Scouse123

46 minutes ago, SeaMike01 said:

This is all very confusing. I'm still not sure who did what, and who didn't do anything at all.

Well, his underlings were involved by all accounts in the gambling saga and he is by association, as they were his staff.

The PM hasn't done anything to help or hinder from what I can see.

There are certainly major players grouping and determined to see the back of him.

It's a messy business when sharks start eating sharks

I don't care one way or the other, but it looks like his goose is well and truly cooked and he is lashing out and blaming anybody but himself.

He knows the game, he's been an active participant for long enough.

He forgot the  first rule of the RTP,' If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas '

It's not the first time he has resurrected his career, but it could be the final nail in the coffin this time.

The Problem with the current and previous governments is they harp on about quality tourists but they don't provide a quality destination in all its forms.

They provide a nickel-and-dime service but want to quote gold-standard dollar pricing structures for everything, it just does not wash.

Then to justify silly ill thought out, knee-jerk policies they quote what other countries in the region do whose tourists do not resemble Thailands.

Thailand is not Singapore, Bhutan, Vietnam, or Malaysia which attract a very different clientele.

5 hours ago, BigBruv said:

 

 

Yep boomers again - they still have cash to burn but are dying out - I doubt they'll be replaced by the younger generations in as bigger numbers so Thailand's future is probably Indian, Chinese and Russian.

 

People knock Brits but Thailand was more prosperous AND fun for the natives when there were loads of us there.

They all seem to be pretty tight but the Chinese and Russians also seem particularly joyless - though I guess that's what decades of communism does to a nation.

 

So good luck Thailand, doesn't seem to be any planning so they'll probably need it.

 

I was in Pattaya full-time from the early nineties till the first decade of the 2000s and the place was fun.

Very few Russians, Chinese but only organised flag-waving coach tours, not the massive influx there is now. There was an Arab quarter, but they kept themselves to themselves.

Big-spending Westerners, loads of guys working offshore with plenty of cash, well-heeled guys from all over the globe.

It was fun, it was exciting, and there weren't all the big mafia killings and extreme violence that seemed to have crept in back then, Pattaya was a big little town.

The fun has gone out of it and it no longer holds the ' mystique ' of bygone days. 

The internet explosion didn't help much.

I remember many years ago in Pattaya chatting with a bar girl I knew very well down there who had been dating a guy from the UK who worked offshore and was wealthy. I knew him and he was a pleasant lad, but nobody's fool.

They had just broken up and she was sitting in the bar glum-faced, so I asked what had happened.

She went on to tell me she had asked for a new motorbike and he bought one, then after a while there was the farm plus animals which he provided for, ( a lie of course was that project, to extract cash) then there was the obligatory pick-up, which he paid for again.

Eventually, when he asked to see the items mentioned above, they weren't there. She had either scammed and pawned them or simply had the money and spent it.

So they broke up.

She blamed him for the breakup because she said when she asked the first time, he gave, so then she asked again and he gave, so then she said, she just couldn't stop asking!

And that is similar to what we have here in Thailand at present, they are trying to balance books obviously through 9 or 10 years of mismanagement and turning to the obvious cash cow, the tourists.

14 minutes ago, dpeti73 said:

we been here before, if you guys remember was 500B what rised for 750B and later they charged the airlines so the price added to ticket prices. as i know its still have so its "just" add an other 300B

 

I agree with you and plenty on here missing the point with comments of " it's only 300 baht"

Do members recall that we'll add something to the ticket for all the new biometrics at the airport which enhances arrivals and departures, well did it?

Then there was the add-on for those that weren't insured and it was to pay for the hospitals, as Thailand was fed up allegedly, with these people who couldn't pay or had inadequate medical insurance, so we'll just put another ' add on ' in there to cover this.

Then there was an argument about an add-on or price increase for tourists to keep and maintain the national parks in good order as tourist attractions because obviously, only foreigners litter and such in these places.

And the list continues until somebody says ' enough is enough ' and they decide with their feet to seek new places.

This is the strategy of the Thais in government, who haven't the faintest idea about the tourist on the ground and will milk the cow until it's dry and then bleat where have all the tourists gone blaming everything else from Climate change to the Global economy. They will blame anything except their dumb policies.

The government here float these ideas and waits and sees what the blowback is before coming out and saying what their proposals are, so they can blame some Somchai ' who wasn't authorised to speak ' if it goes belly up.

Are you people not surprised why it is hazy with no government announcement regarding their plans on taxation for people here over 180 days, they are seeing where the land lies, so they can back-peddle quickly if they hit significant resistance.

Lastly, comparing Pattaya Thailand to Bhutan is like comparing Liverpool to Monte Carlo.

On 4/20/2024 at 2:39 PM, spidermike007 said:

I have always found the Viet people to be a bit like cold fish. Not particularly fun to be around. With the Thais, many are fun and playful, and have light hearts, which I cannot get enough of.

 

 

I used to have the same view, but they are not when you get to know them.

They are reserved.

Vietnamese have a wicked sense of humour.

They don't suffer fools gladly.

2 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

So you are at least half British , possibly more, did you actually know either of your parents personally?

He won't,

They don't divulge parentage to test tubers!

22 minutes ago, Goat said:

Do you really think anyone would miss you if you were not here?

Well, for sure you won't be missed with your nonsensical and racist diatribes.

20 minutes ago, Goat said:

never made it out of Bangkok or Pattaya eh?

 

If you dont like it here why dont you leave?

Clown!

Been here for 30 years, speak the language and been in the North East for 18 years.

I've been to nearly every province in the country, what are you blabbing on about?

You shouldn't drink on an empty head.

2 hours ago, NoshowJones said:

It may improve if the country can just get away from this military influence that lies within the government, there was none of this nonsense around 2005 when I first came here, all the Farangs I met and knew were all happy. Today some have died and no other new Farangs have arrived, or else they have  moved back to their own countries or some other Asian country.

It may improve if the bozos in power learned once and for all that the tourists are bringing income, and with tourism comes a few pieces of excess baggage they don't want, such as badly behaved clowns and a few criminals, but the majority of tourists are good for the country and its tourist-reliant industries. They are doing Thailand a favour, not the other way around.

They need to stop thinking Thailand is the ultimate tourist destination and that all the world can't wait to come here, it isn't and they don't.

Thailand is now the equivalent of Blackpool with no knickers on for the young tourists.

Blackpool for the non-British, is an old, tired, dirty established beach resort which has never progressed and is stuck in the eighties with entertainment that matches. It boasts out-of-date drag acts, cheap accommodation, happy hours, noisy stag and hen parties, and in general, you wouldn't want to be seen there.

A gaudy scene of neon-lit streets, high petty crime, and cannabis shops with expensive seedy bars and nightlife is what Bangkok and Pattaya are all about these days.