keestha

Come February it has become a bit busier again, due to flight prices being cheaper than in January. Also notice the tourists have less money to spend, eating and drinking in mom and pop stores, small Chang beer 55 Baht and Khao Pad 45 Baht.

It annoys me seeing foreigners working commissions selling tours. I'm glad to see the crackdown. Too many bodgy business owners too cheap to employ Thais selling Phi Phi island trips. It's totally illegal for a foreigner to be sitting behind a desk selling the local products

It's ok for a farang to sell tours. They cannot be a tour guide. As long as they have a work permit which most selling tours do. It's not illegal at all.

Collecting money is illegal, which tends to be part of sales.

Correct. The foreigner who has a work permit to be the general manager of a tour agency cannot work alone in the office, a Thai national has to be there who theoretically makes the bookings, writes out the vouchers and collects the money. The foreign GM is allowed to talk to the customers, which will often be in a language other than English.

Even the TAT shouldn't be able to deny that tourism is down. Economical situation in Europe, Euro depreciating a lot, no more Russians. They're all complaining: taxi drivers, tour operators, you name it. Places where a room was hard to find last high season, you can have your pick now.

This is a man wearing a short grey skirt with floral top or has the reporter got it wrong? Are reporting standards going downhill or have they always been bad?

Why, true in the pic he is wearing a different outfit, but that was I guess just the best recent pic they could find.

There are two bus stations. One for destinations off of Phuket and the other is local buses.

The two are at least a kilometer, or two apart.

Thanks guys.

My identity was checked only once, in 1993 when leaving Moh Chit bus station in Bangkok, looking not very prosperous carrying my luggage in a large size plastic bag. Oh and once again in Phuket Town in 2013 by an immigration officer, but he let me off the hook when I told him I left my passport in my car.

Simple question from an out of towner.

I was confused because a customer told me that after arriving at Phuket Town bus station, he had to take a motorcycle taxi to the downtown (market area) to board a bus to Patong. Are there really no buses to Patong and Karon leaving directly from the bus station?

A tourist leaving Phuket by bus on January 17, told me that at the checkpoint close to the bridge, the bus was stopped and all the passengers had to show their ID. There were like about 6 westerners on the bus, and they also had to show their passports. Most of them had their passports ready, but there also was an elderly Italian couple on the bus who had their passports in their suitcases which were in the luggage department, they had to partially unpack to get them, which made the delay about 10 minutes longer.

My general experience with bus passenger ID checks in border areas is that westerners are left alone, is what happened now a common thing?

I need to get a health certificate every year for my work permit renewal, staff at the clinic are happy to supply one if I am healthy enough to get 100 Baht out of my wallet and hand it over to them.

Hotel room keys better not have the name of the hotel on it. Don't know how many times guests of my hotel managed to lose the key, apart from the risk clear from the post above, it is much better for the hotel just to give the guests a spare key and charge them a bit to make a new spare key, instead of having to change the lock.

A tourist told me a few days ago he got just 34 point something per Euro when using an ATM, don't know of which bank.

It is more than possible to have banter in a Thai bar, especially if you follow football.

Coming all the way to Phuket to look for a Scottish bar seems a bit odd to me when there are lots of Scottish bars in Scotland.

Sure. Once in a slightly flipped out mood, I spent a night in Pattaya going from one Dutch or Flemish bar to another, in all these places only Dutch was spoken. The back to the womb feeling didn't materialize, had more kind of an aborted feeling at the end of the night.

No names are mentioned. One of these people I might have known when I was still living in the Netherlands, he was sentenced to death in Indonesia a number of years ago because of production of ecstasy. No ecstasy or precursors were found in the small chemical factory where he was working, but he had been googling the production process. In no western country this would have sufficed for a conviction.

I doubt that ANY town/City in Thailand needs a light-rail LESS than Phuket City. Due to the fact that the Transport-Mafia ruled for decades and public transport did not exist and has therefore almost no history in Phuket, virtually EVERY Phuket local owns his/her own car/Motocy. I doubt it would be profitable to operate even if it runs on just an hourly frequency. nobody will use it and after a few years, it will be discontinued.

where as a lightrail Kamala - Patong - Karon - Kata would be very successful and could afford to charge higher fares, therefore reach profitablity at one stage.....

Don't agree. I am used to move around driving a car, but if there is a really efficient public transport system like the Skytrain in Bangkok, I certainly use it.

But this project in Phuket......first see and then believe.

If security controlled as most farang estates are. It was probably the site security guards. Never live on a security guarded estate or in Farand communities. Easy pickings for a Thai thief.

Or possibly for a down and out farang.

biggest marine and lifestyle showcase

Somebody please explain me what the word lifestyle means in this context.

From the article, it is not clear if this is about North or South Korea.

It is appreciated if you smile to security guards, but you are not expected to strike up a conversation with them or even greet.

Are trolls also welcome?

What about Blue Eyes beer? Remember it was being marketed in Phuket a few years ago, is it still there?

Beer brands in Thailand come and go, I have sold Amarit and Amstel, which are not there anymore for sure, and Kloster (meaning monastery in German, very appropriate to drink in a lady bar), which I doubt is still around. I used to drink a lot of Singgold.

Expected something like that would happen. Poor girl, living in a glass house. Sure, and poor tiger cub of course, in the process of being traumatized.

My impression is that the vast majority of readers in this forum will not be interested in these people. It's the third Beyonce news thread, well, I hope it helps TV to reach out to the younger crowd, though I think they are more into for instance Whatsapp groups than into forums.

Guess the most expensive beers can be enjoyed in 5 star hotels.

It often amused me to see that tourists staying in a 5 star hotel on a cheap package during the low season, are collectively getting loaded at the Toy&Noi Bar right opposite the hotel, where a small Chang costs 60 Baht.

OP, ask the hotel if they charge a joiner fee.

Sure the joiner fee system has led to embarrassing situations, like the night porter demanding a joiner fee from a customer coming with his Thai wife he checked in with. The system is also unjust, you pay for a twin room, so what business do they have asking extra money if half of the couple is not a steady fixture?