mikeinbangkok

Flevering, I am really glad that you publish your wonderful experience. This is not an isolated case as for the past 25 years in Thailand, personally have had wonderful moments with the Thai people, the care and goodness they could reflect.

Of course, I don't patronize the so-called "Bar Beers" hanging around with the Bar Girls. As an expatriate family man, we socialize with quality people, both Thai and foreigners, not necessarily millionaires, but average people. So unfortunately for the average T.V Thai basher, I am not able to contribute anything.

In 2007, I had a heart attack and I am alive today because my Thai staff and friends managed to get me to an emergency section of Bambrungrad Hospital just in time. My family is taken care of by Thai people while I am busy at work and traveling. My house is left behind with Thai staff while we are away.In fact I will never leave Thailand as for us this has become our home.We are grateful for the hospitality that we are so fortunate to receive.

My wife owns 3 investment properties in Australia 100% and not 49% (land and buildings) but I am forbidden from investing in Thailand. There should be laws that if a farang is banned in Thailand then Thais should be banned overseas. Won't happen tho as other countries welcome foreign investment no matter how small.

Let me correct this... A non-citizen or a non-resident of Australia can not own landed property in Australia, similar to Thailand. A non-citizen or a non-resident of Australia can only purchase designated, new buildings, such as apartments ( In Thailand, Condominiums). There are stringent laws that prevent foreigners buying houses etc., Most recently a Chinese business magnate was forced to sell off his 40million Aus dollar property in Sydney, as he was found to have breached the law.

The economy is in tatters as it is, according for the BP this morning export forecast is going to be reduced again to around 1%.

Tourist spending is down, the 400,000 Chinese didn't appear for Songkran, hotels offering up to 50% discount for Thais, and still people like the Tourism minister will turn facts into fiction. And there will be the usual Kool aid gang defending their statistics through graphs produced to make the Titanic look like she was meant to be a submarine !!!

Can you provide a citation on your theory that 400,000 Chinese did not appear for Songkran. Seems like you have been Cherry Picking!

Why is it that every event, a murder, a normal death of an old person; anything at all; is blamed on Thai's or Thailand. He we are, TV posts questioning Emotions and Leadership of Thai's. All you need to do is to read the U.S news where everyday gruesome stuff are reported. Police brutality, gun violence, school kids murdering their own mates and teachers, even cannibalism. Why don't these bastards who whine about everything here crawl back to wherever they come from...

If Thailand is such a rut that the T.V members who post such negative stuff, continue to suffer here, <deleted> are they dong in Thailand!!! We have choices. ( Perhaps they don't hence rotting here)

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Do these people ever visit these places? The second on the list is Siem Reap, Cambodia. Chosen from the whole world. The first five:

Marrakech, Morocco

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Istanbul, Turkey

Hanoi, Vietnam

Prague, Czech Republic

Is this for a family? Is this all there is in the world? I wouldn't even choose New York as #1 in the US much less in the top group in the world.

I shake my head when I see these lists and think of all of the great places I've seen which aren't on it.

Oh well.

Each to their own.

Marrakech - my ex-wife and daughter went there for a holiday. Cut it short and bought an expensive extra one way ticket home. They said the food was disgusting, everywhere dirty. hotel service poor, rip offs all over the markets, and they were constantly being groped, touched, leered at, and some very suggestive remarks. They travel a lot and are very well traveled. This is the only place they left early.

Prague - went there for a business conference several years ago. Seedy place. Early evening I went for a walk. Many long queues at bus stops, people on their way home. Surprisingly large amount of them were swigging from large bottles of beer - all ages and both sexes. Fine but when they wanted to relieve themselves they simply went in between 2 vehicles in the long lines of parked cars and pissed. Class place!

Best to stay home!

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I ask the same question. If you are being scammed in this, according to you dangerous, stinking city, why not go back to whichever hole wherever you come from? Be safe.

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This is a worrying fall for Bangkok! It's normally ranked no. 1 in the world for the past decade. Instant drop of 18 places on the list... What on earth happened? Did people realize it's a chaotic, stinking, dirty, dangerous, noisy place full of people who don't really like foreigners but are happy to try to scam them at every opportunity?

This is not the Mastercard ranking. This is TripAdvisor. Bangkok has climbed a couple of places.Not fallen.

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Paradise lost! The island has been run by mafia and their offspring fuelled by hot money since the late 90's. Haven't been there since 2001 and no plan to return.... it's good they are making an effort to clean out the dirty laundry though. Imagine they might find a few Interpol poster boys and girls if they look hard enough.

so you haven't even been there for 14 years yet know all about who runs it?

I bet you didn't even know back then :-)

Well said. No clue what's going on but has to make a comment anyway.

"He was a mindless activist, a war lover, who found macho relish in danger and felt driven to prove manhood by confrontation" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)

I would add, racism to that, which sums up, J.C .

He is a Has Been, too old for the game and too long been tolerated for his antics.

Good riddance.

There are good and bad taxi drivers around.

We hear many times of money and belongings forgotten in Taxis and returned to the owner.

Also we hear about the bad behaviour of Taxi drivers and even physical attacks on customers.

And we will be hearing many stories of either nature in the future.

So difficult to change human bad behaviour, not only in Thailand but all over the world.

Absolutely true. Once I was almost assaulted by a crazy Parisian taxi driver. ( he wasn't Thai..ha ha.)

It's clear that the woman is in contempt of court, and the arrest warrant was correct.....however, sometimes the law is an ass.

I am pro-cut, but the boy is 4, and although a minor, he, apparently, doesn't want the procedure.

In a situation that is irreversible, I would tend to side with the mother and boy.

brouhaha

I have done this walk several times and it is an unsafe area after dark..It is so unfortunate that this lady took the risk as racism does prevail. There have been several incidents in Melbourne as well against Indian Students to such an extend that the Australian Government was seriously concerned about the bad image. Australia generates roughly 15 Billion dollars from the education sector and these incidents can harm this lucrative business. Unfortunately racism is everywhere, even among the T.V members as one can see how many racist comments are posted everyday against Thais, Chinese and other Asian nationalities.

"Please press 9 for English. Sorry, but the UN is busy right now. Please call back for an appointment at a more appropriate time and we will assign someone to look into your particulars. If you are eligible for UN assistance, a case officer will compile your details and submit it to a committee for assessment and evaluation as to the type of help suitable to your requirements. Please be advised that this could take up to 90 days. If you believe your situation is more urgent, such as dissatisfaction with a military coup, please press the hash key. Thank you, and have a really nice day."

WitawatWatawit. You forgot the opening message " This call maybe monitored for training purposes" .Lol

I am the first in here!!...Thainess!!

One cannot finger point Thai's only as this is common in many developing countries. China and Philippines are notorious for such issues and China has since recently taken very strong measures against officials who abuse their positions. If you visit India you will know how bureaucracy works and how power is abused. I am not even going towards some of the African Countries abuse of power by officials is infamous. Well traveled people will understand this.

I just wonder how many western women will be heading to the Congo for their next all-girls vacation.

Lol!

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I give thumbs up to Thai airline.

My 8 year old daughter vomited once on a flight from Singapore. Two hostesses arranged new seating and cleaned up my young girl, spent some time doing this and wouldn't take a tip for this, they said 'all part of the service'.

I have no complaints about Thai anyway and traveled with them, at least monthly, for years.

I became a Royal Orchid Plus member in 1993 and have been a loyal passenger of TG and flown to U.S. Europe, Around Asia Pacific, Australia on numerous occasions, I am holding the highest loyalty card. As a frequent flyer I also have had to travel on many other airlines, especially within China and the U.S . Of course there have been occasions where Thai has let me down and I have brought these issues with the management and they have attended to those promptly and efficiently. There also have been occasions where I have found that some other airlines have been much better in certain aspects than Thai. One such issue is the Business Class configuration of the T.G A 380 as opposed to Singapore Airlines or Emirates. But that is life.

That being said that the software ( human touch ) of Asian airlines are far superior than U.S and European airlines. In this aspect Thai crew, have been exceptionally customer oriented and as a regular business clsss passenger I have no issues. On a few occasions I have taken TG Royal Fisrst and again, Emirates and SQ are certainly better than TG but I have no qualms about it.

It is unfair and uncouth to criticize an organization or people without a proper reason or logic, just for the sake of bashing a nation. Turbulence is not uncommon and TG cannot be faulted for that.

It's no wonder they are losing money considering a flight with 227 people requires 22 Thai crew members. WOW.

The aircraft was carrying an on duty crew of 14, with the rest being ferried back to base. This is very common for any airline.

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Lucky bastards had crews on thier plane. Last time I flew thai they only had one crew on board.

So just the pilot then or maybe it was a pilotless drone.

Any nitwit with a two cents worth of brains, if he/she had 15 minutes of travelling experience on a commercial aircraft will know better than to comment that they was only one crew. Similarly any experienced passenger will understand that there is always a minimum crew for each aircraft type based on the number of seats and configuration. This particular Airbus 340 was carrying a ( on duty) cabin crew of 14.

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There was a time when British Meat was banned in many countries due to the Foot and Mouth decease. I am wondering if that too had anything to do with Thailand:-)

BS.

Here are the Top 25 beaches in the world from TripAdviser with Thailand nowhere in sight.

http://edition.cnn.c...ches/index.html

I have noticed that some TV members jump blindly to criticize anything to with Thailand before even going through reports in detail. The enthusiasm of making Thailand look bad in any angle is greater than looking at facts.

You may want to find the top 10 list for Asia and not the world. The OP refers to the Asia list.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Beaches-cTop-g2

Aren't some of our T.V members so proud of themselves...Probably the term D.Heads were coined for such people. Nothing intelligent to brag about other than the size of dicks...

I guess this is yet another push to Thailand into China's arms. The USA is acting like a child with their self serving interests.

right,

just pointing out the elephant in the room to the Thai 'government' in the nicest of ways and then not reacting to the current right-wing nationalist fascists and their summons is 'acting like a child'...

ok, if you say so...

You can pin labels all you want but it doesn't change the fact that this is the current gov and controls Thailand. The US should address them even if they don't like who or how this happened if they want to keep Thailand as a friend. Either way with China offering their kindness (hehee) and the USA ignoring them it is easy to see who will be Thailand's newest closest friend. The USA should be considering this.

And your point is what exactly? Thailand is so strategically important. Losing Thailand is going to be a loss for the USA.

A foreign Prime Minister who does not have an Official Invitation will address the U.S congres. And the Government is powerless. This is snubbing the US Government at the highest levels. Go figure..