Nickel

The place is reopening on Tuesday 13th August. Special day 'free food'! Yes Tim, the Canadian, is a great guy and always a pillar of the farang community in Roi Et. His partner Lek (never married) is now with him in Canada and, straight from Tim's mouth they will be returning in November. Sorry but do not know the new opening hours. Italian food yes but no Pizza i maintaining the long agreement that neither place would compete against each other. They would be hard pressed to beat On's pizza anyway, probably the best in Isaan.

I was at Central World with my daughter last year and this year I also brought my 75 year old mother there. I must say that I think it was well organised. Not as many people as I expected which were only good, people were polite and nice. I saw absolutely no violence whatsoever. The only overly loud people we saw were a bunch of westerners with obviously too much to drink. That brought out an all too true comment about westerners in Thailand from my mother.

Security was probably not acceptable… We took the underground and then skytrain and our bags were not checked anywhere. I could easily have carried 10 kilos of explosives to Central World. Saying that though, no one who looked the slightest suspicious got passed the checkpoints without being checked either.

Praise to underground and skytrain personnel who arranged excellent communications. We left Central World at 1 AM and departure was quick and painless. Thais at the skytrain of course immediately stood up and offered my mother and daughter seats – I wonder if that would have happened in New York, London, and Paris.

It certainly would have happened in London. Obverse racist

I rarely saw people stand up to offer seats to elderly when I lived in London, it seems that you have a different opinion, that's perfectly OK with me

I am a Londoner, it happens frequently. Walking up the left side of an escalator I asked a woman, standing in the way to excuse me. She turned at looked at me in utter amasement, yes my dear said her obviously American companion 'you are in England now, people talk politely to each other.

On the transit bus at Bangkok airport I offered up my seat to a very heavily pregnant Thai lady it was quickly taken up by a 'booted and suited' middle aged Thai man. I think our posters experience on the skytrain was the exception not the rule. Thais (and I am talking about the men not the women) mostly have little regard for their opposite sex be they young, old or pregnant.

I was at Central World with my daughter last year and this year I also brought my 75 year old mother there. I must say that I think it was well organised. Not as many people as I expected which were only good, people were polite and nice. I saw absolutely no violence whatsoever. The only overly loud people we saw were a bunch of westerners with obviously too much to drink. That brought out an all too true comment about westerners in Thailand from my mother.

Security was probably not acceptable… We took the underground and then skytrain and our bags were not checked anywhere. I could easily have carried 10 kilos of explosives to Central World. Saying that though, no one who looked the slightest suspicious got passed the checkpoints without being checked either.

Praise to underground and skytrain personnel who arranged excellent communications. We left Central World at 1 AM and departure was quick and painless. Thais at the skytrain of course immediately stood up and offered my mother and daughter seats – I wonder if that would have happened in New York, London, and Paris.

It certainly would have happened in London. Obverse racist

I am stunned. 75 posts on this thread and not one mention of the C word. Where are you Scott?

People died, Thai people not farangs and no-one has mentioned C O N D O L E N C E S . Amazing.

A lot more than 75 posts now and still no 'C O N D O L E N C E S'. Thugs, gangsters have a shoot out in public endangering innocent people and end up getting shot. Pity they didn't ALL get shot DEAD!. 'Condolences? To who? Come off it, how soft are you?

Lousy shots. Eight guys and they only hit four of each other. Somebody needs accuracy training.

Assuming they were using pistols and from any sort of distance, try using one yourself and see how accurate they really are. Those 'Wild West' shoot outs you have seen on the movies are a myth. Depending, of course, on the number of shots fired It was perhaps a pretty good hit rate.

It's a protest by 10,000 people. That does not make a population.

They represent a lot more that 10,000.

They certainly dont represent many of the millions of poor here in the North East

1. Plenty of 'fat cats' born with silver spoons in their mouths but without an ounce of brain that hold power in varying degrees.

2. Many poor Thai farmers are intelligent whose families never had more than two baht to rub tigether to provide them with a decent education. Poor Isaan schoolgilrls with intrelligence and aspirations seldom manage to get any further than working the bars of Pattaya and Bangkok etc.

3. I personally know of more than one farmer that took money from the PPP AND the Democrats so somebody wasted their money.

4. Offer the electorate in the UK a 5p cut in income tax and that party is sure to win the next election. So what's wrong with populist policies?

5. The poor of Thailand have woken up and they want a bigger share of the cake they produce. Poor buggers work hard produce rice and get say 2 baht a kilo while the 'fat cat' does nothing and sells it on for say 15 baht a kilo. In many cases he also takes back most of the farmers 2 baht to repay the loans taken out to finance the harvest.

6. Welcome back Thaksin. With you the poor have little hope. Without you they have NONE.

hmmmmmm,,,,, sometimes,,, reading these " topic threads" it can become very confusing as to just what the poster(any of the many)is

actually trying to say....

If, some of you used some PUNCTUATION in your diatribes, then your points may have some logic in them !!!! Otherwise, many of the opinins are to say the

least, self contradictory !!!

I do however, agree with some of the opinions,interpretations in this current " noise/airport/broken promises, topic.

IN MY VERY HUMBLE OPINION, " accountabillity, is a new ethic that Thai Politics MUST learn if it wishes to join the 21st century"....

Bottom line ,,, " keep up the open chat,but try to insert some punctuation in your threads people, ok....

cheers. :D

Misuse of punctuation marks can be as irritating as no use. I think it might be a good idea if you set the ball rolling by sorting out your usage before criticising others

I am still stunned that the ordinary and quite poor people of Thailand supported the PPP, it is just beyond belief after Thaksin is almost certainly guilty of robbing these people of Thailand's inheritance of billions of Baht and ensuring their future will take many many more years before they can escape the poverty trap whilst Thaksin and his cronies just get richer and richer

I've never have understood why so many people who have lived in LOS for a couple rounds of government, thai style, cannot seem to grasp Thaksins ADMINISTRATION, was no more nor less corrupt than previous governments.

Is it that difficult? Is there a switch that just won't click? A mental block that stops all thought when this is stated? Unlike those governments he actually gave something to poor people. Yes he is corrupt, yes he is venally corrupt we all know this. I guess the point is if the other non Thaksin administrations would have been something less than as bad as Thaksins we could honestly throw brickbats at the people who voted for the PPP.

Obviously we cannot

I doubt the elections were real. if there can be fixed elections in USA then there can be in Thailand. The mistake was that the coup did not stay in place longer and ensure a real election.

You didn't like the result so the election was fixed, and you are offerring what evidence? I think the coup makers saw a referendum get forced through, they thought the same would happen with the election. The coup makers were holding all the cards, wake up. As with all elections you don't have to like the outcome but democracy says you accept it.

Well said and that should, but it wont, be the end of the matter.

I am still stunned that the ordinary and quite poor people of Thailand supported the PPP, it is just beyond belief after Thaksin is almost certainly guilty of robbing these people of Thailand's inheritance of billions of Baht and ensuring their future will take many many more years before they can escape the poverty trap whilst Thaksin and his cronies just get richer and richer

I've never have understood why so many people who have lived in LOS for a couple rounds of government, thai style, cannot seem to grasp Thaksins ADMINISTRATION, was no more nor less corrupt than previous governments.

Is it that difficult? Is there a switch that just won't click? A mental block that stops all thought when this is stated? Unlike those governments he actually gave something to poor people. Yes he is corrupt, yes he is venally corrupt we all know this. I guess the point is if the other non Thaksin administrations would have been something less than as bad as Thaksins we could honestly throw brickbats at the people who voted for the PPP.

Obviously we cannot

Brilliantly put. I was on the verge of replying in a similar vein just before reading this. Thaksin was bought down solely because he shared the cake between himself and the poor people. The generals, Democrats and middle and upper classes want it ALL for themselves and to give nothing to the poor from whence it came. The implication that the poor are stupid is insulting. I have met several who took the bribes offered from several parties and then voted according to their own convictions. There was no other party the poor could vote for, it was the PPP or dont bother to vote at all. Wait for the next military coup!

My initial instinct is that such a move would discriminate against those nationalities which are either not indigenous speakers of English or do not have a colonial background. For example English is far more engrained and widely spoken in Malaysia than it is Thailand, a consequence of which is that an average Joe Malaysian is far more likely to speak passable English than a Thai.

It should be a level playing field for all, yet it won't be because of various historical factors.

Scouse.

Ninety five per cent of us marry bar girls (that's a fact) and most can speak a reasonable amount of English. I'd say that puts them in a good position. Mai pen rai, no problem. If they have to read and write English . . . that's another story!

you know. some say one of the reason s they cum here is to enjoy the cheap taxis.

Exactly, I come to JUST drive in taxi's all day for my 4 wwk vacation, since it's soo cheap! :D

Not on Samui, it isn't!

Samui is a different world has it's own rules, sorry 'no rules'. Do the locals, farang residents and tourists a huge favour if they were forced to abandon their 'island mentality' and follow Thai law, such as it is. Sorry change of subject I know.

Flooding disrupts Surat Thani province

SURAT THANI: -- Flooding hit the southernprovince of Surat Thani, including the tourist island of Samui, even as Bangkok, the capital, braces for the peak level of the Chao Phraya River next Sunday.

In the southern province of Surat Thani, the Tapi River has risen to 5.21 metres, one metre above the crisis level. The overflowing river has inundated houses in Phrasaeng district, according to the head of the local meteorological center.

Floodwaters are 1-1.5 metres deep and the water level is likely to increase due to continuing rain.

On the tourist island of Samui, downpours in the past few days have caused floods on a portion of the ring roads encircling the island. However, the municipality can drain water from areas near tourist beaches -- Chaweng and Lamai beaches -- so there are no flood problems there.

Local officials are closely watching the situation and have issued warnings of possible landslides in disaster prone areas.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Bannasophit Mekwichai warned that the water level in the Chao Phraya River will reach 1.75 metres at 4.30pm, which will affect people living outside the the municipality's flood walls.

Moreover, she said the Chao Phraya River will peak at 1.90-2 metres on Sunday, so residents should move belongings and electrical plugs and sockets to higher ground.

The Department of Drainage and Sewerage built footbridges in flood-prone areas and sandbag embankments are reinforced to be able to withstand water levels as high as 2.5 metres.

Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Prat Boonyawongvirot said 50 medical mobile units have provided service to flood-hit areas in 15 provinces for almost two weeks.

The number of patients suffering from water-borne diseases was recorded at 40,218 persons, with athlete's foot, fever, rashes, and insomnia cases holding the first four places.

--TNA 2007-10-22

[/quote

Move electrical sockets !!!!

Athletes foot and insomnia !!!!

It's gotta be Thailand

I hope they put them to work with hard labor on a road crew. I hate people who live rich off of others pain. You know they laughed every day on their way to the bank. HE WHO LAUGHS LAST...LAUGHS FREE!

They are the type of people who make us visit immigration every 90 days to check in like criminals. Make them suffer the rest of their pathetic lives.

This also proves that all drugs should be legalized. That would make no middle man making huge profits...give real people...real jobs...and free the police to fight terrorism.

Legalise hard drugs? Say 25 percent of the worlds population addicted to smoking legal tobacco with all it's inherrent problems, shall we say a further 2 percent addicted to alcohol, legally consumed with devasting consequences for many of those closest to alcoholics. What percentage of the population are addicted to the illegal consuption of hard drugs? I doubt it would be more than half a percent and look at the social consequences. Do we really want it to be as easy to obtain Heroin as it is to buy a packet of cigarettes? Thank God the powers that be do not listen (much) to this sort of rambling.

Old member but first posting 'baan nok' with this sort of thing, but on a slow learning curve so expect more from me. For now just wanted to say a friend and I in a pickup truck were stopped en route Roi-et to Mukdahan. Police demanded 200 baht but accepted the 100 my friend offered. Would add that we were not guilty of any infringement.

The