Classic Ray

Saw Georgie Fame on his return from a US tour there from front row table with some mates, next to Colin Moynihan’s table and in front of DPM John Prescott and his “secretary”. During the performance Brian May wandered in with Anita Dobson and far from acting like VIPs they just stood to the side enjoying themselves. A night to remember

Because no room for scamming in an online system, used in so many other countries. People should realise if they paid 100 baht for an online ticket, the prize fund would be much larger in spite of the lottery operator’s expenses.

On the lam = on the run, ie not yet arrested.

My Government employed wife had a positive ATK followed by positive PCR. I had positive ATK and declined to go to hospital for fear of kidnap. We were both sent free medical pack next day and supplied with 3 free meals a day as we isolated with the kids. Our symptoms were moderate so no additional medical treatment required. i was impressed with the level of care, food ok not great, but better than forced to stay at hospital/hospitel and given a big bill.

Try and buy a genuine memory card on Lazada Thailand, all the ones I received are fake, had to buy from farang owned business in Pattaya eventually.

There are many salt farms there in coastal areas where seawater is evaporated to leave the salt. I don’t think they mine salt here.

Shocking! The puppets refusing to attend the theatre!

Part of the problem is red does not mean stop, if you are turning left, whereas in most countries red always means stop. They should install green or flashing amber filter arrows to authorise left turns, but no one will pay for that. plus zero enforcement by red light cameras allows people to ignore red lights.

Reenactment is only of use to assist in jogging peoples’ memories to catch offenders, or occasionally to clarify an offender’s involvement or their story. Here they are just showboating to try and convince people the RTP are doing something. The 50 audience are just horning in for credit, and doing this rather than doing their job.

I’m sure this is just the opening salvo to increase the eventual payday. If gambling was allowed here, I’d bet this will be overturned and everyone will be smiling.

I’d love to see it in Bangkok as they negotiate the potholes, queue up at the U turns, don’t wait for the red lights to go out, avoid the Soi dogs and the aunties on pedal cycles crossing the track to get to the somtam vendors stalls set up in the pit lane. Every other garage could be a massage parlour or beer bar for refreshment during the traffic jams, or drinks could be delivered directly to the drivers by Grab motorcycle. A few taxis would no doubt make their way onto the circuit and try and go the long way around before stopping in the middle of the track. And we all know which General would be waving the chequered flag!

The massive hole in that legislation is proving that someone imported the dog, as domestically bred dogs are allowed.

Someone I know joined the Immigration Police and her first uniform had three medal ribbons already attached. on a side note she and many of her colleagues are very attractive as are these ladies I knew in the U.K.

I am trying to deal with this remotely from Bangkok, so not easy to go to PEA in Chiang Mai. Just trying to gather ballpark figures eg basic connection charge plus cost per metre for poles and cable and cost of a transformer.

We own some land that is about 200 metres from the local power poles that were installed many years ago in preparation for a moo baan that was never built. Other households have already connected to these poles. Can anyone give me experience/cost of getting PEA to install poles, cable, transformer (if necessary) meter, for a 220volt 3 phase supply over this distance. A ball park figure is sufficient. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

The funding model is unsustainable without corruption. In US and UK, and now Singapore and Hong Kong, good living wages raised from effective local and national taxation are paid to police officers with control of corrupt behaviour. Police are not allowed to have business interests which conflict with their duties eg own bars and clubs. Because the only tax effectively collected in Thailand is VAT, there is not enough raised to fund public services like the police. They are encouraged to run as profit making enterprises to pay for even such basics as air conditioning in stations, uniforms and weapons, and many vehicles are self-funded. Consequently some of the money raised is diverted into officers’ pockets. The Immigration Police even partially fund officer’s salaries from the fines they impose. This also applies to the armed forces, education, national airline etc. Whilst this funding model remains, including purchase of entry and promotion, there will always be a cycle of debt. Time to effectively collect taxes, especially from large corporations, fund public services and crack down on corruption.

How much effort and cost would it take to put a fence with a locked gate around the pond? Less than the cost of the funerals and the heartache the parents will suffer.

At Chaing Wattana the bank letter can be up to 7 days old, the passbook update must be same day, plus they want a photocopy of it you can get at CW.

In the U.K. when I started driving/riding over 50 years ago, there was a general cultural acceptance of drink/driving, and little enforcement unless there was a collision/injury. But the rising tragedy of deaths caused by more and more drink/driving, no seat belts, no helmet laws, unsafe vehicle design forced the Government into action with the breathalyser law etc and it gradually changed by publicity, education and enforcement from acceptance of drink/driving to disgust and cultural change, with harsh penalties from the courts and the insurance companies who heavily penalise convicted drink/drivers. In Thailand I think there are several barriers to following this model. No enforcement, cultural acceptance of death, no education, no training, no sanctions by insurance companies, derisory sentences, corruption, and as mentioned above, it’s a vote loser. Expect next year to be as bad if not worse than this year.

I used to live near a restaurant/short term hotel off Ratchada frequented by older Thai men, visiting businessmen and their much younger Mia nois. Their business would plummet over 90% if this crackdown really took place, as would happen with every similar place throughout Thailand. Without tourists, the industry overall is really suffering, and I am sure there would be many seriously <deleted>-off owners who have invested millions of baht now seeing no chance of any return. This tells me it’s not going to happen.

Significant that five vehicles behind the truck were not able to stop in time. Most Thai drivers are afraid to leave stopping distance gaps in case someone overtakes them and jumps into the gap. They don’t realise they can just slow down and maintain the gap.

Appears no restriction at Bangkok Bank via Wise, I just transferred over that amount.

Congratulations to the team, maybe this can also be used to detect the sites of crop burning which poison the atmosphere every year especially in Northern Thailand but throughout many parts of Asia. Perhaps then pressure can be put on those responsible to eliminate it.

I cannot see the need for a system of pardons. Far better to release convicts on licence as is done in other countries. Then they are subject to monitoring and recall if they fail to behave themselves, deliver restitution etc as conditions for their release. Pardons should be reserved for those who have been wrongly convicted, not convicts who can resume their previous activities on release as though they never committed a crime.

I am concerned about the social and political effect of this disruption to the tourist industry and consequent job losses. Social unrest and rising crime rates caused by unemployment could destabilise the government and reduce their support base to zero as even their hi so supporters see their income streams diminish, let alone the military and police business owners. That could lead to a call for a new government based on running Thailand like a business, as was seen on a previous occasion. Great care needs to be taken to prevent civil unrest which could result, and the only way to do that is to urgently improve the economy and job opportunities for the mostly young people who are suffering.