Dogmatix

Perhaps he thought he would run this for a few more months to make a target amount of cash and get out or just thought he could walk on the water for ever. Either way drug dealing is an occupation reserved for Thais and they will come down hard on foreign encroachers. Even so it is only the large scale Thai dealers with really big connections with all factions that can survive for ever. The little ones end up the same as this guy. Cops watch them and take bribes for a while but, sooner or later, they pee someone off or the police command structure changes and their time is up. This guy may be an Israeli Arab but he used a Hebrew name to connect with Israeli drug addicts on the island, probably thinking that things might stay secret in an enclosed ethnic and linguistic community. But the Thai criminals find out about drugs coming into their community in competition with them and tip off their police handlers.

There are far worse places she could end up in. Flying into Moscow, for example, even the immigration and customs officers can't speak or understand a word of English but hassle you in Russian nevertheless. Trying to buy a ticket at the Moscow railway station was a complete nightmare.

Nothing new. Vietnam's economy has been growing at a faster rate than Thailand's for many years already.

He may be right but who would listen to someone agitating for a casino in Thailand? Shows what kind of tourism he wants to promote. If you have ever been in casinos in Macau, Monte Carlo, Genting or Las Vegas and seen the seedy characters that are attracted to this mindless form of losing money, you know what I mean. Macau is the worst and would probably be the model for Thailand.

Perhaps Eden should have flown to Phuket without him and looked for another bloke without water damage to his passport.

Perhaps the prosecutors will do a better job than in the court of first instance where they were somehow unable to present convincing evidence to the court in what would probably have been an open and shut case, if the defendant were a mere mortal. Whether you agree with the existence of an LM law, as it stands, or not, it does exist in Thailand and, as such, should be applied equally to rich and poor.

The missus got a black henna tatoo on her back in Boracay in the Philippines years ago. I implored her not to do it but the tatooist had convinced her it was genuine henna, a natural harmless product. By 2.00 am she was in agony and her back all red and swollen. She was in pain for two days but luckily it subsided after that without trace. After that I researched it and found the "henna" is mainly a chemical black dye as the OP says and may contain little or no natural henna which is brown, difficult to work with and takes a long time to dry. Maybe people are not so lucky as the missus and may end up with septic wounds for months and permanent scarring. They may also become permanently allergic to black dye used in clothing and hair dye. Although illegal in the UK and most sensible jurisdictions black henna was not illegal in countries like Spain and Greece (but may be now) and many Brits came home from hols in those countries with permanently disfiguring injuries from "temporary" tatoos. Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines all priortize extracting cash from tourists over all safety concerns. So it is no surprise that this dangerous practice is still legal in those jurisdictions. Granted this American was ill advised to get a tatoo on his face but tatoos with this substance should be illegal in all civilized countries.

You nailed it. It is time that Thai people were allowed to move on from this toxic family. Hopefully this will finish Thaksin and his family can just enjoy their billions in peace and not inflict themselves on public life any more.

You can argue the merits of a lese majeste law but, if there is one and it is enforced, it should be applied equally to rich and poor. The evidence in Thaksin’s case looked much more robust than many others which resulted in stiff sentences for lesser mortals and it is correct that the new Anutin appointed AG should appeal. He was caught out on the tax because he stupidly believed that Temasek would buy his offshore companies with the SHIN shares in them ( and god knows what other liabilities) deposited at Singapore with UBS Bank. Most serious investors refuse to do that and It was obvious that a government wealth fund could not do that, even though they did some dubious stuff to conceal the illegal foreign majority ownership in SHIN afterwards. Then he was forced to transfer off market at an artificial price below market price and sold to Temasek on market at the tender offer price. It is a totally clear cut tax liability and there are precedents where others had to pay tax on similar off market transactions at below market price. Thai listed shares sold off market are liable to tax and only exempt if sold through the market.

It is complete BS that this to protect Thai businesses. Thai businesses cannot make any of the stuff I import from China and no one stocks most of it here. Thai sellers have shop fronts on Lazada and Shopee and get the products drop shipped from China. So they will be affected. Since so much is bought this way, the impact will be inflationary.

No point in these regulations. The 2-5pm dry period is a revolutionary decree from a military government that seized power in a coup d'etat and it would make more sense to just repeal all such revolutionary decrees in a spirit of democracy. It had fallen into abeyance by the 1990s but the arch convict decided to revive it for reasons better known to himself.

Have they choked their way through noxious fumes through Chiang Mai's pollution season yet?

The base case under Thai family law is that, if the father is recognized as the father, which is automatically the case, if the parents were legally married at the time of birth, both parents have equal custodianship. If there is a divorce and custodianship is disputed, the family court will award custodianship and visitation rights using the best interests of the child. The OP says the father is an ex-husband but doesn't say if they were actually legally married or divorced and, if so who had custody. Thai courts prefer to give custody to the mother, if they can, but will not do this, if it does not appear to them to be in the best interests of the child. I have a friend who divorced a Thai wife from hell - prostitution, drugs, booze, gambling, toy boys and child abuse, you name it. The court awarded sole custody to the farang father without rights of visitation for the Thai mother.

I was in a bus rented to take participants down to a seminar in Hua Hin many years ago. The driver drove very fast and dangerously and ignored pleas from Thai passengers to slow down. Finally he went off the road and skidded to a halt hitting a grass embankment, luckily with no serious injuries or damage to the bus. The driver was a bit shaken up and one of the farangs dragged him out of his seat and told him to sit there and not say anything while he drove the bus which he did very carefully and safely all the way back to Bkk. I heard stories from the hippy trail of dare devil magic bus drivers who were dumped by the roadside in Turkey or Iran by passengers fearing for their lives who hijacked the buses and drove on, eventually abandoning the buses before crossing the next border.

I was in Patong a few years ago and it was unrecognizable with barn like beer bar enclosures with loud music booming out everywhere. Sounds like Walking St in Pattaya has gone the same way, although I haven't been there for about 10 years. But I notice a similar trend in Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza, although the music hasn't changed much. Farang tourists who used to be over 90% are now in the minority. Prices in all of these places were hiked sharply as soon as tourists returned after COVID and there are more sharp practices like stuffing cups with unordered drinks, so you can get a bill for 5,000 or 6,000 without paying a bar fine after only about 20 minutes. The feel is approaching what Wanchai in HK was already like in the 80s, ie rip off places avoided by local expats. No point crying over spilt milk. Once it's gone, it's gone. Better to move on.