Kerryd

So even though it only started in "July" (4 months ago) they know that "extensions" are being granted, even though anyone wanting an extension would have at least 2 more months to go on their initial 180 day Visa ? Sounds more like "it looks like 10 or so people have applied, but lets quadruple that - and then add 3 zeros to it and then make up a lot of stuff". Seriously. It's the same as another previous article a couple months ago where a "writer" claimed huge numbers of people had applied for DTVs - with NO reference or link to the source of the information of course. Because it's NOT likely that ANY journalist, let alone a foreign one, has access to Immigration's database or data from Thai Embassies around the world. So where are they getting these numbers from ? Wild guesses, exaggerated estimations and the nether regions of a Beach Road freelancer at 3:30 in the morning ? And seriously, 100,000-150,000 baht for a "visa run" to Laos or Cambodia ? MOST of the (caucasian "Westerner") expats that would go for a DTV are the ones who CAN'T afford to live here under the current financial requirements and use agents to loophole/scam their way into getting an Extension. Digital nomads, "begpackers", Ed Visa" holders pretending to be studying Thai, retirees constantly wiring money back and forth each month to make it look like they are getting 65,000 a month. Every time there's a thread about Non-O visas/Extensions, there's a smug bunch of people bragging about how they never worry about the requirements because they just use an agent. And "someone" thinks those people are going to jump up and splash out "100-150,000 baht" for a DTV ? Plus whatever that "agent" would charge to get an Extension on it 6 months later. And then whatever the agent would charge to do the "border run" 180 days after getting the Extension. Not likely.

Assuming you actually want to know: The Statute of Limitations for offenses punishable by (death, life imprisonment or sentences exceeding 20 years) is 20 years (in Thailand). For offenses punishable by sentences between 7-20 years, the Limitation is 15 years. For offenses punishable by 1-7 years, the Limitation is 10 years.

Sigh. They don't suddenly spring from the side of the road from a camouflaged hiding spot. Not for years now. But they will try to block slow-moving vehicles that ignore the officer's instructions. Alcohol checkpoints are strictly regulated now. They MUST have lights, signs, traffic cones, officers to direct vehicles for secondary inspection, officers to do secondary inspections (i.e. breathalyzer tests), officers to write tickets, officers to detain individuals if required (and a prisoner transport vehicle) and officers to persue anyone that tries to flee the checkpoint, as well as a senior officer in charge. (If I recall, the rules are there has to be 10 regular police and 1 officer minimum per checkpoint.) And they have to have tables/chairs/computers where the tickets are written as well as wifi CCTV so they can be monitored from the main police station. Which also means they have to be located in a decent area where they can set all that up. And those rules came into effect what, 4 years ago now ? But the Pattaya police chief back then didn't like the new rules so they just stopped doing alcohol checkpoints for a long time. Now it seems they do them - rarely.

A lot of "Westerners" really have NO idea just how racist a LOT Of Asian countries really are. Our countries bend over backwards and stab ourselves in the back to try and do any and everything we can to go the other way and be as "un-racist" to everyone as we can, even while they laugh at us and happily take advantage of it. Then you live in a Middle Eastern, African or Asian country for awhile and see how THEY treat minorities and other races. And THEY have NO shame about it. No recrimination. No "labelling" or "cancelling". Because they really don't give a toss what anyone else thinks about it and if you don't like it - leave.

A "tunnel" to channel water from South Pattaya all the way north to Na Kluea so it can drain into the ocean ? (Never mind the environmental aspect of flushing all the crap in the drains straight into the ocean.) The only place they could construct such a tunnel is under one of the North/South streets (# 2 or # 3 road basically) or under the highway itself. Can't even go down the center of the highway because you hit the "Center Road" tunnel and then at North Pattaya Road you have the Highway 7 overpass. A couple years ago the city tried to alleviate the Sukhumvit/South Pattaya Road intersection flooding by installing a pump (by the north corner of the Esso station) and enlarging the drainage channel leading from the highway down the little alleyway that runs on the south side of the Batman building. I recall seeing the massive open hole in the ground where they'd started the work, got as far as the little soi that runs from the Batman building up to South Pattaya Road and then stopped. I marvelled at the size of the concrete "drain" channels. Two of them, side by side. Each was wide enough you could have ridden a mid-sized ATV down them with no problem and anyone under 5'10" tall could have probably walked down them without bumping their head. Took them a few months to finally come back and cover those channels over, install new storm drains and lay the new road on top. But I never saw them extend that drain any further past that point. And every time it rains, that intersection still floods - and soi Batman (the whole area around the Batman building) turns into a lake over 1 meter deep. It's the same thing on Khao Noi. The first time I visited someone on Khao Noi (2009 maybe ?) the road had been completely torn up so they could install a new drainage system. Then they covered it over and for awhile it was a very nice, very smooth road. And, naturally, a couple years later it was partially torn up so they could install and new, larger, drainage system, new storm grates at the bottom end and the "holding pond/pumping station" a few meters down the railway bypass. I assumed that was a part of a project to protect the new railway bed from being washed out every time it rained. (Remember when they set down that new railbed years ago and brought in all those concrete railway ties that have been stacked by the rail station for (5 ?) years or so.) Khao Noi now - if you can see the road through all the ad-hoc "repair" jobs from everyone and their dog digging up the street to put in a new drain pipe or something and then doing a craptastic job of filling in the hole and paving/cementing over it - has 3 separate drainage systems running down the road from just below The Chilled shopping mall to the railway bypass. And every time it rains, from the Mike Orchard Villa housing compound down to the bypass, it turns into a raging white-water river. And I don't think I've ever heard anyone, ever, blame flooding on those reservoirs - on the other side of the high ground east of the city - overflowing. But hey, a tunnel sounds better than their previous plan to pump all the storm runoff from the sewers straight back into those same reservoirs, flooding them will all manner of toxic contaminates and who knows what else that people routinely throw down the drains.

Here's a clue. Epstein was well known for providing "women" to top tier, exclusive parties attended by the "rich and powerful". The kind of parties Trump attended all the time. (Rich people "networking" and recruiting investors and such.) Melania was a high end "model" (nude and otherwise) and her agency often provided "classy" women to such parties as "arm candy" and "to be available" to the rich and powerful men in attendance. Trump and Epstein knew each other for a long, long time as they ran in the same circle and attended the same parties. Trump met Melania at one of those parties where he was with wife #2 (whom he'd had an affair with while married to wife #1). While wife #2 was in the bathroom, Trump approached Melania and gave her his personal phone number(s). And then cheated on wife #2 with her. (And of course, then cheated on wife #3, Melania. Probably a few times.) There is little doubt that Trump's name was all over Epstein's client lists - and possibly Melania's as well (on the other side of the "clients and contractors" ledger). Epstein was arrested and put in jail while Trump was the President. If he started dropping names and calling in favours, it could have been very problematic for Trump. Epstein's cell was monitored 24/7 by CCTV cameras and TWO guards. By weird coincidence, the CCTV cameras "malfunctioned" around the same time BOTH guards claimed to have fallen asleep. When they woke up (and the cameras suddenly started working again) - Epstein was dead. Note that the autopsy results indicate death by "strangulation" - not hanging. (Apparently, according to forensic experts, being strangled leaves different injuries to the neck than if someone hung themselves. Different location on the neck. Different damage to the vocal chords and so on. Which can be easily found during an autopsy.) And gee, who would have had the most to lose if Epstein started talking ? And who had the power to pull off such a job - and make sure it stayed a secret ? Here's a hint. It wasn't Biden. Or Clinton. Or Harris.

Maybe he mixed up Gladstone and Tonkin ? However, I tried searching that site for Jayson Tonkin (full name and just last name searches) and it has no records and he has fought in a number of tournaments - but mainly in Thailand and Cambodia. Boxrec collects data from various sports organizations so if an organization isn't a "member" or doesn't submit fight results, they wouldn't appear on that site. Just looked again and I see a post dating back to 2016 about him (as Jayy Tonkin) fighting for AKA Thailand and I found a .pdf about AKA Thailand showing a profile of him with a 17-7-1 record. (Note no "neck tatt" so the profile pic must be a few years old.) His last Instagram post was a clip from a fight 2 months ago where he scored a 1st round TKO. Fairtex had a post about Tonkin's match on 20 Oct being cancelled due to rain.

It's pretty messed up. You'd think (normally) that an athlete who obviously has to train a lot and keep in excellent physical condition wouldn't be messing with drugs at all. Tonkin was supposed to have a match less than 2 weeks ago (cancelled due to flooding). You'd think it would have been rescheduled to happen in the near future. I don't know what the drug/steriod policies are for the different Muay Thai fighting organizations in Thailand and Cambodia are but even if they don't care (or test) - cannabis and ketamine wouldn't be something you'd expect a professional fighter to be using. Got to love the "experts" who think there's no way that the ketamine found in the room could have anything to do with one of the guys being dead and the other in a coma. Sure, maybe it was just the marijuana, right ? There's a reason ketamine is a Class 1 drug and it's not because it gives a "calming effect". Sounds like something a ****ing drug dealer (or junky) would say to try and justify their own actions. One would hope that the media follows up on this story - but "This is Thailand" and following up on stories seems to be taboo here for some reason unless the subjects do something else "newsworthy". Like the Canadian found dead in his apartment a week or so ago. Chances we'll ever hear what the cause of death was (after the autopsy) ? Between zero and not a chance in h3ll. Because no one will follow up or report on it unless it's something really strange or exotic. If Tonkin recovers, we may get an update - or a report of him being charged for the drugs. Otherwise we may never know what really happened.

I do believe "straight white English speaking males" are an endangered species in most Western countries these days and do make up a small but significant visible minority in Thailand as well. But - wrong skin colour to be given any consideration regardless of length of time in the country, family, business or amount contributed to the economy.

Some time ago I needed surgery to remove a plate and screws from my wrist. Went to a large (private) hospital. Was talking to the "finance" people. Lady made a call to find out what all would be needed. Cost of operation - check. 3 nights in hospital (day before, day of, day after) - 500 baht/day - check. This, that and the other thing - check. Then as I watched, she crossed out the 500/day and wrote in 5,000/day ! The max amount my insurance covers per day of stay. The 500/day was the "Thai" rate - when paying cash. She then amended some of the other "standard" prices. Total cost for the operation - 180,000 baht. I went to another private hospital. Smaller than the first one, but the rooms seemed just as good and the staff seemed just as competent. And they charged me 90,000 baht for the SAME operation. Yeah, my insurance covers it - and then guess what happens ? My rates go UP as the insurance company tries to recoup the money they had to shell out - even if I've given them twice that amount in premiums over the previous years. Awesome. You get screwed coming here, get screwed at the hospital and then get screwed again because you used the insurance you paid through the nose for. Remember the story about what, 6-8 months ago about the Thai woman who went to the media to complain because she thought her hospital bill was too high ? The hospital ADMITTED they overcharged her - because they thought she was SWISS, not Thai ! And then they agreed to knock 100,000 baht off her bill !! The gov't claims to want tourists to come here - and then outright discriminates against them, treats them like crap and tries to gouge them at every turn. If this was South Africa the world would be shunning them and their racist policies. But because the "West" wants Thailand to stay "friendly" so they turn a blind eye to it.

And how did he manage to get a pistol and a rifle registered in his name ? And it seems he has a history of "anger issues". Road rage with an ambulance driver ? Kicks a woman in the back for the heinious crime of sitting on some steps he had (illegally) built on public land near the beach ? Methinks a quick check with Interpol might be in order to see if he's here because he can't go home.

I've noticed there are really only two seasons in Thailand. Rainy season - which normally runs from mid-April(ish) to mid-October(ish) and is the hottest part of the year. Dry season - from mid-October to mid-April and, generally, the coolest part of the year (especially in the Northern provinces). It's not an exact science of course. This year we didn't get much rain at all at the start of the rainy season but have been getting blasted over the last couple of months. And I recall last year (2023) commenting in early April that "Songkran" had started early because we were already getting lots of heavy rains well before the actual holiday. But generally it's "hot and wet" from April to October and "dry and cool" from Oct to April. I remember it used to be a hoot coming to Thailand (from Canada or another cold place) in Jan/Feb and walking around in shorts and a t-shirt at 2 am while the locals, especially the girls, were wearing sweaters and wool hats and gloves like there was a blizzard roaring through because the temperature was down to 20-22 Celsius (68-72 Farenheit). My friends make a point of taking a trip "up north" each year so we can go camping "in the cold". I tell them I moved to Thailand to get away from that ! And we end up somewhere like Ban Ja Bo or Ban Rak Thai or even Pai and it really, really re-affirms my decision to move here. This was the temperature at a resort in Pai in Early Dec 2019. (5.7 Celsius - 42 Farenheit)

Ch.7 lists his full name. Interestingly, one of the hits for that name is a 27 year old (Austalian) Muay Thai fighter who, naturally, has a lot of tatts as well and trains in Thailand (and fights in Thailand and Cambodia). Got to be a coincidence. One wouldn't suspect a guy who seemingly works out a lot and fights in the ring would be doing ketamine and weed in a Soi 3 Pattaya hotel room.

Directly across the soi from the Hollywood nightclub at the Bae Ka Din restaurant on Chalermphrakiat Soi 3, NOT Phettrakul Road (or"Petchtrakul" as it's called in the Pattaya Mail article). (Phettrakul Road is on the other side of the Hollywood and runs from the Hollywood Disco to the back side of Central Marina and then to the "rear" of Terminal 21. Chalermphrakiat Soi 3 is the "short-cut" route to get from the back side of Central Marina to #3 road by driving south for a bit on Phettrakul and then turning onto Chalermphrakiat Soi 3.) And in the Pattaya Mail article it says the gunman was a part of the group that left "an entertainment venue" (Hollywood Disco most likely as it's like 40 meters away) and that they had engaged in a fist fight prior to the shooting. It's a little confusing as at first the article says: And then in the very next paragraph it says: So, "Thai foreigners" ? Oh and - "at 4:06 am". Ah "closing time". "Back in the day" closing time at the bars was quite often "fight time" as certain people would decide if they weren't going to get laid that night, then they may as well try to pick a fight with someone. Preferably someone that was going to get lucky. It was a lol to be walking back to the base after the bars closed, especially on Fridays/Saturdays, and see strings of cop cars parked on the street just waiting for "something" to happen. You learned that it was a good idea to finish your drinks and be out the door at least 15 minutes before closing - unless you were one of those types that sticks around to the very end hoping "something" would happen.

Guaranteed it had f*** all to do with covid boosters. Try getting your information from legitimate sources instead of UFO conspiracy sites. Could be a dozen reasons for someone to die in their sleep. But as they do for any foreigner who dies without an obvious cause of death, they will do an autopsy. Usually if they suspect drugs (or boner-pill) overdose they mention it in the article (like if there were bottles of heart medication or insulin laying around or opened packages of (insert favourite boner-pill here). The other photo in the Thaiger article shows a bit of the living room. A number of (cracker ? digestive bisquit ?) boxes, some opened. Bunch of crap on the table but no alcohol. No name given either, which seems a bit odd for Thai media. Was a time they'd literally publish the face page of your passport with just the passport number blanked out as well as your full address, right down to house number, village, street, postal code. A proper investigation would note if his wallet still had money in it, if any CCTV cameras recorded the last time he entered the building (and if he was alone), how long he'd been in Thailand, was he morbidly obese, etc, etc. I remember back around what, 2010 ? In the first couple months of the year six Canadians died in Thailand. A doctor riding in a baht bus in Chiang Mai (shot - supposedly by a bullet from a "bird hunter" that missed it's target). Another Canadian flew to Thailand to meet a woman (a teacher in Isaan) he'd been corresponding with online. They went to dinner and then to his hotel (uh huh) where he apparently took a couple extra little blue pills to make sure he'd be "up" to the task - and then croaked on top of her minutes later. Another guy died in a motorcycle crash, riding a Harley in Pattaya. (That hit close to home as it happened barely a week after I'd parked my Harley - in Pattaya - and went back to work in Afghanistan.) A girl died when she slipped on wet tiles by a hotel pool, cracked her head open and fell into the pool. The other two were big news. 2 girls who went to Phuket, partied in a bar that served "bucket drinks", went back to their hotel - and were found dead in their room the next day. (Suspected insecticide poisoning.) (My dad died here in Nov 2010 but it didn't make the papers. He passed away in the hospital as a result of his late stage lung cancer. No autopsy required as they knew what killed him.) Lots of ways for people to die in Thailand and NONE of them have ANYTHING to do with "covid booster shots".

Geckos get everywhere. One morning I poured myself a cup of coffee (in a large, dark mug). Added a spoonful of sugar and some of that powdered creamer, stirred it up then sat in front of the computer to see what happened in the world while I'd been sleeping. Halfway through the cup I felt something solid touch my lip. Spit the coffee back into the cup, grabbed a spoon - and found a 3" (7.5cm) gecko dead in the bottom of the mug ! He must have crawled in there during the night and then suddenly in the morning got doused in steaming hot coffee. Don't know how I stirred the coffee without noticing it had something "extra" inside it. Took me a couple weeks to stop thinking about it every time I had a cup of coffee. (Now when I put the cup by the coffee maker I put a spare coffee filter on top so I can see if "something extra" tries to get into the cup again. Turning the cup upside down just results in it "sticking" to the cloth and having to peel it off in the morning and having a rim of fabric shreds.) And it's almost impossible to keep them out of a house/condo as, when they are little, they can slip in through the tiniest cracks and holes. And they seem to grow quickly - though you never really notice a decrease in the amount of annoying little bugs that also find their way into the house every day. In fact, the only thing the geckos seem to be good at is leaving little "presents" - on the floors, the walls and the counter-tops (and likely in places that are hard to see normally). However, the one in the photo above appears huge - and very hard to miss. But if the cake comes from a place that mass produces them there's a chance it could have ended up in there accidentally. But it would have had to somehow end up perfectly curled inside the cake so that no parts stuck out where someone would see it. Not just perfectly curled - but also apparently right at the bottom of the cake so it wouldn't be found until most of the cake had already been eaten. But from the sounds of it, the customer appears to be trying to soak the baker for a hefty compensation.

So Big Joke's "rich wife" was supposedly having an affair with another policeman. That policeman's wife alleges Big Joke's wife entered her condo using a "spare key" (obtained from who ?) and stole money and gold. And then she alleges that Big Joke's wife "left bags of money" in the condo ? Sounds like the plot to a bad soap opera (perhaps the inspiration for the story ?) or a poorly scripted attempt to defame someone.

And I've never had a Thai restaurant, anywhere in the country, tell me they couldn't make a dish without chilies or couldn't "reduce" the amount used. And I've eaten in "Thai" (i.e. "where the locals eat") restaurants all over the country. I often order something somewhere and the staff (who usually don't speak English) will tell my friends that what I ordered is spicy and they'll tell them not to worry because "farang gin phet" and everyone laughs (except me). And when it is served I still end up adding ground "prik daeng" and chili sauce to it. (I've spent a lot of time improving my tolerance to very hot chilies. I use a lot of Blair's Mega Death (Scoville scale - 500,000) and Ultra Death (Scoville scale 800,000) sauces when I'm making curries or BBQ sauce or mixing it with Tartare sauce for fish.) But back when I first started visiting Thailand one of the first phrases I ever learned (after "Where is the bathroom") was "mai phet" (no spice). Never had a problem ordering anything and having it made "mai phet" or "phet nid noi" (spicy little bit). Even in gas station food courts in the middle of Isaan, I would just point at something and say "mai phet" and the (usually) old ladies would point out which dishes were not spicy. (Turns out a lot of Thais don't like eating super spicy food all the time either and a lot of dishes are made without any chilies at all.)

I found that "Thai" restaurants - literally around the world - rarely make food that tastes "authentic" or is as spicy as it is in Thailand. In part because they can't get fresh ingredients like red chilies, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves or galangal so they "substitute". After all, ginger pretty much looks like galangal, right ? And dried lemon grass powder in a spice jar is probably just as good as the fresh stuff, right ? (Chinese restaurants around the world have the same problem. In Vancouver we were lucky. Restaurants would have cooks that literally just got off the plane from Beijing or or Shanghai and we had local "Asian" markets full of fresh "Asian" vegetables and herbs. But as soon as you travelled even a hundred kilometers away from Vancouver, the food in Chinese restaurants took a huge dive in taste and quality.) And - they ALL "dumb down" the spice because they know 99% of their customers couldn't handle it if it was made "Thai style". I found that out back in '98 when I was in Ontario and planning a trip to Thailand. I was getting food from a local Thai restaurant to "prep" myself to handle the chilies. I thought I was doing good. I was ordering the "3 chili" (hottest) levels and not having a problem. I was also ordering the "suicide wings" from another place and not even getting a tingle on my tongue. I was ready !! I went to Thailand all brave and confident, went to a local Thai restaurant and ordered something like a Pad Kaprow "Thai style". I couldn't get through 3 spoonfuls. Too spicy. I was kind of upset because I couldn't handle a simple dish. Because a "scorching 3 chili" dish in Canada was probably the same as "made for young children in Thailand" level of spice. Last time I was in Canada I found a Thai restaurant near my hotel and gave it a try. I think I ordered a green or red curry and some other dishes and the waiter cautioned me that it was very spicy. I told him "no problem, in fact, ask them to add some extra chilies". The dish came out - with those hard, dried out chillies that are inedible. Like trying to eat brittle plastic. And needless to say, the dish was not even close to being "spicy". (The worst was when the company I was working for put us up in a 5 star hotel in Dubai. They had Tom Kha Gai on the menu. Spicy coconut soup with chicken. One of my favourite dishes. They brought it out and immediately you're looking at it going "huh ?". No coconut milk at all. Not spicy. Had like 2 of those dried out chilies in it. It was like an oily tomato soup. But that's what you get when you order a Thai dish at a restaurant in Dubai that probably uses Indian "chefs" that got their certification from the the local print shop where they also got their qualifications to be an electrician, mechanic and transport truck operator.) (I spent 10 years working in Afghanistan and we had a lot of Indian employees and we quickly found out how most of them got their qualifications. We had "mechanics" who were qualified because they'd worked at a Tata assembly plant. One guy did nothing but put the front-left tire on each car as it passed. Another guy only put the front bumpers on. But somehow they were "qualified auto mechanics". Our plumbers used to go ballistic because every time a "qualified plumber" did a job they'd have to go back in and redo it properly the next day. The electricians literally had to sit on "qualified" electricians and teach them how to do basic tasks - properly.)

"Restaurant staffers should have been trained to serve Thai iced tea or “some other dairy-based product” to customers with bad reactions to “spice intensity” — but there were none of the beverages on hand, according to the suit. Instead, Walia was forced to chug “an entire glass of coconut water and more water, but the burning did not subside,” the lawsuit states." "Walia’s lawsuit also targets over two dozen individuals, including her server, chefs and other employees who may have “influenced, designed, prepared, or participated in creating” the dish." “A new employee who prepared the dish made an error and added additional peppers, rather than reducing them as requested,” Walia, of San Jose, claimed in a November court filing." (And she knows that how ?) The restaurant literally just has to bring a menu and have oh, I don't know, 500 or so customers show up to testify that they've eaten the same dish with no problems. Lol at their menu when they do things like this: "Pad Grr Pow" or "Pad See U". The list the alcoholic drinks they serve but don't show any non-alcoholic drinks (like smoothies or shakes). Note the restaurant is located about 70 kms south of San Fransisco. And their food is not that spicy. LOOK at the chilies they are using. Those same dehydrated (or "sun dried") hard chilies that have almost no flavour at all. The Chinese use these a lot and restaurants overseas where they can't get fresh ingredients. "Dragon Balls" from the restaurant's web menu.

I was a smoker for 35 years and it used to p1ss me off to no end to see how rude and arrogant most other smokers were. Literally ZERO respect for anyone else. Throw their still burning "butts" wherever they felt like. Deliberately lighting up in the middle of a group or in a crowded place. I don't know where they got that "entitled" attitude that they should be allowed to smoke anywhere and toss their butts wherever - or drop them into beer bottles without caring if someone was drinking from that bottle (I've seen @ss****s do exactly that and then move away so they can pretend it wasn't them) or stubbing their butts out on food plates (and so on and so on). Frakken hated seeing people cooking with a cigarette dangling from their mouths right over top of whatever they were cooking. And then you get the people who are often (insert rude term here) at the best of times, put a couple beer into them and you get people like you see in the video. And it's not limited to any one race/culture/nation. I quit just over 12 years ago now and am so glad I did. Breath easier, smell better and - supposedly, am "healthier". (Apparently my risk of smoking related heart disease or strokes is now around the same as for someone who's never smoked.)

Burmese guy - in Ranong. So all the "raging grannies" can simmer down and untwist their knickers because it wasn't a "white guy" in Pattaya (or Phuket) involved.

Umm. If the SUV was making a U-Turn and a motorcycle was travelling at high speed in the oncoming, right-hand lane, it would hit the "left side" of the SUV. This is Thailand. They drive on the left side of the road. So you pull into the right-side lane to make a u-turn which exposes the left side of your vehicle to the oncoming traffic. It is a common event in Thailand. Most of my Thai friends are very cautious when they see a vehicle at a U-turn as they know it's quite common for (cars/trucks/SUVs) to decide that they have room/time to turn and that any oncoming traffic should just move out of their way. More than a few times I've had to hit the brakes and change lanes to avoid someone that just decided they were "bigger" or "more important" than me and pulled out right in front of me. Especially annoying when you check your mirrors and see there were no vehicles behind you and all the other guy had to do was wait 3-4 seconds. But, this is Thailand after all. And "heavily modified" bike could mean almost anything. Doesn't appear to be a scooter based on the exhaust pipe. Looks more like a 150cc Honda Phantom or a different model of "low CC, "cruiser-style" bikes in the 150-175cc range. And it was at 8pm. Just after dark. The area appears to be well lit. (But how often do you see motorcycles riding after dark with no lights on because they think it saves them tiny ounces of fuel by leaving their lights off ?) And because the SUV driver fled, one can assume he knew he was likely at fault (or had been drinking, or in possession of contraband). If he'd stuck around, he would have likely been breathalyzed or even sent to the hospital for a blood test. Unless he was a rich HiSo or "connected" of course, in which case he would have been allowed to go home and sleep it off and then go to the police station when it was convenient for him. Unfortunately, not only will the investigation be - somewhat less than thorough - I suspect the follow-up will be near non-existent. They should have an alert out to every hospital/clinic in the area and to every repair shop that could do extensive repairs to a vehicle of that type. (There's absolutely NO indication that the SUV driver was the lone occupant of his vehicle and if he did have passengers it's possible they may have required medical assistance.) And one might think the police actually be able to search a DLT database for "silver Toyota Fortuners" and compile a list of those registered in the local area for a start. And I'd suspect there'd be some bits and pieces of the SUV scattered around the accident scene that would be evidence. But regardless, I suspect there's very little chance we would ever hear the outcome of any investigation anyways unless it turned out the SUV was owned/driven by some very "newsworthy" VIP or HiSo. Followng up on news stories here is something no one seems interested in for the most part.

Chances of him being sent to jail - zero. Chances of him being sentenced to a jail term and then suddenly developing another "illness" that requires special treatment in a private VIP hospital suite until he's eligible for parole (again) - probably as close to a sure thing as you can get. He's still facing a Lese Majesty trial as well though I suspect the brown envelopes are flying around thick and fast to make sure the outcome of that is "favourable" to him as well. Could have settle this once and for all the first time he fled the country by having him arrested and returned while he was still in China. China cares a lot more about getting Thailand under it's thumb than it does about another corrupt former leader. Then again, they can't even get a guy arrested who killed a cop in a drunken hit and run so they probably had less chance of getting Thaksin back, even from the UK where it seems owning a "footie club" makes you almost as untouchable as being (English) royalty.

If he was drunk (the Porsche driver) then his insurance would NOT cover him or his vehicle's damage. It should STILL cover the medical costs and damages to the victims. It's VERY possible that all he had was the compulsory gov't insurance which barely covers anything. I know a lot of people (Thais) that have expensive cars/motorcycles and that is all they have for insurance and then only because they have to pay for it when they do their annual inspection to get their new road tax decal. I can only get standard "Class 3" insurance for my bike because of it's age (weird Thai rules - the older your vehicle, the less insurance you can get because here, vehicles don't get more valuable when they become "vintage"). The sad part is, if I get into an accident, even if it's clearly the other person's fault, my insurance would likely have to pay THEIR medical and damage costs but I would still have to pay for my own repairs. Drives me up the wall when I go on trips and see friends drinking like fish (starting literally at 9 in the morning) and then drive off - with their whole family in the vehicle - knowing they have literally no insurance if they get into an accident.