Spock

It's a bad idea if you have already paid for an insurance policy and get double hit through whatever means Thailand uses to raise the money for local insurance.

Really? I took out a comprehensive policy last year with an extra motorbike coverage which cost me $500 Australian for 30 days in Thailand. This is at least two times more expensive than pre-covid. I could have got cheaper, but not much more so. You got a very cheap policy. For me, travel insurance is now a significant cost in any trip OS. It's getting ridiculously expensive.

What lousy coverage. 20000 - 80000 baht maximums is not going to pay for much in a serious accident. And I would be suspicious of any policy in which baht is misspelt as 'bath'.

Or do as I did and pay extra for motorbike coverage. My Thai friend did all the driving so my coverage was just for riding as a passenger. And if you are going to ride a motorbike you make sure all bases are covered in terms of alcohol, helmet and clothing. This poor guy couldn't have had worse luck if he had wanted.

Up north last year, the rental shops all had multiple helmets from which to select. My Thai friend and I felt a bit stupid bringing them from Bangkok.

I pay the extra on my insurance then wear helmet, jeans and shoes as a pillion passenger. I make sure the rider and bike are legal. My Thai friend always wears a decent helmet and clothes despite being relatively poor. It's not that hard or expensive to protect yourself. Motorbike accidents strike young and old alike - but probably, particularly the young and naïve,

Well he should make clear whether he is comparing like to like or his claim is meaningless.

I am from Melbourne and find it very hard to believe that rent there is only 25% more than in Bangkok. If that's an indication of where prices and the cost of living are at in Thailand, I will be staying home this year.

Chinese people are anything but quiet.

You can do as I do and pay extra for motor bike coverage. You need a licence or be a passenger with a licenced driver, as well as wearing a helmet and being on a registered bike. If the woman did not have a bike licence, I cannot see how she expected to be covered.

As a Melbournite who regularly uses Thai Airways on this route, I would like to know what happened to the Melbourne bound passengers once the plane was diverted to Sydney. Were they looked after by the airline at Sydney airport? Were they flown on to Melbourne at no additional expense? The treatment I received as a passenger after the diversion is what would be uppermost in my mind when determining my feelings about the action of the pilot and the airline.

I read that and did not take it as conclusive proof that the incident occurred during those years. It is implied that it occurred while he was teaching in those years, and I guess that is what is meant to be the case, but the wording was ambiguous.

Doesn't actually say it occurred 10 years ago - 'many years ago'.

Thailand doesn't let morality get in the way of maximizing tourist numbers, hence the Thai PM's visit to Russia when just about every other world leader was avoiding having anything to do with the country and its inhabitants. I am just glad Russians chose the place I least like in Thailand, Phuket, as their destination of choice.

I always come in the rainy season June - August. I like not having to compete for accommodation and transport options and room prices are more competitive. Depends too on what you want to do in Thailand. I want to escape Melbourne winters so off season suits. But I think it would be unfair to ignore Australians for 90 day visas while giving them to tourists from just about every other country that visits Thailand.

It would be nice if Australians were included too.

True. He would be much worse off in a western prison.

They don't generally take action against teachers. I think that is very well known. In the west, everyone of the 35 parents would have taken action, whereas only one in this instance went to the police. Speaks for itself.

I am not so sure that travel insurance would cover something like this as he is working as a volunteer, and surely you'd need special cover for bear feeding activities and injuries?

You ever stopped to think it was nothing personal and motivated solely by greed? That if the teenagers all had knives they came prepared? Why is your immediate thought that the Kuwait guy must have done something to provoke it?

Fat 'L's or 'Als' or 'Ells'? You sound like someone who has only ever hung around heavy Cheech and Chong type users as an abstainer. You also come across as the sort of straight guy I would avoid like the plague, a lecturing gym freak who knows little about the benefits and enjoyment of vaping, smoking or eating weed, someone from outside looking in and pretending to know more about the effects than they actually do. I would agree that teenagers should avoid use of marijuana AND alcohol because it adversely affects their study habits. However you exaggerate beyond reality the after effects of weed, particularly the morning hangovers, which are a bit of a nonsense, particularly compared to alcohol. Legalisation of recreational marijuana is common in a number of countries now. The kind of problems you attribute to alcohol could more easily be attributed to alcohol use.

I imagine the Thais will just as readily accept any decision in the next few weeks by the Constitutional court to dissolve the Move Forward Party for proposing reform to the lese majeste law. If so, it would seem kind of strange that the banning of the party that won the popular vote in the last election did not create a backlash of protest from the public. I wonder if the average Thai really cares much anymore about politics, or perhaps they have just had all enthusiasm for it sucked from them by the various machinations employed to maintain the same parties and individuals in power no matter who is deemed to have won an election.

You don't stop discussing politics or politicians simply because the conversation would not 'make an iota of difference' unless you are living in an authoritarian dictatorship. I suspect many Thais are guilty of avoiding the 'conversation, hence the country's often weird governments made up of coalitions that seem unrepresentative of the preferences expressed in the election results. You see the same attitude expressed in the apparent acceptance of injustice and corruption in the Red Bull affair too. In many respects I think Thai people get the politicians and governments they deserve. I think pardons and acquittals say more about the power of political opportunism and questionable alliances and practices than the worth of the individuals on whom they are bestowed.

I imagine Thaksin could play a role in implementing the dismantling of the recreational marijuana business. He has proved adept in the past at assembling squads of police to put drug dealers and users to the sword by their thousands. Where many think the legalisation horse has already bolted, Thaksin through injecting a substantial amount of fear into the situation will find a way to bypass the concerns of growers, sellers and users and halt the runaway beast in its tracks.

In 2 months travelling around Thailand last year, I did not smell marijuana more than once or twice, and that was from people smoking in weed shops. The law prohibits smoking in public, and from what I can see, that is observed.