Stargeezr

Wow! the TAT is actually revealing that Thailand may not get the big money this year!

That is about the first time I have seen a comment like this from the TAT.

I do hope that the present government and PM in Thailand are checking for themselves on

Thailand's condition, and I also hope that they will make it a bit easier for tourists and visitors

who come to Thailand yet. One suggestion is to make the visit to Thailand for three months

without needing a visa. Many countries are doing this now and it has improved their tourism numbers.

Just my humble suggestion. Not all of us Canadians are rich.

[:Chinese lady at airport washroom.jpg] Here is my real reply, three pictures, of 1. cute lady with sign. 2. Chinese lady changing clothes,

3. Offended lady who took the picture, oops a bit old, yes!

I am shocked that a Thai woman would be shocked by another woman

in the Ladies washroom changing her clothes. This woman must have been an

older person over 50 years old. The one taking the picture I mean.

I was in a bar called Lollipop several years ago and the dancers used to come

into the men's bathroom to put their clothes back on after a performance,

it was quite the experience. In these days and age I would be shocked

not to see someone in an airport washroom changing their clothes.

Maybe it is time for the Thai women to realize that the world around them

is changing. Too bad the picure was not a frontal one, it would have been much

more pleasant to view.

Just my old guy opinion of course.

I viewed this ad and What I think of it is.

1. It is no Hollywood production, and I did like the scenery in the background,

even though the Fairy tail story plot was the creepy part, and not so much

as a stalker movie plot to me. I had a friend who searched for a Thai lady that he chatted

with on line but was never able to find her, so at least the guy in this ad

maybe found the person who made the Love en route stuff, but as I say, it is

only a fairy tale advertisement, and the truth is actually quite different!

2. Because it was a Thai production, maybe the person who produced this

film and the director, think in a different manner than the western

people who are commenting on it in this forum.

3. It was refreshing to see parts of Thailand that I have not been to yet, and

now I realize that I have not seen all of Thailand yet as well.

Stargeezeer

I am glad to read that Ceres will get a close up look from the space probe Dawn. Did you all know that in the IAU or International Astronomical Union, the status change of Pluto our ninth planet, was brought about by less than 500 people of the IAU, who were at a meeting with about 2500 other members. It was near the end of this meeting that the 500 voted on the reclassification of Pluto. The IAU has nearly 10,000 members, and as I understand it this union is people from around the planet, so I would have thought it was sort of a democratic style of a body, and yet less than 20 percent of this group did the vote in 2006 to change Pluto from Planet to a dwarf planet.

Did you also know that the planet Jupiter has debris in front of it , in its orbit and another bunch of debris following the planet in its orbit. The debris is conveniently called Trojan asteroids, but is just big pieces of debris. This is one of the reasons for Pluto's status change. Another reason is that Pluto may be a KBO, or Kuiper Belt Object, and so what! However the KBO reason exists because there are more objects in the Kuiper belt region, like the dwarf planet Eris which is thought to be maybe as big as Pluto even though Eirs is 3 times further from the sun, and certainly harder to observe, as well another faint object 1992 QB1 orbits about the furthest of Pluto's orbit was discovered in mid 1992.

I am not saying that Pluto is not different from the other planets, but it has always bothered me in the manner that Pluto was changed to dwarf planet status. I am still not convinced that this change to Pluto was necessary, and I guess I will always feel this way. Just my humble Farange, amateur astronomer opinion of course

Stargeezer

Great to see another creep get captured.

I hope he loses all of his money and land and houses etc, before

being hung, or some other suitable punishment is

dealt out.

This is a good news story!

It is a shame how an oil spill can affect the area for so long, and seeing the other post of

the Mea Rumphueng beach with all the plactic bags and other garbage is sad as well,

I guess it is not a tourist beach where the local clean it up for others.

I was always impressed when I visited Kata beach in Phuket, as a group of people would

clean the beach almost every day, when they seen plastic bags or other items, it was

cleaned right up. I seen a filthy beach in Fiji years ago and I asked the hotel manager,

why it was like that when us tourists paid so much money to his hotel for staying there,

and they could not make an effort to keep their beach in good shape. The next day I seen a crew

of hotel staff and locals using garbage bags and scoops, and after that the beach was

a lot nicer to be around. I found out later that the guy standing next to me at the lobby counter, was one

of the hotel owners, and he did not know how bad the beach was, so when he took a look,

he was also disgusted and got the beach cleaned.

In addition to my last post, I wanted to say that on my first tour in
the southern part of China, the locals at the farmers style markets would
try to knock me down, and my Thai relatives said that was so they could get my wallet
and belt or what ever they were after. I stayed close to my Thai family during that trip
and I was pretty disgusted with the bathrooms along the highways. I will include some
pictures of what the highway toilets were like as well as a couple of hotel toilets
were like. In Thailand at my brother in laws house they have the old style
toilets and new ones, western style, pictures included.
I also noticed that a lot of people in China smoke and are not very clean in
how they get rid of the butts after. I seen that a lot of them also spit everywhere
even inside of the restaurants, and public places. I think that even though China
is a very old country, it still has many people to civilize, and teach how to behave
when they are in public, or travelling abroad. I can say the same for a few American I have seen in various parts of the world as well as some Mexicans. I know lots of
Canadians who could improve their behaviour and habits, including some of my relatives,
I have some kin who live in B.C., in God's country and they tend to forget they
are not on the farm and are quite embarrassing to be around.

Just Saying!

I am glad to see the owner of the White Temple has a great sense of humour, as I visited his wonderful

temple not long before the earthquake. This is one place that I will go back to visit again in the future.

I have been in China for 3 tours now, and one thing to note, is Do Not stop at a highway restroom,

unless you absolutely have to! It was like being in a human pig pen for the smell, an open room with a trough

along the outer wall to urinate, and holes in the floor along one side to crap in, pretty disgusting.

I hope the country of China will improve its restroom facilities in the future. I also hope the

country of China will educate the people there who plan on venturing outside of China as tourists.

Instructions should include, no public spitting, no littering, no tossing your cigarette butts everywhere,

be polite to those around you, and maybe read some Thai phrase books and culture books, and

remember that you are not in China so behave yourself! Actually these instructions could be

used for all tourists anywhere in the world, and it would be better for those around them.

I feel very sorry for the families and friends of this poor Burmese man and the Burmese woman who was also killed.

These young people dying so early is life is very tragic, not matter where they were working at when they died.

I hope the guilty parties are caught and get to spend a long time in jail for their crimes.

RIP.

Stargeezer

I hope that the people of the southern parts of Thailand consider themselves as Thais first, and what ever

religion they are as a secondary matter. The so call insurgents, are really traitors to Thailand, as they

kill whoever they think is against them. It is time for these people to get out of Thailand and go somewhere

else, as they are not doing anybody living in that part of the country any favors.

The Muslim people of Thailand had better decide what they actually want in life. Do they want to be Thai people

who live in Thailand, or do they want to be outcasts who should live somewhere else.

There will come a time in Thailand where Muslim Thais will have to make this choice.

I have Muslim Thai relatives in Thailand and even they will not travel past Hat Yai , because they fear for

their lives, as much as my Buddhist relatives. That is a sad situation for everyone and it is

time the people in southern Thailand stand up for Thailand and not for these insurgents that are causing the trouble.

My Farang opinion of course.

I am glad to see Bangkok getting cleaned up. I didn't mind seeing the vendors along the street or in some of the vacant

lots that exist in many places in the city if there is room for them and the pedestrians. There are ways of having market places, and otherwise a better controlled sidewalk situation in Bangkok, that would be a lot nicer for the residents and guests alike.

I would not miss all the clutter that exists today, Don't forget that there are more and more handicapped

people who live in Thailand and visit Thailand and they certainly would like to have more room to get around in the city as well. This is a reminder for those of you who are either young and fit, or at least still in good health and

can walk around.

Stargeezer

Good luck to everyone involved with this case. I hope the judges all make a

good decision and give Ms. Yingluck what she deserves.

I believe that it would not be a bad thing for the Shinawatra family to

stay out of politics for 10 years. Thailand should be able to survive without

their influence quite well, actually! It would be nice if the names of Yingluck and Thaksin

just become regular names in the Thai community again, and not names

associated with anything political.

I have no problem renting an umbrella and beach lounge for 200 baht per day, as that is only about $7 US.

When I was at Kata beach a few years back the price was 150baht, and I came and went and

always got a lounger and umbrella, at no charge for the whole day. I have occasionally went to another beach with my towel and even there I was able to get a umbrella and a chair and small table for 100baht, I do not

see the big protest, except if I was an expat living at Phuket and wanted to go somewhere with a

beach towel and toys for the kids, I would hope to be able to do that without being harassed. Otherwise

this story seems to be a bit much.

Maybe Mr. Thaksin could be considered an outsider, who could get back

in power from abroad, just my musings on this subject.

I hope that Ukraine will get oil from the Middle East and other countries, and totally

forget about Russia. If Europe and the Ukraine stop buying the oil from Russia, plus with

the sanctions against Russia, I think that the Russian currency will keep dropping, and

the people will eventually realize that Mr. Putin, their big leader is at fault for all of

their woes, and not the Bad , bad western countries in the world.

Get out of Ukraine, Mr. Putin, and take your supposed pro- Russian military with

you back to Russia! Nobody is being fooled to believe that there is only Ukrainians in

eastern Ukraine and the Crimean area, Way too much military weapons and people

to be only Ukrainians fighting other Ukrainians. I just wished the USA and other countries

would call it like it really is. I believe that there are many Russian military personal

fighting in the Eastern part of Ukraine, and I do not believe for one minute what Mr. Putin

says publically. Just my Western, Farang opinion of course.

I am happy to see the canals getting cleared for transportation, and if the houses along them

were illegal, then the people getting evicted, will have to move to an approved area of land and

rebuild. If the people were able to buy the land where their houses were built, then

the officials that sold them the land should be found out and have to help relocate these

people. It seems that the present government is still trying to improve Bangkok, and to affect the

past corruption that has existed for so long. As another commenter said, the canals help with

the flood problems as well and this seems to be a good way to help fix the flooding situation.

Of course there will be those who hate the current government and will complain and

whine about this situation. Too bad for them, and sorry but Ms. Yingluck, and Mr. Thaksin are

both busy with their own troubles, and likely will not be able to help in any way!

I was glad to see that Yingluck's name was not on this article.

I hope that her and her family have to spend lots of their own personal money

from now on, and not the money of the Thailand people. I guess that is what her

brother is also doing, where ever he is living.

It would not make me sad at all, to see the family of Ms. Yingluck and Thaksin, have to

live on their own fortunes.

I am surprised that there are still people who think that these two former PM's were

good for Thailand. I heard all about them from my Thailand family over the years

and I am convinced that Thailand will be better, not to be ruled by them, or any of their family

members, or course this is only my Farang opinion.

I do hope the staff are talked to privately to see what exactly happened, I am willing to bet that

this Top Official did indeed do this silly action. Maybe he watched the Asian lady who's daddy owns an airline, throwing her power around and wanted to try the same method. It is shameful that some people

who have some authority, go ahead and abuse it.

I do hope that his superiors, or the Government leaders, give him a nice departure from his position.

Chok Dee! to that.

Good Luck to who ever wins the election in Britain.

I hope that who ever wins, will cancel the passports of the three school

girls who went to Syria. Anyone who willingly goes to fight for ISIS, or goes to marry one of these terrorists,

deserves to lose their citizenship of what ever country they are from.

It looks like these British school girls are likely immigrants from some other country

and if so, they do not deserve to be considered to be British any more.

Of course this is just my own humble opinion, but I feel the same way, if someone from

Canada leaves and goes to fight for any terrorist organization, they also deserve to

lose their Canadian citizenship, and of course their passport.

The F16 fighter jet is a single engine aircraft. When the engine quits or

has to be shut down, the aircraft goes down quickly as the wings are small.

This pilot did what he could and it is sad that he was killed in the crash.

For Daniel Ingalls, are you a pilot or an aviation expert?

I think your comments are wrong, and heartless. It does not matter how much

this aircraft is worth, and unless you have flown in an F16, you have no idea

how hard it is to crash in one, let alone just to fly it.

Stargeezer

It is nice to see cheaper rates to Phuket from BKK, less than $100 US, is very cheap.

I like flying to Phuket from BKK as it is much less time, than by bus or train.

I also enjoy the service aboard the Thai airlines, as they are much better, than

the service in USA or Canada. Plus in USA and Canada, you have to pay for even your first piece of luggage, that you

are checking in. Only carry on baggage allowed in our countries, as our airlines are so greedy!

It is shame full that our airlines have become so corrupt and greedy, but that is the way it is!

Stargeezer

TAT of Phuket, I don't get it. Your new signs are hideous, and ugly!

Way too much information, and why not just clean up the beaches, get rid of all the

corrupt people who were ripping off the tourists, then eventually

draft beach signs for all over Thailand that are informative, but not so

complicated and UGLY! For now, as a tourist, I will go to Hua Hin, and Jomtien beach near

Pattaya, and other places that I can enjoy, I have not been too impressed with Phuket, during my last two

visits, as the prices were too high, and the beach scene seemed to be to be getting

less enjoyable.

Stargeezer

I remembered that there used to be a death penalty for some drug

offences, did that all end?

I am glad that the police got this guy, and the drugs and weapons, I hope

that this criminal at least gets lots of years in the Thailand drug prison.