keestha

Looks interesting, thanks OP.

You could look into Koh Kaw Kao in between Khao Lak and Takua Pa. Resorts are concentrated mainly at the southern tip of the island, at beaches elsewhere not a soul in sight. Hardly any traffic, so suitable for young children. But it is not a place where there is very much to do.

Some of the reactions above seem a bit too harsh. Maybe the detention center food is practically inedible, and they depended for a long time on foods brought in from outside.

"Chanthawit sad Garcia has a Thai wife but she was not arrested as she knew nothing about the crimes"

She genuinely believed he was working as a Spanish teacher indeed..

Impossible to judge anyway how well a person speaks a language if you don't speak that language yourself. I am sure if anybody posting in here would move to Northern Canada to live among the Eskimos, stay there for a year and go through a lot of effort to learn the local language, and me visiting him after a year, I would be impressed by his linguistic skills, whilst in fact his communication ability is still quite limited.

No problem to access YouTube in Thailand, just to give an example.

Prices, I assume quoted in Aussie Dollars (25.52 Baht), seem very low indeed.

Most non thais I come across think I speak thai fluently but that's not the case. Fooling some of the people and fooling all of the people is very different.

Exactly the same in my case. I have run across farangs stating they speak Thai fluently, but apart from rare exceptions I think this statement would sound ridiculous to Thai people who have heard them speaking Thai.

​Oh Ah.....A White Man that looks like an ARAB !!! ???

Wondering about that......Arabs, South Europeans, Turkish, Iranians, Latin Americans and so on often have the same type of physical appearance. What led to the conclusion he was more likely to be Arab than Italian or whatever?

One reason farangs are often poorly understood is pronunciation, subtle differences they are not aware of.

Example from the European languages: In English, French, Dutch etc in the word hotel, the emphasis is on the vocal e. In German on the other hand, the emphasis is on the o. Though my German is so fluent that Swiss and Austrians sometimes think I am German, I have had misunderstandings with Germans pronouncing the word hotel like in all other languages, instead of saying hotel.

And then, try to pronounce Thai correctly, the muscles in these peoples' jaws developed in a different way. Speaking a European language other than your own, you have a foreign accent, but speaking Thai you have an accent like you come from another planet.

How well your Thai is understood, also depends on the person you are speaking to. Your handicap is that you look like a Westerner. I definitely speak better Thai than French, though I can effortlessly conduct a conversation in French, constantly finding ways around the words I cannot find. I am European so the French speakers will be completely open minded about how well I master their language, though sometimes being slightly surprised because French has become less common as a second (?third etc.) language. But Thai is a different matter. Sometimes Thai people see your face and immediately assume they will not understand you, you speak Thai but the person might not even register that, he keeps looking at you like you are speaking John the Baptist's native language. You run into surprises, maybe the woman working in a tourist area gets a big problem expression on her face as soon as you start speaking Thai to her, whilst you effortlessly have a chat with the Isaan rice farmer you run across in the fields.

Number of visitors to Koh Ta Chai and Similan has exploded due to Chinese tour groups, effortlessly filling in the gap left by fewer Russians. Last high season, one day there were 1200 visitors at Koh Ta Chai (size 12 square kilometers).

There is a post office if you walk out of the arrival hall and go left, and again left around the corner, next to the smoking area.

I operate a tourism business in Khao Lak from where the boats to Koh Ta Chai depart, and I can fully confirm that due to closure of the marine national park, it is impossible to go to the island, and to the Similan and Surin Islands, till October 15. It is correct that there is no overnight accommodation at Koh Ta Chai.

Sure just a lock is not enough, it has to be possible to bolt the door from the inside, or at least the system with the small chain which allows the door to be opened just a little bit. I am reluctant to accept hotel rooms where this is lacking.

Are you talking about the motorcycle with the sidecar. Driving like that is common thai practice. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Yes it is common practice here but that doesnt detract from the fact that its a f@#!n stupid thing to do.

Only bugs me when a bit too well integrated Western expats riding a motorcycle are doing this.

Not sure why he went the lease route when he could have easily put the house in one of the sons names.

Easily? Not sure if it is so easy, if possible at all, to put a house/land on the name of an under age child. Does anybody have experience with this?

"average room rate at hotels in Thailand last year was Bt3,100, down 23 per cent from 2013. However, the rate picked up to Bt4,700 in the first quarter this year,"

Would be nice if they could clarify what were the criteria to select hotels to determine this average rate. And, what rate, package deal rate, rack rate or what?

Guess a realistic average, counting both where Tom Cruise would be staying and the Thailand on 1000 Baht per day backpacker dig, you would end up way lower.

that initial left turn at the entrance/ticket counter is a bit tight in a pick up. bit of a <deleted> in design or a temporary set up?

True. On the two occasions I went there till now, I ended up getting the ticket, and then reversing a bit before making the turn left. But somehow Thai parking garages always seem to be designed for extremely confident and able drivers, good example is the parking garage at the International Hospital.

In the West, tattoos have become a mainstream thing, the whole association with prison inmates and outlaw motorcycle gangs has gone. Nowadays also oh so decent law abiding church going youngsters are getting themselves tattooed.

As far as Thai men are concerned, it is mainly lower class males getting themselves tattooed, they believe it gives them protection and good luck.

Side remark: In the West, the majority regrets getting tattoos later on, tattoo removal places are doing brisk business.

Makes me think about the system in Paris, in downtown café's a coffee, beer or whatever costs more when you sit down instead of stand in front of the counter. But I have never heard of any such system in Thailand.

Yesterday driving out of the airport I saw a billboard which really caught my attention. It implores readers to respect Buddha, not to use Buddha statues as decoration, and not to get Buddha tattoos.

These two towns are not really tourist places, so it might be difficult to rent a big bike. In Koh Samui though, you would be able to find one quickly.

Even a 300 Thai people colony on Mars would develop a taxi problem. Turf division always done the same illogical way.

Khao Lak consists of a number of separate villages. Drivers from village A can take passengers to village B, but are not allowed to pick up passengers there.

If everybody would be allowed to pick people up anywhere when flagged down, income would remain the same and customer satisfaction would be higher.

Give the developers the benefit of the doubt, possibly they didn't know the money paid to them was obtained fraudulently. It is not the responsibility of the seller to verify that the buyer obtained the money in a legal way.