Kerryd

This is literally the exact same area where they had a similar incident what, a week ago ?

And you can bet it's the same "demographic" again. And it's a problem that has been happening in that same area since before the covid lock-down.

That is terrible news.

I used to live barely 50 meters from there. That restaurant is about 40 meters from "The Grand Day Night" hotel in South Pattaya. (Formerly known as the DayNight 2 hotel - where I used to stay every trip I made here between 1993 and 2004, when I started renting an apartment right beside the hotel).
Barely 130 meters from TukCom.

You'd think if the neighbours heard a loud argument one night, saw someone drive off on the owners moto, noticed the shop wasn't open the next day, or then next, that maybe they might have checked on them a little sooner.
5 days is a long time. 
The suspect was probably back in Myanmar 2 days after the couple were murdered.

The value of life over here can be so little at times. People have no idea just how little.

This sounds like a scam ripe for plucking.

Hundreds of billions of baht into "digital wallets" for select citizens to spend however they want (except maybe not for firearms wink wink, nudge nudge).

Number of hours before people claim they were scammed out of the money ?
Number of days before someone discovers that "people" connected to other "people" have registered hundreds of times.

Someone has to pay for all that. Hmmm, I wonder who........
 

You know how it works.

Please move, there's lots of room. (Nothing happens.)

Please, there's lots of room, let me in. (Nothing happens.)

GET THE F*** OUT OF THE WAY ! (People suddenly realize that there is lots of room and move while getting upset that their ignorant behaviour for not moving before when asked politely is being highlighted by the rude foreigner that is making them lose "face".)

I've had it happen before (in other countries) and - shocker - it's amazing how many people suddenly understand English just fine when you raise your voice and utter a profanity or two.

But when you are polite, people decide they can just ignore you and play ignorant because moving one step is too much of an inconvenience for them.

Quote

Yet, there must be clear zoning criteria determining where foreigners can lease, with each unit valued at more than 30-40 million baht.

There's more to this than is being told. I seriously doubt there is such a huge market for "30-40 million baht per unit" condos in "select zones" that the gov't feels the need to push for legislative changes.
And I seriously doubt there are over 200,000 empty condos in the "30-40 mil baht per condo" category. At an average of 35 mil each that would equal over 7 TRILLION baht in unsold units.)

And he's talking about "clear zoning criteria" - meaning only allowing those 99 year leases in select areas. Which makes you wonder as, again, I highly doubt there's 200,000 high end condos all clustered together in one small area that could be zoned for "foreigners" to acquire with 99 year leases.

Unless someone knows "something" and perhaps has already purchased some land in a soon-to-be-approved "foreigner zone" where those very high end, exclusive condos would be built ?

And the 99 year lease sort of gets around the annoying "49% foreign ownership" rules so that entire buildings can be effectively "owned" by those foreigners. Not to mention that it's highly unlikely that any condo building would even still be around in 99 years. Most will be lucky to still be standing 50 years from now.
(50 years or so from now, it will be a lot easier to get out of a lease in a soon to be condemned building than it will be to sell a condo in the same building.)
And pretty much any building built today would be deteriorated, decrepit, decayed and extremely outdated in 50+ years and likely a prime target for demolition to make way for a newer, fancier (whatever).

Gee, I wonder who the market would be for high end luxury condos in "exclusive for foreigners only" zones ?

Maybe businesses (that can write leases off as business expenses) from a certain country that want luxury accommodations for it's top executives and don't want to have "other" nationalities in close proximity ? 

I mean seriously, who do they think is going to buy those "30-40 million per unit" condos ? Certainly not all those "zero dollar" tourists they've been trying to attract for the last few years.

There is only one group that would benefit from this and that's the group that builds (and sells) those condos.
And realistically, there's only one group that would be "leasing" them as well. 

6 of the 10 countries listed I wouldn't even consider living in. 

A couple are not much of an upgrade from Thailand, depending where you live. 

Keep in mind that "survey" only had just over 12,000 respondents from around the world so not exactly a large sample size. I've seen similar surveys in the past and when you dig deep it turns out their results are based on 2-3 people from one country, 8 or 9 from another, half a dozen from a third country and so on.

And they can simple "massage" the numbers anyway they want to get the result they want of course. (Perhaps depending on who is paying the most for advertising in that magazine for example.)

And keep in mind - most of the respondents are probably people with lots of leisure time - and money. The kind of people who like to read travel magazines to pick where they want to go to on their next vacation.
Money can buy happiness. A lot of it. And the more money you have, the happier you will be. Especially in a foreign country where you can buy a villa and have maids and drivers for less than the cost of an apartment in downtown London or New York.

You're not going to get too many "bar-stool proppers drinking the one small warm glass of the cheapest draft they can afford each day at the closest beer bar" reading travel magazines online and responding to surveys. Those people spend most of their time looking at "footie" scores and watching the exchange rates like a hawk to see if they can squeeze a couple more baht out of this month's pension payment and maybe be able to afford a 2nd beer !

So you aren't likely to get "real world" responses from the "average" everyday kind of expat that (maybe) has enough to get by on but not a lot extra to blow on fancy trips to exotic locations.

And if you did decide to suddenly pack up and move to the Philippines or Panama or Columbia or even Spain - you can bet it would only take a couple months before your realize that the "grass" is just as ugly on that side of the fence. Maybe even moreso. Maybe there's no grass at all.

But now you're committed and probably can't afford to correct your error by moving again.

I've thought about other places that might be nice but you run into the same issues everywhere.
A - you are a foreigner and will be treated as such and not everyone likes foreigners as much as you'd think.
B - you are a foreigner and will have to jump through lots of hoops in order to stay (wherever). No one is going to give you a "golden residence card" with full national privileges just because you have white skin and come from the land of the "big Px" (or Carrefour or Harrods).
C - you are a foreigner and will viewed with suspicion and jealousy because the "locals" will see you spending like a millionaire (by comparison) and think that all your money is magically given to you and never ends.
D - you are a foreigner and will have lots of people trying to take advantage of you - and your money.
E - you are a foreigner and likely can't speak the local language and have no idea about local customs - and laws. 

Note as well that racism is alive and well - in pretty much every country, every continent and every race around the world. 
And far too many "caucasians" travel to foreign countries and automatically assume that they are "superior" to the locals and the locals should be bowing and scraping to them and grateful that those foreigners have even graced their presence.

And that is from people who can barely afford that one cheap glass of warm beer a day.

And then they wonder why they don't "get along" with the locals. Except they don't usually use such a generic term to describe them, do they ? 

Basically, if you can't get along and live a decent life in Thailand, it's not likely you will in any of those other countries either.

This happened in Soi Arunothai about 400 m from the Center Pattaya Road intersection.

Very narrow, barely a 2 lane on a good day, soi - assuming it's not clogged with parked vehicles and moto-cy food carts.

There is a narrow sidewalk on the other side of the soi at that spot and you can see, as soon as you step "down" from the bar, the concrete is sloped to edge of the soi.
Literally take one step out of the bar and you are in the tiny "bike lane" - even if your balance isn't impaired.

And even if you are just walking down the soi, you are pretty much forced to walk in the "bike" lane because of that sloped concrete.

And I'm sure we've all seen how a lot (most) motorcycle riders ride around here, especially moto-taxis and delivery riders who seem to think every soi is a Moto GP racetrack.

And accidents happen. One off-balance stagger because of roadside obstructions, one motorcycle racing to pass (or avoid) another. 

Hit and run could mean the driver knew he was in the wrong - or wouldn't pass a piss test - or maybe it wasn't even a local but someone who may be just here on a "temporary" stay (and wouldn't pass a breathalyzer test). 

There's a 7-11 barely 20 meters from that spot. Surely there must be some CCTV footage from that area (from the store or the Nirun Grand Ville or the pharmacy at the intersection).

This is the spot looking at it from the opposite direction of the photo in the OP.
As you can see, it is very narrow at the best of times.

Give it another decade or two and Thailand will have sunk to Cambodian levels in many areas.

China is working hard to get a grip on Thailand the way they've done in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and other countries from S.E. Asia all the way to the East Coast of Africa (Djibouti).

As a part of their "belt and road" strategy to project power across Asia, China uses "Export Development Banks" (or similar) to loan money to host countries so they can do things like - build hi-speed rail lines, airports, "land bridges", hydro dams, powerplants, toll highways and bridges.

They offer low rate loans and retain ownership/control of the projects until the loan is paid off.

And if you are having problems making the payments (like a lot of poor 3rd world nations that couldn't afford those projects in the first place) then China will offer better conditions - with the granting of certain agreements between those nations.

For example, in Cambodia. China "leased" nearly 20% of Cambodia's entire coastline. "Dara Sakor" is a $3.5 bil (US) "resort hub" that China will control with a 99 year lease. In addition to controlling that coastline, they are building a full-fledged resort with it's own powerplant, medical facilities, casinos, waste treatment plant and - a deep water port.
Oh and a new airport (Dara Sakor Airport), just across the bay from the Ream Naval base. (Intelligence analysts have noted the runways at that new airport are far longer than needed by even the largest commercial passenger or cargo aircraft. But are perfect for fully loaded Chinese bombers to land/take off from.)
(Makes it sound like that "resort" has a different purpose altogether.)

Cambodia also signed a "secret" deal with China (that China promptly revealed) wherein China is granted "dual use" of the Ream Navy base, despite a certain former PM's attempts at denying it because it violates the Constitution.
There are plans to dredge the base to allow the larger Chinese Navy ships to enter and plans to upgrade/enlarge the piers to accommodate those ships. And it seems "someone" told the Cambodians to demolish 2 new "Command and Control" buildings the Americans had built for Cambodia barely 5 years before.
"Someone" was probably worried the buildings were full of CIA spyware.

China has also funded the new $1.1 billion (US) airport outside of Siem Reap which has a 55 year "build/operate/transfer" deal.

They are also building a new $1.5 bil (US) airport 20km south of Phom Penh. "Techo International Airport" is scheduled to open in the "first half of 2025".

China has also got it's hooks into Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti in a similar fashion and is working on doing the same to other countries in the South Pacific as well as even Afghanistan. (China was the first nation to receive an "official" delegation from the Taliban after the US surrendered to them and let them take over the rest of Afghanistan.)
(Trump signed the Doha agreement with the Taliban in Feb 2020, agreeing to stop attacking the Taliban, to stop "interfering" in local politics and to withdraw all US troops by May 2021. Note that the "official" gov't of Afghanistan was not even invited to those talks. The US basically just gave up on the country and handed it over to the Taliban on a silver platter.)

China is also working on increasing it's "influence" in Thailand in a similar fashion. And they have a lot of supporters high up the food chain.

The recent about face on matters like casinos, changing the "foreign ownership quotas" of condos, expanding the list of "Visa Exempt" countries, high-speed rail lines linking China and Thailand and even increasing the length of the "Visa Exemption" stay (and plans to increase the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand by over 8 million per year) are not a coincidence.
Nor is the recently annouced plan to make a "land bridge" to connect the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand.

Those are the long, slender tentacles of control slowly working their way in until they can get a strong enough grip that the main body can squeeze in and gain "de facto" control.

Most people see a headline and then forget/ignore it. Then see another headline months later and forget/ignore it. Then again. And again.

And then those same people tell you there's nothing to worry about because "it's been like a week and like, nothing has happened so like, there's no such thing as a "slippery slope" and no one is trying to do anything".

And they'll keep saying that even as they are handing their passport to a member of the People's Liberation Army as they go to get an Extension on their Temporary Stay at their local (Thai) Immigration office.

Because these things don't happen overnight. It's the same with other issues. Like how certain religions or ethnic groups move into an area and slowly start exerting their influence on their neighbours.
They don't suddenly show up one Monday morning and start demanding you change your ways (and laws) to accommodate them. It's a slow process that can take decades, even generations, before noticable changes start happening.

But if you are watching for it - the signs are there. Pretty clearly too.

But, unless there is yet another major uprising and yet another military coup, I suspect it's going to take at least a decade before it becomes evident who is really calling the shots in this country and another decade or two before all suspicion is removed entirely.

(This isn't the only part of the world where things are happening and as stuff happens in one place, other things may be afoot elsewhere. Nothing like a couple of high-profile conflicts in one region to draw attention away from things in other regions.)

Lol - I was posted to CFB Chilliwack from '94-'96. I took an early release when the unit was moved to Edmonton.
The (individual) names aren't familiar but you never know everyone's names in a large unit or on a base.

The Big Circle Gang is a notorious Chinese "triad" gang based in Richmond. When I got back into the military I was on a full time contract with a "reserve" unit in Vancouver. Many of the part-time members were from the Asian community. They all knew who the "Big Circle Boys" were and to stay away from them.

"Allegedly" Bindy Johal, a notorious "Indo-Canadian" gangster, kidnapped the brother of someone connected to the Big Circle Boys in 1996 and demanded a ransom. Johal was later murdered when he was shot in the back of the head on the dance floor of a Vancouver nightclub in Dec '98. (His killer was never found.)
My friends "whispered" that the hit was the retaliation for the kidnapping. Another member of Johal's gang was found dead under a bridge in Surrey around the same time. 

I was just doing some reading and wow - "Indo-Canadian" gang crime in Canada is apparently ranked third behind "Asian Triads" and "White Biker Gangs" in Canada.

The "Wolfpack Alliance" is a collection of smaller gangs affiliated that used to be associated with the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. Seems that once the Cartel had used the Wolfpack to set up in Canada, they cut ties with them and started working with other gangs instead.

From Wiki: "The Sinaloa Cartel came to prefer operating in Canada, owing to its weak justice system with regard to financial crimes, which made Canada an ideal place for money laundering. In addition, it is extremely easy for members of the Sinaloa Cartel to obtain Canadian passports both legally and illegally."

Something I've been bitc*ing about for decades, especially as the Liberal approach to the drug problem seems to always be to "decriminalize" more drugs to make it easier for the drug lords to sell even more than they already do.
It's like the Liberals are working with the Cartels and gangs........

I recall as well there was a lot of concern "back in the day" about biker gangs trying to recruit active and former soldiers. (Not so easy to steal weapons and ammo from the Canadian military anymore though.)

I never hung in "those" circles though (luckily, as I had a high level security clearance that would have been cancelled if I'd been seen associating with "certain" groups).

I recently wrote a comment on a story about the drug problem in Canada and noted that according to Canadian Customs, they only inspect "maybe" 10% of all the cargo containers that arrive in the Port of Vancouver and the RCMP only conduct "occasional random searches" of cargo ships in the Ports.
It's also well known that the Ports are basically controlled by certain biker gangs and police of "questionable morals", which is how most of the drugs get into Canada. Just got to know the "right" people to make sure "certain" containers/ships don't get inspected and then bring in tons (literally) of drugs right under the noses (literally) of the people that are supposed to be stopping it.

A distinct lack of "finger-pointing" evidenced in that photo.

Have they stopped teaching that as the preferred method of determining who the guilty party is ?

He must have known they'd be looking for him. If you're working for someone and steal (or "embezzle") a whack of money from them and then skip the country, you probably shouldn't ever go back. Not unless you have a lot of "biometric" alterations, a new name and new passport at least.

Especially when there are safer options to travel to. Maybe the money he "allegedly" stole ran out and he thought he'd just come back and try the same thing again ?

And why do these guys never post about their situations on here ? Surely more than a few of them must be TV/AseanNow/Thiager forum members.


And WHAT is with those frakken pop-up ads now appearing repeatedly.
Every time someone new takes over the site it goes downhill a bit further.

I have zero doubt that behind the scenes China's "Export Development Bank" will step in to offer cheap loans on favourable terms in exchange for a "controlling interest" in the project as a part of their "belt and road" strategy.

In other words, they'll lend Thailand the money and "own" the bridge until the loan is paid off. Fully expecting that it will never be paid off - or - they sign an "agreement" with Thailand to allow Chinese ships to dock in Thai ports and Chinese military aircraft to fly in/out of Thai airbases.

(Called "dual use agreements").

And that way China benefits from the cheaper cost of transporting goods from China to the Middle East/Europe, plus the return on investment from the "loan" and - importantly - the ability to base Chinese ships and aircraft far from China, in strategic locations.

And just so you know. They've made similar loans and "agreements" with countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti on the coast of Africa. (And are working to do the same in Afghanistan and other places  in the South Pacific.)

A few years ago it was big news when China arranged to "lease" nearly 20% of Cambodia's entire shoreline. They then built a "resort" destination (with casinos of course).
And ! They built an entire airport as well. But it was noted by Intelligence analysts that the runways were far longer than needed by even the largest commerical cargo or passenger planes (including the A380).

But - they were the perfect length for fully loaded Chinese bombers to land/take off from.

At the same time, they signed a "dual use agreement" with Hun Sen to allow Chinese warships to dock in the Ream Naval base - a mere hour's drive south of that new airport. As a part of the agreement, Cambodia agreed to demolish 2 new (under 5 years old) "Command and Control" buildings the Americans had built for Cambodia as well as dredging the port and modifying the piers to handle the larger Chinese ships.

(Note that allowing Chinese ships to dock in Cambodian ports is apparently a violation of the Cambodian constitution. But when you're a 3rd world dictator that has no problem arresting and imprisoning anyone who opposes you - who cares !)

As a part of the deal, China gifted Cambodia with 300 new military trucks. Hun Sen turned around and told Cambodia that "he" was donating those trucks to the military and police - as though "he" was the one who bought them.

And gee, I wonder who has their eyes set on doing basically the exact same thing in Thailand ? There is no way China wants a "western friendly" country in the middle of their "back yard" so they are slowly working to spread their influence (and money) in Thailand to change it from an independent "western-allied" nation to a puppet state that is "Chinese-friendly".

A lot of happenings in Thailand can be linked to that.
The "highspeed train" from China to Thailand for example.
The attempted purchase of Chinese submarines.
The plans to legalize Casinos (Chinese tourists love casinos).
Condo developments. (And the recent proposal to allow more "foreign ownership" of condo buildings - you really don't think the Thai gov't, even for a fraction of a second, took "you" into consideration when they made that proposal, do you ? No, it's about bowing down to a different master.)
Changes in Visas/Exemption periods. (Again, you need to understand that the gov't really doesn't give a hoot about some old, gray, cheap charlie expats from Western countries. This is all about making Thailand more "friendly" to the Chinese.)

Give it another 20 years maybe and Thailand will basically be like Cambodia. With a similar puppet gov't and economy, both firmly under China's control.

7 hours ago, rwill said:

I'd just like to thank him for making me keep money in the bank all year long instead of the 3 months out ot the year that it used to be.

Um no. You can thank all the grifter foreigners on this site and others like it that continuously bragged about how they could get around the "800k in the bank" by using agents to scam the system. That is what lead to having to keep the money in the bank.

People have this ridiculous notion that no one in the Thai gov't pays any attention to what is being said in the various chat forums - in the various languages.

People - on this site (and others) - used to brag about how many years they'd stayed  in Thailand simply by making a once a month border run. Sheesh, when I was between contracts back in '05-'06 I did 7 or 8 border runs myself. But I didn't run around bragging to people about it.

Then suddenly there was a crackdown. You could only do 3 border runs in a year and they meant "a year". Boom ! Goodbye to a lot of fake tourists.

Then people bragged about how they could get around the 800k in the bank by "borrowing" the money for a day from an agent so they could get the bank letter and update their passbook. Then pay it back to the agent along with their "fee" the next day.

That led to another crackdown, requiring us to keep the money in the bank for 3 months. That was meant to cut out those agents as most of them weren't going to trust you with their 800k for 3 months. (Not too mention what they'd charge for that.)

Then people started bragging that they were able to get around that (again) using "agents" (again) who would "arrange" to make it look like you had that money in an account for the prescribed time.

That lead to Immigration cracking down on us - again. Now, thanks to all those people who are full of kwaii khee about how  rich they are when in fact they are broke and always trying to scam the system, you have to keep 400k in the bank all year and 800 k in the account for 5 months.

Remember, originally that "800k" was the money Immigration expected you (as a single foreigner) would need to live in Thailand for one year.

I remember back around 2011 (?) or 2012, when Immigration actually wanted to see transactions (withdrawals) on the account your 800k was in to prove you were using it to live on.

(That was in Jomtien back then. I think they asked me twice and I showed them the 800k in the Fixed Term and whatever I had in my savings account and that satisfied them. Then they stopped caring if you were actually spending any of the 800k as a lot of people were keeping it safe in a Fixed Term account.)

And you can bet that when people start bragging about how they are able to stay here for years using the new 90 Day Visa Exemption Stamps (once that's approved) there'll be another crackdown.

It's almost like, gee, maybe they are paying attention to all the chatter going on in forums like this and maybe they are cluing in about not just how people are scamming the system, but just how many of them seem to be doing it.

Whether or not Big Joke is the "one honest mango in the orchard" or not, there seems to be a large power struggle going on behind the scenes at the highest levels.
Old guard, new guard. Junta appointees, Thaksin appointees. 

You can bet a lot of people "up there" are not happy with Thaksin being back and pulling the strings behind the scenes. He never really answered for all the stuff he got away with before skipping the country nor for the "alleged" reasons he was ousted that had nothing to do with his corruption but we can't talk about it here (or anywhere really).


 

Right off the bat the math doesn't add up.
It says "5 tickets" but claims 90 mil in winnings.

Then it says she already cashed in 2 tickets and collected 60 mil and would cash in the third at the end of the month.

The only way that works is if she had 3 "sets" of 5 tickets that all had the same numbers on them. Each "set" of 5 would then be worth 30 mil.

However the chances of buying 3 identical sets of 5 tickets with the same number on them are probably less than the chances of actually winning the lottery at all.

Also prizes must be claimed within 2 years of the draw date. The story claims she kept the winning secret for over 2 years so the tickets would be void now.

And there's no way the village headman would even know if "the money had been withdrawn".

Quote

"He also emphatically contradicted the claims about the 60 million baht withdrawal."

Withdrawn from where ? He would not have any access to any of her banking information (unless she'd borrowed money from him and gave him her ATM card as security - in which case he would know whether or not she'd deposited those huge winnings and he'd have taken what was owed to him - with interest of course).

Got to agree with the old lady at the bottom of the article. Sounds like a put-on to attract attention. She's probably had more visitors (at all hours) in the last week than in the last 2 years combined.