GeorgeCross

1 hour ago, Lungstib said:

I was in the travel business for 30 years and watched places like Kathmandu, Bali and Phuket get destroyed by that simple business strategy of 'growth'. More people, more hotel rooms, more sales will bring us more profit. The destruction of the simple pleasures of clean seas, quiet atmosphere, uncrowded beaches, un-jammed traffic and greened areas leaves these places more like war zones rather than places of tranquillity. So people move on to a new quiet place and ultimately do the same again.

it is possible to do but it involves "planning" and here, well, anyone with a bit of land can build nearly anything they want.. so they do

hence the chaos.

the queues at savanakhet are going to be getting a lot longer once word gets around.

to the OP how comes you didn't get an interview? do you think it was the previous work permit and did you get back in at the border or still in laos?

bad news i'm afraid, the new tourism minister has stated his desire to make short term airbnb lets legal (along with ride share companies like grab) so i doubt anything is going to get done by anybody in the meantime.

i think it may be something everybody has to learn to deal with ????

so bangkok > pattaya aircon van 1600 baht

and phuket airport > kata 1600 baht

some "misunderstanding" ????

On 7/13/2019 at 3:09 PM, xylophone said:

Consequences is not in the Thai vocabulary, it's all for the now with no thought for the next day/year/after and the result of an action. Evident in everyday life here.........

as my wife says "Thai people never look back.. never look forward either" 

6 minutes ago, NE1 said:

As stated. Your first night in Pattaya / Phuket / BKK . You have read about all the luverly ladies who work in the bars. You and your mates are all revved up for a great night out . You are sat in your condo/hotel talking about who is going to do what. 

You walk out onto the main strip . 

Not one bar open , no music . No pretty ladies. No pretty lights .

For 48 hours . What a bummer.

Oh well , it will give them plenty to talk about on Facebook / Twitter etc. ( I take it you are allowed to use social media )

you are but negative comments make get you locked up or deported ????

on a side note i lived on samui for 8 years but left 6 years ago. last year we went back and vowed never again. saw pretty much the same as the OP, even had one thai (burmese maybe) dude follow me along the road while i was riding a bike screaming "smoke, smoke" at me.. i had to tell him to eff off before he got the message, truly desperate looking place now (cheong mon btw for the wise-asses)

my sister in law is currently there bedding in some new tenants to her villa. she has been reporting that things do not look good there. one of the big hotels on chaweng beach just laid off 50% of its staff for low season as very few bookings, they have never done this before. also she said same story everywhere (she is well connected) down a lot this year.

its a shame because i absolutely loved that place but it just turned into a rat run with every road concrete either side unless i went up into the hills. also the crime and mafia was a massive problem, insane traffic (locals) plus the school fees were astronomical.

i hope it gets back on track but not holding out much hope

6 hours ago, JamJar said:

Odd that he didn't state exactly where on Samui these occurrences are supposed to have taken place.

One could visit Patong and then say the same thing about Phuket. but stay away from the most touristy parts of holiday destinations and you can have a completely different experience.

 

 

isn't that the whole point of going to a tourist place as a TOURIST? to see the touristy bits? if they wanted to trek through the jungle to some god foresaken arse-end of the island why bother going at all?

9 hours ago, nong38 said:

What a load of old tosh ! All the Indians have been in England for the Cricket World Cup.

they've gone home already 

4 minutes ago, Skallywag said:

Euphoria and excitement is everywhere in Thailand, why would you need to inhale gas?  55

a decade ago maybe, now, not so much

7 hours ago, how241 said:

I was in Tesco, near Jomtien, last night and it was full of Indian looking people. When I was leaving I saw the group leader walking them back to the 5 large tour buses that were waiting for them.  What was surprising was that maybe 1 out of 10 even had a bag in their hand.  A few were  holding water bottles or drinks.  Most had nothing. 

been on quite a few tours during my life including, ironically, to india

i can categorically say that tesco was never on the stop list!!

hmmm so 45K per tourist now is it? but indians magically spend 50K??

odd because only a month ago TAT figures in an article posted here, once broken down by one of our smarter members showed an amazing anomaly..

the average tourist spends.. wait for it.. exactly 50K 

same agency, same tourists, different numbers.

i'm gonna call BS on all of it.

32 minutes ago, Cambodger said:

i went down to Khosarn rd the other day with the Mrs. Haven't been for 3 years (we're just about young enough to still get away with it) but was curious to see what it was like now.

It's changed a lot. I know it's rainy season but it's usually when all the Western students get there 'discover myself time' but it was much quieter than i can ever remember it over the last 15 years. There was a few fishermans pants wearing types about and some of the bars were full, but it was different.

Went up to that Roof top bar (can't remember the name) but was met by an angry looking bouncer who told my girlfriend she couldn't come in with an half eaten snack, she had and to put it in the bin. I said lets go somewhere else...

We ended up in the one with a stepped terrace, that plays loud hip hop (can't remember the name either) they let her in with said snack.

The crowd was a mix but I'd say the majority were Asian who don't really drink much. The western kids were sipping bottles unusually slowly too, if at all...  I saw people come in sit down look at the drinks menu prices and walk out and a few shocked faces when the check bin arrived, followed by mumbling and fumbling to split the bill and leaving looking unhappy and i presume a feeling that they've wasted a large chunk of their budget. 

I think i was the biggest spender in there and I'm a fairly moderate drinker and my Gf never has more than 2 bottle or she can't walk.

Just to put this into perspective I was drinking bottles of Tiger and they were 180 bht that's £4.80 each. I had a few pints of Guinness at Heathrow airport on the way out which are priced at a crazy £5.50 each, seems like good value in contrast. I was actually converting US $ to spend but even then its $6 for a small bottle of cheap lager.

Closing the smoking rooms at the airport has p'ed me of too, i don't expect much sympathy from others but it's just something else. I know you still can't smoke at most of the airport terminals in the UK too but at least there you know immigration/ security isn't going to take more than 15 minutes so you can leave it until the final hour before going through.

We tend to holiday outside of Thailand now, have done for the last 2 years and have no intention of changing, we've had some wonderful holidays.

It's not just about the exchange rate, like others have said Thailand just isn't really fun or friendly anymore, even for blinkered first timers.

180 baht for a beer on khao san road. nuts. thong lor ok in an upper end bar but khao san. jeez.

we are going to vietnam for holiday this year as well, might as well get some good news from the high baht, it'll be cheaper abroad.

swerving local holidays here now as its just getting so grim to travel and they have killed the fun.

sad times indeed and i don't see it getting better all the charm is going and the locals are grumpy and i don't blame them.

from a marketing perspective in order to make great sales you need a:

great product at great prices

so everyone, please fill in the blanks:

Thailand offers a _______ product at ________ prices.

fill in this simple formula Thailand and you can welcome all the quality, responsible tourists your little heart desires ????

20 minutes ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

Not really, he was just one of the many people, banks, hedge funds and institutions that could see the obvious and made a lot of money.

If a country can't influence it's exchange rate, then it's also beyond the scope of any individual. 

any country with its OWN currency can easily influence its own exchange rate by either increasing supply of the money directly (printing/easing), devaluing, increasing bank loan allowances or increasing their government bond supply.

indirectly they can also lower interest base rates or spend down their foreign exchange reserves

countries with shared currencies cannot which is why southern eurozone countries are in such a mess

the fact they do not here, is through choice not because they can not

currency manipulation is easy.. but frowned upon internationally

look up zimbabwe and weimer hyperinflations to see how easy it is to add some extra zeros to a currency!

the bigger more relevent question is if they can why do they not?