Kerryd

That area is right at the junction of the borders of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Kind of a "poor man's Golden Triangle". And there doesn't really appear to be anything there at all, unlike at Ta Muen where there are large Khmer temple complexes and at Phra Vihear (or "Khao Phra Viharn" in Thai), which has been the site of a couple clashes between the Thais and Cambodians - thanks to a mapping error by the French when they surveyed the border between Thailand and their colonies in SE Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) back in the early 1900s. When you visit some of those sites you'll find both sides have military detachments stationed in the area and in some cases they've "dug in" (trenches, bunkers, machine-gun emplacements). I visited Ta Muen and Phra Viharn a couple years ago. At each spot as I wandered around a soldier was assigned to follow me "just in case". At Ta Muen, there's a small open area at the south side of the main temple and a dirt track leads through the trees into Cambodia where they have a military detachment barely 50 meters away. (That's why the Thais had a soldier follow me around, in case I tried to go down that track - or in case someone on the Cambodian side took a pot shot at me I guess.) At Phra Viharn, I was charged 400 baht to enter (40 for Thais of course) and told I could visit the temple. Yeah right. There was a triple coil concertina (razor wire) barricade that ran across the edge of the open area a hundred meters from the base of the steps leading up to the temple. And as I walked past the military camp, again a soldier was tasked to follow me around to make sure I didn't do anything stupid - or in case some numpty on the other side did. That was a long ride just to take a photo of some steps going up a hill a hundred meters away. (But the Buddha carvings in the side of a cliff a few hundred meters away were kind of nice. Gives you a nice view of the flat plains of Cambodia and you can understand how they marked the border. It pretty much follows the edge of the "high ground", with the land at the top being "Thai" and the flat lands at the base being "Cambodia". Except when they got to Phra Viharn for some reason they drew the border across the small "dip" between the high ground and the hill the temple sits on. By rights, the border should have gone round that hill and it should have been Thai territory. But whether the French surveyor was lazy and just drew the border straight across at that point or if he deliberately cut that hill off for some reason, we'll never know. And the problem is - Thailand never argued that point until decades later and because of that, the International Court sided with Cambodia. (At least twice now.) That seems to have emboldened the Cambodians into trying to claim more of the ancient Khmer temples that were built along the high ground. And even if both sides agreed to have a neutral "3rd party" group of professional cartographers and surveyors remap the border properly, neither side would accept the results unless they favoured their side anyways so it would be pointless. But would give one side or the other the legal claim on any ancient sites on their side of the revised border. (Note there are some in Cambodia who seem to think that a large portion of Sa Kaeo province should be considered a part of Cambodia as well, stemming back to when there were large refugee camps full of Cambodians living there after fleeing the Khmer Rouge civil war.) And of course, much of that area was Khmer, then Cambodian (French Indo-China), then Thai, then back to Cambodia. Chanthaburi and Trat were occupied by France up to 1907 when the Franco-Siamese treaty saw Thailand give up 3 provinces in Cambodia (including (Battambang, Siem Reap and Serei Saophoan) in exchange for France returning Chanthaburi and Trat to Siam. Thailand briefly regained control over some of that territory in the early stages of WW2 when Thai forces easily defeated the Cambodian/French troops (less the major defeat of the Thai navy at the battle of Ko Chang). The Japanese mediated a settlement where Thailand regained only about 40% of the territory it had lost to France in the late 1800s/early 1900s. But as a part of the post-war agreements, Thailand was forced to return those territories back to Laos and Cambodia in exchange for not being considered a belligerent in the war and ally of Japan. Britain apparently disagreed with the decision and France blocked Thailand from joining the newly formed United Nations until those territories were returned. And here we are over 75 years later and they are still ready to go to war over it. At least some of them are. On both sides.

The Prachin Buri Museum posted this on their Facebook page yesterday: Here is the Royal Gazette announcement (in .pdf - and Thai language): https://ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/documents/71714.pdf So much for the discussions about getting rid of the dual pricing scam.

According to the original story - he was renting the villa - for 1 million baht a month !!! (Seriously. I wasn't the first to question what he did for a living that he was paying a million a month to rent that place. Surely not making that much money from an "elephant sanctuary".) And his attitude after attacking the doctor - for the crime of sitting on some illegally constructed steps that were actually on PUBLIC land - suggests he was not your average kind-hearted retiree, And then he skips the country after getting a 1 month sentence ? That he could have - easily - appealed and been let out on bail while waiting for the appeal to go through. I think there's a lot more to the story than is being shown in the media. And how the **** was he even able to leave the country ? They should have had his passport and his name should have been in the "vaunted" biometric security system. Unless he had "other means" to get out of the country, which would lead back to the 2nd sentence in this post.

Maybe she's a really good "earner" and they were not competing for her affections - but her "salary". And yes, I've seen nasty confrontations between Thai boys (young adults) and girls (also young adults) in Pattaya literally about that very thing. New girl arrives in Pattaya from "the farm". Meets "hansum karaoke boy" or "moto-taxi" guy and shacks up with him. And then he starts expecting her to sell her @ss in a bar - and give him the money. When I used to live in South Pattaya, there were a number of such incidents just on the block I lived on. One guy tried to rough up his girlfriend because he didn't think she was giving him enough of her earnings. She laid open his upper arm with a butcher knife. Another girl showed up at the laundry with bruises on her arms. Her "karaoke boy" room-mate was angry because she wasn't "selling it" and he wanted money for whiskey and to play "snook". (Apparently he only shacked up with her because he thought she'd make a lot of money working in the go-go bars.) The "elder sister" of the 3 that owned that particular section of the shophouse/apartment block tromped up the stairs and karaoke boy was out on his butt in a hurry, never to return. Another girl supposedly got the same treatment - from her female "cousin" who'd convinved her to come to Pattaya to work. When she arrived she stayed in the same room as the cousin and 4 other girls (they had a single queen sized bed in the apartment but it seems 2-3 of them often "didn't come home at night"). But the "cousin" started demanding the new girl go work in a go-go bar and sell her (meow meow) for money and slapped her around a bit. So she ended up quitting and going back to her village instead. There is a lot of stuff going on in the city that never even makes the local news, let alone appear in the "foreign" media. So it's possible this confrontation wasn't about love but about a loss of potential income.

Just for clarification - this is the 14th time I've done an Extension application so no, it's not my "first rodeo". And no - they do NOT just ask for different stuff "because they can". But each Immigration Office can have it's own set of requirements. That's why I always go in at least a week ahead of my renewal date, so I have time to change/add/amend any changes they've made over the last year. It occurs to me that maybe they are cracking down on people who use agents to fake having a proper address like they do to fake having the financial requirements. Because he didn't ask for a copy of a lease/rental agreement but the actual house paperwork. And at Jomtien I used to supply a photocopy of my (Thai) driver's license (front and back), and have the "Report of Address" slip stapled into my passport. I went back to Immigration with the Chanote, blue book, photocopies of the Chanote (front/back) and a photocopy of the front page of the blue book. The IO looked at the Chanote and photocopies, put them back in the folder and gave it back to me. He had me sign the photocopy of the first page of the blue book and that was it. Everything else was fine, paid the fee, had the photo taken. Back the next day to pick up my passport with the new Extension stamp. All good. I have next year's paperwork almost ready to go. May as well do it now while the printer cartridges are still fresh. Got extra copies of my license and the Chanote and the front page of the blue book in the folder for next year just in case. And just to add to the stress a bit that day, when I went home to get the blue book and chanote - my key wouldn't go all the way into the lock on the safe. Had the combo dialed in no problem, but it seems the furthest-in tumbler was gummed up. Gave it a shot of WD-40. Tried my spare key. Double-checked the combo. Gave the lock a light tap with a hammer. Tried the keys again. Another shot of WD-40. Then sat down and did a search for a locksmith nearby. Contacted one on Line. He asked for a photo of the safe - sent it. He asked about the combo and keys. I responded. He then asked me to make a short video of me trying to open the safe so he could see what the problem was. Got ready, started recording, put my key in the lock - and it slide in effortlessly on the first try. Turned it, click, door opens. Guess I just needed to wait a bit more for the WD-40 to do it's job. And it's almost something I should put on the calendar to do every year - run around the house and giving every lock mechanism a shot of WD-40 to keep them working and not rusting up. Now, what to do with the next 364 days until I have to do this all over again. Travel time !

Just went to (Jomtien) Immigration to apply for the annual Extension of Stay (TM.7). Had all my ducks in order. Forms filled and signed, photocopies (signed), bank letter and copies of updated bank book and so on. 100% complete - as per last year. But when the IO was going through the papers - he asked me for a copy of the Blue Book and Chanote for the house I am in ! I have the Notification of Address already and he didn't ask for a lease or rental contract so I'm not sure the reason for wanting to see the blue book and chanote. Guess I'll find out when I go back !

Lol at ALL you people that think this is about YOU. It's ALL about setting things up for the CHINESE to come here on 10 year visas and lease large plots of GOVERNMENT LAND to set up businesses in Thailand. Read the article. So that Chinese companies can lease gov't land to build condos, factories and casinos (and other things like say "land bridges" to cross Chumpon and Ranong provinces to shorten shipping times for Chinese goods heading to Europe). You know, the SAME Chinese that leased nearly 20% of Cambodia's entire coastline - on a 99 year lease - and then built a self-contained airbase with it's support base, disguised as a - resort with hotels, office facilities, restaurants and - casinos. It also has it's own power generations, water plants and waste treatment plants, to go with the military grade airbase they built but called an "airport" meant to ferry in Chinese tourists directly to the resort.) The Chinese also built 2 new airports, one outside of Siem Reap and one outside of Phnom Penh - on 55 year leases that let them own, operate and profit from those airports for 55 years before handing over what's left of them to the Cambodians. And guess where Thailand will get all the money to fund all the projects that the Chinese will be hired to build for them ? Yeah, from China. Turning Thailand into just another puppet state through the "Belt and Road" initiative where China lends poor countries almost limitless amounts of money that they can't ever hope to repay, to finance major infrastucture projects (dams, railways, airports, power plants, toll highways and bridges, land bridges) and to make major military procurements (like fighter jets and submarines). And after they are massively indebted to China, they literally have to do whatever Beijing tells them to do. Just like Cambodia. And Laos. And Myanmar. And Sri Lanka. China is doing the same thing in Pakistan, trying to get their hooks into Afghanistan and they've apparently convinced Djibouti in East Africa to let them build a "dual use" base. Interesting because Djibouti sits on the West side of the narrow strait that separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden and that is where ALL the shipping traffic using the Suez Canal has to pass by one way or the other. (Probably also why the US has a base there as well.) But keep dreaming that they are doing all those regulation changes with a couple thousand white haired pensioners from Western countries in mind. I'm sure they'll get a laugh out of that.

at 5:00 am. And more of a "kwaii fight" than a "cat fight" !

https://ddc.moph.go.th/brc/news.php?news=52560&deptcode=brc So there was a small spike during the Songkran season and there could be a minor increase during the rainy season.

And here I was tricked into believing that it was the "Free 60 day" stamps that were responsible for all the problems in Pattaya and Phuket ! Surely this group must actually be foreigners posing as locals because we know locals would never act like this !

Those are MORTAR rounds - not "grenade rounds". Can they get ANY stupider ? So he was trying to board a domestic flight in Phuket, but they don't say where he was heading. Without knowing where he got those rounds, it's hard to say if it's discarded ammunition from the Vietnam war, or the Cambodian civil war, or even old WW2 munitions. There are many shops around the country that have ancient vehicles and equipment left over from WW2 and Vietnam. I've seen a number of them selling old ammunition cans (they make great tool boxes or for other uses where you need a sturdy, waterproof container). He may have browsed one of those shops and found the rounds in a can. Or sitting on a shelf for that matter. I would not be surprised. The 82mm round appears to be weathered, but not rusted. Likely stored in someone's shed for the last 50 years. The 60mm round appears to be quite deteriorated. Likely spent a lot of time in the ground before being dug up. Without the original paint and markings, it's hard to tell from that photo if those are inert (i.e. training rounds with no explosive warheads) or if they are live rounds. Training rounds are generally (in the West) painted blue so that everyone knows they aren't "live". And you normally only find them on training ranges. If they are live, they could have explosive, white phosphorus or "parachute flare" components. Due to their age, the warhead components could be very unstable. But he must have known what they were and to bring them on ANY flight was incredibly stupid. "Back in the day" people (soldiers) loved finding the discarded 82mm parachute flare rounds. When fired, the entire round blasts into the sky for a couple hundred meters then the "parachute" pops open and the flare ignites, lighting up a large area of the ground below it for a few minutes. The lower casing of the round falls back to the ground obviously but it's "clean" (no explosives or phosphorus) and the "cup" makes a great beer stein. (Though in Canada it's illegal to remove those from a training range. Yet a lot of people seemed to have them in their "man caves" back then.)

Lol - if you read the news (especially on this site) - almost everything that happens in Phuket is "damaging it's image" and "tarnishing it's reputation". Ladyboys fighting. Naked foreigners on the street (literally ON the street). Foreigners falling from balconies. Foreigners fighting in the streets. It's a howl how many people seem to think that the "free 60 day Visa Exemption stamp" is to blame for most of those problems. As if they wouldn't happen if people only got a 30 day stamp on arrival. Like they used to for what, 30 years before it was bumped up to 60 days ? I can just imagine all the thugs and scousers and petty criminals in Europe, North America and Australia planning their holidays to places they think they can get away with their antics and avoiding Thailand because they'd only get a free 30 day stamp instead of 60 days. (Apparently some seem to think that 30 days isn't enough time to properly plan and execute drunken mayhem in tourist hot spots like Phuket and Pattaya.)

Take a wild guess at WHO they'd be borrowing that money from. China. Because THAT is what China does. Lend money to poor countries with corrupt leaders so those leaders can use the money to buy Chinese weapons (like jets or submarines) and hire Chinese companies for mega-projects like high-speed rail lines, "land bridges", condos and casino projects. Basically exactly what China has done in Cambodia. Myanmar. Laos. Sri Lanka. Djibouti. And is trying to do in other countries in the South Pacific, Indian Ocean and on the West Coast of Africa. Use their "Belt and Road" Initiative to loan those countries money for projects they can't afford and put them so far in debt to China that they have to do whatever China tells them to. Look at Cambodia. China built a new airport outside of Phonm Penh and another near Siem Reap. The Chinese companies that built them have 55 year leases to operate (and profit) from them, after which what little is left of them will be handed over to Cambodia. They also leased nearly 20% of Cambodia's ENTIRE coastline - on a 99 year lease. Then built a self-contained "resort" with it's own power, water and waste treatment facilities, hotels, restaurants, offices and "casinos. And to bring "tourists" there, they built another "airport" nearby - with runways far longer than needed by any commercial passenger or cargo jet - but perfect for fully loaded Chinese bombers to land/take-off from. With the "resort" actually being the support base for that air base. Which is only an hour's drive from Cambodia's Ream Naval Base. Which China made them sign a "dual use agreement" to allow Chinese Warships to use the base despite that being a violation of Cambodia's Constitution. And China told Cambodia to demolish 2 new "Command and Control buildings the Americans had built for Cambodia barely 5 years earlier. And then Cambodia had to dredge the port and modify their piers to handle the larger Chinese warships. Because THAT is what happens when you "borrow" so much from China that you can't afford to even pretend you're going to pay it back. And lol - after Cambodia signed the "secret" dual use agreement with China, Hun Sen pretended to give 300 brand new military trucks to the Army and Police as though HE had bought them. When in fact they had been GIVEN to Cambodia by China as a part of the "secret" deal - which China then publicly announced. Imagine what could happen if Thailand was being run by a family of Chinese-friendly politicians ! Who have already been trying to change Thai laws and regulations to appease the Chinese, while negotiating to buy submarines from them, "co-operating" on a high-speed rail system to connect China and Thailand and discussing a Chinese proposal to build a "land bridge" across Southern Thailand. And now are talking about "borrowing" 500 BILLION baht - from "someone". Not really hard to figure out who would even be willing to lend them that much and no, it's not the IMF (International Monetary Fund) or World Bank. Won't be long before Thailand is no different than Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar at this rate.

On one hand they gripe about all the "zero dollar" Chinese tourists and on the other they gripe when there are fewer of those "zero dollar" tourists. Many Chinese are on tours, often sponsored in part by the factories they work for, where they pay for the entire holiday up front - in China. The tour agency then makes deals with airlines, hotels, restaurants, attractions and even shopping malls to get the lowest (cheapest) possible deals for those groups. They arrive, stay in their hotels until it's time to go to an attraction (admission already paid), go to a restaurant (2-3 meal choices only, 1 beer or soda pop), maybe go to an "adult" venue for an hour (admission paid, choice of 1 beer or soda pop) and then back to the hotel. Next day, same thing, maybe with some beach time or a boat ride. 5 days later it's back to the airport and home and the only money they've spent is maybe if they bought a souvenir at a shopping mall or duty free shop. I remember about 20 years ago (2005/6ish) when they started arriving by the double-decker bus loads. Spoke to some resort owners, restaurant and go-go bar owners I knew at the time. They made enough from the tour groups to pay the bills basically. If they charged any less, they'd lose money. Seems they thought that getting all those tourists into their (hotel/restaurant/go-go bar) would generate tons of extra money in "extras" (i.e. ordering more booze or room service or more dishes at the restaurants) but no - those tourists weren't spending a yuan they didn't have to. Hence the term "zero dollar tourists". I remember sitting in Polo watching 50+ tourists (male and female) come in, each would order a beer or coke, they would sit for 1 hour (literally to the minute) and then leave. Half of them never even touched their (beer or coke). At Polo (back then) the girls did choreographed dance routines and some "special" shows. Like the one were a girl strips off her panties, stretches them out like a sling-shot and fires them at a customer. Then strips off another panty and does it again while the service staff run around collecting the panties (and tips). The dancer usually had a dozen or so pair of panties on so it wasn't like they were nasty, sweaty, smelly old critch rags but you should have seen the Chinese when she fired a pair at them. You'd swear she was throwing live hand grenades or venomous snakes at them the way they jump out of their chairs to avoid being touched by the flying panties. One night the girl fired a pair at me and you could see the Chinese tourists were all looking to see who she'd targetted. I caught them in mid-air, crumpled them in my hand, brought them to my face and took a long, deep sniff (they smelled like fabric softener from the laundry). I already knew what to expect as I used to be a regular there when I was working overseas. I then put the panties in a shirt pocket and took a smug sip of my (Jack-Coke) like it was no big deal. (One of the service staff would come along to collect the panties and I'd give her a 20 baht tip for the dancer. Naturally none of the Chinese tourists were tipping anything to anyone.) And yeah - it is the start of "low season" traditionally as it warms up back in the "Western" countries that used to make up the bulk of the tourists here. Tourist-related businesses usually see a large drop in customers between May-Oct. Which is another reason I think Thailand started trying to bring in massive numbers of Indian and Chinese tourists who, for the most part, come from a similar climate or from areas where "winter" isn't as harsh as in other places. The kind of people who would go on holiday any time of the year. It makes the "arrivals" numbers look good, but it doesn't seem to be doing all that much for the economy. Look at all the abandoned housing and condo projects and lack of new big ticket construction like new malls or hotels. Because the powers that be aren't making a ton of money off those Indian and Chinese tourists. Not like they used to make when the majority of the tourists were from "Western" countries and the Thais called them "2 week millionaires" because for 2 weeks (the average stay) they spent like they were all millionaires and then went home again. The "Boom" days of Pattaya (and other places). So many sick buffalo owe their lives and health to those days ! Makes me wonder who is taking care of them now ?

Most of my friends are Thai and when we go anywhere, someone has a bottle (or 6) of Regency. We go to a restaurant or the dining area of a resort and everyone starts putting bottles of Regency on the table. No "bottle" or "opening" fees. Just have to pay for the mix. But if we go to a large party that's being sponsored by someone (like a wedding or ordination ceremony) then they will usually have a never ending supply of Sang Som for the free-loaders while some people pull out their own stash of Regency. And a couple of us usually have a bottle or 3 of Jack Daniels as well. But Regency isn't sold in large quantities in the big stores (Villa, Big C, Makro, Friendship, Foodland) and almost never in 7-Eleven. Once in a blue moon I see a bottle in Tops or Villa and snatch it right away. About 350 baht for the 350cl bottles, but the 700cl bottles are 950 baht for some reason. It was funny because for years you could buy a 375ml bottle of Jack Daniels for 579 baht - but a 700mm bottle cost 1,249 ! So 2 small bottles would give you 750ml of booze for 1,158 baht. You'd end up with 50ml more booze and pay 91 baht less. (They boosted the price of the small bottles awhile ago so buying the small bottles doesn't save you anything.) I ask my friends where they get their never-ending supplies of Regency and it seems they go to the large alcohol distributors and buy it by the case. (I'm guessing you can have them deliver it by the case as well.) But I notice my friends usually look closely at the bottles/labels of every bottle they get from a mom&pop store or other outlet. Apparently there's an active bootleg market where they recycle Regency bottles and fill them with counterfeit (or watered down) booze, slap a new cap on it and glue a new paper label to it and then sell it to those little family shops who will buy the cheapest stuff possible and sell it for full price. Maybe that's why the big shops don't sell it as often ? Not sure about the legitimacy of the stock perhaps ?