Jonathan Swift

15 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

If there would be any courageous journalists in Thailand, then they could report about many other sick prisoners.

How many seriously ill prisoners are there in Thailand? Under which conditions do they live? Do they get proper treatment?

And then compare the hundreds or thousands of seriously ill prisoners with the VIP prisoner.

 

And maybe even compare medial treatment of normal Thais, who are not in prison, to the VIP guy. How many seriously sick people are transported per helicopter to a specialist in the middle of the night? 

If you want to meet courageous journalists I suggest you attend an event at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand. There are in fact quite a few, including a Thai woman who sustained a lacerated eyeball from a broken bottle tossed at her by Thai police while she was covering a protest with her press ID clearly visible. I met and spoke with her in person. The problem is not the existence of courageous journalists, the problem is where they are getting published or suppressed. You won't find quality reporting in this amateurish tabloid. They absolutely butchered a story I gave to them a few years ago. 

More illiteracy in journalism, which then contributes to the same public illiteracy plague. She wasn't "electrocuted" regardless of the rampant misuse of the term. Electrocuted means you died. Etymology: "electro-execute" to execute by electricity. Duh. She was shocked. Shocked, I say (clutching pearls). But you can't fix stupid, can you? Even in journalism. Nonetheless, every time those of us who made it past high school hear someone misuse this we think "there goes another dropout ίdίot butchering the English language". But who cares, really.  I'm just another English major curmudgeon. 

19 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

She run away from an arrest warrant (or was she already under arrest). She should be punished for that one. 

The arrest warrant was illegally issued for a crime she didn’t commit. There is no doubt that the warrant is considered null and void.  Thus the slate is now cleared. Reasoning  skills are required here. 

6 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Classic ... sadly he'll only get a small fine, instead of jail & deportation.  

 

Hopefully the wife won't bail him out, and his bags will be curbside when he does get out.   Almost feel sorry for her.  Imagine living with someone like that ... Holy Buddha.   Obviously has no respect for himself, let along anyone else.

I've observed a lot of alcoholics, including myself and many in my family (I'm recovered, don't have more than a few beers once in a while) . With some drunks behavior like this is just more of the same, like you say, self centered obnoxiousness. But with others a major Jekyll/Hyde personality change occurs, and a person who is perfectly nice when sober wiII turn into an insufferable god awful human being. It's like flipping a switch. Strange to watch. So this guy could be either one, but one thing for sure - he shouldn't be allowed to drive. No disparagement to those who drink responsibly, but alcohol is a scourge on civilized culture because of the way people behave when drinking. 

This is the second time I read something like this in Pattaya. The first time it was some Russians, sometime last year. Take heed as to why your own government tells you to never surrender your passport to anyone. Each time you do you are a hostage to that person. 

4 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

Learn to do things yourself. Don't use an agent for anything here. It's just blokes off the street doing things you could do on your own.

Absolutely. That's what I did. Even if the risks are minimal, the consequences are too high. None of it is that hard to do, you just have to get through a learning curve like anything else, no more complicated than registering a car in your home country.

Tiktok brings out the worst in people again. I hope the police find some grounds to deport her, there isn't a shred of credibility to her claim. What did she do, stand there next to one of the hookers and wait until some guy hit on her, then twist the story to her liking? 

2 hours ago, Celsius said:

I know the subject matrer is laughable and about "other" issue, but every mug who thinks healthcare in Thailand is reasonably priced needs to read this by clicking the link in the article

 

“I opened a restaurant in the US before I moved to Sweden to open another one. I have been treated and stayed in hospitals in both countries but the bills were never this high. I want the hospital to know why it is so expensive. I am willing to accept the price if the explanation is reasonable.”

I'm one of those mugs. I've read the comments from all you whiners and complainers. I've been here 10 years. I have never paid more than $300 for any hospital care including emergency treatments, albeit they were all outpatient. They were all at Phaya Thai 1 hospital. I've also had satisfactory dental treatments. The only time I've paid more was for dental implants, which were still less than 1/3 of what they cost in the US. And I don't care nor am I the least concerned about Thai people paying less. It's their country, they are generally less well off than we are, and it really doesn't affect ANYONE'S quality of life. But don't let me stop anyone from complaining, I realize that the biggest reason you came here was for fresh new topics to complain about because you got sick of the same old subjects in your home countries, where complaining and arguing is a national contact sport on the level of football. Wahhhh. 

I also think that any economy that depends too heavily on tourism is fundamentally on shaky ground and bound to implode sooner or later. 

I think the commenters here pretty much hit the nail on the head. Times change, attitudes change, and most importantly, economic conditions change. And now it's impossible to put the genie back into the bottle. (Although Barbara Eden still looks great at 92, let's ask her) I used to be able to fly Chinese airlines round trip from NY to BKK for $450 US, now there are no Chinese flights and for those that remain it's about $600 one way. I don't know specifics about the airline market within China, but if rates are similarly high, that would be enough to kill it in and of itself. 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Any time of year Russia is an absolute pit of desolation. I would need a sponsor to come up with $75,000 cash, to even consider a visit to that God forsaken land. 

And run the risk of being taken hostage by Putin on any number of imaginary trumped up charges.