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.

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. 

9 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

I think you really need to read Thai law. What you are doing here, is to 100% base your believe in rights on your home country law. This is Thailand. Read, man!

For start, even if your name as a father stands on the birth certificate, does not make you a legal father or guardian in Thailand. The mother has all the custodian rights for birth automatically.

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.

The operation was code named “Breaking the Black-Shadow Nana” because they are all black.  Right?  Brilliant and not at all racist.

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13 hours ago, portisaacozzy said:

and they are not Burmese

They also look bigger than most Burmese construction gangs who work hard and are given very little food to subsist on.

I have a hard time understanding why farangs think they can just blend in and get away with street dealing illegal drugs.  They stick out like sore thumbs and none can last more than a few weeks.  Since booze and cannabis is legal why bother with illegal drugs anyway?  

https://metro.co.uk/2025/10/22/prince-andrews-nights-dozens-floozies-uk-funded-thai-visits-24485849/

The article has a photo of Andy visiting Father Joe's orphanage in Klong Toey with the British ambassador at the time, James Hodge.

It also mentioned he eschewed accommodation at the wonderful but now demolished British ambassador's residence in favour of a hotel with a disco full of hookers in the basement.  I think most Bkk residents can figure out which hotel that is.

That should do the trick.  Never mind about shoddy buildings collapsing after approval by corrupt officials and 60 metre sinkholes plus Chinese citizens being abducted by Immigration connected gangs to be shipped off to call centres in Burma and tourists being shot in shopping malls, blown up at the Erawan Shrine or drowned in unseaworthy tour boats.

22 minutes ago, MikeUdon said:

Whatever can be said about Thaksin, he is the one who implemented programs benefiting the poor and drove economic growth. With his policies, he earned widespread support for Phuea Thai, particularly in Isaan. On the other hand, there is corruption, abuse of power, and human rights violations. Like many PMs before and after him, he was ousted in a military coup. I ask myself why? Were things getting better after he was ousted? Last year, he attempted to evade prison by staging a Hollywood-worthy show, with the support of certain elements within the justice system and the medical community. Well, in the end, he's going to prison for a year after all. Certainly a tough decision for a 76-year-old man. May he stay in good health.

This is all exaggerated as part of the Thaksin PR machine.  He benefited from the tough steps taken by the Chuan government to get Thailand to meet all the IMF requirements which were already met when he took office and took the credit for that, stupidly repaying the loans early as a PR exercise when he could have kept the low interest rate rates to maturity and made profits for Thailand just by buying US treasuries.  He benefited from the rebound from the Tom Yum Kung crisis in Thailand and the rest of Asia and from strong global growth with low inflation.  He had some good ideas but they came from his dynamic advisors, not him.  

The Yingluck, Srettha and Ung Ing governments were disastrous for Thais.  Yingluck's rice pledging scam drove Thai farmers to suicide when her government took their rice and didn't pay them for it, leaving their families with no money and nothing to eat.  In the Srettha and Ung Ing governments all the dynamic advisors were long gone and he surrounded himself with elderly yes men like Phumtham and acted on his own ideas - handouts, landbridges and casinos etc, none of which moved the needle.

Then there was the massive corruption from someone who came to power with more money than he and his descendants to the Nth generation could ever use in their lifetimes which freed him to do something useful for Thailand, such as reforms.  Yet his only interest was in enriching himself further.

2 hours ago, anchadian said:

Phumtham will definitely visit 'Thaksin', believes he didn't do anything wrong from the start, says he was touched by the image of the "Big Boss" in a prison uniform, and hails him as a hero of democracy.

 

September 10, 2025, at the Ministry of Interior, outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Phumtham Wechayachai spoke about former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is currently imprisoned at Klong Prem Central Prison. When asked if they had discussed who would visit him now that visits are allowed, he said they hadn't talked about it yet.

 

"But personally, I will definitely go visit Thaksin because I don't feel that he did anything wrong from the beginning until now. He was a victim of a power grab that led to an illegitimate government. So, many things that were set up are just waiting to be proven.

 

https://x.com/KhaosodEnglish/status/1965728612776353853

 

555.  Thaksin was the perpetrator of a power grab that led to the unelected and farcical Srettha and Ung Ing governments that dumped the Thai economy and living standards deeper into the toilet.  Good riddance to bad rubbish, including the useless Phumtham.  At least we won't need to see him dressed as an elderly ice cream salesman in daily in the media any more.

There's no doubt THC and CBD can control certain types of epilepsy and can reduce inflammation and joint pain as well as deal pain caused by cancer.  Medical science has made little progress on this though due to the US federal ban and bans in most Western countries.  Not re-criminalising it in Thailand will help refine those uses for Thais.  

2 minutes ago, Artisi said:

Correct, because of his age it will be served at home. 

There will definitely be some leniencies starting with separation from the prison population and a comfortable aircon private cell with food delivered from famous restaurants.  Serving the sentence at home is not beyond the bounds of possibility.  But, if criminal cases are initiated against corrupt officials relating to the 14F case, they may be more cautious this time.  Thaksin has a reputation for not taking care of most of the people who do prison time for him.