Cereal

Not on the Aussie side. here. It's all bets off once they get on the plane. Statistics dictate some are going to get through. The big guys don't care about the couriers. Some always get through. A close relative is the chief of narcotics here. I get a great deal of inside info.

It is not going to change. A few years back there was a survey of Thai drivers which was quite comprehensive. In short, a full third of the respondents said there was literally nothing they could do to prevent an accident. Nothing. It is all preordained. Driving drunk, not wearing a seatbelt, in the rain, with the stereo blasting, forgot to put on your headlights, texting a friend on the phone that you're coming over for beers, speeding and blasting through a stop sign without even noticing there was one....has NOTHING to do with getting T-boned and killed by a huge over-loaded semi-truck with <deleted>ty brakes and a driver whacked out of his mind on yaba. It's simply the way things were meant to be. How can you change that? It's such a profoundly stupid, and yet molecularly ingrained, attitude......

It's all a smoke screen. The Chinese officials tipped off the Thai police about this guy while a dozen others got through without an issue and a lot of envelopes changed hands.

I lived and worked in S. Korea for 6 years. They are, generally speaking, incredibly racist. Especially to non-whites. As for the mention in the article about S. Korea being a travel destination for tourists worldwide... HA! As mentioned, I lived there 6 years and met precisely 1 tourist who was there specifically to see the country. The huge majority of tourists were from Japan (whom the Koreans actively hate) and were there to shop in Seoul.

Minutes into the flight??? Why didn't they turn around? Throw dude into the Bangkok Hilton for a while.

Kayaking in unknown waters that are deep and cold without a lifejacket on is a recipe for disaster, as we see here. It takes a few seconds to drown. My cousin drowned when he was 16. He was canoeing and the canoe tipped over 3 meters from shore. He drowned leaving a devastated family behind, while his companion who was wearing a lifejacket, lived. Falling into cold water causes the body to inhale sharply. It's an autonomic response. You inhale water, instantly cough it out and then inhale more. Then you're dead.

The cynic in me wonders which higher-up turned him in to allow another dozens loads to get through?

Pretty sure he meant pulled an all-nighter out boozing or started boozing very early in the morning.

It's not the story that gives backpackers a bad name, it's the begpackers that give backpackers a bad name. I gather critical reading skills aren't your forte.

I was a flight attendant with Air Canada for 10 years and did some flying as well. You are correct from your perspective about landing in fog. But, your perspective is looking out your window down at the ground. The pilots' perspective is looking straight ahead thus they are seeing the fog completely different than you are. It is much thicker looking straight ahead. There's also the legal limits of flight set by the proper government authorities that dictate how far you can see which then dictates whether landing or taking off is possible or not. Having said this, I agree that Thais are way too sensitive to criticism. Which is to say they can't handle it at all. Also, Thai Airways sucks!

Or in the taxi.

I have a solution. Round these people up, put them in a local holding cell and keep them there until they can have money sent from home to cover their flight out. Oh yeah, and charge them for their stay in the crowbar hotel. These sleazy scum give all backpackers a bad reputation.

Tired of peace and quiet. Exhausted by a total lack of whinging and bitching. Unable to exist in a world where you don't have to answer about every minute of your life when you're out with the boys. You miss hearing about close relatives who need a new ______ (insert bull<deleted> answer). You know, things like this.

There are other ways she could have earned a few dollars!

Congratulations. Still, that's a long way from 300 feet.

Yeah.....I just can't feel sorry for people who get killed doing profoundly stupid stuff. Generally, a minimum safe altitude to jump is 2500 feet and most jumpers open their chutes at 2000 feet. This guy jumped from about 300 feet (judging about 10 feet per floor x 29 floors). Unauthorized entry into the building. Trying to get likes on his pathetically external locus of control personality for his online persona. He's (was) an idiot. I hope he wasn't married with kids. I feel sorry for his parents.

True. I detest pedophiles more than any other criminal, but kids have certainly been known to lie. I'd like to learn more about this guy and his relationship with the students. I find it challenging that this behaviour took place in the teacher's lounge and was unknown for several months.

I taught 1st year university in Zhengzhou, China. Chapter 1 in the textbook started with learning the days of the week. This is how far they'd come when they started learning English in Primary Grade 1. So, in their 13th year of formal English language learning, they'd made it all the way to days of the week!

Telepaths!

This ubiquitous use of the word foreigner is grating. Why not name the nationality? I'm fairly certain it is known, at least much of the time. In addition, I lived in China for a time and seeing people squatting in wide open public areas and peeing or taking a dump, was normal. I was eating at a sidewalk place once and a lady walked by with her toddler. Their pants are usually split from back to front so they don't have to pull them down. She stopped right beside my table and the kid squatted and crapped on the sidewalk. She wiped his butt, threw the tissue on the ground and they continued along. I took pictures and the Chinese people eating around me thought I was the weird one.

Sad but true. When people put themselves in vulnerable positions and bad stuff happens......I hope they throw the guy away.

Man, who writes this crap? It reads like a really bad Harlequin Romance novel.

Sorry, but using this logic you'd expect 4 times as many crashes in the USA as happen in Thailand. I can't recall the last time a bus crashed in America. It's all about regulations and maintenance. Sure, the bus looks pretty, but when was the last time the tires and brakes were checked? Not too mention the drivers......

I'm not one for victim blaming, but in this case I'll make an exception. That guy is an idiot and did an idiotic thing. Zero sympathy from me.

I find it challenging to believe people believe in that crap in the 21st Century. I could understand if you're a Yanomamo or a Sentinalese, but in an industrialized country?