Kudel

Must be very nice for the farang calling the "love" of his life from the uk in this clip .I hope the tool did not marry her because his in for the ride of his life with a pool hustler,barbrawler,streetwise woman.....

One can only imagine taking back a bride like that to their home country and introducing her to friends and family back home as a decent woman and then somebody finds a movie of her pole hugging or doing the bangkok shuffle on the net.Their are thousands of movies of woman like this on the net these days.

And i really had a laugh with what the mamasan said about her girls with foreign boyfriends.

A plumber from Germany can become an engrit teacher in Thailand.And after some silly six week course Thai students have to say ajarn to said person.

I do not question peoples certification or expertise on diving ,but clearly the emergency procedures of said diving school has flaws thats is clear in this case and a foreigner operating or managing a diving school in Thailand who has any logical sense of safety should consider making improvements before people get hurt or killed.Its called lessons learned .

Presumably you have read the tourists report and the dive shop owners report. In your expert opinion, what exactly are those flaws? Their boat broke down and so they sent another which picked up the divers 30 minutes after they surfaced. Perhaps you would like some more anti-slip tape on the replacement boats dive deck?

Youre answer says it al to me,i could write a whole list with flaws and pointers as a safety rep in the company i work for but its Thailand of course but if it was up to me ,insurance companys ,safety inspection companys ,etc.... Would have a field day and then some with an operation run like that and you would not be allowed to put on a pair of rollerskates for all i care.

And al these thailand dive operaters answering on this topic better watch their words because their doing more damage than good to their industry.

So you have absolutely nothing to say about improving emergency procedures. That's what I thought.

Diving in general, and diving in Thailand, have a very, very good track record. There is a reason for that.

So you would be the first dive expert to report fully about cowboy operations right ? With al your certifications?

I do not question peoples certification or expertise on diving ,but clearly the emergency procedures of said diving school has flaws thats is clear in this case and a foreigner operating or managing a diving school in Thailand who has any logical sense of safety should consider making improvements before people get hurt or killed.Its called lessons learned .

Presumably you have read the tourists report and the dive shop owners report. In your expert opinion, what exactly are those flaws? Their boat broke down and so they sent another which picked up the divers 30 minutes after they surfaced. Perhaps you would like some more anti-slip tape on the replacement boats dive deck?

Youre answer says it al to me,i could write a whole list with flaws and pointers as a safety rep in the company i work for but its Thailand of course but if it was up to me ,insurance companys ,safety inspection companys ,etc.... Would have a field day and then some with an operation run like that and you would not be allowed to put on a pair of rollerskates for all i care.

And al these thailand dive operaters answering on this topic better watch their words because their doing more damage than good to their industry.

I do not question peoples certification or expertise on diving ,but clearly the operating and emergency procedures of said diving school has flaws thats is clear in this case and a foreigner operating or managing a diving school in Thailand who has any logical sense of safety should consider making improvements before people get hurt or killed.Its called lessons learned .

You missed something, in the original link it says "Exhausted and freezing, Lexa collapsed and split her chin open. The wound required stitches." Oh right, freezing in Thai waters with a wet suit on, amazing!! 555

What a wonderful way to incite readership... Sensationalism worthy of a sleazy supermarket tabloid, along side articles about alien abduction and sightings of Elvis...

As a Divemaster with over 20 years experience diving all over the world, I feel compelled to say that this is NOT a Thai problem. Divers get left in the water everywhere. And in the past 10-15 years there have only been a couple of fatalities, far fewer than in skiing, sailing, equestrian sports, motorcycle riding or rock climbing. So few, in fact, that when the potential for it happens, it makes good copy to sell newspapers... Look at the facts...

'Abandoned in the middle of the ocean..' Where in Thailand are there dive sites 'in the middle of the ocean next to cliffs too steep to climb?'

Most Thai dive sites are dam_n close to fishing areas and Thai fishing boats are ALWAYS going back and forth. You might have to wait 30 minutes to an hour until one comes along.

Every competent, experienced diver carries signalling equipment on every dive. These 'poor inexperienced divers' weren't alone... They were with four other divers, two of whom were INSTRUCTORS. I have a whistle attached to my BCD that can be heard almost a mile away over the water. Many dive companies attach these to all their rental BCDs. They are cheap insurance. We also carry an inflatable 'safety sausages' which it seems one of the divers in this group had as well. This is STANDARD SAFETY EQUIPMENT, and very effective.

As for 'bobbing in the water until exhausted...' Why? They are wearing inflatable Buoyancy Compensation Devices. The operative word here is BUOYANCY. They aren't going to sink no matter how hard they try. You inflate the vests, tie yourselves together so you don't drift apart, lay back and relax waiting for a pickup. There is no effort involved. And with the cliffs right there, even though they couldn't climb them, they could certainly tie into them so as not to drift off...

Sharks? People pay a fortune to try to see sharks when they dive. As long as it's not a Great White Shark, there is little danger. Usually sharks will head the other way as soon as they hear the diver's bubbles, so all you get to see, generally, is the south end of a north-bound shark. When we dive in Palau, and drop down on "Blue Corner" dive site, we are usually in the middle of 20-50 large gray reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, and the bottom always has a handful of sleeping white-tip sharks. In the Galapagos, divers will dive deep just to swim with huge schools of hammer-head sharks. Scuba divers aren't shark food, any more than humans are bear food. Don't disturb them and they won't disturb you. (The Great White is one the four species of shark on record that will attack humans without provocation... out of over 450 different species of sharks... ) Don't fall of Hollywood Hysteria... Freddy really isn't waiting in the shadows. Neither is Jaws.

The captain of the boat made a judgement call, and followed the procedures laid out by his company. He knew that the inexperienced divers were with two VERY experience dive professionals, as well as two other experienced divers. Apparently he radioed of a recovery boat to be dispatched. I won't debate the validity of the company's emergency plan, but I will say that these inexperienced divers were in no more danger on top of the water than they were while they were diving.

The human body has a temp of about 37C,staying long enough in water below that temp can have somebody suffer from hypothermia even in Thailands waters,every so called expert diver or people who have had sea survival training will confirm this .

You are kidding aren't you. Yes, Long Enough. This diver would have been in the water for a maximum time of 1hr 30 mins with a wet suit on and she said she was freezing! The water temperature would be around 30 deg and "she had a wet suit on". This would be impossible to be freezing unless it was due to fear, and by the response of the owner of the dive school said "We apologised to the customers and explained everything to them. They said they understood what had happen but at know point did they say they felt "abandoned at sea"" so I doubt very much if you could be freezing with fear in such a short time.

I can swim all day in the sea in Thai waters with no wet suit and never felt cold, and SCUBA dived around a hundred times and never felt cold either. I have felt cold SCUBA diving in Australia even with a 7mm wet suit.

no not kidding some people react different physically and mentally to this kind of situations ,remember they where novice divers.

And i feel many of the diving community in Thailand are doing theyre very best to minimize certain things concerning this incident.I seem to remember around 2006/2007 there where demonstrations from dive operating staf on phuket because of more strikt regulations for dive operators concerning safety because the top long stay rackets to stay long term in that time in Thailand as a foreigner was dive instructor or english teacher .

A few months ago i liked a certain tourguide company operated from Thailand on facebook they always post nice short movies about certain must see places in Thailand presented by young farangs.

Today said facebook page posted an online ad campaign to donate money to a certain matrass factory in Thailand so said company could make and ship quality matrasses to the poor people hit by disaster in the philipines .

One can not make this stuff up trying to make money from other peoples misery <deleted>....

You missed something, in the original link it says "Exhausted and freezing, Lexa collapsed and split her chin open. The wound required stitches." Oh right, freezing in Thai waters with a wet suit on, amazing!! 555

What a wonderful way to incite readership... Sensationalism worthy of a sleazy supermarket tabloid, along side articles about alien abduction and sightings of Elvis...

As a Divemaster with over 20 years experience diving all over the world, I feel compelled to say that this is NOT a Thai problem. Divers get left in the water everywhere. And in the past 10-15 years there have only been a couple of fatalities, far fewer than in skiing, sailing, equestrian sports, motorcycle riding or rock climbing. So few, in fact, that when the potential for it happens, it makes good copy to sell newspapers... Look at the facts...

'Abandoned in the middle of the ocean..' Where in Thailand are there dive sites 'in the middle of the ocean next to cliffs too steep to climb?'

Most Thai dive sites are dam_n close to fishing areas and Thai fishing boats are ALWAYS going back and forth. You might have to wait 30 minutes to an hour until one comes along.

Every competent, experienced diver carries signalling equipment on every dive. These 'poor inexperienced divers' weren't alone... They were with four other divers, two of whom were INSTRUCTORS. I have a whistle attached to my BCD that can be heard almost a mile away over the water. Many dive companies attach these to all their rental BCDs. They are cheap insurance. We also carry an inflatable 'safety sausages' which it seems one of the divers in this group had as well. This is STANDARD SAFETY EQUIPMENT, and very effective.

As for 'bobbing in the water until exhausted...' Why? They are wearing inflatable Buoyancy Compensation Devices. The operative word here is BUOYANCY. They aren't going to sink no matter how hard they try. You inflate the vests, tie yourselves together so you don't drift apart, lay back and relax waiting for a pickup. There is no effort involved. And with the cliffs right there, even though they couldn't climb them, they could certainly tie into them so as not to drift off...

Sharks? People pay a fortune to try to see sharks when they dive. As long as it's not a Great White Shark, there is little danger. Usually sharks will head the other way as soon as they hear the diver's bubbles, so all you get to see, generally, is the south end of a north-bound shark. When we dive in Palau, and drop down on "Blue Corner" dive site, we are usually in the middle of 20-50 large gray reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, and the bottom always has a handful of sleeping white-tip sharks. In the Galapagos, divers will dive deep just to swim with huge schools of hammer-head sharks. Scuba divers aren't shark food, any more than humans are bear food. Don't disturb them and they won't disturb you. (The Great White is one the four species of shark on record that will attack humans without provocation... out of over 450 different species of sharks... ) Don't fall of Hollywood Hysteria... Freddy really isn't waiting in the shadows. Neither is Jaws.

The captain of the boat made a judgement call, and followed the procedures laid out by his company. He knew that the inexperienced divers were with two VERY experience dive professionals, as well as two other experienced divers. Apparently he radioed of a recovery boat to be dispatched. I won't debate the validity of the company's emergency plan, but I will say that these inexperienced divers were in no more danger on top of the water than they were while they were diving.

The human body has a temp of about 37C,staying long enough in water below that temp can have somebody suffer from hypothermia even in Thailands waters,every so called expert diver or people who have had sea survival training will confirm this .

First of all, in Thailand captain are only a captain of his boat, when people diving he have a rest or eating. Normally a diving companies rent the boat and captain have nothing to do with the dive operations. Most dive companies are operated by foreigner. When the days diving are completed, captain on the vessel get a signal to head back or change dive location.

So to blame the captain here are wrong I suppose and if captain have the responsibility for all divers, the dive operator are wrong doing.

I have been in the dive business many years and seen many divers left behind,

we always had a joke, try not to be the last boat who leave the dive site. Did we have other divers who not belong to us on our boat back to shore...yes.

So I would say, not blame the captain. The captain have nothing to do with the dive operations and should not.

So it comes back to us MR perfect Farrangs who run the dive operations, (some Thai runs shops as well)

Thailand are not any special, diver get left behind all over the world, but percentage are same I think, is just so many diving companies and divers yearly in Thailand so it comes on the map more often,

Left the business with no divers behind or death.

I see you many talk about the sharks, they are pretty harmfull, they have so many fish to hunt and don't really like people who gives a bubbling sound every few seconds. this could of course change with time and climate.

Am I reading this right? So, you are claiming that the captain of the boat has no responsibility for the passengers safe return? Are you for real? Personally I don't really care that it has happened in other places but I don't for a minute believe your bull that this is common.

The main difference here is that if a Captain does do this say in Australia there are most certainly serious consequences and the attitude towards the Captain will be very bad. Here however you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no value attached to a human life here.

I mean, what will happen to the captain? Are the police now looking for him because it could have been 6 deaths / disappearances we are reading about,, I suspect no and if it is no then it's disgusting. lastly, with your attitude towards this I would avoid you and your diving company like a large hole in the head.

First of all, you could read the shop owner answer about this story.

If a boat have 50 divers and say 15 staff, How could it be the captains fault if left behind 2 divers, Like I see it, it's the dive operators responsibility to 100%,

You do read sometime divers get left behind and how many do we not read about or even come out. or almost get left behind when the head pops up to the surface and captain or dive companies says he only moved position of the boat.

My attitude is not leave the captain alone on the boat, always have one trained staff beside him.

Trained in what exactly then?@silence it is the skipper or the captains sole responsabilety to take care of the lives and safety of who ever sets foot on his boat or ship no matter what dive instructor or dive company says look it up .Many flaws in their procedure as i can see.

I've just joined this forum to post a reply. I am the owner of this dive company this story is about.

Firstly I'd like to say that I can not believe that this have made international news. Please don't believe everything that you read in the american news or the daily mail for that matter.

I would like to explain myself and my company. We have a 100% safety record in our shop and pride ourselves in this.

So some of the events in the story did happen. Our boat did breakdown but at know point did our captain abandon anyone. It is not a common occurrence that our boat breaks down but he have strict set procedure in place so that if something happens all our customers are safe.

During the dive the captain was having battery problems on the boat. The customers in article insisted on seeing sharks so we went to that site. On that dive site there is no buoy lines to moor up on and we can not drop an anchor as it is a national marine park and could damage coral.

The captain is employed with us and is a good captain and he followed the procedures correctly. When he realised that he could not fix the boat he called back to our manager at the dive shop who organised another boat to collect them. We radioed another boat that we knew was in the area to go and collect the divers.

This did take a little bit time around 30 minutes in total.

The instructor who was with the customers has been diving in Thailand for over 10 years and knows the shop procedures. So knew they would be fine and was assuring the divers this.

There were shark in the water as the divers requested us to go to the shark site but the sharks in question are Black Tip Reef sharks. If you don't know your sharks they range from around 50cm-150cm and live on small reef fish. There has never been a known attack from these types of shark as they are quite timid creatures and scared of divers.

So at no time was anyone in danger of getting attacked by a shark!

When climbing onto the other boat that arrived the collect the divers unfortunately the lady in the video did slip. She hit her chin on the boat and we are very sorry about this. Our dive shop has medical insurance so we told the divers to go to the hospital to have a look at her chin and used the medical insurance through the dive shop to cover the costs.

As you can see this was not our most perfect day out diving but all my staff followed the correct procedure to ensure the safety of these divers.

We apologised to the customers and explained everything to them. They said they understood what had happen but at know point did they say they felt "abandoned at sea"

I am just guess when they got home they wanted there 5 minutes of fame. It is just unfortunate that there limelight brings such a bad name to the diving in thailand and to my shop.

Diving standard in thailand are very high compared with other part of the world and at our shop we stick to these high standard.

I can't actually believe that I have to reply and defend my shop and diving in Thailand to such a ridiculous article.

Good reply.

Nice to see a reply and not silence.

He should have ancored protected marine park or not ,he should have tought of those peoples safety and lives first coral reefs can grow back now excuse for this .

Youre emergency procedures have shown in this case that it has flaws and hopefully lessons have been learnt from this and procedures will be changed.

I am the owner of the dive shop and I'm not going to name my shop. I have emailed the news papers about this and the divers who dived with us.

I don't really see the problem in posting on here. There is no "case" it is just a story. I just wanted to reply to a lot of the assumptions people we posting on here.

I do not now what type of ship or boat was being used but i presume regular maintenance and checks where done on that ship and this should be easy to prove from log entries and invoices of spare parts that where bought for said boat.But as an ex first engineer on ships after what i have seen in Thailand i have my doubts about this international marine safety standards apparently dont apply to Thailand.

He was on the run for the Dutch police for over 12 years and was tracked down by a Dutch crime reporter acting on a tip.

This guy Pascal is a poor excuse for a human-being and gives the Dutch in general and the Frisians in particular, a very bad name. He should be banged-up in the Bangkok-Hilton for a few year, before extradition to The Netherlands, because the Dutch Justice system will treat him with velvet gloves, unfortunately.

Anyway; kudos to the Real Pursuers who got this guy arrested, which includes our Journalist, the Dutch Int. Recherche and a good friend of mine who shall remain anonymous, but whose efforts should be applauded loudly, just like an enthusiastic audience would have for legends like Elvis Presley and the like !

Still a proud Frysian

Is that anonymous dutch guy who you call a friend a poor excuse of a reporter who works for an English rag from pattaya wich is run by a guy who was convicted of things such as pimping in his country of origin and has reinvinted himself in pattaya?Maybe he could do a story on him .

I seem to think most of the wives and girlfriends are married to pensioners and living full time in Thailand and are fulltime housewives who have answered this topic so far.

What about a Thai woman living in the west and both partners go working with young kids?Answers would be very different i think was in my case i had to hire a cleaning lady to come clean twice a week when home i did it of course because even something simple like using a dishwasher was to tiresome,before i married her i had a state of the art fully fitted kitchen in my house after we divorced i had to put in a new one.When going away for weeks for my work she fired the cleaning lady and i would come home and find my home like a pigstall,at one time i had to bring a microwave to garbage disposal unit because it was beyond cleaning.

Glad i divorced the bitch.

According to some posters in some topics Thailand offers a better quality of life because wining and dining a hot gogo dancer cost 1000 baht in Thailand as compaired to dating a gogo dancer from las vegas witch would cost ten times that amount.

Laws should be made so such people would not be allowed to breed.

Quote from the OP: "Where I come from, it is pretty normal to see couple living together and having kids together without being married."

May I ask where you're from? Because where I'm from (USA), that wouldn't be considered "normal." Mainstream society would consider raising a child in a married household "normal." Society may grudgingly accept unmarried parents (unlike back in the day), but most families (on both sides) would find it odd that you would raise a child together and not be married. There are all kinds of parental rights reserved for married couples, including tax, insurance, inheritance, and a host of other things. So your suggestion that Thailand is somehow different is rather inaccurate.

In most modern european country's there excists such a thing as a cohabitation contract legally binding so unmarried couples have the same rights as married couples including taxes ,inheritance,insurance.people opting for this system can even obtain visas for their foreign partners en there is no need to overstress divorce courts with all that marriage nonsense if things go wrong.

I just read that the aprils fools joke about foreigners over 50 can not get married to younger Thai woman is still alive and well 5555555.

Yes there are some ,even a lady from my home country married to some hill tribe guy and loves to shuvv it up everybodys face ,hes got shit and she paid for it big time,so daphne from belgium care to explain please......

Yes there are some ,even a lady from my home country married to some hill tribe guy and loves to shuvv it up everybodys face ,hes got shit and she paid for it big time,so daphne from belgium care to explain please......

Not a pedophile but a pervert. A 54 year old man with a 16 year old is just wrong.

I think he was 55 and she was 19. Correct me if I am wrong.

I'll tell you something. A lot of 55 year old men with 19 year old wives, girlfriends or sweethearts don't have many of the physical problems that other 55 year old men have.

Back then Doug did not have many of the advances in modern medicine that we have now. Personally I think he was just trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

But clearly modern meds and lifestyles can mess up peoples minds as can be read on many topics on thai visa.

Mother nature can be a bitch sometimes ,but as a 38 year old i do not need advice from over age teenagers on viagra ,steriods ,hormones and shiny white fake teeth and hair implants .

Saw the movie the expendables a few weeks ago and almost pist my pants laughing at arnold and slys silly excuses of being movie tough guys again.When the time comes just let it go and grow old in dignity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm4U8dugcqM

They are remembered every evening at 20:00 in a town called ypres in my country.Do you know my country was the first place chemical weapons where used.

So the last post is played every evening at 20:00 hours local time.

So Doug was spending most of his generals pay /us taxpayers money and military resources on a 16 year old philipino dancer.

That gives a new meaning to the words i never pay for it.

90% of Western men who buy/build property in their Thai wife's name are complete and utter morons and deserve to be hosed and sent packing if only as punishment for their sheer stupidity when there are so many highly-publicised horror stories floating around.

Not quite right ......

In Thailand you put it in her name, in the western world the judge puts it in her name.

At least here, it's your choice.

houses bought during marriage without prenup in my country would be sold after divorce and after all costs fifty fifty of proceeds between both people or one can buy the other out to keep said property.

Al properties and moneys obtained before marriage without prenup is yours to keep after divorce.

I now a Thai woman who got divorced from Belgian hubby a few years ago he was retired she was officially working no kids in marriage and he had a property before the marriage where they where both living.

She tried to get the half of his house and him to pay a lump sum of alimony for her.

Judge said:his property is his to keep and as she was officially making more money then him she was ordered to pay him a monthly sum of money .

Some people like to get screwed over in their home country and will experience the same in Thailand because they have no balls or the brains to seek and pay for good legal advice.

are there actually any good reasons for living here rather than somewhere else?

Yes, tax reasons and ease of living here, no one asks any questions.

Its at time like this I feel sorry for my American friends with the draconian IRS on there back.

Personally I would rather be elsewhere and so would the mrs, but the visa situation prohibts this.

Never could understand why the good old US of A has never introduced some sort of retirement visa, guess they would rather have illegals than those with money.

That's a bloody good point. US retirement visas. Where are they? Why aren't they?

In one word paranoia.

Actually, is it easy or possible for a US citizen to retire in Europe? I looked into it and it doesn't seem so. I have a friend who married a gorgeous Belgium gal and he lives there but I can't in any way I know of.

There are some gorgeous gals in developing E. European countries and they are Caucasian. As in any other place where there's poverty, a fairly well off guy from a first world country will be "hansum man."

I would far rather be in Belgium than Thailand and I grew up with cold winters and like them. I don't like wet winters or foggy winters (depressing) but cold alone doesn't bother me.

never,I am a Belgian myself and both of our country's have bilateral agreements concerning social security so why would it not by possible to retire to Belgium as a us citizen.i can get the necessary info for you if interested but it wil take a few days because it's a long weekend here because of remembrance day so most government offices are closed.

Concerning you not liking wet and foggy winters it's been raining non stop 2 weeks over here and the temperature is a nice 9 C at the moment ahummmm.....

First I love the last paragraph of the last poster its very true.

I have had no end of issue with Banks in Thailand. To the point I flew to Hong Kong to open a company and Bank account with an ATM card.

Now have 100% Western Owned Thai company (BOI)and the Thai Bank account gets only the money it needs transferred into it the day before its needed. Dont trust savings in Thailand!

I have had the bank call to inform my staff to tell me that big money has been received from overseas into my personal bank account! (No Privacy) and then other times staff at the branch have told my partner how much the balance is in my company bank account. Even one time local BIB told me that they often ask the bank staff how much somebody has available in there account.

My advise is don't buy property in Thailand. You cant sell it easily and if your neighbors upset you you cant do anything about it. And if you do buy property dont put any of it in a Thai partners name as even if they love you they could die (Motorbike accident?) and you are left to deal with family... This being said it is possible to legally buy property in Thailand 100% in your own name its just not common and not easy (EG: BOI).

And yes I'm an only child and happy to keep that attitude... (LOL)

All very nice but if its not safe to have a simple bank account in Thailand why did you invest millions in to a BOI registerd company in Thailand wich would allow this company to own one measly rai of land.Sounds strange to spend so much in a country like Thailand and a bussines does needs the service of banks i would think.