catweazle

I am shocked reading the comments from people hoping the Russians stop coming. If they don't come then local people will lose their jobs in hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and construction sites

The Russians come in huge numbers and spend money, unlike I would imagine the majority of other nationalities, including people on this site, who came here for sex.

Hilarious! Thanks for making my day!

Call me sarcastic, but isn't this headline what we all (none Russians) have been waiting for?

Would be sad though to see all those long-legged high heel hardbodies with their hotpants pulled up their cracks leave, but we simply can't have it all, can we?

As far as I can see here you have two options:

1) Fight, kick, scream, consult laywers, private investigators, and lose even more money on them, have sleepless nights, perform an emotional rollercoaster ride from hope to despair to "perhaps and maybe tomorrow", feel deepest sorrow, have highest hopes and finally suffer defeat.

2) Hold your head high, cut your losses, walk away and start a new life.

Third option would be to put a bullet in your head or jump off a cliff, but I hope you are clever enough to not do it for your son's sake who will - eventually - try to find you when he grows up. Then, for him it will be better to visit a living dad that was unable to spend a good portion of his life with, instead of a tombstone.

Believe me - been there, done all that, it's not just some brainless babble, it is life experience I share here with you, even though it might be ridiculed by some members here. But there, it's up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff...

Good luck and all the best to you!

did you ever cheat on her?

None of your business I'd say, but wait..... are you, perhaps who I think you are? Hey Chivas, I think we found your wife!!!

Perhaps it's about time to rename "Roofies" into "Balcies" or something...

Always easy for the tourists to blame someone else for getting completely $#itfaced while partying with things getting our of hand eventually. Sounds to me like that woman was emotionally unstable, had a few drinks and/or roofies, or whatever she voluntarily took, too many - got depressed because the surfer boy of her dreams went home with a Russian or Thai hottie instead of her, so she went home crying and took a dive. And again it's a Thai bartender's fault? Come on, give me a break!!!

Bottom line for (British) party goers: Go hard or go home!

If any western country in the world would all of a sudden tell their children from age 3 onwards, "You are an adult now! You can do whatever you want without any consequences, and we adults will just step back and wait and see what happens...", the true adults in that very country would get a rough idea on how it feels to live in Thailand...

It always amazes me that things are still working relatively smooth here despite all the mayhem that unfolds in the political realm of Thailand. Feels like a tv set that is completely unplugged is still running, displaying a movie, and you just wonder how.

The whole story is hilarious all the way down from the headline (who comes up with crap like that?) to end. Unbelievable that in times where tourists are attacked, robbet, beaten and stabbed on the streets of Pattaya, Bangkok, Samui and Phuket, the polcie find time to apprehend and take into custody a poor old sicko who stole a few CLEAN panties and bras from a clothes line which he could have bought himself at Big-C for 29 Baht a pop to start with. And this even makes headlines throughout Thailand? Please tell me this is not happening...

500 Baht more per person: 50 Euros extra for a family of four...

In our area I see:

Tourists who have such a tiny budget, that they stuff themseves at the all inclusive breakfast buffet to an extend allowing them to survive the day with a few snacks (danish pastries) stuffed into their bags when the staff isn't paying attention and some sodas bought at the 7Eleven.

Tourists who haggle about 10 Baht for a T-shirt - trying to lower the already perfect deal (130 Baht) to 120 like the souvenir seller can live on sunshine and air alone.

Tourists who buy bread, butter, sausage, etc. at the 7Eleven, so they can fix a beggar's dinner back at their bungalows.

Tourists who order one pizza and one Coke for a family of 4 at a restaurant.

Tourists who don't even have the cash to go for an elephant ride with their kids or do anything extra that stretches their daily budget of approx. 10 Euro total (for a family of 4).

Tourists who buy a few fridge magnets as souvenirs because they can't afford even a t-shirt, letting alone a nice wooden lamp, a Sarong or something like that.

Does this answer the qustion?

I've just joined this forum to post a reply. I am the owner of this dive company this story is about.

Firstly I'd like to say that I can not believe that this have made international news. Please don't believe everything that you read in the american news or the daily mail for that matter.

I would like to explain myself and my company. We have a 100% safety record in our shop and pride ourselves in this.

So some of the events in the story did happen. Our boat did breakdown but at know point did our captain abandon anyone. It is not a common occurrence that our boat breaks down but he have strict set procedure in place so that if something happens all our customers are safe.

During the dive the captain was having battery problems on the boat. The customers in article insisted on seeing sharks so we went to that site. On that dive site there is no buoy lines to moor up on and we can not drop an anchor as it is a national marine park and could damage coral.

The captain is employed with us and is a good captain and he followed the procedures correctly. When he realised that he could not fix the boat he called back to our manager at the dive shop who organised another boat to collect them. We radioed another boat that we knew was in the area to go and collect the divers.

This did take a little bit time around 30 minutes in total.

The instructor who was with the customers has been diving in Thailand for over 10 years and knows the shop procedures. So knew they would be fine and was assuring the divers this.

There were shark in the water as the divers requested us to go to the shark site but the sharks in question are Black Tip Reef sharks. If you don't know your sharks they range from around 50cm-150cm and live on small reef fish. There has never been a known attack from these types of shark as they are quite timid creatures and scared of divers.

So at no time was anyone in danger of getting attacked by a shark!

When climbing onto the other boat that arrived the collect the divers unfortunately the lady in the video did slip. She hit her chin on the boat and we are very sorry about this. Our dive shop has medical insurance so we told the divers to go to the hospital to have a look at her chin and used the medical insurance through the dive shop to cover the costs.

As you can see this was not our most perfect day out diving but all my staff followed the correct procedure to ensure the safety of these divers.

We apologised to the customers and explained everything to them. They said they understood what had happen but at know point did they say they felt "abandoned at sea"

I am just guess when they got home they wanted there 5 minutes of fame. It is just unfortunate that there limelight brings such a bad name to the diving in thailand and to my shop.

Diving standard in thailand are very high compared with other part of the world and at our shop we stick to these high standard.

I can't actually believe that I have to reply and defend my shop and diving in Thailand to such a ridiculous article.

You almost got me to alter my opinion of what was reported until you said that he left the area with divers down. If his boat was running well enough to get back to shore, he should have pulled back far enough from the rocks to be safe but stayed in the area until either the divers surfaced or a second boat arrived. From a legal standpoint, as a retired lawyer who did a fair amount of personal injury/liability work, I could make a very strong case for abandonment by the captain and, if that is your company policy, I think I could make a good case for company liability as well. For your own protection, even if you don't feel that this was a serious incident, I hope you have notified your liability carrier of a potential claim. Oh, and if you are a PADI shop you will most likely be hearing from Quality Management soon as well.

Good luck with it.

David

In the dictionary, I find journalism, but after reading your brainless rant here, I find we should add "tosserlism" to dictionaries worldwide.

Where please in Chris' statement it says that the captain went back to shore? "He called back to our manager" it says - are you aware of the fact that in 2013 there are radio and mobile phones to "call" anyone over a long distance and perhaps from a boat?

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about! Your childish and bitchy PADI quality management blabla rounds it all up. I bet you were the one back in your class who always told on others trying to get extra points by pointing fingers...

Serious crackdown on tossers please!!!

Well the dive shop answered :they insisted on seing sharks after having troubles with the boat.So it is very clear that the captain or skipper made a big mistake by not saying no still his responsabilty.

Apparently youre the tosser .

He said there were battery problems during the dive, and nothing about sailing to the shark site site after the boat already was in trouble. If you want to be recognized as more than just a greasy smart ass in this forum, apparently you should do your homework before you post such nonsense, Toss..., ahemm, pal !!!

Would be very sad to see the City of Angels sinking down into the ocean. I have some very fond memories of this city that I don't wanna miss.

One here said that Bangkok going under would be "a blessing in disguise"... Well, all I can say to that would be that Washington - along with its "change" and "yes we can!" babbling, warmonger president liar and his cronies - sinking into a bottomless pit would be a much greater blessing in disguise the rest of the so-called civilized world would very much appreciate.

"a pickup truck came to have its gas tank filled with oxygen at a retailer shop" - if this is really true, someone filled OXYGEN into an LPG GAS container... it is pure luck that "only" 2 died. RIP to the victims and quick recovery for the injured.

However - if the explosion was truly triggered because the quoted part is true, and the two dead are A ) the person who had this glorious idea, and B ) the person who was crazy enough to try this, I guess it was god's swift punishment for utter stupidity and he took them out before they can harm any more people in their path...

Would be nice to know how much salary those "think tanks" get to convert their intellectually inferior febrile brain seizures into news flashes that make headlines worldwide... Sometimes I just sit and wonder...

Reminds me of a clip of Monkey Dust, where the script was written by hens:

Admitting to be an ABBA fan was like calling out loud "I am the biggest dumb#$$ loser on this planet!" when I was a kid. We hated ABBA! And I always hoped they were gone for good and would never return, letting alone that a band voluntarily would play their songs here in Thailand and be sold out... The world is going down the drain - this one proves it

I must admit as an 8 yr old mama mia was my favourite song.

In appreciation of your "coming out", I have to admit that I quite liked "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" and even could play that on my keyboard... As I said, the world is going down the drain... we're all doomed, abbadoozled... so to say...

As Starbucks is an American company, and America is the number one "sue anyone for f#$$ing anything and get rich by just doing that" country, it was no big surprise that this Starbung thing would get Starbucks' lawyers jump on it quickly.

On the other hand - how difficult can it be to find a good catchy name for a franchise that does not imply mockery, copycatery (is this an actual word in the dictionary?) and that does not insult people in any way (unlike the Hitler logo thing)?

Logo design and advertising was my bread and butter for almost 10 years and I love logo design and can tell you that it takes just a few private and quiet minutes of being relaxed and distracted either in a car, on a bus, on a bike, at a beach or even on the toilet for a good advertising professional to come up with a couple of good ideas.

Thailand has some very good artists and clever and educated people, thus it always shocks me to see that the vast majority still indulges in bluntly copying stuff instead of coming up with their own ideas. Guess the problem lies in the school system where children are taught endless repetition instead of thinking for themselves, do problem solving exercises, etc... So here we got the culprit; it's the educational system in Thailand!

This said, perhaps Star#$$ks could - instead of suing the $#it out of some small coffee cart owners - invest a few of their billions in the Thai educational system and stage an example for how to get good things out of the bad...

Admitting to be an ABBA fan was like calling out loud "I am the biggest dumb#$$ loser on this planet!" when I was a kid. We hated ABBA! And I always hoped they were gone for good and would never return, letting alone that a band voluntarily would play their songs here in Thailand and be sold out... The world is going down the drain - this one proves it

" Khun Chakgrit was unable to provide milk for his 4 month old child and decided to enter a life of crime to ensure his family did not go hungry."

What a lowlife motherf#$$er, what a shoddy and lame "excuse", what a f#$$ed up world...

Now all this idiot "ensured" was that his family will not only go hungry, put have to visit him in jail, having to provide him with food, cigarettes and booze, and that the image of Thailand as "friendliest tourism hub of SEA" received yet another unnecessary blow.

We all know how this case will go down, don't we? As the father and the poor little girl are Cambodian (Non-Thai) and the pedo rapist most likely a Thai national, the "embarrassing" Cambodians will be double- and triple checked for Visa or work permit violations, and if nothing is found, some irregularities will just be pulled out of a hat, so the officers in charge can send father and daughter home for good with a red stamp in their passports, the officers don't need to "waste" their time looking for the white Nissan and embarrass the culprit or his employers, the officers have time again to watch some more "Muay Thai" on their 52' flat screen, a present from a friendly finance company director... somebody brings some fried chicken and sticky rice and they all have a good laugh... case closed.

I hope that the girl's father realizes early enough that there will be no justice so that he gets the chance to take matters in his own hands, something I would do if anyone would touch one of my little boys. There would be nor mercy and no remorse from my side. Never - in a case like that - would I put trust in the so-called justice system, neither here in Thailand, nor elsewhere.

Best step would be to force the "creators" of AIDS to come out of their closets and tell the truth. In addition, it is worthwile checking the proven stories of people who were tested AIDS positive, rejected the advised medical treatment and changed their life style and diet to a healthy one and were "miraculously cured" (tested negative) just a few months after...

Don't let whitecoats, pharma mafiosis and governments fool you - just open your mind, eyes, and ears!

I think every Thailand expat with children knows the problem - you either cough up 250.000 to 600.000 THB per year to send your child to a school that provides international standards and certification or pay little or nothing and put up with one of the local schools where the so-called "English" teachers" have a level of english language skills comparable to that of a Furby...

Instead of pumping billions of Bahts into building more luxurious temples in which monks molest children and collect luxurious cars and fill their private bank accounts, Thai people should adjust their mindset to better making some "Tam Boon" for the future of their children, thus helping to build more and better schools and with the Thai government starting to educate (and check up on) their teachers and get international help to do just that.

But stop! An educated Thai or "Luuk Krueng" child might bee to clever to fall for the illusion that handing an envelope full of money to a "holy" monk will change their life to the better... Or they might be too educated so they start to ask silly questions about their government and other "elevated" persons who are not to be named... starSo we have a kind of catch 22 situation here, no?

Things here in regards to education will never change and if - just for the worse. Sad, but true.

Thailand, hub of submissiveness...

IMO, some of the best english language speakers are bar girls......

Don't know any so I can't argue with you on that one.

Liar, liar, pants on fire! Looks like your wife knows your nickname and is checking up on your posts, eh?

With similar incidents repeating themselves involving similar ethnics, it appears that we have a seriously f#$$ed up gene pool in the colder climates of Asia and the northeastern parts of Europe...

... does this question imply that you truly believe there's any country on this planet that is free of corruption? Wakie, wakie, sleepiehead!!!!!!!!!!

Nice move... while - in Thailand - a foreigner with a few days overstay is treated like Luis Garavito, while a crook like Thaksin is pardoned and walks free.

"I think our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. And I think that's what I sussed when I was sixteen and twelve, way down the line. But I expressed it differently all through my life. It's the same thing I'm expressing all the time. But now I can put it into that sentence that I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends, you know. If anybody can put on paper what our government, and the American government, and the Russian, Chinese... what they are actually trying to do, and how and what they think they're doing, I'd be very pleased to know what they think they're doing. I think they're all insane. But I am liable to be put away as insane for expressing that, you know. That's what is insane about it." -- John Lennon