MK1

The onus of proof is now upon those accused to prove they were not working for commercial gain. Time will tell if they succeed; as ignorance to the law, as we all know, is no defence.

The alternative to all of this, is for all god fearing hug your fellow man and woman types to stay at Larry’s up market resort in Phuket, just for peace and safety of mind, paying 7% vat and 10% service charge.

Surely this is not the entire story. It sounds to me you are dealing with an agent of some description. Better to get this type information direct from the Thai consulate themselves rather than having everyone just guess what your needs are. The visa requirements are different depending upon your nationality and the country in which make that application. There is no short cuts, but you’re better of making that Visa application in the country of your nationality.

Interesting thing to discuss. Some observation is that, Thai entertainers are probably connected to gangsters and bad police that have been using them to do one black thing or another.

People that come from upcountry to work in Bangkok these days are tied to a number of interest groups ranging from labor related, underground activities related, drug related to normal work related and political related situations.

It all depends on who you know and how you know them. This is a popular saying tho!

Based on my experiences dealing with people and private investigation work background, I must suggest that:

1) Pick partners that are educated and work in normal day time corporate or public sector jobs. Entertainers are for entertaining and in most cases not for marrying as they are likely to be connected to the underworld, drug, debts, hidden fantasy husbands/partners.

2) If it's simplest to pick a partner who is an entertainer, spend time to get to know him/her thoroughly...starting from the family and background, place currently living, places he/she has lived, down to values and beliefs. Obvious remarks are the mentioning of the influential polices, bar managers, politicians, head of mafia or gangsters, etc.

3) Character is the most important lead to what you will face with in the partner. This goes both ways. Study each other carefully and visit each other's homes, show each other just about everything as time goes by, etc. Usually nothing will surface in less than a year or two...

Want to share about the girls in Ratchada area. I am a business manager and I too am from upcountry, that located here due to my company situating here too. I first rented a suite room here and walked to work before leaving the company and starting a dealership to save up to buy my own place.

I have lived here since 2003 so am familiar with many bar girls and treat them rather as friends and sisters around the neighborhood.These girls come from upcountry with various plans such as to further education, on mission after divorce to a quick fix, to find a simple job, to work in a corporate job, to become a business owner, etc.

Among more than 50-100 people that I knew here, all bar girls and entertainers as well as drug dealers known to me in 2003-2008 have gone away in one fashion or another except one who does not work full-time as entertainer but as a normal masseuse that may some times date a foreigner for money.

Classic cases have been scams such as the girl or guy got together with a rich foreigner after being involved with a scammer and together helped one another arrange scenes to scam the rich guy, usually involving a gambling scene, involved with police that may possibly behind these things (a stakeholder in the scam!), Thai girl playing dumb after pawning her Bt.450K car for double the sum of money from double sources, Thai girl asked the foreign manager to pay down payment on a car under her name and run away with the car, Thai girl using host bar for entertainment (for having sex with male prostitutes) when foreign husbands away on business or long leave from the Kingdom, Thai girls using cocaine and hold nuke parties with their police boyfriends buying drug with foreign men's money, Thai girls walk off on foreign men when the men become bankrupt.

These are severe cases, not counting milder cases of lies and frauds. The hard crimes are easy to see whereas those soft ones are all out for the rich men to lose a lot of what they have got, it seems.

Among people in this area, the relationships that still seem okay (I mean at least on the surface, appear as normal situation) are involved these situations and characters:

1) Personal come business relationship but this may not last because of so many hard variables.

2) Marriage with bar girl who (even though) is married to a Thai that lived back home, whereby the foreign man controls her interest by slowly giving her money and things. She took it because she had no choice, no desire to work, just sleep with him for money for as long as her kids and family can live on. He himself maybe an ex-con with limited options, coming here to green-wash himself and simply seek the place to bury his grave when time comes. For as long as he can retain his visa and have sex, he may not feel the bother about her Thai husband's existence or else he did not know... or he possibly has prostate cancer and may soon past away!

3) The men married Thai girls properly regardless of background and flew them to live with overseas. This off course, I do not hear much about them after they left so there is no way I will know most truths except that I perceive girls going overseas are happier and better deserved than girls that had to remain here perhaps.

4) Girls that are most broad-minded and do not care their husbands' behavior much whether it be butterflying, gambling, drinking, sporting, or whatever for as long as they are amply looked after or given the chance to grow their own careers and wealth.

5) Well educated couples and elites.

I perceive that girls that look for foreign partners may have high self-esteem, in many cases, excessively high, which lead them to jump fast into many conclusions and thoughts. They may previously ran into problems and hold high hopes for a big and quick fix. Watch out for them. The girls that have troubled me recently, for instances are the following types:

1) Pimpie's girl dealing drug trying to lure me into becoming a guarantor in her 1.2 million baht car loans. I found out later this girl is having multiple partners so she could gain high income each month. She works for some bad police in looking for potential victim(s), allowing her group to cause him/her stress and trick him/her in what may appears to be harmless ways to de-stress by using cocaine or spend money gambling, etc. The group of bad police is her tutor. Whoever is involved with this type of girls may ever lost all their assets as well as wallet and identity. They can invent all lies. They can do all bad things.

2) Experienced bar girl teaming up with a senior police pretending to request help from her ex foreigner husband and me on her debt cases...whereas her loss of assets were actually due to her own hidden agenda, cheap lavishly behavior and intentional drug abuse.

3) Mama san turned hairdresser, verbally abusive. This woman came from the Khmer border as a bar girl, then bar mama san and then human exporter. Her boss just married her and sent her on for sales in Europe for 3 months. This woman knows the ins and outs of the underworld, connected with all bad girls to round up their actions, and in a number of ways, is like a nuclear bomb to our society! Absolutely dangerous to everyone!

4) Prostitutes that asked for credit from shops and may never pay back, etc as they wish only to take advantage of people.

Education sometimes isn't what make us more of human unless our values and beliefs hold us true and noble. However, we all must live our lives step by step, not ten steps or through multiple zigzags at a time.

As for the big gossips on the men side, it is too long a story to tell for now so I might find time to share later. To find love and to be loved, often love does not happen two-way at the same times. That's why most of us are still lonely and heartbroken. All the best and thanks for reading through.

OMG...Too much information....

There is the good, bad and the downright ugly relationship in every country. What usually goes wrong is when the hidden secrets are revealed after the marriag such as previous occupation was bar girl at some stage. If you can also eliminate the influences of mother in law, sisters, brothers and relatives it helps with ensuring the Thai marriage remains focused and stays on track one on one. Otherwise the risk is you may be profiled by others, not the fault of your wife, as being an ATM machine.

Bangtao, Chergtalay, Surin. Phuket muslims.... Lovely people on a lovely island

Cultural differences = "No need to panic Mr Mainwaring"

Irrespective of everyones assumption, the soft approach used by police, in that district, is seen as cultural respect because the hard approach in the past has resulted in unfortunate fatalities and in turn the locals tend to block the road for days demanding the transfer of arresting police officers.

The area where police failed to arrest the wanted man fringes on the border of the Bang Tao district, which is a very sensitive area in terms of upholding the law and respecting cultural differences;

What 'cultural differences' are you referring to here? Please elaborate.

As to the earlier posts questioning the Thai police's handling of the situation, one needs to remember it's the RTP we're talking about here, not a professional police force as it's known in the west.

No need to elaborate on the issue of cultural differences. Those who live and work in Phuket know how to get along with communities which is in stark contrast to those who would wish Thailand to be the same, as you have aptly describe, as in the west or better known as pluralistic societies.

Thai people only came out of the jungle in the last 80 years. So a little hard to meet everyone expectation and aspire to the CSI or Starsky & Hutch philosophy that those from the west would wish for overnight.

For decades the police decided not to do anything about criminal activities on Phuket (partly because they are involved), leading criminals to believe they can do whatever they want. This "policy" now comes back and bites them in their behind.

Your respectfully entitled to your assumption. However, why are Phuket jail’s so overloaded and who put them there? Spend a day in Phuket provincial court with a translator and you might discover that Phuket newspapers are lucky to report 10 % of cases and criminals caught in Phuket which results in readers like yourself believing in what you read and see based on the limited resources and information available. It hardly makes interesting reading to report all the cases but some Thai language only tabloids do.

Serving an arrest warrant on an individual with the type of criminal history described certainly called for a tactical plan. I've observed the Thai Police in the field and their approach in regards to officer safety is appalling. They seldom do a pat down for weapons, don't conduct a full body search when making arrests and often don't handcuff the arrestee. Its a matter of time before another is seriously injured of killed.

Normally, if you cooperate with Thai police, you’re entitled to the presumption of innocence and are not handcuffed until charged. It’s when you start back chatting ie.shouting to police or try to evade them then the problem starts because this is an indication of your resistance and denial to cooperate.

Irrespective of everyone’s assumption, the soft approach used by police, in that district, is seen as cultural respect because the hard approach in the past has resulted in unfortunate fatalities and in turn the locals tend to block the road for days demanding the transfer of arresting police officers.

The area where police failed to arrest the wanted man fringes on the border of the Bang Tao district, which is a very sensitive area in terms of upholding the law and respecting cultural differences; even though it is the responsibility of Cherng Talay police to oversee and enforce the law in that district.

As a consequence of this event, I dare say that the soft approach has been waived for now and police, in due course, will return with a bus load of them next time.

The outcome from this event, in the end, will most likely be the body of the fugitive in the bag.

Good to see the University intends to relax the rule and allow individuals to become creative. However, it can get out of control and beyond ridiculous as it did at my University in Melbourne with students showing up to lectures in their pajamas. So in the end, there needs to be parameters and limits....

I have enjoyed reading all the comments, may I suggest we wait on the investigation results before deciding whether to fly Thai again.

I began my aircraft maintenance experience with the Georgia Air Guard in 1950 with C-47, P-47 and T-6's up to the B777 when I retired from United Air Lines in 1997. I have 32 years experience as Mechanic, Foreman, Manager and Regional Manager for various US airlines.

I also have 26 years USAF as Mechanic and then C-141 Flight/Examiner Engineer. I continue to do consulting as an Auditor/Inspector of aircraft for a major leasing company. I am a Gold Level Mileage Member with Thai and two other airlines. I find Thai aircraft to be clean and well maintained, by the way I like the service too !!

According to the Aviation Herald report, reading into it, one would suggest causation is perhaps linked to either brake seizure (a maintenance issue) or the pilot took the runway short and in turn perhaps the pilot may have applied extreme braking pressure to avoid the worst outcome( originating from human error).

What is your assumption?

Doubt they will find a suitable replacement. The duties and tasks, in this particular post, are far too onerous for an unpaid position. (As I write this, Larry, no doubt, has his hands full dealing with two deaths of Australians in Phuket yesterday)

Australia really should be opening a consulate in Phuket.

However, with the current political climate in Australia, funding will never become available.

The conservative party in Australia, who will win Government on Saturday, have been promising $billions for any hair brained project that they think will win them votes in local seats.

They have to pay for these promises somehow, and the first thing they do will bring in massive cuts in the public service.

It's more likely Foreign Affairs will be closing posts down!

I believe many Australians living in Phuket will also miss-out on voting in this Saturday Election due to the AEC sending out the postal votes to overseas electors via boat to Thailand, on the cheapest overseas postage available to them, which has resulted postal papers not arriving in time. Those wishing to vote now would have to get on plane and vote at the Australian embassy in Bangkok.

Another budget funding cut consequence I imagine.

Had a permanent Consulate been established in Phuket this would not of occurred.

Eventually some charitable organization will donate a ‘Lucas Automatic CPR machine’ to Patong Hospital to aid in the life saving transfer of patients to Hospitals like Vacihira and then we might see some survive from these tragic traumatic incidents and accidents. Unfortunately, before that happens many will die as consequence in the meantime sorry to say …. http://www.lucas-cpr.com/en/lucas_cpr/lucas_cpr

Position Title: Honorary Consul (Phuket) Location: DFAT Application Closing Date: 18 September 2013 Status: Opening for applications

quoted from the Australian embassy site.

A paper which cannot be quoted has the full job offer but as yet it is not on the embassy website.

I am surprised that they would advertise for such a position particularly when normally Honorary Consul's are not paid for their duties and usually their role is merely ceremonial. Normally a Honorary Consul is nominated through the embassy and the relative foreign dept just ticks the box.

Perhaps on this occasion, DFAT are offering’ Botox’ treatment as part of a expense entitlement to the successful candidate, as Larry looks like he needs it now.

The position of HC is not ceromonial. They perform a wide variety of services that would normally be performed by Embassy staff and as such recieve remuneration in the form of an allowance and expenses.

They do have limited diplomatic immunity in regard to their official functions but not for private acts.

This is standard throughout many countries.

Who for example issue tourist visas for thailand in Perth. The answer is that the Thai Honorary Consol does and this is not a ceromonial function.

Then the title ‘Honorary’ should perhaps be removed from the title because’ Honorary ‘means…

“A position given of honor, with no duties attached, and without payment”. source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary

Position Title: Honorary Consul (Phuket) Location: DFAT Application Closing Date: 18 September 2013 Status: Opening for applications

quoted from the Australian embassy site.

A paper which cannot be quoted has the full job offer but as yet it is not on the embassy website.

I am surprised that they would advertise for such a position particularly when normally Honorary Consul's are not paid for their duties and usually their role is merely ceremonial. Normally a Honorary Consul is nominated through the embassy and the relative foreign dept just ticks the box.

Perhaps on this occasion, DFAT are offering’ Botox’ treatment as part of a expense entitlement to the successful candidate, as Larry looks like he needs it now.

I know it is an honoury position, but is it formally recognised by the Australian government? Will the position be advertised?

It is something that I would stick my hand up to do.

Larry Cunningham should be proud of his commitment over the last 8 years!

Frankly this kind of position is probably one that if you have to ask for it you should not get it.

Agree about Larry Cunningham.

The post was originally a voluntary one, established a long time back when not too many visited Phuket. Therefore, why would anyone want to volunteer to do this job these days and have to suffer the consequences of pain and stress for nothing as Larry did for so long?

The pain of doing the job; is not worth the pain. Therefore, someone professional should be employed and posted in Phuket, as opposed to taking advantage of the kind hearted and someone else’s time and money.

Moreover, someone with significant financial acumen in Phuket would also be needed to fit the criteria of honorary role which is not likely to eventuate.

A job well done Larry. You will be sadly missed. Perhaps Ambassador 'Wise' might now come clean as to his intentions with regard opening an Australian consulate in Phuket, since this was one of Larry’s last wishes for Phuket in light of the demand for consulate services over the years or perhaps this issue now hedges on the outcome of this weekend’s election, after which there could possible be a changing of the Ambassador guardianship, which could not be ruled out also, depending on the political result of course.

RTH maybe within their legal rights and scope of works if they have documentation to prove they were not to be held responsible and instructed to proceed on.

Mr. Houston, could also held accountable for revealing this issue by not following due legal process. Moreover, there is virtually no Building code or Standards in Thailand so you have to wonder how he can prove the foam, should not have been there, even though we all know it’s not right?

Stop going to Phuket. Everybody should know this is the status quo.

A consular person being threatened by local government officials. Insane.

Then where should we go almighty evil one?

The rally is illegitimate says Thida, she would certainly know about such things.

can I ask any of you so called fuc_k wits, how long as any government stayed in power in thailand before there was a military coup?

There has been approximately 14 coup d’état since 1932 to 2006, which is an average of one Coup d’état , every 5.7 years or so.

It is reasonable to assume at least one such bloodless coup event is likely to occur in Thailand once every 10 years. However, there has been a period in Thailand, from 1991 to 2006, which spanned 15 years before the last known event occur. In terms of politically stability, although fragile, history suggest that Thailand democratically is still developing and improving , despite what pessimists may say.