gharknes

It's a method of ensuring the successful launch of TAT's New Tourism slogan for 2007.

If your wallet gets raped, it's likely to be an 'Unforgettable Thailand' experience.

Three cheers for TAT's innovative approach to decrease the number of travellers here.

I second that !

I can understand customs in any country, charging Taxes and even a fine of 100% for goods (cigarettes in this case) people bring in and didn't declare.

But in this case 35.000 Baht is outrageous for 5 cartons of cigs.

There has been a few stories now in the past few days about people bringing in goods and charged excessive amounts of money.

I recall the case of 5 English guys who brought 5 cartons each and had to pay Pounds Sterling 3.000,--

What the heck is going on ?

Is there NO WAY this can be stopped ?

It stinks !

And................it stinks because it 'looks like' a set-up between some Custom guys and 'some police-station' where these arrival-passengers are transported to.....

Someone has an idea to expose this ?

LaoPo

It's 100 cigs, = 100x£5 per packet in the UK =£500 not as outrageous as it sounds, cigs are cheap in Thailand ......why bother ?

I have just spent two nights in Pattaya, i went there on business with 4 of my coleagues.

What a hole that place is. How could anyone wish to live there?

So my question is, what drives you to live and holiday in such a place?

I for one would never return there.

You aren't a mate of "maigo6" are you? Or perhaps you aren't aware of the search feature where all of these questions have been asked and answered before. Here is some good reading for you, enjoy the next 2 hours of reading about why we love to live here.

This was my answer in another post.

Another thread

And another

And another

And another

Now that all your questions have been answered perhaps a kind hearted mod may put this thread to rest.

I hardly think that someone shareing thier opinion about a stay in pattaya deserves removal, perhaps the poster would like to elaborate and share a little more, where they went what they did and wy it was so bad, the are certaintly places in pattaya that I personally don't like and can see how this could happen, there are some unsavory people living here with businesses that need their wings clipped.

very possible, keep us posted, I'm in Pattaya have Honda XX

I think Mongolia is one of them. Americans generally don't need a visa, but almost all other nationalities do.

could columbia or mexico or arginteena be the other ones ????? got to be part of the america's i would guess

Correct me if I'm wrong but raising the age to 21 and more recent enforcing of ID requirements didnt seem to make one iota of difference to the problem so why would 25 have a considerable effect.

if this doesn't work expect it to rise to 30....40......50 ???????????? LMARO

............legal age of buyers to 25 ..............

does this mean you can drink as long as someone else pays for it

LMAOF such nonesense

Stupid just plain stupid and may i say it....childish

Like i have said many times here.......the authorities just simply have no idea, they think like children, is every bar going to ask for id or proof of age, I don't think so

Thy just go about things totally the wrong way, my guess is this guy has or has had teenage drinking problems in his own family and has stopped his own children from drinking fine by me, now he thinks he can just wave a magic piece of legislation and the whole country will follow, unbelieveable

ahem.........where's that pointy hat

they are children

not sure if i'm right about this but.............i changed most of my numbers in my address book with the new number .....added 8.............when i get a text message from someone that i have udated their number in my address book it still shows the old number on the message i.e without the 8, then when i reply they don't seem to get the message because the reply is sent to the number as i receive it again without the 8...... am i wrong about this or is someone making loads of dosh during this transition because the system is attaching the old number to text mesaaages and if u reply it gets charged but goes nowhere ?...............could be wrong, but why is the system showing the old number without the 8

It seems that this case has ended badly for all of us

The get a large sum of money for a simple accusation which was completely unsupported with any evidence, that means all any lady has to do is make an accusation of groping against anyone they choose and they will recieve a large sum of money.........scary

I have a friend who sets up the fronts for the tailor ops. Anyone can invest and he has an Indian running the fronts which we see walking down the street always run by Indians. So I posed the question that many of us have wondered: Why, in Thailand, don't we see more Thai tailors? It seems Indians have the monopoly of the market. His reply was "we just do it." There was not much more to his explanation than that...

I wonder if they all have work permits or do they pay tea money or what??

the suit making is actually done by thais, i have seen many of the manufacturing units close to where i live............they are all Thai's working there.

Brit, I think you can not possible ever have been to Lucifer yourself. The place is packed out and you are groped yourself by scores of girls. You are walking up and down a packed corridor, either you make some space with your hand or you will push with your private parts.

The story is absurd. I never liked Lucifer but with this I will actively encurage everyone I know to avoid the place. There are plenty of alternatives anyway.

100% it was the guy behind me...........it was it was it was............prove it, camera footage witness.....where

there is no case to answer

I happen to know this case very closely since this Swede is a client of mine and I have now helped him with this case also.

1. The news report is incorrect stating the "small fine" etc. The case is that he was pressed to pay the police 200 000 baht in cash. Out of what he got a receipt of 100 000 and was then the next day rightly returned the extra 100 000. The remaining 100 000 baht is the bale sum out of what is deducted what ever the "victim" (now the "victim" is not very clear in this case... read ahead.) gets her compensation.

2. Mr Kid spent all night and half of the next day in jail. After what he was released without his passport in order to stop him running out of the country. (This is pretty normal way to keep the "criminal" within reach. Actually the only normal in this case...)

The "victim" does not want money and wants to carry the case untill Mr. Kid is convicted to a jail-term. These are her words. After these 3 days of the happening she still wants to get him in the jail.

This means up to 2 years of waiting for the court case and this time Mr. Kid cannot go out of Thailand.

This "victim" also attacked viciously immediately after the "assault" on Mr. Kid causing him damage to his eye. She was of course never accused of this since she is the "victim" here.

Mr. Kid himself describes that he touched the girls bottom; yes. 2 times very softly and friendly slapping to have room on the alley while exiting from the toilet. A gentle touch with a smile but obviously not too gentleman-like behaviur and this of course he regrets.

I have also a friend here who claims to have more or less nasty experiences of a very similar looking "lady" and from the very same premises.

So all you out there near Lucifer: take care to be far enough of this singer girl!!!

this "whole" thing is rediculous, how many people here believe this man managed to get his finger into this girls underwear and more as she claims...........crazy shit this, if she gets away with it, whos to say anyone touched a thing, I find the police in this instance totally irresponsible, where is the evidence , prove it, something smells really fishy and it ain't his finger

My guess is this lady called the police woman direct which is not hard to prove and this guy is being stiched up big time, come on guys look at the wood............think about what she is saying he done................................prove it ?

Horrible speeds today. Ran a pingplotter test to see what was going on. Look at the ping jump from 230ms in Thailand to 2325 on the line from Thailand to the US. I've never seen it this bad (well, since I've been using PingPlotter). Normal is 230 avg for the whole trip. See below.

same here. I get 12-15Kbps down from the ThaiVisa server using 1Mbps True ADSL, but dial up (Lox and Pacific internet)is just as bad (3-4Kbps).

there appears to be a problem with international links. domestic is OK.

Does anybody have info about this from CAT?

opalhort

same here with maxnet..................there seems to be a problem.................not a big surprise

I've been waiting for prices to drop following the government clamp-down on using nominee based companies to buy property ('cos I'm planning to buy a holiday home or some land in the wife's name with a usufruct).

But according to the agent web sites that I look at the prices have not dropped at all. On the one hand I hear the foreign property market has virtually ground to a halt (except for the 49% of condos which can be owned by foreigners), but on the other hand I'm seeing no bargains.

What's going on?

because there are stupid people giving them what they are asking, probably about 50% too much

http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_03_10_49_3.htm

i find this quite sinister

I had a failure of my laptop LCD panel and ordered a new one from ebay, (couldn't get one here) it was delivered to my UK address then forwarded to me here in Pattaya Thailand via signed for post, a week has now passed and I have not recieved anything, never had a problem before with this type of registered post.....................where can I follow up if my package has gone missing, it was insured so I believe I can get my money back for the item and the delivery failure

Is there a department in Thailand I can contact to investigate where this package has gone ?

what level of pension do you need to negate the need for cash in bank ?

Hmmmm...the story starts to be interesting what once was a simple case (for the police).

It seems to me that the "woman Police Officer' has a big problem here; especially if her boss, the Captain of the Police Station, starts investigation PLUS the Swedish Embassy involved.

Could she have been 'working' together with the singer-girl from that club....trying to squeeze as money money as possible from 'poor' old Mr. Kid?

Keep us informed.

LaoPo

I would like to know if the "victim" xalled the police or called the woman police officer directly

I just upgraded my Ji-Net (via TT&T) from 512/256 to 1024/512 and get the following from speedtest.thaivisa.com:

Download Speed: 809 kbps (101.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 391 kbps (48.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Not bad...close to what I'm paying for...

what is your location and how much is it

Political change not a coup : Lt Gen Winai

One of the generals behind the coup described their seizure of power last week as a "political change rather than a coup."

Secretary of the military council, Lt Gen Winai Phattiyakul, told BBC radio in an interview that the military had tried to do the best for the country.

"We just tried to do the best for our country. Sometimes it is not easy for people from outside of the country to understand the real thinking or the behaviour," he told BBC radio.

"That is why the outcome of this political change is gaining so much support from the people, not only in Bangkok, countrywide."

The military ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on September 19 while he was in New York to attend UN General Assembly. After the coup, he flew to London, where he has an apartment.

Winai told the BBC that the timing was prompted by fears that elections scheduled for October 19 may not go ahead.

"We did not know when will be the election date. There's a rumour it may be extended to the end of November. That means we have this government for a year without national assembly at all," he said.

Defending the military council's order that restricted travelling and gathering of people, Winai said that Mr Thaksin has been in power for five years and he has so much influence down to grassroots levels.

"We do not want to take any chance. The civil liberties and the restriction of some reported media, it will be just for a very, very short period of time."

The Nation

Sonthi's been pretty smart up to now, i like the idea of him being around for a while, remember money talks and sacksin has a small fortune for aanyone that wants to play

sonthi is ok by me

as bad and mixed up pattaya is right now I fear that over the coming months some really stupid legeslation is about to happen here in the name of family tourism.....................trying to fit a round ped into a square hole............watch how they ruin it further

These people seem to launch stupid ideas then go through costly cycles of failure, when will they learn, if they want family tourism surely pucket is the ideal place not dirty crime ridden congested polluted pattaya.

One of the reasons i came to thailand was to get away from the violence for violence sake attitude back in the uk. I thought thailand was a more safe layed back place to live not so my wifes mum crys when she looks at the news. She tells me thailand has changed from a caring pepole in to a selfish pepole where you can not trust any one she hates the police and says the young dont believe in buda and the old ways no respect any more. I feel sorry for her as she worrys about her children it looks like i was wrong about thailands layed back mai pen rai attitude

Unfortunately violence is everywhere in the world and in Pattaya is seems that some of the younger generation are prepared to commit crime for their own selfish reasons.

I am afraid that respect, honesty and the wish to work hard these days is sadly lacking in some of world`s youth.

Take a look at the Role models in the upper circles and all the stuff in the news about how they interpetate the laws of the land.

What do we expect them to do apart from copy them.

I must say i love Pattasya and am not a critic or a cynic but.

Don,t you think that the locality is a magnet for all the low lifes to make their home due to the ric

A magnet...No!... Pattaya is a vibrant, bustling city and criminals can see opportunities and weaknesses to exploit as they do anywhere in the world.

yes they might do anywhere in the world, but lets face it, anywhere in the world you would need to go off the beaten track to be subjected to this sort of violence, pattaya beach road is a tourist area, name me anywhere iin the world "as you put it" that has many tourists that wouldn't feel safe walking on a beaach front, this is supposed to be a holiday resort for phuck sake, I've been all over the world and yes there are places in every city that you are advised not to go..........including my own and probably just about every city in the world.........since when did the beach front right slap bang in the middle of a supposed tourist hot spot become a no go area...........defenders of pattaya you need as business owners start talking to the local authorities instaed of wasting time trying to convince readers here that all is normal in pattaya and it happens everywhere.............it doesn't

Methinks there is more to this attack than meets the eye.

yes a drunk with gold round his neck.....................nothing else to say

PS this shiiiit is getting worse, anyone think different

phucking send him home