wallwallyau

1 hour ago, josephbloggs said:

Yes, I am agreeing with you.  ????

Me too. If you just paid for business class, the argument is just a moot point.

In general, for 747 jet, the first class's seat will be reserved for pilot.

Also, many people said that TG lose money every year with a poor service and catering. It seems to me that they don't know other airlines like Cathy Pacific also suffered a huge loss in a past several year.

In Thailand, you need to haggle with different vendors even though local people also do that which is a quite common norm here. However, some poor hawkers like bringing the steamed peanut or snacks e.g 10-20 baht to sell in restaurants or on the street and local will not haggle with them. 

Local always charge tourist/farang 2x-3x times of regular prize which I would blame it on some tourists. Once, I saw the tourist bought mango sticky rice from hawker in Chiangmai which the prize is 45 baht but tourist gave her 100 baht and walked away which made that hawker so confused. This behavior just instill local that everything tourist or farang that they don't care about money.

In Asia, there is only Japan in where you don't need to haggle.

3 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Croc meat is sold to Japan for huge money and the skin goes for fashion items and shoes. Farms here in Oz make big money

Also, Croc meat is aslo sold to China since there are some Chinese medicine's receipt which use croc meat to cure respiratory illnesses like asthma.

Many Chinese tourist bring dried meat back to China.

18 minutes ago, AdamTheFarang said:

How do you have a Thai cousin through marriage?

My mother is Thai and my father is HongKonger. ?

27 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Ah so...………….

 

More faulty boats required, along with the ability of these tourists to hire very high-powered motorbikes without having licences, and many, many more buses of low quality with poor braking systems.

 

And on that note, just this afternoon I witnessed that very thing in the link road down past Prince of Songkla University where there are a few "duty-free palaces" and a very large and old bus (although painted to look a lot newer) swung out onto the dual carriageway and I will swear that the edge of the bodywork was no more than 2 inches above the tarmac as it lurched round the corner. 

 

Even more surprising was that when it became upright there wasn't a great deal more space between the bodywork and the road and I would say, with an engineering background, that the suspension on this thing was absolutely shot, all-round. 

 

Would have to surely be a candidate for poor roadholding on downhill bends, even more so on wet roads.

 

Hopefully these people will be able to see that Phuket is a final resting place for the cheap and unwary!

 

 

Once you accept Mainland Chinese toruist as your primary customer, you will not easy to get rid of them becuase China have their own consideration due to society stability. For example, HongKong have raised the request to reduce the no of Mainalnd Chinese toruist to come HK due to capacity issue. But, Chinese government refused the request and stated that you only can accept it since at the begining you requested to allows more Chinese tourist to come Hongkong to boost your economic firstly. The suituation is quite similar to Thailand now. As a result, only big players and high-so ppl get rich and most of benefit.

18 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Whether the huge influx of Chinese tourists will remain a constant or just be a temporary thing , remains to be seen 

I am afraid that the influx of Chinese will keep going regardless their economy status  since Mainland Chinese doesn't have many places they can choose for their vacations due to visa limitation and Thailand is one of nearby countries that they can easy to go and travel . The problem is that they don't spend much money on small-medium stores or restaurants and they don't have a habit to drink the beer/wine in the bar not like westerner. Also, there are a lot zero-baht tours which force them to spend in those stores which actually own by same Chinese tour company. That cannot really help local business owner.

9 minutes ago, sanemax said:

How many Thais are now taking Chinese lessons these days , compared to those talking English lessons ?

   And what were the numbers from five years back ?

My cousin (Thai) told me who is studying tourism. She said they need to study basic Chinese speaking (PutongHua) few years ago since they foresee a huge influx of Chinese coming.

Chinese speaking become more important compared with 10 years ago. Having said that learning English is still dominant everywhere including in Thailand.

I watched TV program on youtube lastnight. News reporters interviewed all old man, motorbike driver and hawkers nearby. The old man said that he doesnt like it what driver did on him. But, hawkers defended that driver that he is caring man that always buy food and give money to that old man. That driver just wants to play with him only and one  of hawkers vows public to stop threaten him.

Also, that old man sleep in the street market and always steal things and money in the market. It seems to me that the driver overdoes it but without him nonone take care that old man. It is a quite ironic incident.

37 minutes ago, Dazinoz said:

I live in Chiang Mai for 5 years and have noticed a drop in number of people at the bars. Also a number of bars in Loi Kroh Road have dropped and a lot more food shops and tattoo parlours have opened. I have a couple of regular bars I goto and owners are saying more and more "to quiet, too quiet, no customer".

 

When I first started visiting Thailand I was getting around 33 baht for my aussie dollar. Lately I have gotten lest than 24.

 

As far as Chinese tourists go they don't seem to like spending the money. One bar I used to goto for the lovely food was owned by an American. I was talking to him and he said one night 4 Chinese men came in, sat down at a table and asked for 4 glasses and ice. They then pulled out their 711 bought beers and proceeded to drink them. He thought ok they may buy food. When asked to order they said they didn't want so he kicked them out.

 

As far as the sex trade goes I would often see a bar girl go off with a man. Very rarely see that now. Not sure if price or what. They don't seem as attractive as they used to be,maybe I have been here too long.

Chinese tourist are only interested in shopping in supermarket. When you go to different big supermarkets. Eg. Big C. You will see them a lot. They prefer to buy snacks or food rather than spending money in the bars. I guess they dont have a faith on their products in China due to quality issue.

Based on my last exp, other amphoes refused me for registration even though other house master agrees to let me in. I would say they are too lazy or dont want to take any risks for my registration. Finally, i need to stick to the address my mother registered. Anyways, better check with local amphoe how to handle it.

Like ubonjoe mentioned,  you already have Thai nationality from birth. Firstly, you have to apply Thai birth Certificate from local embassy. It doesn't mean you was born at Thailand. It just proves that you have Thai nationality. For details, please check local embassy.

After you got Thai Birth certificate. you need to go back local Amphoe department  where your mother registers the home address to register your name to that address. For this registration, it requires from one week to several months with interviews and some doucments depending on the local practices. Interviews will be involved you ,your mother, relatives and the home address's owner. Also, you may need to pay the fine (not much) for not joining the draft since you are over 30.

Once registration is completed, Amphoe will issue I.D. card to you.

I would say there are nothing harmful if you own dual citizenships.

On 7/7/2018 at 11:19 AM, Confuscious said:

The owner should be charged with allowing a boat to leave the port in the awful weather conditions and be held accountable for 40 deaths.
At least 10 years behind bars and stick you f.g money there where the sun never shines.

Based on newspaper from China, the owner is Chinese and he may escape back to China now. I dont think he will get any punishment and be in jail since many things can be settled by money in Thailand.