 months from now, when foreign tourists are planning their long holidays, do you think that Thailand will be on the list as a holiday destination? Dream on!!

By all mean hold peaceful demonstrations. But PAD seems to have totally lost the plot. Their actions will ultimately and detrimentally affect thousands of Thai businesses who operate in the tourism sector.

Don't believe me? Come and talk to the tourists at Phuket Airport who have vowed never to return to Thailand :(

Simon

I just had several friends from the US cancell their visit, they will go to Cost Rica instead.

What shocks me is who can support these people and people who agree with this kind of protests.

Incredibly, a lot of Thaivisa posters support these thugs.

Tank You, in any other country these THUGS would be considered terrorist, which they actually are,try this in the UK

or USA........but there it would never have happend........security is not sleeping on the job like here

At last logic and common sense prevails!! Who said they didn't have it in them!!!?

Indeed, I'm flabergasted that officialdom are using common sense.

What next? abolition of dual pricing? Exchange rates allowed to float?

Sorry! Keep on dreaming. However Immigration seem like the only ones in LOS that think and have common sense.

All of you who are in favor of a coup should be ashamed. You are probably from democratic countries. This is a democratically elected government. I do not like Taksin and the fact that his brother-in-law is the present leader but hw was DEMOCRATICALLY placed in office.

I am sick of PAD. The army should assist Somchai in controlling them.

Agree.....bunch of unelected Boy Scouts beholding to a yellow dose of Anarkiss-Kiss my Ar....with big pay masters ....namely........ and

oops ...mai phut again..tit-s....the world is laughing at them......loss of face me ar.......its just so so sad....

Can not beleive half of you are for a military dictatorship. Are you people from RUSSIA?

Talk about coruption the last time the military was in power. A run on the military bank........look it up on google

who increased the wealth and how.........some I can not mention ......do not want a knock on my door

Let me clearly state that I don't support the politics of either side. My comments below stem from a political process analysis, not from an ideological preference.

It is clear that the reason the protests erupted is because the shadow PM in Hong Kong and his party express the following view of democracy:

"We received the most votes, so therefore we can do whatever we want until the next election and are only responsible to those who supported our election. Everyone else lost and therefore has no voice"

This was evident when the shadow PM made his Freudian slip some time ago and let it be known that provinces that voted for him would receive government services ahead of any that hadn't.

It's further evident from when the Cooking PM was removed and replaced by the single man who could ignite the most outrage in the opposition - the brother-in-law of the shadow PM. It demonstrates a total disregard for compromise or negotiation, even when handed a convenient and face-saving excuse to open a door for discussion.

The result is that whatever group has objections and would like input into the governing process has but one option- to take to the streets. I don't think it is useful to condemn any such group for using their only option, and using it very effectively.

Instead we should be asking why the government could not have created a forum in which the disenfranchised could not be accommodated? In the end, it is the government's job to govern the country responsibly. Instead, the government takes the view that it must RULE the country (as opposed to govern it), and the result is the disenfranchisement of a segment of the population that has the knowledge and power to do something about it.

I would compare the methods and demography (not the politics) of the current protesters to the American rebels at the beginning of the revolution - for example, at the Boston Tea Party. The source of the insurrection is not the protesters, but rather an attempt by the government to rule without moral authority rather than govern with responsibility for the good of the country.

VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!!

A government should be there for all the people!

Yes indeed! Thank you, peekint, for your perspective, and thanks to yeeowww also for his views.

Short-term, things are in an awful mess, tourists and many Thais are suffering, the nation is losing face in the eyes of the world, etc.

Long-term, if the crackdown on PAD that so many posters are advocating comes to pass, Toxin will return to resume his dictatorial rule. And he will be angrier, and more vengeful than before. I lived in Bkk. thru the whole rise of Toxin era; from his monopolistic gouging of AIS customers, to his massive tax evasion on the Shin sale, and all his shameless shenanigans in between. Another Toxic era is the worst outcome for Thailand, IMHO.

I thought Chang Noi put it well, in his conclusion to his recent column (The Nation Monday Nov. 24, page 9A):

"Here lies the poison in the choice which the country faces. Backing democracy also means endorsing Thaksin's overweening greed, his evident desire for revenge, and his authoritarian bent. Meanwhile, standing up for morality, the rule of law, and clean politics means endorsing coups, PAD's cultish and violent conservatism, a mangled version of democracy, and all that lies behind them."

CLEAN POLITICS here KEEP ON DREAMING never happened WHO EVER IN POWER

The coin has two sides

It does not surprise/astonish me that the "mob" actions are "unreasonable". But what about the goverment?

Lets not forget the true source behind this escalation of violence...

In most countries around the world the police and military are there to restore civil order.

Here they both have a job also but it is to be corrupt and fill there pocketts full of money

Numbers anyone?

Just how many protesters are there actually on the streets of Bangkok?

The only estimates I've seen for yesterday were 40,000 in the Post (quoted in the last thread) and "from a half to a third of the expected number" from AP (also quoted in the last thread) which would give from 25 to 33 thousand from PAD's dream of having 100,000 turn out. Give them 40,000, or even 50,000 and that's still less people than turn out for a good English football match! Coupled with the other quote in the last thread that support at Gov Hse. was dwindling away to no more than 5000 hard core protesters on a day to day basis, makes me think that the vast mass of Thailand's population want nothing more to do with Sondhi and his bunch of clowns.

And then Jai Dee reports that "100 protesters have reached Don Muang"..........ONE HUNDRED, and they think this gives them a mandate to overthrow the Government (however inept this present one may be). I've been watching the live coverage on TV (not ASTV - I don't get the cartoon channel), and while there were certainly crowds, a good few thousand or so, it was nothing like the mass uprising that PAD have hyped it up to be.

PAD may well be right about one thing. This probably will be the final attempt, I don't think the next one would be big enough to even make the news!

40,000 is a joke, Taksin would draw a crowd several fold just to return to LOS

Can't they just close the windows, wear socks and move around a bit more? 12 deg isn't going to kill anyone <deleted>.

Assuming they have any windows to close or any socks to wear. And if you try to sleep, you cannot move around much to keep warm, can you?

Windows, if there are any, may be with one pane and no insulation and a wooden hut with corrugated roof and half an inch distance between the wall panels is not going to stop the cold and the wind.

I like you to go into the hills now with a small tent and a mattress dressed in jeans and shirt. By all means take a sweater too. No extra blanket, no sleeping bag! With this equipment have a good night's sleep and come back here and tell everyone how easy it was.

Thank you, well said.

We live close to down town Chiang Rai and our youngest caught a cold, we are well off and I turned the portable heater on. I can not beleive

some of you making jokes about the poor mountain people. SHAME ON YOU

I think Thai Baht will go to around 43 to USD during the next year. As soon as the Thai Central Bank stops supporting The Baht it will go pretty fast. Just look at the Korean currency.

Does anyone know how large deposit amount is insured in case the bank goes bankrupt.

I do not think there is any deposit insurance. Have 1.5 mill. Baht in a CD, will mature Dec. 23th have it with Siam Com.

Plan to build a house here in Chiang Rai. See some of newly build houses and business complexes finished here are still

sitting there empty. This world wide recession will hit LOS very hard. Baht is way to strong and exports drying up.

US $ 34.5 Baht ... Pound 53.1...Euro 43.1 ..Aussie 20.9 Tourism is almost gone. With those exchange rates no one will

invest here. I have the most loveliest Thai wife and the house is for her, we already have a beautiful piece of property

1 rai all walled in with a stainless steel gate. I am American and I do not like the exchange rate , I feel sorry for all of you