madpat

Planet Earth to Major Tom your body is dead but your memories live on.

Thank you for everything Mr Bowie

Most comments are stupid beyond belief, there is no country left in this world where racism does not raise its ugly head and Europeans who " conquered" the majority of this planet in their land and riches grab.

Best way is for the Thais to disallow people without insurance cover, funny how folk can afford to fly here get lodgings and enjoy the cheap cost of living but are to fringing tight to get insurance

What a dork, How long has he been in the job ? beer gardens have been operating for years and all of a sudden this fella wants his name all over the media.

Walk down most streets in pattaya or Bangkok and you have girls advertising beer.

Or it could be a land grab moment close all beer gardens and the land becomes unused and hey my good friend you can build your condos here. Remember teh guy in Bkk who had false land ownership papers drawn up and the bulldozed all the bars and its only this year that they found he was guilty of fraud

Thailand must have the most slippery balconies in the world along with low railings,far too may Farangs have these unfortunate accidents and partners are usually hard to find

To the senior member who says our PM should look into this is he talking about Thai minister or that <deleted> up in No 10 who cant stop his own ministers fiddling and stealing from the British public. Cameron pent an absolute fortune of taxpayers money when he moved in is that any worse than stealing.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with the UK Government if you have money or property here and cannot keep a track of it tough sh%t, it dose not matter where you go in this mad bad world of ours someone will always try to steal from you, you just have to be alert.

Fair play to the Thai authorities for taking this step,if this was any western country we would all expect our governmeo the UK where it seems we have enough housing,enough medical facilities enough work and enough cash to take in loads of refugees who sadly are going to be mixed with terrorists using the same excuse

A nice retirement golden handshake from Sig S for the police chief. as for them selling them on its easy .

Get an independent ballistics firm to record the unique markings each gun makes when fired then if that gun is used in a crime the officer it was sold to initially would be held responsible unless he sold the gun with written official permission.

As for the other guns that the officers (allegedly) have they would not get the new gun until they returned the old one and if not ,,,,"Where is your weapon me old son"? no reasonable explanation "Bangkok Hilton" would have a vacancy i'm sure.

Brilliant journalism, he is a Finnish tourist,the rest are British thugs, he was sh"tfaced came back with a knife end of tourist he becomes criminal, Brits defend themselves because he is armed, so tough shit he asked for it, if it was the other way round my sentiments would be the same the Brit or whoever desrves whats coming. Personally I think he is lucky to be alive nothing but a <deleted>

Hahahahaha same same, bloody crooks no matter what colour shirts they wear.

Its obvious they are trying to force some of the smaller venues out of business to increase their share. My friend has closed his bar due to new restrictions therefore putting 5 or so girls out of work. Multiply this by the many closures already seen and you can only guess at the hardship this is causing for Thais working in bar/catering outlets.

If you are a regular visitor to thailand or a stayer you will be used to these closures for religious and Royal reasons and you just put up with them because you can always find somewhere for a drink.

If you are about to book a holiday and you see this indiscriminate curfew of course you are going to go elsewhere and probably never consider Thailand again as one comment says those that have had their fingers in the pie have made their cash so can absorb this easier, plus have inside knowledge to when it may end

Mankorndang I do not know where you have been hiding but as fr as Taxi Drivers worldwide carrying and loading bags you live in a dream.

I drive taxis part time and when i help folk with their bags they are so appreciative because they are not used to it, I do not do it for the tips but to provide a good service

NOW ON YOUR SIDE

As for the price of fuel a hell of a lot of taxis have gas now and you cannot put too many bags in the boot anyway so will they charge you for having a bag or 2 on the seat with you.

Ask for a meter ride and they look at you in horror, How much to Pattaya please ? 1500 Baht Mister, no toll,,, get to a toll and they turn around and ask you for toll when they act rsponsible so will customers

Well its just too bad,they knew they were breaking the law they most probably knew the penalty if caught. How other Governments feel they have the right to use diplomatic contact to pressure Governments from carrying out the penalties.

Too many times its westerners that scream its our country abide by our laws if you dont like it go back homes, funny how they dont like it when the shoe is on the other foot.

Think of the lives that may have been saved by finding this haul

If I was a Thai I would not worry to much about the relationship with the US, a country that has civil rights issues, poverty,deep in debt, illegal low paid workers, high murder rate and corrupt Government Officials, yes the "good ol US of A " has no right to criticise Thailand for its wrongs.

In reply to pPiPiff I am sure many of these vendors were given "official" bills of sale so protecting them from being kicked out once they had paid the relevant people their backhanders same same jetski scammers who get their backup from piad officers.

Thais unfortunately do not have the benefit of a western style education so once they are given then go ahead by an "Official" they arent going to pass up the chance of earning for themselves and thier families

I agree it is a part of growing up and in some way or other we have all done it he should not have been arrested but the idiots who make flippant remarks about it would not be so happy if it was their young daughter being spied on.

http://www.thaivisaservice.com/visa-rules

Hope this is helpful

The problem is that they are like the ostrich ,,,burying their heads in the sand to the real problems, do they think possible visitors to Thailand give a toss about statistics,do they think they cars about officials giving wrong numbers ?

The problem is that they never once during the unrest in Bangkok advertised or sent out information saying it was a localised problem and if you didnt stick your nose in all would be ok.

I also do not see any/much advertising on Western media showing the beauty of Thailand and how it is possible to get away and have a great time.

As for the Thais not liking foreigners can you blame them, their beaches are ruined their land is taken over to build huge condos and hotels and a lot of foreigners treat Thais like second class citizens, especially those in the service industries.

I lived in Spain for 5 years and saw the same huge investment in development, huge apartment blocks, hotels etc, a lot of it helped through planning by corrupt officials in local government, 1000's of acres of olive trees just happened to catch fire and get destroyed then the land was only good for development, now look at Spain absolutely swamped with unsellable apartments and villas.The Spanish hate most other Europeans because of the way their country has been spoilt for "bloody tourists"

As for the Russians they loved Spain for "investing" for quite a few years but then started moving to Thailand where the "investments" are plain to see.soon it will be another destination that is as cheap as Thailand once was.

All very well this guy going on about exploitation in Thailand, but why doesnt he go home to the UK where 1,000s of Eastern European,,,,Asian and others get exploited in sweatshops, fruit and veg picking and many other jobs.

He could go to the US where immigrants are used as slave labour in fruit picking, as maids ,gardeners in he houses of the rich after they have crossed the borders.

It is government officials who should be on trial as they know this is going on but do nothing about i because they are either to scared ,too lazy or have their fingers in the pie.

Hahahaha here go the yanks again, on a day of rememberence for those in the twin towers they decide they can bomb at will because 2 of their citizens got killed.

It was a disgusting act to behead these guys,,, but here goes another Iraq, and all those other countries that they have given money to rebels to arm themselves only years later to end up fighting those same rebels.

Look at Michael Moores film ,,,,,,Bowling for Colombine if you want to see facts of Yankeeee interference.

Furryman,

You do not have to show 800K in the bank you must show a combined amount of 800k from savings and income i.e pension or earnings

Hahahahaha good old US of Am Ambassadors and such like must not use their positions for private gain,,, tell all of them that were involved with Haliburton? making a fortune off the US for supplying the war effort in too many countries to mention oops allegedly

Wasnt that dipshit Bush involved in some murky doings ,,oh and Dick (Head) Cheney& Rumsfelt .

Mustnt get involved in charities people we are to busy trying to blow up innocent people its ok to drop bombs on people but not icy water get your priorities right.

Gung ho attitude must prevail.

Lets hope they do act on their words. They should also make sure that the police who act as mediators are that because a lot of the time the officer "just happens" to be in the vicinity.

I saw a bunch of Indians getting scammed the operators told them they would get an interpreter,lo and behold down comes an Indian national interprets for them and they end up paying.

As the group left I told them to split up and hang around and watched with glee as about 15 minutes they pulled the interpreter to one side after he came back for his backhander.from the scammers

So it shows you cannot trust anyone

Got to know a great Dutch guy on Sukhumvit in Bangkok who had a mobile bar, he offered to sell it to me and during our chat he told me he paid 3 different extortionists to stay in place and he reckoned it would have been more if it hadnt been for his Thai wife.

How much are these officials making?