andreandre

The facts as we know them:

4.30 am.

Tourists in foreign country

Tourists leave valuables on motorcycle seat unattended

Valuables stolen

Ladyboy sighted

Tourists launch investigation, beat up guards suspected by tourists of colluding with Ladyboy

Tourists arrested

Male tourist mistakes cell door and wall for Ladyboy, beats him up

Ladyboy remains unidentified

A very different set of facts if you read the blog that cannot be mentioned here!

and THAT blog is written by a self important *ssh*le - allegedly

I'd risk getting banned big time if i added to this...but,what a totally obnoxious person he appears to be

Alright.

I have watched this project closely over the last few months. This is my new call.

The tunnel will NEVER be completed:

• Missapropriation of project funds
• Inability to solve water ingress problems within the tunnel
• Wet season flooding
• Collapse
• Unsafe for use due to poor cement and structural integrity

The end result will be a large and rather embrassing fish pond.

So far it looks like you are wrong. Even stronger, the forecast is the tunnel will be opened way before the planned completion date.

Was there today at 08.00 coming from the North, could drive all the way through to the lights with only about 10 cars in front of me.

Maybe open but will it be completed or completed Thai style.Half a job

Phronesis..is showing a distinct lack of knowledge about the whole project and now starkey-rich is on the usual ''Thai style" job...[which there is usually no denying] but this project is by the same company [ Italian-Thai Development] who built the new Sarasin bridge and did a really good job on it.This is not some local village project, but built by one of T/lands notable construction companies and as such i would say every single point put up by phronesis is totally wrong.

Italian-Thai Development (Italthai) builds some of the largest infrastructure and civil projects in Thailand and across Asia. Its project portfolio includes work on Thailand's rail system, Bangkok's mass transit development plan, and deep-sea port developments at Pak Bara and Pattani ports. The company has branched out across Asia, specializing in industrial, utility, transportation, and telecommunications projects. Italthai has also invested in energy and mining projects. Chaijudh Karnasuta (from Thailand) and Giorgio Berlingieri (from Italy) co-founded the company in 1958.

Even as the future Chinese market is on the increase big time and IMO Chinese would be a good language for young Thais to learn, to benefit from the great takeover...this guy is preaching learn French...what the hell?

What % of tourists do French make up...Why would you come here when you have Nice, which is very nice?

Sorry guys. Havn't had chance to check in the past few days. PM sent back to you

Alright.

I have watched this project closely over the last few months. This is my new call.

The tunnel will NEVER be completed:

• Missapropriation of project funds
• Inability to solve water ingress problems within the tunnel
• Wet season flooding
• Collapse
• Unsafe for use due to poor cement and structural integrity

The end result will be a large and rather embrassing fish pond.

So far it looks like you are wrong. Even stronger, the forecast is the tunnel will be opened way before the planned completion date.

Was there today at 08.00 coming from the North, could drive all the way through to the lights with only about 10 cars in front of me.

What tunnel?

The facts as we know them:

4.30 am.

Tourists in foreign country

Tourists leave valuables on motorcycle seat unattended

Valuables stolen

Ladyboy sighted

Tourists launch investigation, beat up guards suspected by tourists of colluding with Ladyboy

Tourists arrested

Male tourist mistakes cell door and wall for Ladyboy, beats him up

Ladyboy remains unidentified

A very different set of facts if you read the blog that cannot be mentioned here!

The difference is unbelievable....really...how often does P/News get it right?

I've no time at all for the not -to-be-mentioned ed on the blog thing, but their news reports mostly are correct.

Wonder what happened to the OP?..No more input...

Sent him a message regarding bikes for sale etc..no response..

Move on folks, nothing to see here....just another example of ''the high end'' tourists that the TAT spent heaps of baht on to keep their jobs ie ''keep increasing the tourist arrival numbers ''..

what needs to be done, is that all hotels van drivers, and business affected need to gather together with sticks, then go after all those mafia taxi drivers and beat them up. that's how you solve things with those animals...

Are you prepared to 'lead by example'?

Unfortunately, chrome-plating in Phuket is crap. After three months, or so, the chrome starts flaking off.

Chrome cannot be applied to steel, or aluminium directly. A coating of copper, or nickel must be applied first and then the chrome on top of that. I suspect that the chrome-plating companies in Phuket skip the nickel, or copper coating which is why the chrome-plating doesn't last.

I have three classic motor-bikes. Each one gets completely renewed every three years hich means that once a year, I re-chrome a bike.

I always send the parts to Bangkok to a reputable chrome plating company. It costs twice as much as Phuket, but lasts six times longer.

Talk to any motor-bike mechanic and they will confirm that chrome plating in Phuket is crap.

I get it that phuket chrome plating is crap, but if as i understand it, you get it done in Bangkok and it still only lasts 3 years surely Bangkok chrome plating is also crap.

If done, as you say at a reputable company the chrome should last up to 20 years or more if looked after correctly.

In the past in Aus i had many older cars 20-25 yo with great original chrome..maybe just like many things..the job was mostly done better back in the day..

Any parts i had rechromed were, as i was told was very important was after fastidious cleaning was copper coating which adheres to raw metal very well [ chrome won't!!] then a coating of nickel which adheres to copper and finally top coat of chromium which in turn will adhere very well to the nickel.

Missing any step of the process results in short life span of the chroming..

PS EDIT...Just to point out...you cannot ''skip'' the nickel...the nickel is in fact what you see under the chrome plate as the finished product

Does anyone have one of the BB guns?

C'mon mate...please stick to topic..

OP needs a gun to do the following as he posted;..i really don't think a BB gun will satisfy his requirements.....

" next time this Ahole appears I can go dirty harry on him.

If you mean this location http://map.panphuket.com/mappoint/element-factory

It's a new element factory for the houses.

I rode by that location today and stopped BIB car which was leaving the place to ask what is build there. At least that was the explanation I got from them. There might also be some errors in communication.

What is an element factory & for what houses?

Thats for pre making walls etc for homes or apartment buildings which are then delivered to the location where the house is stacked a bit like kids do with Legos. You might have a better term for this type of construction.

The aim is to speed up the building process and quality.

There factories has been popping up around the island. There is (or was) one close to BIS and another at Bang Rong.

If concrete they are known as ''pre cast panels'' in Aus..

Its perfectly legal for a Thai national to own a gun. I want one for my mia noi and im happy to pay. Bubblegum unless you can tell me where I can aquire a pump action shotgun in Phuket town can you please keep your opinion to yourself

Why does it have to be a shotgun? Why not a pistol?

Pistols arent accurate. Even though my mia noi is a bit slow she doesn't really need much training with a shotgun. She can just point in the general direction and blow away a kamoy (theif)

I think you mean pistols are accurate and shotguns are not. Which means you can just point in the general direction with a shotgun and blast away with a higher chance it will remove a limb or two of someone; hopefully being the burglar and not your neighbour.

It would be interesting to see....

The fact that Mia Noi is a bit slow should have the OP on alert...hopefully she doesn't mistake him for an intruder and ''blow him away''!!

Certain people should definately not have access to guns.

Getting to Phuket city and surrounds from Patong is going to be an even bigger nightmare,because the genius's [genii?] who make these decisions are shortly going to once again try to alleviate the road slip problem on the way up to the Kathu temple.

Apparently one lane closed for up to 5 months.[reality 12 months]....Once you've fought your way up and over, you then have the choice at Kathu to go straight ahead and face the "Tesco" works, or turn right and face the Central works......Immagine the high season chaos???

Can turn left & go behind the golf course out to Thepkasatri if heading to Thalang or airport.

Yes you can but in my case i'm not going north, i need to see a friend in Phuket City itself, so its doable, but adds a lot of time/effort to a previously simple journey.

Ok. Yeah the reason why I asked was that he got me thinking that I'd like to do something similar one day. The only thing is there would be myself and my girlfriend on the one bike. A scooter is understandably not suitable. I suppose we could rent a bigger bike for a few weeks if we wanted to do a trip like that.

On the scooter side of things - just for getting around the island and that, we are thinking of which would be the better option.....

A) Rent one monthly

Buy a second hand one

We've no real knowledge of scooters/bikes, apart from using them while travelling around Asia two years ago.

I understand the safety risks involved etc. I would just like to know what price range would a second hand scooter cost us to buy?

Thanks.

Click on this website...http://classifieds.thaivisa.com/automotives-vehicles/motorcycles/

Gives you an idea of whats available and at what cost....

If you are here for a while, buying can be a good option..prices are a bit lower this time of year also..

Getting to Phuket city and surrounds from Patong is going to be an even bigger nightmare,because the genius's [genii?] who make these decisions are shortly going to once again try to alleviate the road slip problem on the way up to the Kathu temple.

Apparently one lane closed for up to 5 months.[reality 12 months]....Once you've fought your way up and over, you then have the choice at Kathu to go straight ahead and face the "Tesco" works, or turn right and face the Central works......Immagine the high season chaos???

A scooter?

Hardly Easy Rider stuff is it ?

Each to their own,don't you think?

In fact, probably a damn sight more effort to do it on ''A scooter'' as well...

Getting on the island would be the easy part of that trip. Would love to know his exact route. And yes, it could be done.

Pedantic, but i would say Getting off the island would be the easy part of that trip..

Well only a few more sleeps until the underpass is finished. I rode past their the last few day and see that they now have some ancient drag lines wallowing in the mud. I am curious to see what machinery they will bring in to attempt the tunneling that is required. Or maybe they will use Burmese...

AKAIK no tunneling is required....its an underpass only..ie a big dip in the road going one way eg; north/south and a supported road crossing it at right angles for cross traffic.east/west..or vica-versa...I'm not sure which way this one is designed to go, but thats the basics of an underpass.

Why am I not surprised that this has happened yet again and only 2 months since the meeting down there with the British and German consulate representatives having their photo's taken with Phuket authorities promising to clean up these unscrupulous blatant thai mafia scammers masquerading as taxi drivers..rotten to the very core!!

Why am I not surprised another thaivisa member who cant read? The problems stemmed from minivans and not taxis

Doesn't matter where it stemmed from, the taxis have without any doubt at all taken advantage of the situation and as you quaintly said "come to the rescue''[ ]

Lovely gesture if they hadn't taken advantage of the innocent victims, by blatantly ripping them off.

Depends on your idea of victim. Lets not forget where these victims have been and what they have been up to. Stew on that for a while. They havent been charging people 6 bucks more on a cab fare have they?

What on earth are you on about?.."Lets not forget where these victims have been and what they have been up to''.....

Meaning what exactly?..man you've got me on this one...

The navy personel are innocent victims 100%,here... no ifs or buts....

They are here on leave, to spend a heap of $'s in the local economy, there's plenty for everybody to benefit , without the need to cheat them to excess......the fact that whoever is to blame, whether its the Glenn outfit for not paying, or the contractors not paying the drivers or whatever , and then the vulture taxi/tuk-tuk mafias taking advantage of the situation,whatever ,whatever ad nauseum it is not the fault of the navy personel..consequently, that makes them victims...yes?

Why am I not surprised that this has happened yet again and only 2 months since the meeting down there with the British and German consulate representatives having their photo's taken with Phuket authorities promising to clean up these unscrupulous blatant thai mafia scammers masquerading as taxi drivers..rotten to the very core!!

Why am I not surprised another thaivisa member who cant read? The problems stemmed from minivans and not taxis

Doesn't matter where it stemmed from, the taxis have without any doubt at all taken advantage of the situation and as you quaintly said "come to the rescue''[ ]

Lovely gesture if they hadn't taken advantage of the innocent victims, by blatantly ripping them off.

another big hit for TAT in the face, but money rulez, so let the maffia fight this one out?

what about using the FREE busses, they are rusting away

police, ah yeah, part of the maffia and the problem

what about enforcing the law?

farmers and maffia in police uniform

Ah yeah dude. Read the second article. The free busses were on strike so the taxis came to the rescue

Yes..""came to the rescue "" ..such selfless behaviour by these highly esteemed professionals...

Came to the rescue?? How about "making the most of a dire situation to their own advantage"...sounds more factual huh?

At prices way far and beyond their normal rip-off fares only confirms this...

Like people wouldn't dream of charging a US sailor more in any other country. Only happens in Thailand right?

Mate..you said ''came to the rescue"

My response to you, was to point out that that was indeed not their motive.

They were there to take advantage...pure and simple Their collective greed knows no boundaries.....

another big hit for TAT in the face, but money rulez, so let the maffia fight this one out?

what about using the FREE busses, they are rusting away

police, ah yeah, part of the maffia and the problem

what about enforcing the law?

farmers and maffia in police uniform

Ah yeah dude. Read the second article. The free busses were on strike so the taxis came to the rescue

Yes..""came to the rescue "" ..such selfless behaviour by these highly esteemed professionals...

Came to the rescue?? How about "making the most of a dire situation to their own advantage"...sounds more factual huh?

At prices way far and beyond their normal rip-off fares only confirms this...

..;;Tuk tuks being generous and taking navy personel back to the ship....cheap prices..

''With hundreds of unhappy people standing around, things could certainly have gotten worse,'' one source said. ''The tuk-tuks were charging 4000, 5000, 6000 baht to take people back to the port.''

@ stevenl

The problem is, we don't know where the "money chain" is broken. You are assuming the money hasn't come from America. I am assuming the money made it here, but never got to the local providers.drivers.

Back to my question, what do they think anyone onboard can/will do????

What can the admiral of the ship do? He may make a few phone calls back to The States, but it's 4am over there now. What financial transaction can be completed at 4am, on the spot, if indeed, America's Department of Defence hasn't paid?

Why did they leave it to now, to blockade a ship, in an attempt to collect payment? This could have been raised through the proper channels long ago.

Yet another debarcle on Phuket.

No, I am not assuming the money chain is broken in America, I said I don't know where the company is from.

However, the company mentioned in the other news source is based in Singapore.

Their only position of power is now, with the sailors on the ground wanting transportation. So yes, if you want to achieve something a position with power is the only way to go.

Stevenl..... Everything you are saying is based on assumptions is it not?

The scource that you quote also says that they [Glenn Marine] have indeed paid..the monies owed...so two opposing statements in the one article..

Maybe ,as suggested ,the money has simply not been paid to the individual drivers...

Just please read. I have said the cause seems to be a payment dispute, with the drivers accusing the company organising transport in the whole of SEA as the culprit. Whether or not they are the cause or somebody inside Thailand is the cause remains to be seen, although with the company organising the transport in Pattaya not getting paid points to the likely cause being the company organising the SEA transport is the culprit.

I'm glad to see TV has updated the story and is now also looking at buses in stead of tuktuk's.

Yes ..i can read and as i said everything you said is based on assumptions..here is another one from you''..Pattaya not getting paid points to the likely cause being the company organising the SEA transport is the culprit.

[This is an assumption OK]

Maybe you just don't understand the meaning of the word ''assumption''

Until it is confirmed that Glenn have not actually paid...everything else quoted as fact can only be an assumption of the truth..Yes?