harsh4

let's get to the flashpoint (thaksin or latest government trying to reverse court ruling and get his hands back on the frozen assets) soon...that's what all this is about anyway... let's see how that goes or is blocked or confronted by the 'other side'. Until and unless the country deals with that core issue the rest is just choreography ?

How credible is Chris Baker ? His track record as clean as 'daeng' rivers ? the 'red shirts' have been used by a very rich man claiming to empathize with the poor so he can get richer. Is that what this country really needs ? What kind of thailand do the coming generations of thais like to see ? A country with credible and stable institutions like the judiciary, press, accountable government of meritocracy, equal opportunities for all ? Or a country railroaded by business tycoon family parroting 'democracy' to protect self interest while muzzling press and slamming opposition and dissident voices with life wrecking lawsuits while in power ?

The solution might lie somewhere in the middle ?

Wowee,

Here we go......

It's about DTAC vs AIS... no prizes for guessing why... first blow in recovering lost ground during the '5 years of turmoil' as reported by BBC recently...

They crack down on this but Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy go full speed ahead. It confuses me!

true...but they used the internet to advertise this 'service' maybe that's why a different category and crackdown to discourage that route ? Cowboy etc pay monthly right ? No money making angle here...Just guessing...still, pretty hypocritical in the end...

"In many cases they are old enough to be their father" ( or grandfather) but hey, I'm not casting stones.

"If these people don't have enough money to retire then they shouldn't be here and become a burden to Thailand," I'm not sure how farangs who don't have 800,000 baht in the bank can be a burden. It's not like in the U.S., where a quite a few Thai's draw welfare checks and food stamps, which they don't have in Thailand. I would need an explanation on that statement please.

How about they put that proposal on a nation wide ballot. Think it would fly?

you guys are forgetting it's April 1st...fool's day today....this is clearly a joke...:-)

This looks like a fee increase to me. I have never been charged a same bank ATM fee for cash withdrawls, if within the same province. Now a fee will be charged after you've used the ATM four times in one month?

edit: nevermind, I think I read it wrong. Looks like same bank, same province withdrawls are still free?

Hmm...you're absolutely right...basically, 'don't withdraw money too many times'...essentially 'don't withdraw too much money...just keep depositing so we get to keep it and do what we like with it"...:-) What's the real reason behind this apparent "reduction/drop" in ATM fees ? :-)

They are not LOSING 100 mill bht, only losing what they got for free in the first place.

You pay for opening an account, virtually get no interest, pay for an atm card, pay to close an account, pay yearly fees for having your account.

What do you get in return--NOWT. All they get is what I mentioned, plus OUR MONEY they keep and use to lend others at a rate of borrowing 10% + They have a nerve.

How long have they been charging at a.t.m.? they should have quite a bit of revenue from it. Now they say they are going to lose money.. A JOKE April 1st early

Yes,it is a insult to the intelligence of customers...almost like they're doing us a favour by allowing us to give them our money...:-)

they were real policemen, one in uniform, with badges and guns.

why they didn't stop at the journalist's house to check his passport (foreigners are obliged to carry their pass at all time - or at least a cophy of it) is a little strange, probably they decided, that wallets/ring/mobiles would be an easier prise, than entering the house and leaving empty handed.

I don't think you are required to carry ID in Thailand. You just must produce it in a timely manner if asked for it by the police.

You are required by law to carry your ID - a legitimate local driving license constitutes an accpetable ID. I use it all the time at banks and for domestic flights instead of a passpport. However, most foreigners are "advised" to carry a copy of their passports all the time. Who knows what's the law and what isn't - it's all about the situation and the timing of it I suppose...

Could this be karma?

Pretty ironic "Som nam na" really...:-) Funny to see thai brands scrambling for protection and crying foul now while for decades there has been no concept of copyright violation when foregin brands and ideas are blatantly copied with no regard to the overseas original manufaturer....what goes around comes around...oh well...

The agents said after two hours they had heard enough. They gave the signal and Thai police and DEA agents swept into the room. As Bout put his hands up, according to Milione, he muttered: "The game is over."

Quote of the Day as, indeed, his game is over.

The game has only just begun. How many people is Bout willing to rat out to save his own skin?

Indeed...the game might be far from over...It's naive to believe everything that the DEA chief says in a public statement...there's a lot more to this than appears on surface...how can one guy be supplying arms singlehandedly to become the 'most dangerous criminal on the face of the earth' ? Why was the russian government so upset ? Where do the arms come from ? Where does he get his contacts of 'customers' from ? Why is the US so desperate to get him ? Does he know things that would undermine the US officials ? We hear stories of how the drugs/arms markets and dealers often have 'arrangements' with the law enforcement authorities. Not saying any official US body involved but is that impossible ? What does the CIA usually do ? This whole thing is more than murky and best not to take sides in a hurry...

wonder how many Thais can pronounce 'Lone Robber'?

I just asked my wife to say it and she said: "No Rubber" LOL!

EDIT: typo

few variations can be...'Low lobber'...'row nobber'...'low nobber'...endless possibilities depending on speech speed ? :-)

or because there are videos there of some pretty powerful people in Thailand in some compromising positions.

Yeah, probably the pooch's party. Funny, I've never looked at wikileaks.org before so when it said it was blocked I checked. It doesn't seem to be.

i just looked as well and working perfectly for me on 3BB, even those it was blocked before

Right, but go to wikileaks.org then search 'thailand' and click on 'go' and it takes you to 'access denied' message...

PAD is the law, by virtue of putting the PM where he is today.

PAD put the PM where he is today ?? Or did Newin Chidchob's defection with his MPs to support the democrats to give them sufficient seats to stake claim to form government ? Thanks to Mr. Shinawatra's instructions of nominating Chalerm Yubammrung as next PM after the resignation of brother-in-law Somchai (the PAD surely did ensure that with the airport seizure), Newin felt let down and jumped ship. Had Newin not defected Abhisit would still be in opposition today and not PM - and had Dr. Shinawatra not broken supposed promises to Newin he would not have defected ?

Oh well...

I agree that the Red Shirt leadership were foolish in not accepting Abhisit's compromise without trying to attach ridiculous conditions, but fail to understand how their surrender yesterday meant they abandoned their followers. Were they supposed to encourage their followers to fight to the death?

This is a stupid and irresponsible editorial.

the moment the Red leaders were in danger themselves they either scurried away like cockroaches or eagerly made themselves the army's bitches. This in total contradiction to their continuous "fight to the death" chants that they brainwashed their not so bright flock with. Unfortunately,when the Red leaders finally decided to chicken out with their promises/threats, they had brainwashed enough of their flock to want to kill, maim, destroy and otherwise act recklessly, without any thought of human compassion. The Red shirts have changed their followers into animals.

I am hearing that the reds who were promised cash prizes when they 'won' their 'crusade' i.e. when government gave in and parliament dissolved (30k to 50k per family) are now worried they will not see that money thus all this anger and frustration too...Thaksin promised them the moon but it's not be...yet anyway... Are any media organizations talking about this angle rather than just harping on the oft beaten 'fight for equality' manipulated bs....the section that was driven by the monetary rewards is left up in the air...BBC and CNN want to estimate the percentage of the reds in this category ?

So good, some of the Red Shirt leaders have turned themselves in. At least that's what we've heard on latest news report, though even such reports are suspect sometimes.

. . . . . . Still, here are some names I didn't see listed:

Lt.Col Wipoj Aponrat

Supon Attaway (main Red attorney)

Kwanchai Praipana (hot head, a tad less ballistic than Seh Daeng)

Payap Pangate (stormed hospital)

Arisman

Aree Krainara (chief of Red security)

Saikua

Weera (he ran off in a huff, but does that excuse him?)

How can you forget Dr. Waeng ? :-) The guy with the oversized glasses...looks like he's on the run too ?

"Please heed my call for an end to the rally so that we can continue fighting to advance democracy for the future," he said.

PRICELESS quote......continue fighting to advance democracy, yeah right. PATHETIC attempt. next?

Funnier still, this government boycotted an election, most probably will get caught out for electoral fraud shortly, are responsible for killing dozens of unarmed protesters and unarmed foriegn reporters, muzzle the media, got into power via a parlimentary deal rather then through elections , and only because the opposition was disqualified for a cooking show. And the most ironic thing of all, is that these people call themselves the DEMOCRATS !

At least the foriegn media for the most part knows that this goverment is full of sh## , pity some of the expats are still clueless though.

Aren't these only part of the details ? Shouldn't we also mention what a hung parliament means ? To form government PP needed the support of small party and MPs of Newin Chidchob. Why did newin Chidchob defect from PPP support and took his MPs over to the democrats ? Because Thaksin's bankrolled PPP was taking instructions from him on who would be PM...after Samak, his brother in law Somchai was nomintaed, and after dubious airport seizure of airport by yellows Somchai had to exit too...Thakisn then arrogantly betrayed Newin and nominated the rogue Chalerm Yubamrung (remember his criminal sons and bar room shootings ?) to be next PM. That's when Newin defected and helped democrats form govt under the constitution that was voted by referendum earlier. Bizzare why Newin's name never surfaces while everyone charts the past events. Perfectly constitutional and perhaps unfair to label this as 'parliamentray deal'. Would you label current british PM as being in place due to an undemocratic parliamentary deal with lib dems rather than by being clearly elected ? I don't know the significance of the dissolution of PPP on the numbers of MPs. I have partial information too but I would not jump to painting the red cause and methods as purely democratic and ignore Thaksin's dubious role...while also calling current government as totally illegitimate.

This is perhaps the birth of democracy (hopefully) anda change of guard and system of governance....when was the press muzzled by this governmant as you say ?

I'm no fan of either shirt color, but let's not take sides unconditionally...

How do I handle my one year visa renewal which runs out this week?

If immigration office is closed and your visa expiry falls on a 'holiday' then immigration does not penalise you by counting that day as a deadline....as far as I know and if memory serves me right, that's how it works...but it's worth double checking this...

Seh Daeng is a rogue nut alright. The red shirts would be better off without him, but I'm not sure if assassinating him while he's giving an interview to international media on live television is a good thing to do. Probably a rather stupid move.

Keep in mind he was a renegade soldier...'rogue nut' as you say...should not discount someone settling a score from within the army and little to do with ideological stance or political support of anybody or any group..."some high up just didn't like him and his arrogance and ego clashing style, so just get rid of him while all this noise is around as fingers will only be pointed to whose got what political or short term motive now"... who knows just thinking aloud...

Let me get this straight ...Thaksin's extrajudicial killings of drug dealers were fiercely condemned by the Democrats. Now the army has shot a General in the head while he was giving an interview to an international media reporter.

I assume he was given a fair trial before he was shot?

How do we know he was shot by the miitary ? Who has the motive to shoot him ? The reds have been distancing themselves from him of late. Who's to say this wasn't an inside job ? If there was any connection between the M79 type attacks and the reds he had to be the key. Has he been silenced ? Speculating here with apologies, but there has to be a cause and effect here...unless we want to believe he was hit by a stray bullet !

"The tape records widths of between 49 and 56 millimetres"

I first thought that scale is diameter, but after looking on our caliper I doubt that. Thai men would be monster.

Than I took the size /3.14: 56/3.14=17.8 mm that looks too small.

What mistake did I made???

I am glad to see this topic as I have had a lot of trouble ever since I have been here.I use the biggest condoms I have been able to find [56 durex] and was with the help of my girlfriend,and I still find it very uncomfortable to put them on and they easily slide off and leave them inside her.This is to say the least a bit embarrassing!!! The measurement is the circumference of the penis and I do not consider myself to be so well endowed as to boast about it.Any help here? thanks Dougal

Maybe you could use a smaller size then they don't slide off any more.

Odd as it may sound in principle, but bigplanebluey is right...my experience is the same...the normal thai sized condoms are too tight and it actually hurts to try and roll them or slide them on...and because you're not able to fully roll them on to till the end (now I dunno of the thickness of a penis is more towards the base ? :-) ) they invariably come off during the sex act...and often times the condom stays back inside the woman as you pull out...inconvenient and probably dangerous too....

I use the durex 'comfort' condoms which are a much better fit and easy to roll on and take off too... the issue of which is more pleasurable is quite another one...a tight condom (though not too tight) does provide a closer feel thus more pleasurable comapred to a better fitting one as that can feel like wearing sheath or bag which is like a layer between the 2 bodies...

This discussion will never end...:-) I guess ease of usage is the key...and to each his own ? :-))

only wonder why this guy is worth two threads in three days in THAIVISA Forum?

What the he11 has he done wrong? There are hundreds of the same characters in western banks and high positions....who is sending them to jail?

RIP

That is absolutely correct. I am no fan of Saxena and he's clearly a criminal scamster...but the entire wall street collapse happened due to several bigger Saxenas...risk analysis of derivatives and officially approving a risky fund as not at all risky and yet worthy of high returns happens due to greed, lying and manipulation - ideally all these actions should be illegal when public funds are the ones being used. Here we are making a scapegoat out of Saxena while the US goverment is baling out similar Saxenas and actually now talking of giving them bonuses....:-) we do live in a bizarre world...

At several points around the pool there are water pumps which make the water circulate, these are fed through heavy looking metal grilles in the floor of the pool.(around a meter square} Water is sucked in through these grills by pumps on the side of the pool and is expelled again at force through angled pipes in the wall of the pool providing the circulating effect. I wonder if one of the grills in the floor of the pool has been removed for maintenance or some such thing and not properly replaced. With no grill it would be easy for someone to be sucked in to the duct there and it would be almost impossible to get out.

this scenario sounds right...what a horrible way to go...being sucked into a pipe while having a good time swimming in a water park ! Not replacing the 'manhole cover' after maintenance and allowing people back in amounts to criminal negligence...who was on duty and who authorized reopening the pool after going through the checklist if all was clear ? The water park logs should be able to tell us that...

truly unfortunate and my heart goes out to the family members in question...are they going to sue pattaya park ? Surely nothing can bring back the boy's life but the park management needs a jolt in the arm so that no future accidents are allowed to happen...

Very sad...RIP

great news of these kind!

one of my loyal staff, recently resigned from our company and went to NORWAY to help in her uncle Thai restaurant. she barely know that uncle as he is been living there for 20 years.

She was one of our best staff and i really wanted her to stay. i don't know what future she would make there.

I guess you could've given her a raise...:-) Such tales are not uncommon but then there are many thai restaurants in the US/Europe owned by thais who are looking for help from back home to work at cooks/waiters/waitresses. Those jobs are long hours and the pay maybe less than reasonable compared to payscales in those countries but there's no prostitution involved. It's just an opportunity to change their lives (not necesarily for the better) and girls/guys from here choose it as an exit from their lives in Thailand. As long as these restaurant owners provide legal immigration status to these applicants there's little wrong with the whole arrangement really. Hopefully your ex staff is indeed headed for a real restaurant with decent pay and living conditions. It would've been an idea to get her contact details in Norway just to keep in touch so you could always offer her her old job back in case she wasn't happy in Norway ?

We are flying out of Heathrow on Saturday with Thai and I happened to look at their site and the original plane flying back as been changed from a 747 to a A340, as I had pre-booked out seats I rang them and asked if they had re-allocated them and they had but had sat one of us on our own I asked them to seat us in the middle so we could all sit together. I also asked them why they had changed the plane and they said they could not fill them and they had knocked flights off to US and were using those planes.

Also its my hubby's 40th when we fly and I rang them in November and asked if I could buy a bottle of Champagne to be presented to him on the flight they told me I was too early I rang yesterday and told me I was too late!! We are flying economy and I asked if there was anyway I could buy some on the plane as I know they give it to business/first class they said no too much paperwork.

Very disappointed

Darloknight, just buy a bottle at duty free before you board the plane and carry it with you in the sealed plastic bag. once in flight ask the stewardess to open it and serve you... although I can't recall seeing champagne being sold at duty free...plenty of wine and scotch for sure...

Well if this is real - then the UK is very smart to want get involved in a bunch of messy Thai politics. They probably had enough when he started using UK as his staging ground (phone in) for his personal propaganda - which didnt really match up with the asylum card he was trying to play

if it is a hoax then this is some good piece of magic someone pulled.

It is NOT a hoax...check out

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7717199.stm

The group said the it saw that it was about time for the group to stop the insurgency as the group wanted to remain with Thailand instead of fighting for an independence.

-- Bangkok Post 2008-07-17

I reckon Samak's offer of free electricity, water and a couple of Baht off gas must have swung it and brought out their patriotism.

True...one can never discount the possibility of some 'very famous and very rich businessman' who bankrolled the current ruling party is behind this sudden and surprising 'buy' that looks so cool and so impressive ! It's best to wait and watch to see how this unfolds and what really lies at the heart at of all this. Just speculating and it could be totally inaccurate but given the long topsy turvy history of the said gentleman's style and in the context of the current political crisis, nothing can be ruled out...