Chelseafan

Point taken but if you get found out in the US, there are harsh penalties whilst in Asia it's just a way of life. Whilst there may be shady individuals in any company, I can pretty much guarantee (to the best of my knowledge) that we do not offer bribes, it's part of our DNA. We have pulled out of projects on occassions because of the brown envelope expectation. We are also audited internally and externally extensively.

Yes, one too may zeros....shouldn't post when drunk!

Hell yeah. Some ships can carry as many as 200,000 containers, average that out at $10k a pop... Well you do the maths. Shipping lines are coining it to the point that the money they are making is obscene.

The problem with Thailand isn't so much legislation as stability. Promises now may not be good on paper in 10 years time. My company (a major top 5 global retailer) won't invest in Thailand for that reason... Oh and they don't do business under the table...

Yep, most trade is FOB Thailand with payment in US dollars.

More than that. Most of the west coast ports can't get the ships offloaded quick enough. Last I heard there was a 5 day delay with ships being anchored offshore

Absolutely. I was paying around $3500 per reefer container from Thailand to UK, its now around $20,000.. Not only that but duty increases too as its a %age of the cost of goods and freight. Inflation is going to be the biggest challenge in Europe over the next year or so.

Jeez, who cares, if you can't afford an extra £6.50ish to come to Thailand then don't bother coming at all.

You also have motorbikes with no rear lights... 60 baht for a bulb.

I suspect you are throwing hard earned cash in the bin then, Wise has always come out tops compared to my bank. While my bank offers a fixed fee, the exchange rate is shocking.

Pointing.... You missed the pointing ????

I had the same issue. As I am in Thailand I went into the bank and they said account still open. No its not I say. I can't use it. Its still active they replied. At this point I decided to conserve my future breathes and walked out. Just use the missus account now.

Checked your spam box?

It means you can take a picture of a negative flow test and use it wherever you want to go. No need for a new one every day. If you're postivie, no worry just grab an image from the net....

We will never know....

Well on a personal level, I've not met a Thai who has a good word to say about the current government and that includes some very well educated businessmen.

Couldn't agree more.

Absolutely. Let's assume in monetary spend that 1 "rich" tourist is the equivalent of 20 "poor" tourists That's 19 tourists who don't need to be fed & watered That's 19 beds lost. That's 19 taxi rides lost. There's the loss of bars/nightlife/entertainment I could go on... That rich tourist doesn't spend money that trickles through the economy. It go's to multi-nationals and the governement via tax.

I really wish that TAT senior personnel got fired when their outlandish claims don't come to fruition - I don't think they have ever hit the mark. Perhaps if their jobs were on the line then they might think twice before making such bold statements. I get that they have to be optimistic but it just makes them look like idiots. I'd also love them to publish their data to back up their nonsense

Yeah happened to me. Tried to send 600,000 (for land), had to do 15 x 40 transactions. What a palava...

Good Luck with that. I've only built the outer wall so far ????

Seems about right. Aeroflot were cheap for a reason https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_accidents_and_incidents

Just an aside, I flew on the last BA 747 back to London years ago. What a plane that was...

The problem is (like any company) is that they have lost their reputation. It used to a privledge, sort of, flying with BA back in the 70's and 80's but they never kept up with the times nor did they attract the younger crowd who ended up on package holidays in Ibiza . Easyjet gave them a broken and bloody nose which they never really recovered from. But I have to say, flying on BA was much more preferable to flying on KLM - I heard they still use reclining seats on biz. long haul, maybe I'm wrong.

Exactly. I've said this time and time again...