Misterwhisper

There exists a nice little metaphor that I was told many years ago by a THAI (!!!) economics professor:

There's a pond brimming with fish.

The Laotian casts out his net, examines the catch, selects as many fish as he needs for his next meal and throws all the rest back into the pond, so it also will yield enough for many more meals to come.

The Chinese casts out his net, examines the catch, selects as many fish as he needs for his next meal and a number more to sell in the market. But he is careful to especially not touch the smallfry and tosses it back into the pond to ensure the stocks will not deplete.

The Thai casts out his net, drags the catch on land and takes EVERYTHING regardless of size. He sets aside some of the fish for his next meal and sells all the rest in the market. He does this every day. Eventually, the cast-out net comes up completely empty - and then the big lamenting starts.

I back Sukhumband. We really don't need yet another shopping complex, especially not in an area that is so notoriously traffic-choked like Makkasan.

And look at the gigantic Airport Link terminal at Makkasan, one of the largest public misinvestments of the past two decades. It was designed to hold hundreds of shops. To this day, there is not one tenant. This "commercial development" backfired just as much as the idea of providing a city check-in facility for Suvarnabhumi airport. The few airlines that had set up counters there pulled out after a couple of months, because they realized that practically no-one bothered to go through the trouble of going to Makkasan. It's much easier to just take a taxi straight from the hotel or one's home to the airport.

Yes, we definitely MUST have another sprawling shopping complex. Screw the park idea. Who needs trees?

One of the reasons the Makkasan terminal is the size it is, is because of the planned development in the area. Making the area a park will just ensure it becomes what everyone already thinks it is.

You mean an utter waste of space? Because that's what it is right now.

I back Sukhumband. We really don't need yet another shopping complex, especially not in an area that is so notoriously traffic-choked like Makkasan.

And look at the gigantic Airport Link terminal at Makkasan, one of the largest public misinvestments of the past two decades. It was designed to hold hundreds of shops. To this day, there is not one tenant. This "commercial development" backfired just as much as the idea of providing a city check-in facility for Suvarnabhumi airport. The few airlines that had set up counters there pulled out after a couple of months, because they realized that practically no-one bothered to go through the trouble of going to Makkasan. It's much easier to just take a taxi straight from the hotel or one's home to the airport.

Yes, we definitely MUST have another sprawling shopping complex. Screw the park idea. Who needs trees?

Good idea, bad execution. I will gladly spend a couple of hours on the Internet to save $94 in extra fees for a business class ticket that I can source myself, and possibly even cheaper than some obscure "expert".

"...and suggest that those who commit severe offenses be expelled from their place of study."

Hm, isn't that a little harsh?

Why no just transfer them to an inactive post?

If that sort of "punishment" is adequate enough for adults, then it certainly also is for unruly youngsters.

Why is Truevisions so obsessed to reshuffle their channels once every year or so? It's really annoying. Once you have become familiar where your preferred channels are located, they do it again. This time it's even worse than before, because all channels are scrambled up in seemingly random order, which makes navigating difficult. At least the most important channels had been more or less coherently grouped together before, i.e. movies, news, knowledge, so you could comfortably click through them.

I do understand that they occasionall drop channels and also add new ones, but why this random distribution and why this incessant reshuffling? Is there any technical reason for it?

But perhaps this in one of the value-added services Truevisions think they provide to their subscribers. The whole family can get together and play "Search the Channel" on boring Sundays and it provides hours and hours of free entertainment. Not.

Yeah...........and like none of you ever went into bars or clubs when you were 17 huh?

Mind you, for some, 17 is more than likely a very distant memory.

None of the nightclubs in my homecountry would have admitted me when I was 17, because I was underage and they would have broken several laws if they did. Touché!

Mai sai, pong shoe rod (crap).

Mai ... tone ending up

sai ... tone ending up

pong ... tone neutral (even)

shoe ... tone neutral (even)

rod ... tone ending up

As for me ... I just get 'wacky dreams' if they pile it in, or I eat it late at night.

Hope that helps.

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Close, but MSG is actually ผงชูรส or pong (rising tone) chuu (neutral) rot (high tone)

So, "mai sai pong chuu rot".

I second that. And the "mai" is actually a falling tone.

gold price hits lowest level in 30 years

= rubbish!

I agree. Absolute rubbish and misleading. Gold only started to rally steadily in late 2008. Until then the price per ounce had been lingering around the $830 mark for years on end. I think what the writer wanted to convey that gold experienced the largest two-day slump in 30 years, which would be true.

I also agree with another poster (IMA_FARANG) that gold is grossly over-sold, thus over-priced, at current levels, although I do not share his reasoning for that. I mean, just a while ago (last September, I think) gold topped out at close to $2,000 per ounce (appox. 31 GRAMS), which was absurd.

If the tourism industry is short on workforce, individual businesses suffering shortages simply should hire more employees instead of whining to the government. Isn't that how business works?

But if they did hire more staff, they would probably start moaning about increased overhead and reduced net profit.

Whichever way the ball falls, it's never right.

The body of a 57 Year old American was found in his South Pattaya rented apartment on Wednesday and Police suspect he died in suspicious circumstances.

Who writes these articles and photo captions, 13-year-old junior high school students?

Every year the same announcement.

And every year the same results.

Two in three welcome lewd acts during Songkran: Survey

That is the only logical conclusion we can draw from the article, yes.

It might actually help if first-time visitors to an "exotic place" took a little time to read up on the location before heading there. There is no excuse for falling victim to such scams just because you were too lazy to do your homework and wandered off into the blue.

This scam has been around literally for DECADES and there are thousands of travel websites (not to mention good 'ole paper guidebooks) that warn about this scam in exhaustive detail.

Likewise for the "gemstone promotion by government - only today, Sir!" scam and countless others that ALWAYS will find their victims and thus will NEVER abate. As long as there is money to be made from the naive and ignorant, those crooks will be around.

Read up on it BEFORE you come here, is all I'm saying.

Went to a large superstore chain, where they offered large "green" canvas shopping bags at the counters for just 40 Baht each.

I took two, put them on the counter's conveyor belt in front of my other groceries. The check-out girl put them both in a plastic bag, then proceeded to handle the groceries likewise.

I watched on for a few seconds, then asked her, in Thai: "Why do you think I just bought these two shopping bags?"

She stopped, gazed at me with a look that was between "what does this strange 'farang' want from me?" and "have I done something wrong?" and you could clearly see how her brain was trying to process my question... clickety-click.

It finally dawned on her. She pulled out the two bags, handed them to me with a smile, and then... PROCEEDED putting my remaining groceries into more plastic bags!

Two canvas bags in my hands, I was standing there, speechless.

Judge: "So, do you admit to the illegal gambling charges laid against you?"

Accused: "No, your Honor. All I did was paying 20 Baht at a fairground stall so I could throw a few darts. I was good at it and won a cuddly toy."

Judge: "You abominable criminal, you! Don't you even have the slightest remorse for what you did?! You human detritus, you scum, you corruptor of morals! Guilty!"

Accused: [speechless]

1 million tonnes of gold? Laughable. It's probably an estimated 1 million tonnes of newly discovered gold ORE deposits, which is not to be confused with 1 million tonnes of pure gold.

The Tungkum mine PRODUCED 17,845 ounces of gold in 2007. That's roughly 543 kilogrammes, i.e. about half a ton. For this yield it had to PROCESS (i.e. mine, smelt and refine) approximately 400,000 tonnes of ore.

'Nuff said.

Today is April 1st, so I believe this article is a joke.

Firstly, it brims with incosistencies and (deliberately?) hidden mistakes. Secondly, no newspaper, agency or other media outlet has been credited at the bottom as the source, but there's only the Thai Visa News logo.

Whoever fell for this: Have a hearty laugh at yourself. It's healthy.

At least the Education MInistry can learn a valuable lesson from these hackers: These guys are really, really, truly, truly EFFECTIVE in what they do. The ministry ain't.

A "moral crusade" initiated in a country where most moral considerations are often little more than face-saving window dressing and frequently thrown out of the same is a sure recipe for success. Not.

Somchai: "Let's go gambling."

Supachai: "No way, it's morally wrong, you know..."

Somchai: "Don't you worry, the den is run by Cpt. Nop and under the protection of Col. Tik, a man of very high moral standing."

Supachai: "Well, in this case it's alright, I guess. Let's go."

"However, the average spending of a tourist is only 3,000 Baht, or about 100 US dollars, per day."

Okay, so that is around 1,400 US$ PER PERSON during a two-week vacation and does not yet include the flight ticket.

That really sounds like a paltry amount in a country that has fixed its daily minimum income at 300 Baht (10 US$), doesn't it?

What irks me most is that tiny little word "only" that has been slipped in. I doubt very much that these so-called average tourists back home are able to spend "only" 100 US$ every single day. To most people, 100 US$ are a considerable amount of money, whether on holiday or not. For Miss hi-so prime minister it is "only" 100 US$.

Slowly but steadily absolute greed creeps in and it never seems enough how much they want to fleece from tourists. It's almost to the point that they are looking down on the "average" tourist.

Let's be frank, more than 22 million "average" tourists per year (discounting those current 20% of "high-end" vacationers) is an enormous amount of visitors. Some other vacation countries in the world can just dream of such figures. Yet for Thailand that is still not enough.

Pathetic.