balford

Why only manslaughter? Well, anything else involving work is all too hard, so, Constable Plod, get out there and grab a Cambodian, Burmese, Lao...Ooops, nope, too hard. It was suicide so move along, nothing to see here.

Hope the botox people don't go broke without her patronage though...

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Monty Python and the Goons live

Hello Somchai, this is the Legal Execution Department - now, about your student loan...Hello, hello...

Legal Execution Department? Monty Python lives.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

There's a LOT of difference between listening to and hearing. Any opposition to these dams will only confirm the whoosh factor as regards EGAT - it'll go straight in one ear and out the other and the reports, EIS, etc., will be tailored to suit their agenda.

You only commission reports and fora when you already know the answer...

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

They don't call Chalerm Bhak Mah (dog mouth) for nothing. And keep an eye on the interactions between he, Jatuporn, Nattawut and the Red Shirts.

Bob A.

Four F-16s fully armed should do the trick.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Silly me! I thought TAT was going to miraculously convert martial law into a tourism experience or was that just another daily 'Hub' of anything and everything

announcement?

This agency really needs the cleaners put through it and a competent team that actually knows what it's doing put in place. One that can also have the clout and the guts to be able to get the funding to develop tourist sites without desecrating their significance and/or allowing greed and corruption to take over... Obviously wishful thinking though.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

"Haha, it's most certainly more fun than Darwin"

Depends on what your idea of 'fun' is... I lived in Darwin for 25 years and didn't have a problem finding honest, normal things to do.

Bob A Relaxed in Lampang

And what guage did they use to determine that martial law was killing tourism? Did they conduct any polls or issue questionnaires? Or is just another of TAT's daily press releases saying nothing, but issued because...well, that's what they do.

And silly me - I thought martial law was another of TAT's brillant ideas to bring tourists in. Sigh.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Darn shame, that...

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

And how many are in inactive posts here in Thailand bludging on the system? Or do they equate sitting in a dark room playing solitaire as working?

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Well, gasp, shock, horror. Who'd a thought such an investigation would have been undertaken with such amatuerism and hindered to such an extent by the self-serving media?

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

I feel a future headline coming on...

No scapegoats found on Koh Tao. Suicide confirmed by contents of brown envelopes.

Now move along - nothing to see here.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

So you're to be allowed two brawls without censure or with only a severe thrashing with a lettuce leaf, but by golly don't do it a third time or you'll really be in trouble and you won't be able to borrow money.

Please sir, can I have some of whatever it is these clowns are on?

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

There is no such thing as considerate or respectful media coverage in such circumstances - anywhere. These vultures loosely called 'reporters' are only after the most sensationalist twist on events they can manufacture to suit their particular agenda or to appease either their own or their editors' egos.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

"Remember the book published in the late '70's ? The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. Great read, as I recall back in the late '80s when I first came to LOS and was in the north for a long period. The book looks mostly at time leading up to and including Vietnam War as I recall. I think the military and police may like to start looking at books like this to get some context at least for the drugs trade."

Reading books? Interesting concept for Thais - but at least you qualified it in saying they may "...like to start looking at books..."

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Seems to be all about greed on one hand and bureaucratic incompetence on the other.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Abbot is nothing more then a clone of John Howard and is just as nasty, sleazy and spiteful.

This raising the threat level may well be the right thing if indeed it has come from the Intell community - or it is no more than a distraction for something he's about to announce that is more sinister.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

I've been with them in their previous guises for over seven years and have had only one problem with the supplied equipment - and that was replaced at no cost and with the offer of a technician setting it up and checking the whole system. For Baht 631.30 a month it keeps this technodinosaur happy...

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

This so-call 'new' scandal is months old and was raised as an issue during the last gasps of the previous government. Perhaps if the headlines related the facts instead of deliberately misleading readers there might just be a little more credibility gained - not much but a little...

Inactive post? Put in a dark room with a pack of cards and still paid.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

If it's an academic paper and it is publicly available then what is he banging on about other than trying to tin plate his and TDRI's backsides I suspect... Not us your honour they'll echo!

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

I smell a big fat rat here. Smells something like a TDRI/OAG show entitled 'Let's make a deal.'

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

Last time I mailed a 90-day form with all the required copies it never arrived at Chiangmai Immigration, only 90km from Lampang.

It was registered, had a self addressed and stamped envelope inside and still failed to show up. Fortunately I had the post office receipt and Registration number so I wasn't penalised, despite the officer's eyes lighting up in expectation of a fine.

I haven't mailed a 90-day report for three years but instead go into Lampang and the 90-day reporting venue there or, if 'she who must be obeyed' wants to do some Chiasngmai shopping then we go there to face the chaos at Immigration.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang.

My wife and I live in a village on the outskirts of Lampang. She's from Thonburi originally but we opted to keep as far as we could from family now here parents are dead.

The village is on a small rise so we've never had flooding problems, it has a health clinic where I'm registered, it has an airport, it is only 92km from Chiangmai, it is reasonably close to Lampang centre and the usual suspects in shopping - Makro, Big C, Tesco, Central Plaza and the smaller specialty shops, and it has visiting Immigration Officers each Tuesday to process the 90-day reports. But, most importantly we are comfortable here.

If you aren't comfortable where you are you won't enjoy what Thailand has to offer.

Bob A. - relaxed in Lampang