Retiredandhappyhere

5 hours ago, ThaidDown said:

That is incorrect

 

The Ft rate is actually being revised from -15.90 satang to -11.60 satang.

 

And for most people with a monthly bill of around 2500, it will represent an increase of 25 to 30 baht.  Not quite the terrible news some posters were expecting on reading the article, which could not even get the figures the correct way round, since as a previous poster pointed out, the current FT (deduction) rate is 15.90 to be reduced to 11.60, thereby representing a small increase in the bill.

3 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

No sympathy for a person who chose to commit a wrongful act. Western tourists know that what they are doing is not appropriate and they cannot say they are unaware since there are information campaigns to inform them. If the woman was checking her google to look up elephant rides then she will have surely seen the multiple articles detailing the  horrid practices of these elephant ride operations particularly  on the island of Phuket.

 

We all know how irresponsible and selfish the tourism operators are in Phuket, whether it be the poacher of the slow loris, the poacher of turtles, the destroyer of coral reefs, the encroacher of  protected lands, the unethical collection of fish and shellfish etc. such that an ethical and responsible person would steer clear of these operations.

 

As a reminder, the use of endangered Asian elephants for commercial tourism is a wrongful act because;

1. It encourages the ongoing destruction of natural habitat that should be preserved for the less than 2000 wild Asian elephants left in Thailand.

2. Elephants used for commercial purposes are often illegally   through poaching.

3. The  elephants used for tourism have been cruelly treated. It is well documented that the  young elephants are beaten, deprived of sleep and are malnourished.

4. It is an established fact that elephants used in the tourism trade are cruelly treated and poorly cared for including, being subject to electrical shock, inappropriate drugging and the standard beatings.

 

To be blunt, I hope this fall knocked some sense into this  environmentally irresponsible tourist.

 

 

No blame attributed to the Thai authorities then, who allow this kind of business to happen?  It is solely the tourist's fault?

9 hours ago, riclag said:

"Here Are 8 Stubborn Facts on Gun Violence in America"

 

https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/here-are-8-stubborn-facts-gun-violence-america

 

Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this ! American's have millions of guns and we have laws that protect our rights to have them .So far little is known about this individual , except for the police saying they had dealings with this disturbed individual over the years while finding he didn't meet the guidelines of taking him to be evaluated further!

I feel sure that all the innocent victims and families of these shootings in the USA will take great comfort from the "8 stubborn facts"on gun violence you referred to.   

15 hours ago, petedk said:

Scenes like this make me really angry.

 

If the person squirting  the acid has a problem he should talk to the owner of the dog. The poor dog doesn't understand why people are so cruel.

 

 

My dog is always on a lead when I take her out and I must admit the 3 or 4 Thai neighbours that have dogs always have their dogs on leads.

Where I lived for the last 6 years, I have never yet seen a Thai with his dog on a lead.  Most of the dogs roam freely around our (securely gated ) village, despite all the village regulations prohibiting that and also the feeding of stray dogs, which still goes on. 

I do not recall the last referendum on a new Constitution in 2016 having received praise and acceptance by the international community, as claimed, nor did the voters realise that, having voted on something most were allowed to know very little about, it would subsequently be substantially changed in the Junta;s favour.

14 hours ago, PatOngo said:

"Help us Jack, we've shot ourselves in the foot!"

Sounds a bit like desperation................... and yet we are told tourist numbers are rising.   Is someone telling porkies?  Surely not!

I think it is significant that TAT now says that it will no longer concentrate on (i.e. publish) tourist arrival numbers nor on the amount that they spend.  Those numbers never bothered them in the past and, in fact, were always hailed as a great measure of their success.  How will they measure (publish) their "success" in future?

23 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

I have nothing against sensible anti-smoking laws. But this is ridiculous and unfortunately just as little thought-through as many other laws here that seem to have been concocted by over-zealous bureaucrats who have lost grip with reality.

 

This law is simply unenforceable in densely built-up Thai cities:

 

Okay, so you move down the sidewalk five meters away from the pub entrance... only there will be a hair salon. Move five meters further again. Alas, there's a karaoke bar. Five meters onward there'll be the entrance to a condo or a school or a massage parlor. Before you know it you'll be in Samutprakarn. And when you think you can finally light up (while your beer back in the pub has already evaporated, of course), you are going to realize that you in fact cannot, because you're standing right in front of a temple.  

No need to worry.  Just remember what happened to the "no riding in the backs of pick-ups"?   And as for enforcement, well.................      How's the law about not riding m/cs on the wrong side of the road going?  Every day I see scores of m/c riders with no helmets and in the evening on a short 10 km journey can spot at least 6, including one or two with sidecars and kids on board, with no back lights.  

In a few days, you can expect the 5 metre rule to be changed to something like 5 cms, after protests from pubs and other such establishments.

On 11/5/2018 at 4:24 PM, dunroaming said:

The American economy is doing well, very well!  You would think that Trump would use that as his rallying call for the Primaries.  Instead he focusses on sending troops to the border, "beautiful barbed wire" and his stupid wall.

 

Clearly this is what he believes will appeal to his core supporters and of course it will.  Just how successful this line is will be interesting to see.  Time for the USA voters to show their true colours (colors).

The colour will probably be orange.

On 11/5/2018 at 7:13 PM, rosst said:

You poor bastard, obviously unhinged, very little sympathy here, personally, very sad and I hope you get the help you need. 

No, he will not find much sympathy on this forum or (probably) anywhere else, as innocent people do not take kindly to anyone who murders another human being and even less kindly to someone who has murdered twice.  Having murdered twice, one wonders why he is out of prison now and even more so if he is indeed suffering from a severe mental condition, as some posters have suggested.

A mentally deranged person, having murdered twice, out mingling with the general public?  What possibly could go wrong?

The choice that the people and Parliament will have is simply between the deal that the Government end up with OR exit from the EU with no deal.  Once any deal is agreed with the EU, there will be no going back for further negotiations.   It is the agreed deal or no deal.  Any successful plans to scupper any agreed deal (as Labour plan to do) simply means NO DEAL.   Either way, the 52% who voted "Leave" get their way and the UK will be OUT.   It is just a question of whether the economic consequences will be better with a deal or with no deal, and the answer to that is fairly obvious. 

As I have said many times before, a reasonably acceptable deal will be achieved but probably not until the eleventh hour, as that is how the EU likes to work.  Business leaders keep calling for "clarity" but there can be no such clarity until the final deal is agreed.  Negotiations of any kind are always up in the air until the final decision is made and signed. Some proposed huge company takeovers which get cancelled at the last minute, despite all expectations,  prove my point.  The statement that "there can be no agreement until everything is agreed" has been made many times during the negotiation process.

CHIANG MAI, 3 November 2018 (NNT) - Chiang Mai province has been prepared to accommodate more visitors during high tourism season with aim to create good impressions upon their arrival. 

They should be prepared as it happens every year!

A great picture of the clouds but a lousy photo of the "skywalk".  As Justgrazing intimated, the pic looks more like the bow of the Titanic than of a skywalk.

5 hours ago, Lupatria said:

Thank Buddha and burn incense it was no inspection by international IUU inspectors. 

I thought this was exceptionally good news until I, too, soon realised that it was a case of Thai boats being inspected by Thai officials, at which point I lost all confidence in the outcome.  It is a bit like Thailand never seeming to find evidence of corruption in any Thai project, despite the public being fully aware of it.  When there is overwhelming evidence of corruption (Rolls Royce and expensive watches come to mind), investigations are delayed and delayed until it is hoped that the public will have lost interest. 

5 hours ago, 300sd said:

Some how this team of officials does not give me great confidence. Better then nothing maybe....

But all boats and ferries were inspected in just one afternoon? How many boats, how many inspectors and how detailed were the inspections? Luckily, lightning strikes do not count when recording accidents where any blame can be accorded to the owners or operators, so the recent incident, although not good publicity, is not particularly bad either, as it could happen anywhere.

There is one of these new stores in Hua Hin.  The most surprising thing to me was the changed fascia colour where instead of the usual red and green, it is predominantly brown, making it slightly less recognisable as a 7/11.  It seems strange that, having spent years getting its stores easily recognised with the old style fascia, a decision is made to change it for certain stores.  If a standard change just for this new type of store, I suppose it makes some sense by informing potential customers that it incorporates a cafe and restrooms.

I seem to recall that quite a few years back, Coca Cola introduced a new design on their cans, but quickly changed back when lower sales figures were reported.  British Airways mad a costly mistake too, many years ago, when they spent about 30 million pounds changing the traditional design on the tail wings of all their planes to a modern African-style design, only to hastily repaint them all due to customer protests.   

46 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Bird flu ?

That's stretching your argument just a bit, don't you think?

6 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

Totally agree with posts saying she like many Thai's let the dog roam around,well it won't be a roamin no more.

We have had a dozen or so dogs roaming around our village causing problems and the Thai owners either deny ownership or refuse to do anything about their so-called pets.  Perhaps we should have a chat with the owner of the ducks in this article as he might be able to solve our problem.   

6 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

What an utter cad.

Your name on here suggests that you are not an Englishman, so where did you get that expression from?  Reading too many old English novels?  

On 11/3/2018 at 3:45 PM, Farrows3399 said:

Are there any factual examples on accurate decline in numbers of Chinese visitors. Like in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Bangkok? 

As even TAT say that Chinese tourist numbers are down 10 to 15% since the boat disaster, you can be sure that the true figures are at least that.  I cannot really see why Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Bangkok would be much different.

7 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Thai prostitutes are not illegally living in Thailand!  In case you didn't know, streetwalking prostitutes are regularly arrested for soliciting, particularly in Pattaya, and bars/gogos/massage places are raided and if found to be breaking the law arrests are made.  

True but very selectively.  Why is one establishment raided while neighbouring joints doing the same thing are ignored.  Could it just possibly have anything to do with who owns the club/bar OR which ones are making regular tea money payments?

2 hours ago, Gandtee said:

I must confess to having similar aggressive feelings when I am in the company of phone addicts.????

A word of advice.  Don't act on those feelings, or you could end up in a place where a phone would be a considerable asset and comfort to you.

14 hours ago, overherebc said:

Never understood and still don't why people want to spend time knocking the living snot out of each other and the vast majority of them end up brain damaged and broke while the managers and agents end up with most of the money. Are they a bit low on the brain cell count to start with or do the managers and agents know that eventually the boxers/fighters will end up with a skull full of cold porridge so will sign anything that they are asked to sign on a contract.?????

A famous Thai boxer said on TV a few weeks ago that she was in the sport to kill anyone they put in front of her.  Even allowing for the usual hyperbole, that was still a revealing and slightly startling statement, coming from the so-called gentler sex.