55Jay

Is it just the 150 Baht ATM fee if selecting USD (or other offered currency)?

Admin author to other Admins as the Post button is clicked - "Watch this!"

For serious, frustrated expats on involvement in Thai Politics, refer to page 432, para 16, subpara (a) of the "So Ya' Wanna Retire in Thailand" handbook.

And that is why there will never be true democracy in Thailand - the military have got to keep their noses out of the trough and just do their job.

No, the other way...the military is the guarantor that there will be half a democracy in Thailand. Else it would be a dictatorship.

Recall how Thaksin made himself Dictator of a single party parliament by braking most of the laws regarding elections.

If the Military wouldn't have staged the coup we would have a mini-Hitler in power now.

Yes, right, the army is the guarantor of half democracy like rapists are guarantor of virginity!

The army has only to execute the order of the gorvernment and of no one else! Why are the journalists even asking him for his opinion? He should share no opinion!

Agree on the reporters asking which gives creedence to the coup process, an expectation, a normal, viable option.

Election, coup, election, coup, wash, rinse, repeat.

In and among the roller coaster ride, a niche expat community remains.

What a joke! They should really be targeting taxi drivers, bus drivers, BTS operators, and MRT operators who pose a much greater risk while high on drugs, not someone walking the streets at night. Thailand is getting to be more anti-foreigner by the day. That's ok, because we are not stupid and we are looking elsewhere to spend our money.....I'm in the process of moving my money to Viet Nam

Hopefully you are going with your money,i'll just stay stupid.

I think I read a similar threat before. Must be a lot of money cause it's taking a long time or is just a ploy to get the Thai government to promise change and beg him not to leave.

I've never been to Vietnam but I've heard Communism is good, so I'm considering moving all my money over there too.

Good point, Although I would say why not target Thais? That is the principle for me. Surely we are not saying that immigration police only police crimes committed by foreigners !! If an immigration policeman sees a Thai robbing a 7/11 he wouldn't just ignore it because he is immigration police.

My follow on from that would be why are immigration police going out to check for drugs and not just normal police anyway.

I would think this was actually aimed at targeting foreigners overstaying, without documents etc. and some bright spark came up with the additional idea of drugs testing. I doubt that it's in immigration's brief to just go out and do drug tests so they'd need another reason to pull someone up first - and they wouldn't test any Thais. Though if they knew a Thai was carrying drugs I'm sure they'd do something.

.

Just watched "Crime Watch" in BBC.

I dont think THAILAND is the worse one.

The way foreigners deal with situation like this in Thailand should be learnt.

Even you are absalutely right, YOU DONT SHOUT!!!! YOU DONT PRESSURE THEM!!! YOU DONT CHALLENGE THEM.

Look....The driver returning the wallet after nicking some money out of it.... common ... Who is the most stupid robber??

I'm not saying that the driver has done nothing wrong but there is something unclear in what the British

says as if he was the one that make it happens. (Sorry to say that but I hope we all understand here that we discuss here to LEARN.)

Did the article make you angry enough to deal with the situation by SHOUTING at us?

I do not think the OP meant "marrying a chick he doesn't know" literally.

Think he meant buying a house is always a gamble from just that point of view, which always creates anxiety, and his perspective changed in 4 months. I got what he meant once I read it twice.

Now that we've slagged off his wife as a scamming thai bar girl.....

which whenever they get it they haven't got a clue what to do next! (just look at PM's Gillard & Yingluck as shining examples)

Yingluck was never installed as leader in order for her to be a female firebrand or an outspoken campaigner, or strong leader. Yingluck was installed specifically because she is submissive and docile and entirely unskilled in politics and debate. She was installed precisely because she is not an independently-minded political thinker, or a strong leader. She was installed to obey and not to lead. She is not Thailand's truly first female PM, she is Thailand's first female PM-by-proxy.

Eventually Thailand might have a female PM who starts her career working from the ground-up in politics and becomes PM by having a policy platform based on her years of service inside and outside politics, she might be a strong female leader and a true independent thinker as opposed to somebody who signs the papers when told to and smiles goofily at the cameras.

So you are saying you agree with the oped then?

The question one P asked was right on target - "<deleted> are they protesting about?"

Uh, nothing! Wasn't a protest, the crafty AFP author just duped you by using the catch words RED SHIRTS + MASS + PROTEST in the headline.

Then, once he had you spinning up, backed off in the sub-text by saying it was members of the red shirt protest group, then backed off even more by calling it a MASS RALLY then later simply called it a RALLY.

Reuters article posted by Admin never referred to it as a protest, rounding out their story with the police description it was a festive environment with only light police coverage (for 30,000 people).

Nice one guys.

Oh really? Have you read their signs that were written in Thai "Return Democracy to the People"? I think that sends a clear message about what they're protesting about but are so freaking dumb and blind to critically think about the situation. HELLLLOOOoo~!! The PTP, the ones you voted in are the freaking government now! If you want your lives to improve, take it with the government, tell them to work for the people NOW!!! Instead, the government is only inciting violence and to trying to erase all their criminal activities! Look at all those ignorant people cheering for Jatuporn and believing everything he says about the Courts and elites against him. There were bail conditions that he violated! Ahh forget the laws, forget morals, just believe everything your stupid Red leaders tell you. I'm confident that this Red Shirt mob rule is NOT the way Democracy works. I can understand that they now feel like something bigger, a huge movement, but they're so blinded that they are easily duped. It won't stop until the leader say to stop. This will bring out chaos and even more division within Thai society short of a civil war.

Could you imagine regular people who are not Red Shirts voicing out their protests and opposition now? There ARE people who are afraid and want nothing to do with politics because fear of intimidation by the Red Shirts. Cab drivers, business owners, person cooking noodles on the side of the road, wherever you go, people have to either stay hush hush or fear that their daily lives will be ruined. Deep down in their hearts, they want to voice out but they can't because we've seen what the Red Shirts are capable of. This is oppression from a certain group. There are hard core violent protesters out there that will be more than happy to inflict pain for money now that there are so many Red Shirts to support them and hide within the ranks. Look at the boycotting posters and the threat made to anything they're unsatisfied with. I'm sorry but those of you supporting this government and this stupid movement for "Democracy" need to step back and reflect on what's really going on here.

The Democrats got it right this time. They spent the 24th of June talking about the history of Democracy and future of Democracy. They put the information out there not to incite violence or cause hatred amongst each other while the Red Shirt rally is.... well I've already said enough. I've had enough. I'm afraid to post on FB to support the Democrats because I have friends who are Red Shirts, but I need to show support to the Democrats. If my friends disagree with me then so be it but I'm no longer staying silent. It's sad that people have to be afraid to talk about politics, as if it's become the new religion in Thailand. Sad indeed.

Edit: Show me and tell me how any of the government policies (if any) put out to help their supporters have been STOPPED by the opposition. Tell me how the so called Ammart and Elites are ruining any beneficial government policies. Tell me how the courts ruled everything they put out unconstitutional and gave the current government no power to do anything. They were able to pass all those stupid populist policies and even the emergency decree for flood relief funds, so HOW have the opposition and the regular Thai citizens stop this government from doing their job. The 2007 constitution was fair and it allowed them to become government now so why not govern the country within the constitution and make small amendments!?

Oh and I love how they had a little small enactment where Thaksin the PRAI had to bow down to the AMMART. Holy phuqing shit, Thaksin is a PRAI!? What about the Red Shirt leader Thida!? Is she a freaking Prai too!? Dumb and Dumber.

Sorry dude, didn't mean to get you all fired up and write a novel.

No, I didn't. My observation was about the article's inflammatory headline designed to catch your interest, even if it isn't exactly representative of what's contained in the article. Thanks for sharing.

J

I thought Battle was the Reds idea of Democracy?

My posting signature pretty much sums up the red agenda.

Oh, I thought they all got bussed in together.

Reds are the best option for the relatively small niche of expats living in Thailand.

Yellows, as the minority, are better and will create a more perfect union. For themselves. They even come right out and say it.

Yellows will pop that expat bubble, like they started to after the 06 coup, and those who extol their democratic virtuosity will quicky change their tune soon as those policies start biting into their arse directly. Baht will strenghten as democracy takes hold, sending more of these democratic-minded expats to sit outside 7-11 with a Chang instead of in a proper pub with a Heniken like they had planned when moving to LOS. You'll hear the howling on TV half way around the world, secretly praying for the return of Thaksin, while lecturing each other on TV about how a proper democracy should be run. In Thailand.

No matter what side you lean toward here on TV, the typical expat ranks right up there with the family dog. Right up there but slightly lower than the typical dumb farmer, peon, peasant, piss ant, yob, terrorist - as they are being referred to by crusading yellow leaning hi-so TV expats lately. I wonder how many of them actually married into the dumb Issan farmer cum bar girl caste.

Enjoy the 3rd world banana republic political SNAFU and be careful what you wish for. Oh well, you always have Cambodia and Vietnam, heard it's much better of there, just like "back home".

"Abhisit is, of course, a strong proponent of good governance and opposes authoritarianism. He adheres to those principles," Lim said.

And when that doesn't work, just roll out the tanks and the Army and throw a full moon coup party.

See there is the bullsh!t again. The Dems were not in power when the last coup occurred. But never mind you make it up as you go along in your misguided attempt to be funny.

"Lighten Up Francis!" ~ Bill Murray, Stripes.

Huh, seems the same in some government circles?

Where I'm at, government folks get what I consider to be way too much money for rent allowance. It drives the market up once the agent or LL seees the mark coming. The person doesn't care, they will pay their ceiling as they don't get to keep the difference even if they negotiated lower so this keeps the rent rate artificially high.

I've been on both sides but am no longer government but still "look" like one of them being an American. I get marked then have to work to get the price down to planet earth. The selfish motivation is I have a set allowance with my company (it's good but not like I had in the government) but if I can negotiate lower, I still get the same allowance.

Stopped watching Thai TV a few years ago, heck stopped watching most TV channels, and stuck with Discovery and History Channel, at least there you don't have soap's, "Talent" shows, and news reports about all the destruction in the world, wars, global warming and all that depressing news. Oh, and most on the those two channels I do watch are mostly reruns, so no surprises there.

But on the topic of demoralizing TV programs and questionable ethics of TV channels, that is nothing new, just try and go back 15-20 years and remember what was on the TV, and what was shown in the news casts or as entertainment... no naked ladies, no up close killings of middle eastern fanatics, no shows about what you will do to get 15 mins of fame, in various tropical settings with alcoholic youths trying to survive 2 weeks without cheating on their partners while doing mindless tasks.

Ok rant over

"no shows about what you will do to get 15 mins of fame"

I remember the Gong Show about 15-20 years ago. I know what you mean though. Agreed.

"The Post reports the sisters were spotted at various night spots on Phi Phi island alongside Tinto and another unidentified Portuguese national."

If the BiB have yet to locate Tinto, and his companion has not been identified, how do they know he is Portuguese?

Guessing it was from the hotel registration docs since article said they were staying at the same hotel as the sisters.

Like it or not, banks are a necessary evil. No banks no credit, how would we access our funds from another county, how would we be paid. There would be no credit cards no atms. Banks have a huge advatage over us, but without them we would be screwed. Life is a bitch sometimes, but thats life.

Recall credit cards before there were ATMs. Some guys on here might also remember manual typewriters, no cell phone or pager.

Electricity? Just kidding.

I don't get too emotional or loyal about banks, and in overseas/thailand banking, have learned a few ways on TV Banking Forum to arrange things to avoid fees almost entirely. Didn't take a lot of effort and I walk away from the ATM and mumble "bite me".

They are not LOSING 100 mill bht, only losing what they got for free in the first place.

You pay for opening an account, virtually get no interest, pay for an atm card, pay to close an account, pay yearly fees for having your account.

What do you get in return--NOWT. All they get is what I mentioned, plus OUR MONEY they keep and use to lend others at a rate of borrowing 10% + They have a nerve.

How long have they been charging at a.t.m.? they should have quite a bit of revenue from it. Now they say they are going to lose money.. A JOKE April 1st early

Where you come from ? you sure in your country the banks are free of charge ? in Italy and in all other countries from my experience banks are a pain. So before speak like many other how shit is this or that in Thailand check your home country and much more if you don't like what they do here why you are here ? why you not go back home and make this place free of people like you ? Too many users here only like to speak bad about Thailand but still always here, live here and spend money here so why speak ? Shut up is better or if you are a man go back home and live in your country.

This comment is for everyone who usually speak bad about this and that but still live here. Is really annoying to read every time always the same shit from people who live here but usually speak bad about this place. There isn't a perfect country where to live so if you are here respect where you are and their rules or go back home.

Respecting host nation and its rules and regulations is one thing.

Being bent over the bar when you want to get some of your money is quite another.

Accepting being bent over said universal retail banking bar should not be confused with being a good farang citizen.

The question one P asked was right on target - "<deleted> are they protesting about?"

Uh, nothing! Wasn't a protest, the crafty AFP author just duped you by using the catch words RED SHIRTS + MASS + PROTEST in the headline.

Then, once he had you spinning up, backed off in the sub-text by saying it was members of the red shirt protest group, then backed off even more by calling it a MASS RALLY then later simply called it a RALLY.

Reuters article posted by Admin never referred to it as a protest, rounding out their story with the police description it was a festive environment with only light police coverage (for 30,000 people).

Nice one guys.

The Dems and Thailand in general need to know something. If the US really wanted to spy on Thailand, they could and would. Their surveillance technologies and methods re 100 years beyond anything Thailand has or will have. Don't worry about National security and being spied on the US probably knows all your military capabilities and weapons stockpiles better than the Thai military commanders do themselves.

Thailand has no National security when it comes to US intelligence gathering.

Well this really is the point.

They know already most anything the care to know about Thailands government and military business, USA does military exercises IN THAILAND with the Thai Army...

This is about the weather.

China is watched 24/7/356 from space and from land,

there is nothing much that isn't known that isn't hidden deeply underground,

these weather planes will not sus that out anyway, the satellittes are better for that.

No doubt signals trafic is monitored 10 ways to sunday on the ground,

and narrow beamed back up to USA satellites anyway.

A plane is far to obvious and costly.

But monitoring the changing weather patterns of the south china sea from Philippines

through Viet Nam, Thailand and off to Burma and Bangladesh is best done from

the central location on land of Thailand. Including fly over rights to West

and S. East to the seas and North to the large regular weather paths.

Hurricane tracking is a large percentage of weather monitoring needs,

but also gathering large data clusters of the upper atmosphericchanges

that cause cyclone track changes is needed.

Let's see :

they complained about not having enough info about weather to predict flooding,

but when a serious international weather observation opportunity crops up...

they start moaning; OUR SOVEREIGNTY IS AT RISK.

Nationalizm: the last refuge of scoundrels and fools.

yeah, but they still won't let me tour their aircraft carrier at Sattahip. I hope someone reads your post, maybe they'll allow tours for 80 baht. That's what I paid last time to enter their beach. Bummer.

Whether the schedule is outdated or not, NASA had the information accessible on their webpage. You can hardly blame the Democrats for taking initiative and do research on the project. What if it wasn't outdated and was true, then Thai people would've just got shafted. There's nothing wrong with bringing out information and questioning it, those who choose not to question, lacks critical thinking and observation skills.

The web site page simply says SHIPPED. It does not say arrived. It is a mission planning calander. Nothing else.

My guess is that this requires something Thais cannot do, and that is advance planning. Because advance planning seems to escape the Thai mindset, they are incapable of understanding the situitation.

From the NASA website:

Schedule Overview:

May 25 Science equipment arrives at DAOF for sea shipment

June 1 Sea shipment departs for Thailand

July 23 Science equipment arrives at DAOF for air shipment prep.

August 1 Sea shipments arrive in Thailand

August 1 Air shipment leaves DAOF

August 3 Air shipment arrives in Thailand

So it would appear that equipment arrival is scheduled for the beginning of August. Still 5 odd weeks away.

If, whoever is responsible for this brouhaha, had even bothered to look further, they would have found the above information. Or perhaps if they had actually asked somebody connected with the project.

Nothing like looking a complete fool on the world stage. Way to go Thailand.

Oh, thought ThaiOats said Dems had taken the initiative to investigate the project, which consisted of visiting the NASA website.

Maybe they Googled backwards, ended up on the ASEAN site.

Dems taking the initiative = sitting on the NASA request since it was submitted to them a year and a half ago?

So it's now a crisis! A brushfire! The reason governments exist!

Ying and Gang got a free trip to Pattaya last week.

They called ahead so the Admiral down there could hide the ASAN NASA planes and cargo.

About self improvement and demonstrating they are the new gov, open to change, not responsible for the past.

As the U$ attempts to leverage into Thailand and the region, there's money to be made with conditions attached on both $ide$. Need to get off that list A$AP!

From another source. DM not an option. I like that there's a plan to put in yet another UPS however rings a bit hollow as in this case, the primary redundancy was found to be inop only after the

Glad the tower and controllers adjusted, and that everyone got on terra firma ok - and eventually got home.

--------

Blackout threatens hub status of Suvarnabhumi

Thousands of travellers hit, airlines seek payout

Bangkok's reputation as a key regional air hub could face a major threat following Thursday's breakdown of an airport control tower which affected nearly 50 flights.

The simultaneous breakdown of both the main and back-up power supplies paralysed the radar system which guides flights through Suvarnabhumi International Airport for an hour.

A total of 49 aircraft were affected - 21 take-offs and 15 landings were delayed, while 13 flights were rerouted or returned to their departure point.

The radar breakdown may be the longest in the world for 45 years, and airline executives and pilots yesterday called the incident "inexcusable".

"Our reputation has been tainted and trust in the reliability of the Thai system has diminished to a certain extent," said Marisa Pongpattanapun, chairwoman of Airline Operators Committee (AOC), a coalition of global airline managers at Suvarnabhumi.

A senior Thai Airways (THAI) pilot with 36 years of international experience and more than 20,000 flight hours said rival airports in the region could benefit from the malfunction, which lasted from 6.14pm to 7.12pm.

He said passengers affected by Thursday's delays may well choose to travel to or through different airports in future.

The senior THAI pilot said he had experienced radar system breakdowns elsewhere in the world, but that the disruptions caused by those incidents only lasted a matter of minutes.

Ms Marisa said airlines are counting the cost of the incident, which frustrated thousands of passengers.

She said the airlines will seek compensation from Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd (Aerothai), the air navigation service provider operating under the Transport Ministry.

The Board of Airline Representatives Business Association, also known as Bar, will act on the behalf of its affected member airlines to seek compensation from Aerothai, Ms Marisa said.

Costs incurred by the delays include the use of extra fuel by flights held up in-air and accommodating affected passengers.

The incident further inconvenienced international carriers which have been struggling since June 11 to lessen the impacts of the 60-day maintenance shutdown of one of Suvarnabhumi's two runways.

Aerothai president Prajak Sajjasophon said yesterday the company has yet to receive any claims for compensation from affected parties.

"I think they understand the case and we can discuss the whole matter with them," he said.

Mr Prajak played down suggestions that Thailand's reputation would be spoiled by the incident, saying Aerothai has done everything possible to lessen the impacts on visitors and most importantly ensuring maximum safety for air traffic during the blackout period.

He noted that Aerothai successfully employed radio communication during the radar down-time period to direct five aircraft to safe landings at Suvarnabhumi.

Mr Prajak insisted that the company has followed inspection and maintenance guidelines.

"Things happened unexpectedly," he said.

Aerothai's current power supply system has been in use for six years of its seven-year lifespan.

A 20-million-baht upgrade is set to be put into operation from August of this year.

The upgrade will be an additional uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system that will be independent of the existing UPS source.

This should ensure a secondary power source should a similar failure occur again.

Asked why aircraft approaching a Suvarnabhumi landing were diverted to alternate airports as far away as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Siem Reap in Cambodia and not sent to Bangkok's Don Mueang domestic airport, Mr Prajack said Don Mueang relies on the same radar system Aerothai provides for Suvarnabhumi.

The Transport Ministry yesterday ordered the creation of a committee, headed by permanent secretary Silapachai Jarukasemrat, to complete an investigation into the incident within 15 days.

Suvarnabhumi International Airport, code-named BKK, is among the five busiest airports in the Asia-Pacific region.

When it opened in September 2006, it was designed to handle 45 million passengers a year, but last year it processed 47.2 million.

Passenger numbers are expected to soar further to 51 million this year.

Huh, that's very nice, thanks for the response, I can nearly picture it from your description.

I get into Kathmandu and need/want to hit Darjeeling for related work purposes, but I just never considered India as a potential angling destination. You just opened my eyes to a large piece of earth.

Always collecting info as contemplating my non-working life in LOS always seems a bit dreary when it comes to passionate sportfishing, and I generally plan for 1 to 2 trips elsewhere in a year, either the states, Oman in Spring, etc., but India! Thank you again for the response and the details, really did form an impression.

Tight lines, cheers,

J

dear hubby, sorry

he doesn't do tours or anything, just takes the occasional good friend fishing as he is quite serious about it and doesn't much respect people who view fishing as an excuse to drink beer.

"he is quite serious about it and doesn't much respect people who view fishing as an excuse to drink beer." Right on! Also has no place whilst operating a boat off shore.