Expat Girl

I am not sure if the response was to me, as you seem to have mixed in two responses into one quote nest, but i suspect it is.

Do you seriously think if the army had not stepped in there would have been resolution to the way the country was being managed, would the previous government have sat down and thrashed out a resolution, the in fighting between the various factions would have continued, more innocent deaths would have occurred, pretty much overnight this stopped. At some point someone needs to step in and quell all the fighting and political unrest that occurs.

History is there to be changed, and i don't see any reason why i should doubt that it will not happen, you cannot simply keep reverting back in time to past events to judge what is occurring today. Non of us can foresee what the overall intentions of the new government are, but i for one m willing to give them a chance and from what i have seen so far is a man determined to make change.

I still have not seen a good 'alternative' to what occurred, and your post still does not address this, the army is not going around killing people for peace, they are stopping the killing of people in the name of peace.

Yes, I do. IF all this country's army's hadn't 'stepped in' oh so many times, and the people of this country had been ALLOWED to DEVELOP democracy, as that which was fought for and won in the West. But they weren't. Do try to think of the bigger consequences of continually supressing dissent, in all it's forms.

Ohh come on, listen to yourself, if things were left as they were do you seriously believe they would have self rectified over time and not festered into more unrest and power struggles. To some effect they were suppressing the dissent of multiple factions as their actions were beginning to have an adverse affect on the common person. I agree suppressing common political dissent should be a no..no, as this is normal democratic behavior, but when it gets to the stage it did, then someone needs to make a decision to step in and stop the rot.

It is a long road ahead and non of us know if we will see a democratically elected government rule with the peoples interests truly at heart, but at the moment i do not see anything better, do you ?

I am not sure if the response was to me, as you seem to have mixed in two responses into one quote nest, but i suspect it is.

Do you seriously think if the army had not stepped in there would have been resolution to the way the country was being managed, would the previous government have sat down and thrashed out a resolution, the in fighting between the various factions would have continued, more innocent deaths would have occurred, pretty much overnight this stopped. At some point someone needs to step in and quell all the fighting and political unrest that occurs.

History is there to be changed, and i don't see any reason why i should doubt that it will not happen, you cannot simply keep reverting back in time to past events to judge what is occurring today. Non of us can foresee what the overall intentions of the new government are, but i for one m willing to give them a chance and from what i have seen so far is a man determined to make change.

I still have not seen a good 'alternative' to what occurred, and your post still does not address this, the army is not going around killing people for peace, they are stopping the killing of people in the name of peace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

Its not what we think of our current "hosts" (by gun) of Thailand .

But State departments , CIA , MI5, and Federal Police , world Governments , and libertarian historians .

Unfortunately , they dont share your love.

People in hostage situations sometimes empathise with their captives takers.

You might mean well.

have limited understanding.

But please don't call force - peace.

Thailand cannot decide its course.

The people are not deciding.

So let me ask again, what would you have done, would you have let things continue as they were, give me a viable alternative that would have stopped the unrest and from what i understand the deception and corruption of the previous government. I don't think the Stockholm syndrome has anything to do with this, that is more attributed to close quartered relationships, such as hostages and kidnapping. Actually it may be the Lima Syndrome, and as the army has developed sympathy for the people.

Again, what force, i do not see any military personal out there dictating what we do each day, no one is holding a gun to my head, yes they seized control of the country and by defacto any army doing this is seen as a show of force, no one is denying that but day to day life has not changed.

Again, i pose the question to you, what was the alternative.......

I am not sure if the response was to me, as you seem to have mixed in two responses into one quote nest, but i suspect it is.

Do you seriously think if the army had not stepped in there would have been resolution to the way the country was being managed, would the previous government have sat down and thrashed out a resolution, the in fighting between the various factions would have continued, more innocent deaths would have occurred, pretty much overnight this stopped. At some point someone needs to step in and quell all the fighting and political unrest that occurs.

History is there to be changed, and i don't see any reason why i should doubt that it will not happen, you cannot simply keep reverting back in time to past events to judge what is occurring today. Non of us can foresee what the overall intentions of the new government are, but i for one m willing to give them a chance and from what i have seen so far is a man determined to make change.

I still have not seen a good 'alternative' to what occurred, and your post still does not address this, the army is not going around killing people for peace, they are stopping the killing of people in the name of peace.

Wow, you lot are not going to give this guy a chance are you. One minute he is the bee's knee's for trying to clean up the city and beaches, next thing he receives a whole host of comments about pathetic things such as 'can he even speak English' or Thai's using knives and forks.... do you know you actually embarrass yourselves with these words, my advice to you is...clear off, head home where you may feel more comfortable with the leadership. or alternatively climb back into your holes and get on with your sorry little lives.....

Ahhh feel better for that.

You need to understand that it's unusual to like or love people who hold guns to your head figuratively speaking....be it a bank robber or coup leader taking over a nation .

It's largely , ( even after time) not universally approved by democratic nations.

If you feel this is harsh or unfair , well perhaps you might be in a small minority camp ?

A coup yes, a gun to our heads, no. I actually don't believe i am in the minority when it comes to the army taking control, the problem is the PM is under so much scrutiny that his every move causes a mass of knee jerk reactions. I am not for dictatorship or military rule, i am 100% for democracy, but look at the way the country was heading with the previous governments, what would you have suggested, was there an alternative, please let me know if there was. As the PM has said on numerous occasions, his tenure is temporary until the country stabilises and viable alternative are out there who can be democratically elected. Personally i can see the PM being in office for the next 2 years at least, and if he does a good job for the country, why not.

Wow, you lot are not going to give this guy a chance are you. One minute he is the bee's knee's for trying to clean up the city and beaches, next thing he receives a whole host of comments about pathetic things such as 'can he even speak English' or Thai's using knives and forks.... do you know you actually embarrass yourselves with these words, my advice to you is...clear off, head home where you may feel more comfortable with the leadership. or alternatively climb back into your holes and get on with your sorry little lives.....

Ahhh feel better for that.

Good on him for making this apology, never easy when you are in such a position of power.

No need for an enquiry as everyone knows the problem is with the State Railway of Thailand. It should be operated by BTS or similar private operator.

I don't disgree with that at all.

When you consider the "track record" (pun intended) of SRT, this news about the airport rail link should come as no surprise.

trainthennow.jpg

Their existing rolling stock gets the minimum amount of advance planning, maintenance and upgrading. The derailmants and accidents that happen with alarming frequency in this country indicate that the tracks themselves get the same level of attention.

There will be hell to pay if the airport link goes down for a year. Even though it may not be particularly effective for its airport purpose, I know of many Thais who have moved into the vicinities of the stations and rely on the "commuter" trains for transportation.

It is amazing that such a vital piece of urban infrastructure can become so neglected... or maybe not, because this is Amazing Thailand.

Agree with both of these comments, a private operator will have no doubt provided a greater level of maintenance given they have a lot more vested in making services run to keep revenue up, particularly if shareholders are involved.

Is the current operator, SRT, a subsidiary of the main SRT organisation, be interested to know if the Airport Train revenue is being fed into the normal passenger network to keep that up and running ?

I would love to get involved in these debates, but i have no idea what is going on now, information overload

I think there does need to be more regulation, as sometimes pedestrians cannot even walk on the sidewalks many places including by the Mochit BTS. That said, I like having the vendors, just think they need to have limits in place. Many places, between vendors on both sides of the sidewalk it can be hard to get from point A to point B.... My pet peeve though are the motorbikes using the sidewalks...

Completely agree and like you my pet hate is the motorcycles. Just near my office there is at least 3 motor cycle taxi ranks which use the pavements all the time, as though it is the road and they have the right of way. One of my Thai Engineers told me that if a motorcycle is behind then on the footpath, they will actually slow their walking speed (which is slow anyway) and stretch out a little to block the way, which they know frustrates the motorcycle taxi riders.

Sounds like you took on the task of ruining 2 lives... yours and hers...

You would kind of expect someone with a BA would have more sense! I guess not!

Why do you have to be so horrible???

My thoughts exactly !!

.

This murder did make it to international headlines.

Thailand certainly doesn't lack for grief producing events.

You seem not to read international news. It did make headlines. Fox news had in on the front page as did many other news organizations.

What media are you reading

Duck Dynasty News ?

What are you and several others talking about? Your ID indicates you're English - where does Watcharacters ever say DID NOT? He states clearly that this murder DID MAKE IT to Int'l headlines.

Agree, i was getting confused, thought i had missed something...

Some countries would take this as an attack on their citizens.

At some time, one country will finally say... enough is enough... Stop robbing and killing our people!

The only thing countries can do is warn their citizens.

Not sure if other UK citizens get them, have to register of course, but i received a GOV.UK alert detailing this crime. No real difference to the news though.

Hi OP

Firstly i think it is great that you are putting the kids education first, they will no doubt have some great opportunities ahead of them. As for finding a job here, i would expect it comes down to your determination and flexibility, which reading your post i think you have, given you are actual back studying, so you are heading in the right direction. I do think 'chance' or maybe 'unforeseen opportunities' come into it, more so you never know what is around the corner and you may have to seize the opportunity, no matter how big or small.

There are still opportunities here, most of the large overseas owned organisations still have a fair amount of foreign workers here, although i was speaking to my HR Manager here in Bangkok and she said there was a trend to offer lower expat packages, as currently the cost of maintaining overseas staff is horrendous, but she also added that such resources will always be needed. especially in the senior management levels.

I wish you the best of luck, and i am sure it will all work out for you.

Lets move on..

If you have a work permit it is very easy with bangkok bank ibanking see http://www.bangkokbank.com/OnlineBanking/PersonalBanking/iBanking/BualuangiBanking/services/pages/ift.aspx

Agree, i can transfer quite easily with the Bangkok Bank, they have been nothing but helpful.

I really don't understand why some people stay in Thailand when all they do is complain about the "Thai way" and think everyone is out to cheat the rich farang.

Seems a silly statement to make. I am sure the OP does not complain about the 'Thai Way', he was simple raising a topic to get the feedback and do a poll on peoples thoughts and attitudes to this type of situation.

Firstly, my mistake, not sure why i said BTS Blue Line, fully aware it was MRTA, my apologies, be interesting to see how the tenders fair for the Blue Line signalling works, more so how the interface will be managed with the existing line.

It is very logical, believe me i understand, not sure why you are being so defensive, also your comment "length has nothing to do with it" was actually quite derogatory, but i will put this down to frustration or a few to many beers, as i still value your opinion, given you seem to good knowledge of the thai transportation network.

I find it interesting that the project will open to bidders and then construction design will happen later. Must be a misquote or something. How could you possibly bid on something that was not yet spec'd?

The whole line has been designed for at least 18 months now.

It was due to go to tender in mid 2013, then late 2013 but was delayed due to the political crisis. The design issue relates to the fact that prior to tendering the line for construction the MRTA needs to select a monorail supplier first (they will select one to supply rolling stock for both the Pink and Yellow lines and realised this a bit late) as that dictates the final technical design of the rail.

Each monorail supplier uses a different type of rail. There is some standardisation but there are numerous different types of monorails (including suspension monorails like the worlds oldest monorail in Weppertal, see pic)

It is good to see that a lot of work has been advanced already, i assume this principally relates to the civil and route layout, although as you mention, different suppliers, different rail requirements which will have an impact of what has been produced to date. It is good to see they will choose a single rolling stock supplier . It would be a good idea if the rolling stock supplier was also the systems supplier to keep everything fairly compatible given what occurred on the BTS, and has the potential of occurring on the BTS Blue Line extension, but healthy competition never did anyone harm. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on here.

I would assume, please correct me if i am wrong, that the monorail would essentially have two 'monorails' if that makes sense, one for each direction. If that is the case i believe the movement of 200,000 people a day is achievable. Not sure how many passengers per train, but at a guess i would say 900. Hopefully it will look visually better than the BTS as i expect there will be more light between the two 'rails' or one as the case maybe.

Doesn't make sense. First off, in the article it says they chose the monorail because it has a smaller turning radius. Secondly, if there were 2 separate tracks that would mean that the direction the train is heading on each track would alternate. That would create a lot of confusion.

I do agree with the smaller turning radius, and of course the greater the profile of the 'monorail track' the greater the turning radius. But if you look at the picture in the news story it does indicate dual 'monorail tracks' and also i did a quick Google search on the Pink Line and the Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRT_Pink_Line does state two 'monorail tracks', how true this is i don't know, but personally i think it will be two track given the distance of the network.

With regard to the direction if there was two tracks, i do not believe this would be any different to the BTS, they would need a crossover area at the two terminus stations, which i believe is feasible with Monorail Systems.

Goodness me, why all of the confusion???

It is a monorail, ie. it has one rail for EACH direction. One track heads west, the other heads east.

Watch this video to get the idea if you don't understand why there are two rails.....

This Yellow Line video also clearly shows (both will use the same monorail supplier as the MRTA will select one for both lines)

I am sure we understand why there is two rails, but we simply did not have all the information at hand to make that judgement, despite it being logical two rails would be provided given the length of the proposed network.

"I also paid for 4 Thai staff's social security to secure my visa, but I do not have Thai staff as such."

This is probably the most stupid thing anybody could do on an internet forum !!!

As a fact this just as bad as saying: "I have cheated to get my visa"

... does anybody ever think for a second or two BEFORE they write this BS onto the internet ???

I do agree with what you have said, especially if what the OP did is illegal.which reading the various postings does seem to be the case. I think he may have acted out of panic to tried and get some advice which may have made him feel a little better about the situation and potential outcomes.

Fingers crossed it all goes away, but you never know when you can get caught out.

This is pretty scary stuff, especially if there are fake policemen and immigration officials around. I do feel for the OP though, he was not doing any real damage and was just getting on with his life, now he must be very anxious with all the uncertainty as to what may happen. I guess the only thing to do now is wait and see if it blows over, which it hopefully will do and he can get back to enjoying life in Samui , lucky devil.

This actually surprised me, i have always held the Thai education in fairly high esteem, mostly based on the universities, more so Chulalongkorn, guess i based that as the bench mark and placed other educational establishments on a similar level. I must admit i have no idea of the quality of the secondary schools, but still a little disappointed with this information.

This is something the NCPO really does not need. Especially when they are hammering for an 'anti-corruption' platform for the new government, but then engage in behavior that could be considered suspect. If it's buried and pushed under the rug, then I have to question the veracity of virtually everything being issued by the new government. I believe the NCPO needs to hop on this issue and quickly. Up to this point they are commanding the respect of a large contingent of the Thai and foreign community. Misuse that trust and then there will be problems for sure. Any suspected collaboration between the new government and business entities for the benefit of either entity will be viewed under a microscope. Anyone calling for the end of corruption need to strictly maintain the moral high-ground.

Well said, what an opportune time for the NCPO to show they mean business, they should seize the moment and there popularity would shoot through the roof. They appear to be doing well so far, but its often the negative things that stick in our minds.