inaktive

I think roughly 8 years ago the taxi mafia was not outragous. Then roughly 7 years ago all the taxi prices went from 20 to 200. At this point i promised myself i would never set foot on phuket again and i started telling the same to all my friends and basically anyone i.could find. Looks like i was not the only one.

Also i think flight prices from europe have increased the last couple of years.

I know my numbers are off bare with me

To be honest even 10 years ago the Taxi/TukTuk Prices in Phuket where already insane. I do know for a fact that 10 years ago a TukTuk after dark didnt move even inside on Patong for less than 200 THB. If you where a couple and the TukTuk driver thought the girl didnt look like she wanted want to walk even 5 minutes (High Hells or a nice dress) it was more like 400 THB.

But at that time i did get decent food close to the beach or at the beach for 35-50 THB in the evening ... the same place wanted 150-200 THB for smaller portions this year!

And the planeticket prices did go down a lot since then at least flying from europe. I can now fly there with several arab airlines direct to phuket and not have to change planes in BKK so its still 1 stop but in 2 around 6h parts and not 11h to BKK and then 1h to HKT.

The only airline that did increase their prices was Thairairways.

i did already see many of the shops at beachroad pretty much doing no business and some where even closed up and it doesnt look like anything new will move in. Perhaps some more international francised food places will go there but how many McD or Burgerkings or Subways do you need at Beachroad ?

Somehow i am NOT suprised ... was there the last time in spring 2015 and the prices for food in the evening did pretty much double in the last 5 years on average.

Sure there are still nice places where you get decent food for a fair price (fair doesnt mean as cheap as possible !) but it did get crazy expensive on average ! ( Phuket was never cheap but now its insane)

Only thing that didnt get more pricy was beer and hotel rooms.

Combine that with with a change from europeans (and on Phuket they did have big numbers of Skandinavians that did spend like home a few years back !) to chinese tourists and it will be a disaster soon because they come ALL INCL. and do spend shit outside of that package.

Sadly i did in the past very often hear ( even educated ) Thais say they do not need us western Tourists so we will see how they will do now.

Soon i expect to hear them complain why so many of us do not come back and that it is OUR fault they lack money because the chinese dont spend any.

didnt the EU commission arrive TODAY and just had the opening meeting ?

how can there already be results ?

I do somehow think the Thais are afraid what will happen ( but since it does look like the thais now at least try to clean up that mess i do expect they will get more time )

Thiland still isnt one of the top 20 Export Countries worldwide and looking at the local economy most likely wont be in that list in the near future

I also have no Idea why someone would think the Top 3 Slots are China, Hong Kong and Mexico

Near BTS or MRT sure the prices still go up. Also the Luxury Condo market still looks so far ok. But the normal Condos and Houses at so much overpriced now i am just waiting for the crash. As long as i can rent cheaper that buy (even considering i do NOT have to finance but pay cash) why would any sane person buy ? Most buyers now dont even rest it out but wait a Year or 2 and then try to sell it for more and that a spiral that will break and i think soon. The moment the first ones will NEED to sell and not find buyers for his asking Price it will get a very fast and very ugly price correction on that market. Sure if you are willing to risk loosing half you invest try and perhaps the market will hold and you make a nice profit when you sell but perhaps you will loose big. No Risk No Reward but i think its a bit too much Risk already but i know some will gamble and make good money

perhaps they should start with the basic stuff like make the ( often absent ) fathers PAY for their kids, decent maternity leave and such for the mothers and kindergardens and not one time cash bonuses.

i do not know that many thai girls that are still with the father of their kid/kids ( and no they are mostly not single ) but getting cash from the father of the kid would help a lot encouraging girls to have more babys and if we are honest it is pretty much up to the girls if there will be kids or not.

" was considered an ‘influential man’ in the area "

looks like he did not pay enough to stay influential

only way i can see them getting anything like a legitimate Police Force working for the People instead their own pockets is fire them all and then start from scratch best with lots of foreigners making sure it doesnt end up like it is now

that is 2 days before the EU commision on slave labor is arriving or ?

Good timing guys ;-)

i enjoy reading here how some minority Old White Male posters think they are still the majority of Americans or can win any election on a national level.

that time is gone for good as long as you have christian extremist nutjobs or a Donald as their candidates and not a candidate of the middle. you may have the majority of the CASH and CEOs but not anymore more that 20-25% of the potential voters for the more and more extremist rightwing policies the GOP is now standing for

I'd be interested to know how this works here if anyone knows.

1. Thai police ID IP address overseas - Common knowledge to be able to Id the country or even the city of the IP address but not the name of the person or their address.

2. To my knowledge only the IP service provider can divulge the actual name and address of the person IF they have broken the law in the country of the IP service provider or international law (Where extradition treaty exists).

Criticising Thai police is not a breach of international law or law in most countries so therefore they have no way of finding out who the hackers are.

Does that sound correct or have I missed something?

You do understand masking IP addresses via proxy right?

Rest assured, whatever IP addresses the Thai Police think they have, are just some random IP addresses generated by Proxy servers to hide where the real source IP address is. But let the Thai police go on a wild goose chase.

Thai police thinking then can catch and prosecute Anonymous is laughable.

Ummm.... you're not showing much of an understanding of proxy severs yourself. It's impossible to generate random IP addresses.

True they arent random but still cant be traced ... just route the traffic for 2 hops through a local network with rfc1597 adresses and after you route them back into the internet its IMPOSSIBLE to find out where it did com from unless you get acces to that network and their routers and they did stupidly have logging on ! All anybody can do is trace it to that network ... because rfc1597 adresses get replaced the moment they leave the network. Only thing they can get you then if the network you route through is compromised OR your client isnt set up good and can be made to do a direct connect ( thats how they normally do get the guys that run illegal servers hiden but that often takes years to find them ) but that also only works if you have the time to go after them while there is still a connection. i am pretty sure they did clean up after they got what they wanted out and did only talk AFTER they did clean out the network they hacked.

if they would just stop beeing idiots and let that story rest they would do their country a much better service that now.

That they now investigate the sister did already make news in europe and to avoid that should be more important that saving face by some investigation of a person that will never visit thailand again !

i for sure want to see what they did steal there. should make a good read ;-)

1. My 17 and 15 year old Thai sons are now having sex. Which I totally can not accept. The girls are 13+.

My wife knows if these SOB sons gets these girls pregnant, I'm kicking these MF out of her house. We live in Patong, the boys live in Isaan. With the grand.

Here in germany 14 is legal on paper but in real pretty much every girl age 12+ gets her free Birthcontroll Pills from her Doc (paid by Government) and is safe if something should happen with her BF.

so relax except for the pregnant parts its like that in many countries

if you stay in Thailand with your Isaan Girl at least stay away from her Village !

Settle somewhere else and make sure she is busy even if that shop looses a bit of money !

and if she is/was a Bargirl expect her to be into that relationship for the cash and nothing more unless you manage to get her out of Thailand and show her different options somewhere else and then after 5-10 years PERHAPS you have a wife that loves you for what you did for her and the options you gave her .

i do live with my Issan wife now in Germany , she was never a Bargirl and did more or less much fit that description of the Single 30+ well educated Girl in a good Job that simply wasn't at all interested anymore in Thai Guys after getting disappointed by them all her live. She comes from a upper middle class family ( for sure not HiSo but also no farmers , the Siblings have good jobs and did visit University , they own their Houses and such and never ask for cash. Its more likely they give us money when we visit because they do know how much i did spent on the additional education in Germany so she can now work a good job here with a nice income ).

You can make that work with a Issaan Girl but if you stay in Thailand i think its very very hard unless its a pure "for Cash" relationship. And even here in Germany i dont know many couples that are still together. Most girls will "change" the Husband after a few years ;-) but also most of the time i do understand them very well. The Bargirls coming here plain have no clue how to make a living here and will fall for some other guy sooner or later often even worse than their Hubby and the well educated Girls will look for a guy like that here and often find that and discard the often old and not so bright Husband that did take them out of Thailand.

Pick a girl not too much younger, from a education level that you are also in with similar interests and work for a good relationship very very hard. Different culture , different customs and lots of problems await you both but i do think it is worth it if you manage that. Or just pick a girl you find attractive and in a few years change her to someone else ! if you live in Issaan you will always find find some willing to stay with you for some time ;-)

Just dont expect them to stay if you have problems ;-)

I think the issue here that a lot of posters have is that the government used "tourism" as the end objective in reducing the luxury goods tax, when to many of us it doesn't seem like tourists would intentionally travel to Thailand just to purchase luxury goods anyways.

Reducing this tax may be beneficial in reducing outflow (I.e. Thais who intentionally fly to Singapore/HK to buy goods) but won't increase tourist landings.

A few Years ago lots of Russians, Arabs and also Asians did indeed fly to Thailand for Luxury Shopping first and Vacation second.

Simply because it was cheaper to by in Thailand than in their homecountries. Now i think lots of them just fly to europe because there its even more cheap. Visist a LV Shop in Germany and you will see that at least 75% of the customers are Tourists buying 5000k Euro or more in Bags and Purses and take them Home. If the Thais can get these Customers back it will help them with attraction a more wealthy group of Tourists they did loose.

And sure for most People here owning a genuine LV Bag is totally unimportant but trust me when i say that others see that as much more important than having a new Car

Perhaps them beeing in the Hospital did make them not go to the Police so far ?

14.5 % from tourists. I wonder how much the ex-pat retirees contribute to Thailand's economy? It must be a goodly sum: paying a 'housekeeping' allowance for their wife; school/college fees for their wife's children; car & bike purchase/hire; building houses; running farms; frequenting hotels/bars; all must add up to a decent sum. So why do the authorities treat us like 2nd class citizens with surly immigration staff; convoluted visa rules; pointless 90 day reporting; dual charging; draconian rules against home purchase etc?

also add to that 14.5% all the non registered stuff like Bargirls , Massages, Beach services and that runs on the side far away from any taxes and recipts and its a lot more. Add the cash Thais living in other countries send to the families , moneytransfers to "Girlfriends" and such and we are suddenly talking about more than 20% and most likely more than 80% of the "hard currency" income

if you exchange a few Million "medium class Farang" (not the super rich kind but the middle class with ok money) Tourists that did in the past often stay 3+ Weeks and spend nice money every day to the local businesses by going out for food 2-3 times a day, go beach and rent chair, use Taxis and TukTuks, go to the Disco in the evening and shop a lot with either "All incl Farang Tourists" or "Chinese Travel Groups" that only stay up to 10 Days then numbers of Tourists arriving are sure up but numbers of Total days tourists spend in Country are down. And even worse that kind of Tourists doesnt spend Money at all because most is already included in the Packages.

And it really doesnt matter if they are Chinese or not whats importend is that they not stay that long and have All Incl booked. Why then go out into a Restaurant if food in Hotel is free ? Or why go out in the Evenings when you can get hammered in your All incl Hotel at the Pool Bar for free starting in the morning?

This week i did see Advertisement in Germany for Thailand Trips ( from a BIG Travel agency ) for May 2016 (i Know off season and rain season) to Phuket for 21 Days net (including traveltime its about 24 days total and thats a LONG Vacation for All Incl !) at a 4* All Incl Hotel (3 meals and free drinks incl. local Alcohol ) incl flight, transfers , 2 packages to local sightseeing spots for less than 1100 Euros per Person !

Counting off the Flights at say 500 Euros thats 600 Euros left for 3 weeks in a 4* hotel with free food and drinks and pool and direct Beach access (and from the reviews it is a nice Hotel at the beach thats would also have his 4* rating in most other countries !) so why would the people going there spend much food at restaurants or such ? and how much of that 200 Euros a week you think locals see ?

That kind of tourists make it easy to have high Numbers of Tourist and still not make money from them ! Doesnt matter where they are from ! If they are Chines or Farang doesnt matter ... All Incl Tourist not bring Cash to the people and even a Backpacker leaves more cash behind that the all Incl Tourists

Not so. I am going to Pattaya for 3 days in early January. So I called my usual hotel (a nice 3 star just off beach road) for a reservation last week. No problem they have rooms available, in all categories. Great. Then the bombshell dropped. There would be a 500 baht/night surcharge (about 35% of the daily rate) per room (I was booking 2 rooms). When I asked why, I was told surcharge from Dec 15 to Jan 15 for the holidays.

I told them no thanks, I will go elsewhere. I booked into the hotel next door for less money per night and NO surcharge.

Typical Thai business practices.

Nope not typical thai practices. Its done all over the world in every country. High season is always more expensive than low season in tourist areas. Airlines, hotels, parks you name it raise prices. Has nothing to do with specifically Thailand.

you can only do that if there is a shortage of rooms/Tickets/etc because of the High Season. If you can get cheap and good Rooms at every corner raising the prices will just make the potential Guests go there. If not the first Time then for sure they will not return for a second time.

10 Years ago finding decent free hotel in Phuket for Christmas was hard because most was booked month before. Now they did open so many new Hotels pretty much all have at least 30% free rooms even in High Season !

But yeah that Thai behavior to raise prices when business runs bad to cover the costs is very common all over the country and not only in the Hotel business and it may work ok short term because ONCE you can do that with customers but they will not return for a second time. Seen that with Restaurants, Bars and Hotels too many times to count and it always ended with the Shop going under after such a move. And to be honest i have never seen it done like that in other countries

EU, please don't give advance notices to the Thais.

The problem is the need Stuff like Working Visa and such month in advance (because of the local Thai Embassies need that long to approve the working Visas often ) or the RTP will just arrest them in Visa violations and deport them

didnt i hear in the last week that the required graft to get a government contract did go up this year from 30% to 50% of the contract value ?

Yes you did. Did you believe it on the evidence offered?

since i did also get it from a relative (Thai side) who owns a medium sized construction company and not just from the Media i do believe there is something to that ;-) .

But i was already a bit shocked to hear that for the last few years it was already 30% of the contract value ... if it would have been 30% of the expected net earnings of the contract that would have been a number i could accept for a 3. world country but 30% or now 50% of the contract value ? Thats crazy

didnt i hear in the last week that the required graft to get a government contract did go up this year from 30% to 50% of the contract value ?

looks like they are trying to give the EU a reason to implement sanctions .

i did read several news in germany last few days about the working conditions in Thai Fishery industry and they all did recommend sanctions because of slavery .....

...Are they serious, or are they just responding to international criticism? Well, as is usually the case, it is most definitely the latter.

do you really need to ask that Question ?

All they are afraid of is Sanctions and they are slow to come so far but i do think now they will come.

Slapping the EP like they did over the invitation on the former PM is for sure a good way to make some people that CAN decide stuff like that very pissed and now they do have a context to act that doesnt look like revenge and i expect them to take that