climbertrev1

Wonder how many motorbike riders are going to be killed after sliding in wet weather on the new road-paintings??

You make a very good point. I worked as a motorcycle dispatch rider in London and am all too familiar with slippery road paintings. If we had a couple of dry weeks in London it would only take a light rain shower to make the road paintings lethal.

Norwegian tourist fatally injured in Koh Tao diving accident

Photo: propellersafety.com

A Norwegian tourist was fatally injured while scuba diving when she was hit by the propeller of a passing boat near Koh Tao in Thailand’s southern province of Surat Thani on December 22, according to local police.

The Norwegian woman, identified as Silji Macdison, 22, sustained severe cuts to the head and on her left thigh as she was surfacing in shallow waters just off Koh Tao around 2.30 pm.

A rescue team, with emergency medical services personnel, rushed to the scene of accident but could not save her life.

According to police, Macdison was undergoing scuba diving course under supervision from an instructor from Scuba Junction diving school.

Natakorn Meekwan, 23, the captain of the boat was arrested for recklessness causing death. The boat was carrying a group of scuba divers when the accident took place.

The body of Macdison was being held at Koh Tao health clinic pending an autopsy to be performed at Surat Thani hospital.

--ScandAsia.com 2014-12-22

Another totally avoidable tragedy. I have witnessed many similar incidents fortunately most have been near misses or the injuries minor. I await the outcome ot the boat captain being charged with such a serious offence. I assume the penalty will depend on whom he is related to. If he is well connected he will already be back in the water plying his trade.

Reorganizing the police is certainly not a bad move!

If they could do away with the required promotion money, I think police corruption will by greatly reduced.

(currently, candidates for promotion must find a large amount of money to pay the bribe, and most take loans from persons who then effectively control the promoted officer)

Forest and Railway police are really secondary concerns, but I would welcome the creation of traffic police that would include the highway police.

Eradicating all corruption throughout would of course be a good thing. This has to include the military as well. Does anyone know if candidates seeking promotion in the army also have to pay a bribe. If so this should cease first and foremost.

If only a could find a tuk tuk driver or taxi driver that is not drunk or on drugs maybe I would consider not driving by myself after a few beers.

Yes I rarely use motorcycle taxis. One reason is the bottle of whiskey I see doing the rounds amongst the waiting drivers. If I can see this so can the police. As many have pointed out already there is no will by the police to enforce the law for the public good.

I liked two things. First, they didn't run away. Second, they ran back very fast and concerned and showed the child a lot of attention and affection. (Even though perhaps dangerous medically.)

It's very fortunate that the child wasn't badly injured.

Yes and no thanks to the driver. Who is either blind or was simply not looking where he was driving. And let's be clear about this it took the driver a long time to stop. What was he doing? Sending an SMS, calling someone on his phone, playing a video game what?

It is all very well the school paying up but what about the driver. In the UK or anywhere else in the civilized he would now be facing charges of driving without due care and attention.

If the hostage takers in this incident are homegrown terrorists, I wonder whether we'll be hearing the usual excuses of how they've been disenfranchised and have been on the receiving end of racial epithets which are all responsible for their radicalization?

Whether they are homegrown or otherwise.

I hope the only thing they hear is a volley of shots before being sent to meet their virgins.

Correction it isn't virgins (74 or whatever number) it's one 74 year old virgin.

Seriously though I hope all the hostages and those surrounding the crime site remain unharmed. As for the hostage takers I would like to see them taken alive and put on trial and if found guilty of any crimes be imprisoned for a very very long time.

LIVE http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-15/hostages-sydney-cafe-martin-place-police-operation/5967232

Key points:

• Heavily armed police have taken position around the Lindt cafe in central Sydney
• Hostages have been seen inside the cafe with their hands in the air
• Black flag with white Arabic writing reading "There is no God but Allah" and "Mohammed is the messenger of God" waved behind the hostages
• Martin Place and Sydney Opera House have been evacuated
• National Security Committee of Cabinet has convened; Prime Minister Tony Abbott described incident as "deeply concerning" and offered NSW all assistance possible.

BUT don't forget this is not a terrorist attack..... that would be too anti PC.... <deleted>

Oz

I want to know why the Black flag does not have Islam, religion of peace, written on it?

The sooner that civilians are allowed to carry arms the better what is needed is a Thai NRA, no more punch ups.

Firearms are used in a public space with the result that an innocent person got wounded.

And your solution is to introduce more firearms?

I have trouble following your reasoning.

In this instance it was the police using the firearms. How in hell would more firearms on the streets have helped in this specific instance.

To move towards a USA as dreamed about by the NRA would be catagorically wrong. Thailand should move towards the UK of the 1960's when firearms were extremely rare. It was even rare for the police to have firearms back then.

In the US and I was being robbed I would assume the robber has a gun. If I was in the UK I would assume the robber does not have a gun he might have a knife or heavy object but not a gun.

In reference to the recent shootings in US.

Male weilding gun like object the police will treat as a real gun.

In the UK police would seriously consider the gun to be immitation.

I would hate to be a US policeman who needs to be armed with a firearm at all times when on duty and perhaps off. In the UK policeman are not usually routinely armed. Who is most likely to get killed by a robber with a gun?

In 2012, 33 US police officers were shot to death (the lowest number since 1887)https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131230/15411225716/number-officers-killed-line-duty-drops-to-50-year-low-while-number-citizens-killed-cops-remains-unchanged.shtml

Compared with 71 shot and killed in the UK between 1900 and 2012. (This does not include N Ireland where the RUC was engaged in an armed inserrection beween Catholics and Prodestants)

http://michaelisherwood.com/2012/09/british-police-officer-deaths-1900-2012/

That's a good start. Get rid of this outlandish, ancient practice, and take pride in the last elephants left - give them protection and freedom.

Perhaps but it could be the end for the elephants. As their economic value declines they will simply be exterminated. Elephants being used for trekking is infinitely better than no elephants at all.

More people should put video clips of these Kamikaze van drivers on Youtube as its the only way to get things done here as its all about saving face by the authorities. I still see these mini bus drivers Not getting stopped at check points. They are the most offensive drivers on the roads in Thailand. They have no respect for fair paying passengers safety.

I avoid them like the plague. I would rather travel by bus and take twice as long as by mini van.

The penalities need to be much harsher than those proposed. Drivers who flee the scene of an accident should automatically face a jail sentence. More than 3 speeding convictions in a 3 year period and they should face the prospect of having no license for a few months. Dangerous driving large fines, disqualification from driving, repeat offenders should face long jail terms.

Another day, and another scratch your head moment. What planet have these people been living on? You can almost excuse a poorly educated young Thai kid getting it wrong, but a film director, an agency and whatever layers of governmental approval this had to go through removes any semblance of an excuse surely.

"As for Hitler's portrait, I have seen so many people using it on T-Shirts everywhere. It's even considered a fashion. It doesn't mean I agree with it, but I didn't expect it to be an issue at all." <= at a loss for words.

This is yet another example of how inculcating Thais with Thainess is small minded and limiting. It would appear that the people running this country are truely ignorant of the rest of the world.

For them Thailand is everything. No one else

has any valid knowledge or opinions. I agree with you ..... I am lost for words (almost).

Isn't this old news? http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/781621-surge-of-reported-police-harassment-suggests-campaign-targeting-tourists-expats/

I was planted with ganja by the police at Ekamai bus station about 5 years ago. I decided to pay my way out. The bidding started at 20,000 I paid 2,000. I was new to Thailand then not sure if I would pay up now. I made the mistake of not watching the guy going through my bag as I was distracted by the nice cop.

"Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he has instructed all government facilities to be accessible to the handicapped and those who require supporting equipment."

Obviously the streets aren't considered to be a government facility. Once you depart from the bus or leave the building, you are on your own.

BlockedSidewalk-449x304.jpg

Absolutely. My mother comes to visit once a year. Pattaya is fairly devoid of pavements (sidewalks). I did consider a wheelchair to help her get around but when I surveyed the area it was obviously a bad idea. What pavements there are, are often obstructed by motorcycles, shops etc and the surfaces usually broken and uneven. The only way to get her around is by car unfortunately.

Note the national police chief claims the bribery list goes back two years.

If this is accurate it's reasonable to wonder why corruption on this scale existed without being known about and acted upon.

It's also reasonable to suggest an answer as to why a blind eye was turned and why it's suddenly being jumped all over.

What will the general do if some of his ' people ' are found to be involved or will the investigation be very selectively tailored. .

Will be certainly interesting 'when' not if Army people show up somewhere how he reacts. Good thing right now is the clean up is beginning. Was known about in the past but when all of them are in on the corruption then who is going to blow the whistle. Witness the senior cop a few years back who deared to turn in his colleagues in and they butchered him. Kudo's to the good general for having the balls to be different than the rest.

Many here are keen to cheer on the General for having the balls to tackle the corruption that is probably rife throughout the police force.

This is the advantage of a military government, it has the power to match any threat of violence from the police. In Thailand the military and the police are largely free of government control. After the many military coups it is obvious that any civilian government needed to ally it's self with either the military or the police. Taksin chose the police or perhaps he had no other choice other than trying to stand alone.

If Prayut can be a benevolent dictator then good for Thailand. Or is his benevolence merely a smoke screen for continued Military corruption and power.

Well to remember the old adage. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Note the national police chief claims the bribery list goes back two years.

If this is accurate it's reasonable to wonder why corruption on this scale existed without being known about and acted upon.

It's also reasonable to suggest an answer as to why a blind eye was turned and why it's suddenly being jumped all over.

What will the general do if some of his ' people ' are found to be involved or will the investigation be very selectively tailored. .

What will the general do if some of his ' people ' are found to be involved or will the investigation be very selectively tailored?

That is one of the one million dollar questions. The other is whether charges brought against the alledgedly corrupt officers can stand up in court and if they do, will result in serious jail time?

I am not holding my breath.

Of course Thailand can't be really cheap if you stick to shopping malls where Farahng companies sell Farang stuff to Farangs on vacation. Same same for Farang restaurants.

But Thai food is much cheaper, and I really prefer Thai food to the kind of antibiotics leftover they sell at McDonald's.

If you think the beaches are filthy, then please look who litters. You use the infrastructure of Thailand without any thoughts about what you leave over in their environment. In Farang countries you pay taxes for this.

Public transportation could be better, if course. But please compare it to the public transport you're offered in Farang countries, say in LA.

Compare airline ticket prices to carriers from Farang countries, and compare services.

Compare criminality, the way they treat the old and disabled.

You will rarely find a country so safe, friendly and clean as Thailand.

Who do you think does the littering? Do you think that it is Russian, Chinese, Americans, Europeans that fly into Thailand with their suitcases packed with builders/ demolition waste not to mention putresible waste? Jomtien is a disgrace as are the outskirts of Pattaya. Waste is dumped everywhere it is possible to dump it.

Yes I do think that Pattaya Beach is filthy. Go there at low tide and see the beautiful sight of bottles and plastic bags. Any other tourist resort in an urban environment like Pattaya the beach is cleaned at every low tide(I mean every low tide).

You talk about tax payers. Whilst you are cleaning up the environment you could stop people burning plastic and other waste outside my hotel.

As for the stupid futile whistle blowing that goes on. No where else in the world do they use whistles like the Thais so much and to so little effect. The other major irritation in my life is the lack of pavements almost everywhere in central Pattaya and elsewhere.

All tourists who come here pay tax to the Thai government. Some of that should be being used to clean the beaches and empty the rubbish bins as necessary. If the bins overflow with rubbish then empty them more often and provide more of them.

I have spent a lot of time in India and yes Thailand is cleaner than India. If that is your standard then I wish you the best of luck in attracting wealthy discerning Tourists. Actually the busy beaches in Goa were cleaned on a far more regular basis than in Pattaya.

So a country with a population of 65 million expects over a 3rd increase in terms of numbers over a year?

That basically implies that one in three people you see will be a foreigner. I doubt very much 25 million people holiday in Thailand every year. These figures just don't make sense when you see the hoteliers bleating about the lack of numbers in the main tourist hotspots.

25 million tourists in Thailand a year does not mean evey third person you will see is a foreigner. Most will only be here for two weeks or even less. Using two weeks effectively reducing the number in Thailand to one million. On average 1 in 65 people you meet are likely to by foreign. Except that most tourists are clustered in a few areas of a few places.

Hence I am now off to walk Beach Road and expect 20-30% of the persons I meet to be Chinese tourists.

Plenty of work....harvesting Rice

Not true, no one wants to pay the minimum 300 Baht per day since the price of rice is held down to about 10 Baht per Kilo. As a consequence day workers are out of work. Unless the government lifts the price ceiling this will continue.

I would like to see a few Farangs work out in the fields for 9-10 hours under an unrelating sun for 300 Baht a day. I would also like to see them harvesting at least 50 kilos of rice. Remember it isn't just the rice cutting that costs you have to add in all the other inputs. Raising the seedlings. cost of seed rice, fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, threshing etc etc etc

It might be more realistic to have a target of 100 kilos per day or 10 kilos an hour.

Anyone with large enough fields is going for mechanisation. This happened a couple of generations ago in the west. Rural employment fell drastically as a result from about 40% in 1880 to about 1% now. At some time Thailand will see a similar shift.

Ruled by heart and not the head, but that is Thainess surely ?

I find your gross generalisation insulting to all the Thai friends that I have.

It is equivalent to me accusing all Farangs living in Thailand of being alcoholic and or sex addicts..and totally ignorant of Thai culture. That accusation is also not accurate although the last bit I sometimes wonder.

Back to the insurgency. Terrorism is not limited to the deep south of Thailand, surely you must have heard about ISIL or ISIS or 9/11 or a million other acts carried out by non Thai people?

there is no minimum age limit to firing a lethal weapon at someone as long as youre able to pull the trigger. He was told to put his hands up but went to his waistband to draw the weapon. He must have known it was a fake so id say he was looking for a darwin award ...12yrs old is old enough to know what he was doing.

A 12 year old is not old enough to be aware of the consequences of his actions.

Sorry but I don't agree with you. A well brought up and sensible kid should have known that a fatal outcome was at least a possibility. Taking on the police with a toy gun was not a sensible course of action. Then again simply owning a fake gun in the USA or anywhere for that matter is also not very sensible.

As a parent I brought my kids up with the knowledge that cooperating with the police is the sensible option...and that having fake real looking guns is just stupid. Particularly in public spaces and especially if you could possibly be percieved as a threat to law enforcement officers.

The result of a sick society that will not or cannot discourage or prohibit the use off and the carrying of firearms, thus society is on the whole living on a razor edge of fear.

Police offices who were or are perhaps also living on the razor edge of fear,indeed American society it seems has spawned an evil violence motivated society.

To have to make a decision as to whether to shoot or talk with a 12 year old boy should not be a difficult decision to make.

You talk, you do not shoot, you call for backup trained to deal with such a situation.

So yet again we are likely to see yet more outbreaks of wanton needless violence, riots the destruction of both private and public property and general civil disorder. Mad Max is becoming a reality as opposed to fiction I fear in the U .S .

You were not there so you are not informed enough to make a judgement about whether the police were at fault.

I agree that a factor in the decision to shoot was the widespread abundance of firearms in the USA. In the UK one would probably assume the gun was a fake..but in the USA might be safer to assume it was real.

A sad story and a sorry situation. US police officers have to go out shift after shift with the knowledge that the risk of getting shot is very real.

Before I can decide to fairly condemn the police I would like to know more about the incident.

kinda reminds me of the Corniche in Mogadishu...

This has given me the best laugh of the morning. Thank you.

At least there are no bodies or body parts laying around....

seriously though, i dont see people walking around in so i would guess these photos were taken very early in the morning prior to completion of garbage collection and general street cleaning. Sand bags are for the rains which should be over by now and will be moved. It sure does look ugly in the morning so perhaps Pattaya needs to start cleaning prior to sunrise.

The sand bags will not be moved. It looks like all the ones from last year are still around and have been supplemented by some new ones this year. It looks like that the population that frequents Beach Road is trying to reinstate the low retaining wall that was removed by the Beach Road improvement scheme. In some areas paving blocks are being used to build a wall just so people have somewhere to sit.

Some of the repairs to the major subsidence have been carried out. The washed out sand foundations have been reinstated ready to be washed out the next time it rains.

As it has always been...a thorough disgrace which goes all the way to the top of the crooked authorities that manage Phuket.........

Soon the beach vendors and umbrella mafia will be back too!....

I will never go back there..........!!

I first came to Thailand in 1979 and the evidence continues to build that I made the right decision in not going to Phuket back then. It would appear that the good General/PM call him what you will has had far less affect than many had hoped for.

Until some of the big people Mafia/ Persons with power and influence are sent to jail nothing will ever change in Thailand.

The military coup has had virtually no effect on Pattaya. The rumours were that the vested interests were simply too strong and powerful. This does appear to be the case.

The poor of Thailand will continue to pay tax through direct taxation on virtually all purchases and get very little back in return. Meanwhile the rich and powerful will continue to steal as much as is possible of that tax paid through corrupted government investment programmes. The recent Photovoltaic system figures published by the Bangkok Post are evidence of this. Their figures show that the same systems cost 40,000 Baht to 140,000 Baht per household depending on which area of administrative area of Thailand is considered.

There must be a paper trail to show where this government money (tax payer money) has ended up or at least some very big clues. Why are investigations into fraud not being carried out?

Meanwhile poorly built roads paid for out of the public coffers continue to get built and rapidly fall apart due to shoddy workmanship and cheap methods of construction. Some of these roads are only a couple of years old.

No such thing as impossible, just difficult.

Can anyone really distinguish between klai (near) and klai (far)?

Yes Thai people and some farang who have learnt to hear tone.

Also the first letter is a G sound not a K sound.

Glai (ไกล), far (mid tone) or Glai( ไกล้), near (falling tone)

The tone is of crucial importance in Thai.