virtualtraveller

There goes another tourist season down the drain.

When they don't get the numbers or public reaction they're aiming for, they'll resort to something radical like Songkran, draw the army in again, scare all the tourists away, and they still won't get their election. Stop me if you'd heard this story before...TIT

regardless of the Nation's standpoint, let's call a spade a spade here: if Thaksin had pulled this stunt in any sane and mature democracy it would have sunk him and his party at an imminent or future election but not here in Thailand, where a blatant trouble maker and insulter of Thai pride still gets to make a comeback at the polls. How sad.

It's not so much what Thaksin has done well during his premiership, it's the damage he's done since then that really should be a measure of the man. Regardless of the coup circumstances he's played very dirty and selfishly for a man who wants to apparently lead this country to unity and prosperity.

Doesn't surprise me, the Police in general aren't terribly sympathetic to the yellow shirts, I wouldn't be surprised if someone in red paid them all to go off for a 'massage'.

Serious problem in Thailand the way I see it, how many girls have you met in bars or massage who have kids, father did a runner and the girl is confined to working long hours for poor wages for their young adult lives sending it all back to granny who's raising baby with her old fashioned, ill educated values. What a dysfunctional way to confine yourself and your child to the working class. All because no one in the education or parenting system wants to face up to sex education.

In the 7 years I've been here I've seen a marked shift in moral attitudes towards sex, when i arrived there was still this old fashioned shy approach from girls, now they all want to be giks.

The police are the great weak link of Thailand I'm afraid. Forget the ifs and buts about low pay etc, no matter how much you pay they will always remain the ultimate mafia in this country, how many times this year have they failed our trust spectacularly; in Pattaya, the border patrol unit involved in extortion, the stolen vehicles they were being used by police, has anyone been brought to justice for this?

Policemen around the world undertake a tough job to keep things in order, often without great pay, but they do get privileges. One thing that really is unacceptable here is that policemen are generally above the law, don't always know the law, and routinely break it, they're pretty poor at their job. They need to be made accountable and there really needs to be a watchdog for the police.

The fact that they have resisted any attempts to reform themselves is one of the key problems contributing to the current political crisis, since law enforcement is at the heart of the matter.

Unfortunately as long as you are predominantly a tourist town, with tourists blithely accepting their rates, this is always going to continue, the taxi drivers will always try get away with what they can, unaware of the bigger impact, so they need to be educated properly at a forum that includes all the complaint letters from tourists and the effect on tourism.

Personally I've never been ripped off by a taxi driver in Bangkok other than when getting in on the 'wrong' level at the airport, and when they refuse the meter I simply get out and take the next one, if they did it on the highway I would calmly agree then when you reach the destination refuse to pay and ask the hotel or someone official to call the tourist police, I did this once and he backed down.

I think Bangkok taxis are some of the best value in the world, usually use meters, always one nearby and cheap. In Chiang Mai we have a taxi mafia but their objective is to cram the roads with as many taxis/songteaws as they can (strength in numbers even if they aren't earning 'cause they are always empty). They can't rip us off because most passengers are local and know better.

They should target the schools and universities. I know at the one I taught at, every computer had pirated Windows and SPSS including the ones in the classrooms. The only legal software that I knew of was in my CPU in my office. The good part about my machine is everything worked and downloads were legal.

They did, Yupparaj School in Chiang Mai (prestigious private) got done for 5 million baht fine!

In fairness, they've been sending companies warning letters for weeks, advising them to comply ahead of a crackdown.

the main thing here is...

even though she had access to her deceased husbands money, she was unable to pay off the police, which is a significant development.

How to create a monopoly Thai style.

So, auctions are delayed indefinitely, TOT (who would never survive in the real world) gets a nice headstart on 3G, continues to complain about losing out (thus delaying licences even more), those who want 3G must pay through the nose (TOT might even sub contract sales of 3g service to AIS, True, Dtac), problem solved.

Ho Hum TIT.

What really gets me down, time and again with these Thaksin interviews, is that he never once shows any humility or remorse, he's in total denial that the coup and hatred against him resulted from him overstepping the mark with his ethical judgement, and on that basis he will NEVER be a suitable leader, even for a scout group. In fact Thaksin will never achieve anything meaningful unless he can rule by 'my way or the highway'.

Judging from the simplistic and blatantly untrue manner in which he answers the interviewers questions one has to question this man's intelligence. Here we have a man with a PhD in an interview with a high brow UK newspaper answering as if he were on an Udon Thani community radio station - really, he takes us all for fools.

I hope these comments on the monarchy backfire, he so assiduously courts press coverage, let the press and the world know what kind of guy he really is. Personally I don't believe the anti-monarchy accusations against him but what he's saying in this interview is essentially very provocative against something that is dear to the hearts of his very supporters.

Doesn't anyone see the irony here!

Title should be 'Thais arrested for being Thai', what could be more Thai than making noise (even if you're an Aussie doing it).

I can just imagine what sort of economic advice he'll give

"Help me get back in to power and you 300 will be richly rewarded..."

Frankly, in terms of the way Thaksin does business, there's not a lot he can tell Cambodia's finest 'businessmen' that they don't already know. All he can offer is how to succeed with these methods in a more transparent country like Thailand.

And don't forget, Hun Sen is probably equally useful in advising Thaksin how to subvert democracy and guarantee 'premiership in perpetuity'.

He should have run to Cambodia, they would never have extradited him! I read somewhere that the Canadian authorities billed him about 1 million (yes 1 million) baht a month for security and policing services while he was out on bail, times that by 13 years... it would have been much better for him to 'invest' all that with Hun Sen, he would never have sent him back to horrible Thailand.

I suppose he could pay a mob to appeal for his pardon, a petition perhaps, or push for a return a previous constitution that sets the rules back to pre-1996 ;-)

Nah, they're not bright enough for such a shrewd move.

Hun Sen, (Drug wars) Thaksin, UDD... thugs the lot of them. They deserve each other, let them run a marvellous, upstanding, law abiding country like Cambodia.

The sword is mightier than then pen?

Is anyone else having sheer frustration and deadlock in trying to get their bank cards sent to THailand from UK banks.

Recently I lost my Barclays Bank card, called the helpline, ordered a new one, it never arrived. Ordered another one, it too never arrived. Back UK in September went into local branch, asked to collect card from there, no can do, only will send to an address. OK, waste of time requesting a third card (seems there wasn't even a card on the account so no other option). It too never arrived, then I called their Premier help line only to be told that Barclays will not send cards to Thailand, and probably didn't despatch any of the first three! They can't explain to me either why they do not have a policy of courier sending billed to my account, as Lloyds have done in the past. Final solution is to change addresses to my mothers (reluctant to do so since banks value a consist address), and have her send it. Meanwhile I hadn't bothered to renew or use my Barclaycard (credit card) for same reason, finally did change addresses and have one sent to me mum's except when she tried yesterday to get it couriered, all courier companies refused. Apparently they are no longer permitted to carry cards, everything gets X-rayed and bank cards get destroyed.

SO, HOW THE F*&K DOES ONE GET A BANK CARD REPLACED WHEN LIVING IN THAILAND!!! There's 80, 000 Britons living here apparently, many living off sterling with addresses here, haven't been back to the UK in ages. What to do???

Any clues....

Both sides have a point, 6,000 baht still isn't much for a much sought after work permit, but it's typical rip off mentality of the officials if the increase were to be 200%, say. The net result of course is that people will just go underground, not bother with a work permit and do the visa run thing.

It just boggles my mind that these highly paid officials sit around a boardroom table and come up with such nonsense right in the middle of a recession when they need to make the country as investment friendly as possible. Sure another 3000 or 5000 baht is nothing to a multinational, nice way to nickle and dime us foreigners but it clearly tells us all, 'we want you to come here and be squeezed of every dollar you have'.

What they should be doing is relaxing the work permit stipulations, regardless of the unfair hike I would happily fork out 6,000 baht each for 10 work permits for foreigners to work as English language copywriters in my business. It's a job THais can't do, but there's demand, I'm growing and bringing a lot of forex to this country and generating jobs (for people with lots of Thai dependents) in the midst of a recession. It's time they cut us a break.

What gets me is that it gives ISPs enormous power to decide what you can and cannot see. There is no abuse mechanism here to fine ISPs for mis-applying the law. So, I want to kill a competitor's website, I post something bad on his webboard, complain to the ISP who immediately block it before the comment is moderated and then they have to try to get it 'unblocked' which could take months.

Or, ISPs are less than scrupulous (what! here in Thailand, no never), you get your police buddy to pressure them into blocking a competitor's site on spurious grounds and then they have the burden of proof and long winded hassle of getting it unblocked.

And all the while the truly offensive sites (or shall we say, the ones with the info that everyone really wants to read - like a banned biography perhaps) just keep popping up on a new url.

Honestly, the people behind this whole hairbrained attempt to censor the net are exactly that!

P.S. anyone noticed lately that a warning text 'this site has been blocked by the police...' is popping up a lot in the middle of content accidentally, refresh the page and it disappears, suggesting that content filters are now in place, although not working properly, and that my friends is why we have Fourth World Internet speeds at present.

Fugitive ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra left the United Arab Emirates because he is invited to make official visits to three countries in Africa, Thaksin's former legal advisor Noppadon Pattama said Wednesday.

Don't you just love the fibs this guy talks, does anyone really believe them, I thought only official PMs and Presidents made official visits to countries.

As for Zimbabwe, I wonder why Thaksin hasn't been there sooner, him and Mugabe would fit hand in glove, Mugabe could give him more tips on how to steal elections, Thaksin could give him some money...

speaking as an ex Zimbabwean myself

Man, I could complain every week about the hopeless internet service in this country! Compared to the UK where you get reliable broadband (4mb standard) AND cable TV AND free local calls for about £18 (under 1000 baht), whereas here I pay 1600 baht for bad Cable (UBC), another 2000 baht for an almost reliable (1mb min.) business package and still pay for local calls.

In fact, since I run an internet business from home I've resorted to using two ISPs, Maxnet's 3mb/2000 baht business package, and also TOTs home 4mb shared/800 baht package on a separate line, switching between the two using wifi. Neither give more than 80% up-time. In the evenings TOT slows to about 70kb, during the day both run to 3mb, but often they time out when I access some sites. The speedtest shows a fast download, but the averate time for a page to load is 2-3 secs.

Bizarrely, sometimes the internet radio streams fine, and skype conversations are possible but I cannot access websites (ie via the international gateway). Something is definitely up, and I suspect CAT are fiddling with the whole setup.

Here's the thing, this past week both services have been going down, it's not about the speed, it just dies, or goes up and down like a yo-yo, so a page might half load then stop. No way to do business for sure. Worst of all, accessing https (secure) sites is abyssmal, usually it takes up to 10 secs to load a page, sometimes not at all, and this is a sure sign that some sort of spy software is now installed and everything you ever request via the net is being funnelled through some software slowing things down. It get's particularly slow for https because it can't figure out why it can't 'read' the data, thus holding on to the packet of data longer before sending them on.

THEN, yesterday I got this message bizarrely embedded in the middle of a wordpress admin page;

Sorry, the web site you are accessing has been closed by Royal Thai Police due to inappropriateness such as pornography, gambling or contain any information which is deemed to violate national security.

I refreshed the page, and checked the main site, everything fine. This morning a friend emailed to say that when he tried to reply to an email of mine using webmail, he got the same thing.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

I suspect that the monkeys installing this software haven't quite got it right and are giving the game away with this warning sign popping up in the wrong places.

All the same, I run a business that brings 1 million baht into Thailand every month and employs about 50. THere is no reason why 1000 other SMEs like might can't exist here in Thailand to compete with the Indians, which of course is a billion baht economic boost. Sadly, I have to say that Thailand is not conducive to running an internet business. Even if I budgeted 10k a month for a dedicated line I would still be experiencing the same problems as everyone else since everything seems to channel through the logjam that CAT are creating.

Certainly they know it's not legally possible, clearly they are simply applying sympathy pressure, and it's likely to lead to conflict, and Thaksin and Co. couldn't care less about bringing the whole house down since they have nothing to lose. How does a govt brand 3 million people as spoilers.

I think the Govt should act sincerely in considering the petition then advise the King to grant a pardon only AFTER Thaksin has done his time, in accordance with the law. The trouble is Thailand has a long history of unequal law, which is why 3 million people signed on believing the King could somehow bend the law for a man so loved.

This whole 'unequal law' syndrome is at the heart of the country's various problems.

In any case, if it were down to a straight pardon decision I don't think it should be given to someone who has shown no remorse, gone on the run and incited divisions.

Then, like the comments above suggest, there are other cases of corruption coming up, so where does that place Thaksin. Another pardon petition. How many times do you pardon a serial crook.

The wording of the petition was also nonsense. It's suggesting that a crook be pardoned because he's best at getting us out of the economic recession. That a fresh election be held because this govt isn't loved or respected. And they're calling that 'democracy!'

Another excuse for the terrible Thailand internet (CAT) to blame their incompetence on. I've experienced slower speeds this week, I use BOTH TOT and MAXNET at home for a home office because neither can be relied on. I'm finding that skype works and internet radio streams but gateway access to sites times out. Accessing secure sites is sometimes impossible. Goes up and down like a yo-yo!

I love the TOT family package, promising 4mb for 799 baht, yes you get 4mb in the day but in evening it's usually less than 100kb, cheaper and faster to use GPRS!

And that speedtest.net (as shown above) is the best tester, it records all your test data so you can later take your ISP to the consumer complaints council, which I encourage everyone to do!!

I can already hear the wheels of investigation clicking into underdrive!

..."we've matched the bullet casings to....we think we know who did it... we have no idea if or when we'll be revealing their identity...arrest warrants have been issued...case goes cold...head of investigation complains his work is being interferred with...police chief transferred to inactive post....stop me if you've heard all this before!

As a former supreme commander, General Chaiyasit Shinawatra should know the law is pretty clear on this. NO pardon can be given until the individual has served part of his sentence. So, get your cousin to come back and do some jail time then submit your pardon. At this point it's legally not possible to pardon Thaksin and the laws of the land should stand otherwise ever drug running hilltriber will also be entitled to the same thing.

This whole signature thing is merely a show of force.

Who needs eye protection when it's all cloudy!

I'm a travel writer, and I've been following this, I'm incensed. It seems clearly a scam to me, perhaps the evidence is stronger against some than others but clearly King Power are working with the airport police to arrest anyone who is remotely suspicious of shoplifting, opening up graft opportunities. I've written to TAT and King Power and have advised fellow guide writers to make this clear in the books and on websites. The short of it is, fact or fiction, I'm advising my readers NOT TO SHOP IN KING POWER, it's too risky - you might pick up a bottle of booze the step over into an adjacent shop with no marked boundary and suddenly find yourself missing your flight and being at the mercy of airport police. It's really not acceptable for a country that counts on tourism and I'm pretty sure someone high up will eventually put a stop to the practice when King Power start to see it affecting their sales and the government are made aware of repeated bad press over this.

Yesterday it was the most read story on the BCC, which sort of negates millions on advertising spent recently on Discovery Channel to promote Thailand as a safe place. What a pity, we all work so hard to promote this destination and it gets ruined by a few dishonest people at the airport with very poor judgement. I guess the solution is for sites like this and others to relentlessly publicise the fact and bring each new report to the attention of the authorities so they realise just how damaging this is.