Stargeezr

I flew BKK to Singapore, not much for frills, but friendly staff.. Short flight, no problem!

Some fussy people wanted premium service for a cheap price, but I told one to get

real. They were going there to gamble, and just were greedy as well as cheap shots.

I can still fly from Phuket to Australia on Virgin, or other airlines, so just not

directly to Perth, so what!

It would be nice for everyone if this is indeed a piece from the B777. I hope that there is more

debris found soon, if that is the case, and that the families affected by this tragedy can finally

get some closure.

I wondered just how much more expensive it is to live in Phuket, but just from

the increase in hotels, motels, restaurants and such, I think it is a lot more expensive to

live in Phuket. I also have some relatives that are in the police force, and they do not get

a huge pay check for the work that they do. The pay is better if you are a tourist police

member, or special guard, but unlike a lot of countries like Australia, Briton, USA, or Canada,

most Asian police forces are vastly under paid. I hope the solution is good for the police members,

and not just for some rich people who want to move to Phuket.

Good to see more Thailand politics. I thought it was starting to fade a bit, but

I see that something is at least starting up again. Ewwww, and it looks like the Red shirt guy is

all miffed by this, and some of his followers as well.

I guess trying to get a country to become more democratic, takes a few tries.

Good Luck Thailand voters and citizens, please just do not be bought off

for your votes as you have been in the past.

Being democratic, means that you vote for who will be best to try run the country of

Thailand and help out the people of the country. It does not mean getting a few thousand baht to

vote in the richest person who wants to have the power of being in charge of

the majority vote.

If Thailand get 3 working, newish submarines, then it will be 3 submarines better off than Canada.

Our country bought some British trash. Four submarines purchased, in which 3 were brought to Canada

in floating dry dock ships, and the one that tried to get to Canada under power, had to be towed part way.

It is a pathetic chapter for Canada, and we still have no submarines that can effectively protect our country.

If Thailand has effective navy and marine ships, then again Thailand is much better off than Canada.

Canada has some Frigates, and a few other vessels, but we retired our support ship and cannot even

fuel up or supply our navy. It is shameful.

Basically I do agree that most countries would be better served to have more surface ships, and aircraft

to defend their country. I guess if we ever had a large war, then some extra subs, may come in handy,

but they are very expensive and limited in what they can do.

I just hope that I can get to the end of my life without seeing the start of Armageddon.

If Scotland does eventually break away from England, I do hope that the people there realize that their lives

will be vastly changed, and not all in a good way. Unless Scotland has the oil revenues, from their land and seas,

they have a lot less population than England does. Does Scotland have their own banks, Military, as well

as lots of other industry to keep them employed and fairly well off?

I wanted to see Quebec separate from Canada on its second try, because on the news I also seen

a lot of military exercises just south of the Canadian border, which made me realize that the

Country of Quebec would have lasted a few days or so, then become part of another country.

There are still some people in the province of Quebec, who think that they want to separate,

from Canada, but in their case, they had better all get the blessings from the USA before they leave.

In the 70s we used to ride in the back of our pickup truck in western Canada, but the laws changed, darn.

I used to ride in the back of our farm truck which was a 1 ton with a big box and 4 foot walls,

it was great as I could see the scenery, but also take a nap if it was a long ride. Now we have to all

be in our seats with seat belts, and child seats if the passenger is very young, 0.1 to 3 or 4 years old.

The world does change, but I am glad that I experienced the good old days with more freedoms

and challenges. RIP to the unfortunate fellow who died.

I wished that the Thai Air representatives, would take this opportunity to come

to Calgary Alberta, Canada, and start a new route from Bangkok to Calgary and return.

We could use some good competition for our Air Canada airline. I have always enjoyed

the great Thai Air service in the past and would certainly fly on Thai Air in the

future, if only it would fly to our city.

When I read about the Islam teachings and their beliefs of their religion versus other

religions in the world, I now realize that we will never see peace, as we had

20 years ago or more. This Muslim religion does not seem to know about forgiveness, if you are

not a Muslim, and even then, the ISIL group are showing us that they do not even

forgive other Muslims. I have relatives who are modern Muslims and are not at

all fundamental in their beliefs, and they have told me how much they fear ISIL and

Islamic terrorists. It makes me think that all we will see in the world with these

groups in existence, is more war. Sad state of affairs indeed.

I still think that the third world war will begin somewhere in the Middle East.

If Iran does get the bomb, it will be that much closer to the end.

If any terrorist group such as ISL ever get hold of a bomb, be it a suitcase

bomb or not, the world will see it used, as these animals do not care what they

do to get their own piece of property so that they can expand to rule their world.

I am just glad that I have lived to be a senior citizen, and if the end happens

well I guess, it happens, and I hope that I am on a beach somewhere enjoying

a cool drink when it does.

I am sorry that the tourists got injured in this accident. When I travelled on a VIP
bus from BKK to Phuket, I did see the driver take a pill with his energy drink, and I wondered if
it was to keep awake, and if there were any other side affects. I feel fortunate that I have
travelled as much as I have around Thailand without ending up in some sort of crash.
Taking those mini vans from BKK to Hua Hin, are enough thrills for me.

It is too bad that the Thailand Baht is still too high and it should be lowered to its real value.

I hope that Thailand does clean up its human trafficking problems, and other corruption that still

flourishes in parts of the country.

I still enjoy visiting Thailand and other parts of Asia so I hope I can continue to afford to travel there

in the future. For now though the baht is 26 baht to Canadian dollar, and that is not an honest

amount, but I guess it is in the eye of the Thai government. I will wait until it improves before I go to Thailand

again.

Russia has a basement economy, the Chinese economy is headed toward the basement,

USA says their economy is better with the fracking of oil stuff, but how long will that last, and if you seen the

USA housing situation, it has not improved much at all. Canada is now in a recession, I am not sure how Australia and

the southern countries are doing, but I suspect they are not in much better shape on the whole. TAT in Thailand

may say that times are good, but I have friends that live there full time and I have heard otherwise from

all over the country. Good luck TAT, but I think the will come out one day soon, it will be less rosy than

your latest story. I think that the Chinese, Japanese and other nearby countries will still come to Thailand

because it is cheap, and has nice beaches, good golfing, and better bargain in the malls and street vendors

than in China or Japan. I went to China on 2 tours and was surprised how much I paid for things made in

China, when I could get the same product cheaper in Thailand.

My wife is an educated former Thai woman, and she has a heart of gold, she is a hard worker and

very much a family oriented person. One thing that I have learned over the years though is that

a lot of the Thai/Canadian women that I have met, are pretty much just that. They are Thai women first

and Canadian women second. That means that they keep their Thai ways, their Thai thoughts, of

the family hierarchy etc., as in Older members of family get respect whether they deserve it or not,

Farang husbands get the respect as a farang member of the family, which is down a few notches

from the top, and that is why we are handymen, or the financial person, etc. I am a bit jaded now, and though

I have enjoy several years of a marriage, I feel some days, that it was not worth the emotional

feelings that I have today. It does not matter what part of the world that people are from, what matters

is if the marriage to these people is happy or not.

For me it is , : Lesson learned, time to move on.

The picture is from the down river side of the dam, where the hydro station railways
and roads and even look at the trees on the edge of the dam are located.
The other side probable looks pretty bad if the water level is so low.
It would have been nice to see a shot of two of the situation, but I guess we will have to wait
until someone with a camera will take a few pictures for the rest of us to see.
here are a few pictures of the Hoover dam in the USA, see the bath tub ring from
the lower water levels.

The catch words are the area was in Craggy forested mountains.

The mountains in this area do not all have cell towers that cover the whole area, hence no signal for

a smart phone or a plain dumb old fashioned cell phone that does not have much for

a GPS. Go to the USA or Canada and spend some time in the west at the mountains and you will see that for yourself!

As for the GPS getting a satellite signal, fine, but try walking for 2 days and see how far you may have gone from

your wreckage, or crash site.

I am glad that the girl survived, and it does not sound very assuring for her grand parents.

Basically none of us were there, where this girl was and being an armchair expert

is not getting any useful information out as well. I hope the searchers can find the crash site soon.

We had a big storm where I live in Canada.

A community east of the city got flooded, (picture included)

This community has a lake in its midst and the houses that are located near the lake,

and that are just 1/2 a meter higher than the level of the water in the lake, were in a

bad situation. You see people in Canada like to have a basement which is 8 to 10 feet

or 2.4 to 3.5 meters blow the level of the main floor in the house. These basements are below the lake level,

and when the storms go through and the water pipes can not keep up, these houses get their basements

flooded with water, as well as sewage. Bad situation indeed. This is a good reason not to have a

basement under your house when you live at or below the water level in a lake next door.

I am glad that my Thai family in Bangkok and other places in Thailand are smart enough to no

have houses with floodable basements. I have been in a few places in Thailand when the rain

is occurring and it does not take long to see a foot or 1/3 of a meter of water accumulate on the ground.

Having a few storage barrels, or those clay containers around your property

can help a tiny bit. At least if you have a few plants, you can water them for a week

or two before they go brown like the lawns. In Bangkok where my relatives life, they mostly live in

Condo style housing and have only roof top plants on their property, with storage containers

for watering the plants.

People that have actual houses in Bangkok and area should have at least a few storage

containers to get them through the droughts. I know that this does not help them with

their crops, but that is always the risk of being a grain or rice farmer.

Certainly , proper water management can help, and I hope the drought situation is not

too long lasting.

Oops I guess 20,000 baht is only $666 US, and I sometimes have almost that amount

with me in nice shoes, designers sandals, and my real leather man purse and

razor, etc. Maybe I have to go back to my backpacking days and only bring about 200 to 300

dollars worth of stuff, the next time I travel to Thailand.

Only the rich people would have a problem with bringing in 20,000 baht in belongings, as

us tourists usually bring in a suitcase full of summer clothes, and swimming suits.

We may have an extra pair of sandals or shoes, but really 6,600 US worth of anything

is a lot of stuff to lugging around on our holidays.

My concern would be about how much money I am allowed to bring into Thailand to spend while I

am there on vacation. I guess with credit cards, travellers checks, and bank drafts I can

get by with that situation. Too bad it is so hard to get a bank account and ATM card when I am in Thailand.

Stargeezer

I hope the weather man's predictions were on the underside of the real situation, I think

Bangkok and Thailand need more rain than is predicted. Maybe this fellow should have predicted

that Pluto was going to have a flyby today with the New Horizons space probe, and that many great

images and pictures will be taken.

Our little 9th planet needs all the publicity that it can get, because there was about 500 members of

the IAU's 10,000 members decided to change the status of Pluto away from being a planet.

More than a billion people on earth as well as myself never got our chance to have a say in the status of

our ninth planet, and I think that the little planet deserves at least a majority vote of not only the members of the IAU

or International Astronomical Union, and maybe a majority of the people on earth who are, amateur astronomers

and such as well.

Good luck with the drought Thailand, I hope the rains come to the places that need it, and the

situation is improved soon.

I agree with the comment that says, if the canals are dry in these areas that need the

water, this would be prime time to take equipment and deepen these canals so they will hold more water in

the future and be more useful to the people.

I hope the government and agencies are able to help out the drought stricken areas with water trucks

and such for now. This drought seems unusually long, and people affected should use this

opportunity to deepen their holding ponds, local lakes or reservoirs as well as the canals, if these areas are now dry

and could be deepened with the proper equipment such as Cats, Graders, Dozers, Dredging cranes,

etc.

Just my 2 cent suggestion.

Neat photo, where even the photographer is in the picture!

I wonder who will take over this family business?

RIP to the owner, 62 is not that old, maybe at 82 okay

then by then a life would be considered well lived.

Halloween. The problem is that the western societies, do not want to be as

barbaric as the ISIL and other terrorist groups are. Another problems is that many

millions were spent in the last several years in that general area, and USA, Canada or some

others countries, do not,

want to waste more millions, without some good results. These terror groups

could be weakened from within, but that would have to be done in a

sort of barbaric manner, so I guess that won't happen, and so the old

bombing, and shooting campaign will have to keep on being the only way

to combat them. We have people in the world who still think that we should

somehow negotiate with these terrorist groups. I tell these people to buy a one way

ticket to Turkey or somewhere close and go negotiate until the cows come home,

or until their headless bodies are all sent back to North America.

I have to agree with my friend who lives in Thailand, as he watches

the Chinese tourists when they are in his area of Thailand. He has observed

their behavior, and says the Chinese pamphlets are helpful, but wished that

China would have given their outbound people these pamphlets while they were

in China. The groups that my friends observed, tend not to shop in many places

that they travel to, so it seems that maybe only a few business and hotels

are benefiting from their visits. I guess Thailand's TAT should do a long

survey and then tell the truth of the survey findings, Poot Jing Jing!

For now Thailand should be happy to get whatever tourists that they can.

I doubt that many people from Greece, or even all that many from Russia

will be visiting Thailand any time soon. What I noticed during my last

visit was that there were not many people from Spain and Italy in

Thailand last year. Has anyone noticed that as well?