geisha

Interest in Bangkok might slow down for a while. Future buyers will want to know if their building is really earthquake secure, and also the buildings around .I don’t like high buildings, but if I was buying I would check out the whole area , not only the condo I m interested in. Surely, if one building toppled in a built up area, it would affect the others around it. Then, do all recent condos have the correct permits and safety ?

I was in the restaurant business for 40 years. What we are seeing today, since Covid, is less people going to a restaurant. I don’t mean fast food/ cheap menu burgers. Transport and production have seen prices soaring. Lack of staff, etc are driving prices up, either that or close down. The people still eating out often today, are not buying wine or even beer. No appetizers, ordering a main meal and a bottle of water. And forget the dessert. So, still going out but limit the cost. Remember , drinks and desserts are where a restaurant earns its profit, not from meat or fish.

I have never liked skyscrapers. A fourth floor is ok for me. You can’t compare the tsunami ( I was there looking on) with an earthquake. The tsunami in Phuket, was on the beach obviously. It did damage a few buildings on beach road, but nothing was collapsing around you from above . It was tragic and there were a few hundred dead and missing. Myanmar has 1700 dead and they say it will rise to 8 or 10 thousand. From this morning’s news there are lots of reports of cracked buildings in Bangkok, which is very very worrying. Cracks in high rise hotels and condos are not reassuring at all. There was another 5. aftershock in Myanmar yesterday. I’m sure many tourists will avoid high rise hotels because what we’ve seen is shocking.

Hi , I’m in France at the moment glued to the BBC and their reporters. Not much news from Thailand / Bangkok, mostly tourists and their filming being shown , some live. The collapsed building , and thousands of people running like hell out of shopping malls / condos, and waiting in the parks. I don’t believe they have received any instructions from the government so far. Lots of falling concrete etc and the spectacular overflowing top floor pool that looked like the hotel opposite the Erawan shrine . Obviously worries about the sky train and metro. As for poor Myanmar , they’ve asked for international help, rare, but not much news / phots, except collapsed bridges. Well know more tomorrow . Im very surprised that ASEAN Now hasn’t followed this up better??

For all of you who post unsympathetic answers , how would you feel if this happened to your mother, father, wife or child ?

The education system in Thailand is catastrophic. This is spoiling any chances the children have of advancing to something higher, and why there are so many salesgirls and boys in 7/11 jobs, shop staff, cheap restaurant staff, and let’s face it bars and moto taxi drivers. The government should drop any idea of Casinos , paralyzed submarines, and train lines to China, and invest in their children’s education and promise them a good chance in life for all, not only the rich. Make full education obligatory for all too, no more children on the streets/ beaches working. Help the poor families where necessary where there are school benefits as it’s done in other normal countries.

That’s how beautiful little villages by the sea or not started out. It’s everywhere in the world. London, Rome, Barcelona , Bangkok, tiny little Sitges, Pattaya and Phuket. They were all wonderful places to visit, no crowds and decent prices. This is where greed steps in and ruins it all. Land is bought up by big hotel chains, hardworking people can’t afford a studio to live in anymore because of hotels and Airbnb. Result, all these beautiful places are now ruined. We are suffocating from tourist pollution !

The official figures 2025 are, China, Malaysia, Russia, S. Korea, India , UK, USA, Taiwan, Germany,France. etc in that order. If the police did their job, and the courts too, any trouble makers, thieves, drug related , fighting, a day in the cell, a day in court, fined, deported , banned. Quite sure the problem would be solved in one year.

Oh, do Spanish men gang up 10 to 1 on one drunk/ rude foreigner ? Never heard that, and they get their fair part of idiots .

Soi dogs do the same .

I lived in kata and I can remember the recurring accidents due to reckless driving, seemed between Patong hill and kata hill it was once a week. I once got out of a tuc tuc on Patong hill as the driver was drunk ! I auto stopped it into town. I’ll never forget the Kata taxi stand as it was then on the corner going to the beach.There was over a meter high pile of empty beer and Sangsom bottles. I lived opposite .

Don’t worry, a day or two in the garage and the newly painted bus will be back on the road.

To get back to the subject of syringe wielding Iranian, these people who are clearly ill , tourists or not, should be accompanied back to their home land once cleared by doctors. There are quite a few mentally deranged foreigners walking free in Thailand. They should be sent home and banned , for the good of everyone. The sudden rise in mainly harmless hallucinating druggies don’t belong here either. They most often end up in very bad situations. I blame advertising Thailand as a cheap free for all, with cannabis shops on every street, ( and all the other drugs we are hearing about in the news, ) and the cheap sex which is everywhere and out of control, with fights etc which has given Thailand a VERY bad reputation. It will get worse.

I’ve just read the story on the go fund me page/ Lewis Green. The AN story and his mothers is completely different. The bit about a girl and a car sounds feasible. It certainly sounds like he had a very violent reaction to some sort of drug. That happens. I remember in the early 70s a boy we knew died with LSD in totally crazy circumstances. And he has been hurt physically and mentally. Green has certainly been in a very bad way since. There is no mention of what he was charged with, and how he got out of prison with no court case etc. Im in 2 minds here about the real story.

Licenses should be given out when all safety rules and regulations are approved checked and accepted . Not before. Thailand is still in the dark ages where safety is concerned. I first realized this when I found the Fire exits doors on all floors of our condo locked. We checked every one ( we were coming from the roof pool) and then went to the office to report, where we were literally screamed at by a hysterical employee.

That is not true. In my near 40 years of hospitality in the south of France, I can count on one hand anyone, all nationalities, making a huge fuss. We’ve had some happy one drink too many guys, a few not happy with their meals or the bill, or having to wait when we were busy. Generally, people going out are there to enjoy themselves, not make trouble. One guy slipped under the table drunk, another complained about the wait ( 10 mins , everything was home made ) one American clicked his fingers to call attention, and I nicely showed him the door. Some people are rude. Ignore them. In this case , the man should just be banned .Best thing to do for the sake of your staff and customers.

Seems strange to me when North Africa, Morocco, Tunisia , bring in tons of the stuff !! You can but it cheaply on any street corner in France for peanuts. It must certainly be cheaper than Thailand. Also, don’t all those suitcases create suspicion ??? I don’t understand their reason.

Very worrying, and I don’t understand how he hasn’t been arrested and deported 10 years ago. I wonder who the wife is, do they have children ? And what about the raving lunatic that attacked a totally innocent man in Hua Hin ? I think he was German and well known in the community for his actions. I’m taking a guess that the poor bloke who was attacked is still in Hua Hin hospital with a kind friend looking after him ? Any news there ???

Really ? I have seen the same looking models advertised 1500 € to 2000€. in France.

The Thai government are trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. They know they have done wrong. Shame on Thailand, everyone has seen what you’ve done..

I found the Royal Thai lounge in Suvarnabhumi quite good. The warm food was nice so were desserts. Only the wine was mediocre, red or white, from Portugal. Most Staff don’t have the Thai smile tho.

I doubt changing anything will help stop the crooks and thugs. They will get a visa and do some visa hops. Where there’s a will there’s a way. What they can do is be more active and use their common sense at immigration, and the local police where these people live. They know who’s abusing the system, go after those. Stop the Russian , Chinese and Indians from opening businesses with a Thai front man. The land office needs looking into too, make sure that the people buying houses etc know what exactly they are buying , bricks not land. Lots of people have lost fortunes because the rules are not clear and the sellers are bent. There are only horror stories coming out of Thailand in the international news. If the authorities did their job ( example , stopped the illegal bike rentals) elderly expats wouldn’t be beat to the ground, the 20 000 + Thais and tourists who die on the road might hugely diminish, and make full insurance mandatory for all tourists. Just a pipe dream .

All the big concerns like supermarkets, shopping malls etc have staff sitting around, hiding in corners with their phones or basically standing there like dummies doing b….r all. I’ve been in business all my life and cannot understand the reason. Surely having competent staff with decent wages is advantageous ? Educate the young, change the archaic Thai system to bring them up to date with the rest of the world. Thailand is failing in so many ways, and as with pollution,´poverty, death trap roads and a rotten to the core police force, Thailand s future is becoming more and more bleak.

Obviously these smugglers have no idea of the risk, especially passing through Singapore. They are not professional, and somehow I don’t think the guys who organized this massive smuggling plan are very professional either !! Those men have probably been picked in a pub, a few drinks, a promise of sunshine and girls and a prize at the end, no risk. You have to be extremely naive to fall for such a plan., and for 2000£. ????

Yes.