sammo

If you are on Samui, the most convenient place to get your basic visa needs are at the Bangkok Samui Hospital. (No, Really!!). It is on the ring road in Chaweng, and in the reception area you will find an immigration counter. Open Mon to Fri 10am to 3.30PM, they can process your requirements in very informal surroundings. Last week i got my re-entry visa there, on the spot. Prices are the same as elsewhere, but bring one photo or they will sting you 200 baht extra. It is a great service, and saves having to go all the way to Nathon main immigration office (in the middle of nowhere).

Try writing to the "Community Magazine"...errr. no actually,they'll be too busy writing kiss-ass restaurant or spa reviews

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Couldn't agree more. This monthly of a publication is seen as a joke on the island. They try to preach morals and constantly urge people to protect the (Samui) island, highlighting environmental and conservation issues. Then open it up and you will see full page write ups on the benefits of having your own swimming pool installed, after previously asking residents to conserve water!. You will also see promotions for resorts that have blatantly breached the building height restrictions (Grand Cabana View). The editor also refused to condemn the practice of the taxi mafia ripping off tourists, stating that we should pay more because we have more money (!) than the locals.

The issue of raw sewage pumping out will hardly get a mention in the next publication - maybe a few lines towards the back. They suck up, kiss ass and don't like to rock the boat, proving that the real issues it cares about are how much money its owners can make from it. Well done Community magazine for taking such a an admirable stand!

[Today Mrs. Phanita Khamphu Na Ayutthaya, Director-General of the ministry's Bureau of Welfare Promotion and Protection of Children, Youths, the Underprivileged, Persons with Disabilities, and Older Persons told reporters that data suggested that Scandinavian paedophiles tended to focus on young boys, rather than girls.

"In most cases, foreigners purchase sex via websites", she said. 

Calling for action to ensure that children knew how to protect themselves against paedophiles, she said that the government should hold a major meeting on paedophilia to thrash out systematic measures to prevent human trafficking. 

--TNA 2005-04-26

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Right, so the children are going to learn about the big, bad, white-faced foreigner, and the Thai peds are consistently out on bail if they are out at all

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My thoughts exactly. The children become educated to the extent that the big bad white-faced foreigner will be portrayed as either a pedo or drug dealing mafia type, whilst underage sex and molesting continues on a larger scale throughout the country. The reason it hardly ever makes the headlines is that it is normally underground activity. The only reason that this subject is in the news is because it involves a foreigner and the unusually high number of cases. Were it not for this fact, we would not be discussing it on this forum. The Finnish guy deserves all he gets for his alleged crimes, but the isolated incidents perpetrated by many individuals on a larger (national) scale in this country should also be highlighted, for it is just as criminal and damaging to those who suffer.

By the way.....do they have penguins in Finland. Never knew that......

taxexile:

And I bet you hate Christmas too.

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Couldn't have put it better myself. What is eating these guys so badly that they feel the need to impose their restrictive laws upon each and everyone of us?. I don't want to be controlled by a nanny state which thinks it should monitor my every move and action, in the name of law and order. I was brought up and instilled with a fair degree of common sense and self responsibility, therefore i have a good idea of what is right or wrong.

We don't need laws over here telling us that throwing buckets of ice cold water at a speeding motorcyclist is bad, wrong and punishable. All we need to know is that it's not a good idea to do it because it causes accidents. And so if you do it when you are aware of that fact, you are obviously an idiot.

When society gets to the point that one needs a law to ban the throwing of water, then my friends i think it is a sad day indeed.

Let Thai folk enjoy their celebrations and festivals without us sticking our noses in and telling them how to 'really' enjoy it. We can choose to participate in them, or not. When i was a youngster in England, i somehow don't remember a bunch of Thai people hassling me about throwing snowballs, just in case i blinded someone.

Personally, i had a great Songkran. Very enjoyable but sensible at the same time. I didn't need to that to be preached to me, and i didn't feel the need to preach to anyone either.

Aranyaprathet. So i was just wandering what is so desparate about the place that the only thing its residents have to look forward to, is throwing water around one day a year.......

It is truly ghastly.

The counterpoint to the border town of Poipet - which I have read described as 'the armpit of Cambodia' - and it is.

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Thanks for that. I'll give it a wide berth then!

I LIVE IN ARANYAPRATHET AND THIS TIME OF YEAR IS FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOTHING ELSE. LET THEM ENJOY IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT LOOK ON LIFE MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE. 

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Forgive my ignorance, but i have travelled a fair bit throughout the land of smiles and have never ventured upon Aranyaprathet. So i was just wandering what is so desparate about the place that the only thing its residents have to look forward to, is throwing water around one day a year.......

Seriously though, the statistics given for the road carnage in Italy are complete nonsense. I hope it was a typo, otherwise whatever that guy is on - i'd like some.

Using the figures given, it would only take 3 hours to achieve the sort of death toll that the 9/11 attacks achieved! ("War on Holidaying" anyone?!)

The huge loss of life here though is without doubt tragic and needless , but it is Thai folk doing what Thai folk want to do. Yes there are laws that exist and there are laws that could be introduced to combat this 'problem'. Personally i am with AJARN on this subject. The distant shores that most of us left behind to pitch up tent in this country are brimming with laws and rules governing our everyday lives, and I simply don't want it here to that extent. Countries that can send a 70 year old man to prison for persistently refusing to pay a parking fine, cannot preach to this country about 'how it should be done'. Do we really want to see the land of smiles rife with speed cameras, speed bumps, parking meters, nasty cops in high speed cars?. Let's enjoy the relative freedom this country allows us and stop trying to import our 'nanny state' ideas to try and make this place like the one we left behind. For sure, there would be a lot more whining and moaning on this great website if that were the case.

Assuming readers and posters of this forum have a good level of common sense, then let's use it as we go about our everyday lives here, and let the Thai people do as they wish to do.

If we all hate Songkran so much, we could follow an old mate of mine who, after 20 years in Pattaya, simply flies to the Phils for two weeks holiday at this time of year.

It is all a bit too reminiscent of my Mother telling me to wear a cardigan all those years ago, in case i caught pneumonia and died!.

Next year they could have a purge on skimpy shorts......"Ministry of silly announcements, sorry, Health, has said that wearing shorts is dangerous to your health, particularly if you are A) Thai National, Female, C) Aged 18 -25 years old, D) beautiful. In which case you should cover from head to toe"

"Thailand is the one-stop hub of senseless road death."

........Or maybe......"Thailand. Asia's Road Carnage Hub"!

....or....."Be our Guest. Become a statistic"

The forecast should read 'wet everywhere', particularly in 24 hours time!

I agree with previous comments on this. Phuket Air should in my view have simply stuck to being a national and/or regional low cost carrier. In that way it could have established itself as a major player in the region, and as long as it had the right routes, could easily have absorbed the 'Tsunami factor'.

Instead, the company saw the money that could be made from long haul flights and therefore decided to compete with the 'big boys', the national air carriers. These large companies have toughed it out through the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and have been rigorously streamlined as they fight for survival. Some went bankrupt, others merged to become a formidable force in the long haul sector.

Phuket Air then comes along with its old, borrowed jumbos (and subsequent high maintenance schedule and costs) and seriously thinks it can take them on.

When your company is 'on show' on an international level, it comes under a lot closer scrutiny. Regardless of who is to blame for the series of infortunate events, it is all bad publicity and as such Phuket Air has become a laughing stock, to the extent that the government is now involved.

I think it will go under sooner rather than later. I am all for cheaper flights, but not when i look out of the cabin window and fuel running off the wings!

I'm saying 999 deaths for the whole Songkran.

Anyone else for the Sweepstake?

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This is really bad taste. But here goes..........around 450 deaths and 16,500 accidents. Each and everyone needless and invariably hurtful to others, such as innocent victims and mourning relatives. The price of fun?!