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The most hilarious thing to me about this article is the careful avoidance of saying where it happened! hahahahaha What a joke. These ultra sensitive libel/slander laws make common-sense life unlivable. Just so stupid.... You'd almost think that they'd like to be mentioned because it appears that they handled it promptly and nobody got hurt, so they could tout their security for doing such a great job. Sure, it broke... stuff happens, things break, can't prevent everything. They could show off their pristine maintenance records.... But nooooo gotta cordon things off and don't let anyone take pictures!? hahaha too late! And people from above could take pictures anyway. This law has made everyone's thinking turn upside down and start doing irrational things. That's what getting woke does to you. Turn everything into a victim mentality.....

Now if THAT isn't a protected occupation for Thais, it sure should be!!

Now that's some extremely surprising news! Worn out screws... i.e., deferred (meaning "zero") maintenance. Whooda thunk it!

Number 23 on the list - "Street selling". I've never thought of buying a street before! I might want to look into that! But seriously... There are ENDLESS numbers of foreigners selling wares on the streets! The number of Burmese selling in the markets in Chiangmai and other northern cities sometimes makes me wonder if there are any Thais selling. And I imagine in provinces like Sisaket, Surin, Sakaew it is similar with Cambodians, and in Nong Khai with Lao people, and so on.... But stick a farang in a street booth and see how long before a stop is put to that travesty of protected job hijacking!

Don't they make cobblestones?

I read the article that was linked. What else do you expect is to be done to "follow the story"? A link would be nice to whatever article you may be referring to that shows what you allege.

What makes you think he wasn't willing or going to pay? I guess you could make that assumption, but it is unfounded according to the article. Nowhere did I read that he refused to pay the required extra 100 baht to be dropped where he wanted to go. There was only a claim by the insane driver (whatever anything he says can have any trusted value is questionable) that the passenger was uncooperative and was discourteous during the journey, which apparently made the driver feel justified to kill him or in the least, threaten to do so. Swinging (allegedly) an iron bar at someone's head should be thought of as no less than aggravated assault and perhaps stretched to attempted murder by an aggressive prosecutor. At any rate, that driver should suffer much more severe consequences than a pittance of a fine.

Wow... that's pretty amazing! Perhaps you always stay in very posh places? Not sure how you could have avoided seeing that. I don't disbelieve you, just find it amazing because I've also been in Thailand a bit over 2 decades and have seen railings that I thought "Oh that looks a bit low" countless times! Especially in condos and hotels.

You're not condoning "the injured party's stupidity"? What stupidity? You have some inside information that nobody else here can know from the article?

Yes, I'm all for avoiding the court system! Anyone with an iota of knowledge of what goes on in America knows all too well how insane that gets. But when somebody's life gets physically threatened... any society, I would think, should take that quite seriously. Docking somebody a days wage, or so, for such a egregious crime, surely couldn't appear reasonable to the average person, could it!??? Does anyone ever think how they'd feel about it if that were their mother being attacked? It appears not....

At the VERY LEAST this driver should be arrested, fined (much more heavily), fired from his job, and blacklisted from working alone with the public. The man is obviously a menace to society. Going off into a tirade and threatening (or allegedly even taking a swing at someone's head) with an iron bar!? Regardless of whether or not that tourist said something offensive or not, this driver needs to go away and not come back. Obviously, nothing remotely close to justice will happen. So unbelievably absurd that the article would say this pitiful 1,000 baht fine is a "show of justice for tourists"! OMG..... I think "justice" needs a redefinition for some people.

Elevators and moving walks in Thailand are incredibly poorly maintained (surprise of all surprises....). My brother works in a niche industry of elevator/escalator insurance. Over the years, I've learned a few things to pay attention to in order to realize unsafe situations in/on them. There's no reason for it, other than unadulterated lack of care and negligence. That airport should be sued to high heaven. Not that it will do any good there... but should do it anyway. The condition of those combplates is inexcusable! That moving walk should not have been in operation until they were replaced. One missing tooth in a plate requires swift attention to get it replaced right away. Two teeth adjacent and it must be shut down. In the photos where you could see the combplates, numerous teeth were missing! Somebody should be fired! And the airport should be paying out a VERY hefty fine! Thank God she didn't bleed out and die. Best practices for riding an escalator or moving walk is to stay away from the edges and step OVER the combplates.

To the contrary, The original comment that I was responding to was stretching things. The original issue I had with it was the attaching a nationality to the perpetrators, which we can't know from the article. I don't really care if they were laborers or not, that was a side issue. But that is also not clear. Not sure why it would matter if a Burmese person or a Thai Yai person was ever in a position of authority in your experience. And whether or not they were skilled or unskilled is only a point I made because the commenter I was responding to was saying something different than what the article said. The point is that we don't even know if they were construction workers at all. Just because they were caught at a place where construction workers live does not equate to them being construction workers, skilled or otherwise. And we don't know their nationality because the article also did not state that either. It only stated their ethnicity and from where the writer erroneously thought ethnic group originated. It has nothing to do with political correctness, it has to do with fact. I couldn't care less what may be politically correct. You'd be better served to not read motives into people you know nothing about.

20 year-old... Mercedes Benz... There's enough money behind him to make this go away, no big deal. He negotiated with the victim down to 50,000. Hell if I'd negotiate down after he fled the scene! Although I could understand his fear of being surrounded by a bunch of "win" guys, he obviously wasn't on the way to report to the police. He should get slam dunked by the justice system, but obviously that's not going to happen after he was allowed to negotiate down to half! of what is in line with the law's max penalty. I'm curious if anyone here knows what really happens in cases like these. Articles often mention penalties that the law calls for, but I rarely ever read if they actually get charged and convicted or if the settlement that they make with the victim alone concludes the matter?

You could always pass it on to me and I can get it to her. Honest. Really????

O.H. M.Y. G.O.D.!!! He touched a fish!!! This is definitely an offense worthy of red-faced, explosive anger and indignation that he would dare commit such an affront against Thai law!! No wonder at all that "many Thai nationals are outraged"! I sure would like to know what their definition of "many" is. I can barely fathom more than 10 (who are probably worthy of being institutionalized in a nuthouse or maybe of becoming a politician) being outraged over this act, unless of course they knew it was a foreigner who committed such an atrocity, showing his disrespect for Thailand, then perhaps that number of outraged righteous citizenry could be exponentially larger. The guy must be quite the dodgy character though, since they confiscated his passport and deemed him a flight risk! Certifiably insane. Yep... sounds like a news story expressly written by those who are clamoring for the tourist industry to get back on its feet. Good luck with that one... I almost never recommend anyone come to visit me anymore, let alone come for tourism. Why?

Agreed on a harsh punishment (personally, I'm a fan of corporal punishment in a public place), but why punish his family? For all we know, they disowned him years ago because he perhaps has refused to exercise self-control and has maybe even assaulted members of his own family.

Meanwhile the two women are wearing helmets that are not full-face helmets and one of them is grey colored! Perfect for nighttime or dusk riding! Not to mention that the strap on the helmet of the "Lt-Col (lady) Dr" is quite loose....

You got a good laugh out of me with that response! One has to wonder how large a sampling size he had to have taken in order to draw that conclusion about an entire ethnic group! But with the drugs he was professing to be on at the time... maybe it was just kept in the family... and apparently the family he stayed with made quite the impression! ???? In all likelihood, it was probably a really nice family just getting by and struggling to survive, as has been the case for many I've met over the years who subjected themselves to working in the depravities of the illicit opiate trade. Having a bit more income from a drug-loving foreigner must have been nice for them.

Yes, I read that too, of course. It doesn't say what you say it says. It states their ethnicity, not their nationality. It erroneously states an origin of the ethnic group, which although there are a large number of Tai Yai in Burma, from every paper I've ever read re this ethnic group, its roots are from Yunnan, China, but this has nothing to do with the individuals in question re their nationality. Their nationality is not stated. It also does not state that they were laborers. You seem to think that simply because of the location of the arrests that they were laborers. Location and occupation do not necessarily equate. They could have been visiting friends. They could be skilled workers rather than laborers. There are a variety of other reasons why they may have been at a construction workers camp and not laborers or even part of the work force there. You may be right. They may be Burmese laborers, but that is far from clear with only this article for reference.

Perhaps you missed what I wrote... I did read the linked/original article, as I said, "I couldn't find that anywhere in either the synopsis or the original article." Since you seem to have missed what I wrote, could it be a sort of pattern and sort of like missing something, maybe you read between the lines and add information that seems logical to yourself, even though it is not in what you are reading? I did go back and read it again, just to be sure I wasn't missing something. It does not say they are Burmese or laborers anywhere that I could find.

Curious where you got the idea that the thugs were Burmese. I couldn't find that anywhere in either the synopsis or the original article. It did mention that they were of Thai Yai ethnicity, of which there are MANY in northern Thailand and who are born in Thailand and who are educated in Thai public schools. I also didn't see where you got the idea that they were laborers. Just wondering if you have some kind of information from another source?

I couldn't say anything about AQI numbers, I just remember my experience in those years and it seemed pretty much the same in the past recent years as it was then. This season, I'm thankfully out of town and have no idea, other than what friends tell me. One thing that always amazes me is how, both then and now, I can be driving along the back-country roads for kilometer after kilometer of fires and it would seem like the fires never go out! The same places burn for days! Agriculture in Thailand, as a percentage of the GDP may have decreased over time, as you mentioned, but in the area I'm talking about it has increased dramatically. As the roads out into the countryside improved and electricity has been brought in, more and more land was and continues to be cleared for agriculture in those areas that previously were all forested. Interestingly enough, it seems like the tourism sector has dropped if anything. Of course, it's only anecdotal, but I see a lot fewer tourists now (in the areas I'm relating to) than I did in the past. But then again, in other areas of Maehongson, tourism has exploded (as has agriculture in those same areas). Any transfer of burning from upcountry Thailand to neighboring countries must be coming from a different upcountry part of Thailand than where I'm familiar with. Kayah and Shan States may be burning more, I don't know, but I don't think there has been much of a transfer. I honestly can't say that I've noticed anything get better at all in the past 20 years in terms of burning in the areas I'm familiar with in Maehongson. And I would not be surprised in the least if it is actually worse, being that I've seen a lot more land converted to agricultural use over the years.

I can't speak for Chiangmai much, but in Maehongson, it is not far greater today at all, it's just as bad as two decades ago. The only thing that has been likely to have changed is the amount of money in some particular persons' pockets who formed some sort of "Stop the Smoke!" campaign every year. I remember, I believe it was 2003, being amazed at how you could probably sit there and stare at the sun, or the direction it appeared to be in but was maybe not able to be pinpointed exactly, for an hour and it probably wouldn't bother you in the least. The smoke was so thick, it stunned me how people could live in it... then I proceeded to do just that! hahaha I've often wondered what the lifespan of the villagers is like in areas like this compared to other areas of Thailand. There is no getting away from it in Maehongson, at least for the people I work with, since many of them live in homes that are not even remotely able to be sealed... with gaps in the wood or made from bamboo and no glass in the windows and gaps between the top of the walls and the roof with no sealed-off ceiling. I'd be willing to bet that there is a statistically significant difference in life expectancy in areas like this and a MUCH higher rate of respiratory diseases/illnesses.

He made a proper fool out of himself. With only what was explained in the article - one single example, how on earth does the reason for the treatment suddenly become a point of foreign/Thai!? There are likely a thousand other things it could be! It's even possible that IF extra attention was indeed being given to that passenger, maybe there was a VERY good reason and it's possible that such reason couldn't be shared in order to protect the privacy or even dignity of that passenger. There are so many possibilities outside of the idea that it is because the person was a foreigner, it is absurd. It looks like what I seem to come across so often... a racist, socially projecting on others. If one is racist and terribly insecure, projecting that onto others will make one's conscience feel justified. Not sure what it would take to convince me that this guy is not an arrogant, insecure racist. Of course, I wouldn't say that he is such, I don't know him, but boy oh boy, he sure is begging the question!