Runamile

Thailand needs more European tourists - they actually spend money.

That said, of course, it helps to try to work with the highest socio/economic groups.

Turquoise Holidays most certainly don't seem to aim in that direction. They're prices and packages are amazing. If you make Thailand as cheap as the Costa Brava, of course people will come, but whether that constitutes high-quality, high-yield tourism , is a whole other matter.

I do, though, massively congratulate Turquoise Holidays in, clearly, having talked sense into some Thai hoteliers over room rates.

BKK Brit : "And we thought we did corruption well" ........ that's if they've not fallen off the hotel room balcony.

BKK Brit : "And we thought we did corruption well" ........ that's if they've not fallen off the hotel room balcony.

Maybe it's to do with the availability of performance enhancement drugs .....

I'm sure we want to be hopeful, but aren't the samples/evidence, likely, at this stage, to have been so corrupted that, with the best will in the world, any third party is unlikely to be able to make much sense of them?

I simply walk out. For information, it's even worse in China, where I also walk out. I've talked to many Chinese people on this - they hate it, too.

And another one bites the dust. Foreigner. Thai tourism industry job.

Sorry guys.

I've been a bit slow on the uptake.

Truth is that the investigation is 85% complete because there's still 15% of the tea money to be paid.

I shall be entering Thailand in future on an ED visa, which is nothing whatever to do with learning Thai, or, indeed, anything to do with Thai culture.

Not sure whether that makes matters better or worse!!

We'll see.

I don't know why everybody's so confused. It's basic maths. If 600 metres = 85%, how many metres = 100%?

Simple ..................... unless 2am-4am = 85% .........................

The Thais are trying really hard with foreigners. Don't worry, guys, pretty soon there won't be a Thai tourist industry for you to fight over the spoils.

The ideal has a large wallet and a small brain. Beyond that, a couple of arms and couple of legs might be helpful, but not really necessary. Humour tends to go down quite well. As to the "no-no", well that's simply the opposite of my first statement. Small wallet and big brain - you're finished!

Would this be the same village headman that owns AC Bar?

Sounds to me like, finally, thanks to foreigners braking out of the silence (who's the French guy - I missed that bit) the bar's security camera footage was, at last, looked at properly.

I bet the owner didn't want that. Truth is though, it's looking like this whole thing might have grown so big that nobody could keep a cap on it. Let's hope, for the sake of those two young people, the bereaved, the safety of other tourists, and us all, Thai or farang in the future, and for Thailand.

I think a lot of thanks must go to the Western media for keeping up the pressure, though Thai media has also played a strong part. That said, I'm only talking of keeping up the pressure, to the extent that there's been some horribly inaccurate reporting.

So these are the suspects, likely to be arrested for murder ........ but there's no DNA fit.

I guess the story must be that after all the ya ba and alcohol they were too exhausted to commit rape as well as murder, so brought in some third parties for that aspect of the crime. By some amazing intervention, of course, those third parties aren't guilty of rape, never mind murder.

This story is getting more ridiculous by the moment. Who is being covered for?

Who knows the truth of what McAnna is saying. It's logical. His suicide could have produced early closure. Equally, his timelines seem wrong. At face value, they were discussing the murder, before anybody knew about a murder.

The media have talked about a wall of silence on Koh Tao, meaning a Thai wall of silence. I'm minded to believe that there's a foreigner wall of silence, too. Nobody seems to know anything. Why did David Miller's friends want to leg it so quickly off Koh Tao, what do they know, if only of background events, that evening, or, indeed, per longer period of time, for instance that week. Were they, also, threatened by Thai Mafiosi, to keep quiet about every last detail?

As to Hannah Witheridge's friends, we have heard nothing. They must know her movements that week, that night, etc. Whether she had complained about having been "chatted", etc.

What of people in general staying in the same resort and/or frequenting the same bars?

There's a huge need for a competent police force to follow up all the foreigners, who, maybe, have their own wall of silence, their own fearfulness, as well as Thais.

The saddest part of TAT's statement is that they may, actually, believe it.

Thais have an unshakeable belief that Thais and Thailand are the world's best; and that tourists share those unshakeable beliefs.

Thais are not well-travelled people and don't try to be. That includes the highest echelons of the tourist industry and, in all probability, Government, too. Do they have the comparatives? Do they try to have the comparatives? In simple terms how many have, for instance, seen the white sugar sand beaches of Anguilla? Why bother? Thai is best.

That arrogance will be Thailand's downfall.

Equally, though, there's an issue, that happens to us all, that isn't in any way wilful. Thailand has changed dramatically, but how many notice that when they're living in the country, with that change proceeding incrementally, little-by -little, day-by-day. It's just like us trying to assess the decorations in our home. The outsider could say, immediately, "that wall could do with a lick of paint". We just hadn't noticed.

Which is exactly the point with TAT. It needs to be more professional. In needs to do proper competitor analysis, including using a bit of foot leather to do it. It needs outsiders at the highest levels of its management.

Big surprise!

What is perhaps a bigger surprise is where this scientific expertise suddenly came from in Thailand.

Out of it's thoroughness, though, comes something unsurprising. Noting the point about mongoloid, Thai police are now hunting for an eskimo, possibly three eskimos.

Major breakthrough. With the evidence of the shorts, this case is now simple. Thai Police are now looking for a man of Asian appearance who carries safety pins ..........

I hope I'm not being racist, but the more evidence we hear, the more this speaks "gang" to me, meaning Thai gang.

How many Thai gangs can there be on such a small island?

How many non-Thai gangs? Oh yeh, we can all guess that one, so ......

What is required is the willingness to believe this could be Thais, followed by a willingness not to be bribed, if it's proven or has been proven that these are members of one of the island's "Big" families. My guess is people are being sheltered. However, others, including other "Bigs" might become less than happy, willing to reveal, if it's felt that the island's tourism is finished. I'm not sure that's true, but it's certainly the message that should be put out. Totally finished, finished to the degree that will affect the "Bigs", as well as the "smalls". The only worry is that scapegoats will be found by either the Police or "Community", to clear the thing up. Truthfully, how cleared it will ever be in the terms that Thai tourism will be effected (which is all that Thailand really cares about) is a moot point. On overall tourism, there will probably be little effect. On "hedonistic" island tourism, there may be a little more. For Koh Tao, whilst, truthfully, it won't be finished, things won't be too good, at least for a time.

Somehow (yes, I've no idea how), forget the face thing. Ask for the help of Scotland Yard. You are, clearly, out of your depth.

Simple. The blood was over him because of his attempted suicide. Then he succeeded in his next suicide attempt from the Nana 5th floor.

"Treating people like mushrooms". Keeping them in the dark on a bed of sh_t?

Whereas, I wouldn't go any great distance trying to defend the Thai educational system, I dislike how the debate is focused entirely on systemic failure. What of the role of the home, meaning what of the raw material that those schools have to deal with these days?

In fact, if the debate has looked beyond the education system, it has looked to Thai culture, particularly unquestioning reverence for elders. So, are we to believe that Thai parents are encouraging their youngsters toward drug and gang involvements, to carry knives, to early pregnancy? Surely, the point is that parental control is breaking down, indeed the family, in the traditional, two-parent, sense is breaking down. In fact, kids are often looked after by grandparents.

But they were only there having a drink.

Dictators currently and throughout global history have had policies. They action those policies, or have actioned them, through dictat.