observer90210

2 minutes ago, Chou Anou said:

I don't fly out of that many int'l US airports (even though I live in the US), but one particularly awful one that springs to mind (domestic or int'l) is LAX...luckily, my home airport is SFO, which is not bad at all in my experience.

Was planning to visit for the first time the City of Angels this summer? What would you recommend to be aware of at LAX?

3 minutes ago, Chou Anou said:

Yep, that's exactly what it's come to for me: my upcoming December trip will be the first one I fly strictly business class into/out of Swampy, just to avoid that immigration line headache--that includes to/from Cambodia and Laos, which, let me tell you, is not cheap!

And what do I get if I fly first class? A happy end with a nice female immigration official? . Have a nice and fast track trip in December!

47 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

man from india involved .. for sure, there is more to tell ;-)

could have been a man from any country

2 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Prayuth Criticizes Teen Singer’s Sexy Dancing, Blames Farangs

By Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

 

 

BANGKOK — The owner of a record label representing teen luk thung singer Lumyai Hai Thongkam, said criticism of her dancing by the prime minister shows he is out of touch.

 

Prachakchai Navarat, owner of Hai Thongkum Records said the sexual dance moves criticized recently by Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha as inappropriate and not Thai, were not new in any sense.

 

“I want to ask, is Lumyai really destroying society? This kind of thing has been happening way before she was famous, in lum sing, coyote, Korean and American dancing,” Prachakchai said. “Please don’t think of this as something inappropriate.”

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2017/06/13/prayuth-criticizes-teen-singers-sexy-dancing-blames-farangs/

 

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2017-06-13

a few eyebrows were raised on previous posts but once again, it looks that the top brass of thai governance seem to manifest a certain level of hostility towards farangs???....if this is true, why risk further and invest in a house or condo with a risk of getting hassled daily? ...no offenses please, just a thought..!!...intelligent answers would be nice, rather then the usual troll "go back home then"..

14 minutes ago, WhyYouTalkMeBad said:

You forgot the sky train. Fast icy cold 45 baht and no PITA Thai drivers annoying you with stupid bar girl questions, where you from, you have family blah blah

the train from the airport sounds good, but if you have luggage it could get a bit inconvenient during rush hours and walking up and down the stairs of the train stations in town?

but one must admit that she is hot!!

3 hours ago, NCFC said:

Dirty old man he just wants a bit

One has to admit that she is really quite a hot chesty!!

1 minute ago, Naam said:

relax mate! you are not the only one who gets sometimes confused when currency pairs are concerned

cushty

1 minute ago, Here It Is said:

AOT does me fine.  Take what suits you best.

 

Anyway, aren't we supposed to get back on topic?

transport facility and quality from an airport would seem on topic in a thread discussing the quality of a specific airport...

thanks for the exchange,

1 minute ago, Here It Is said:

Like I said, get ripped off by the metered taxis.  Pays your money you makes your choice.  

 

AOT Limo has always been there and they're not going away.  You have two choices, take it or leave it.

Did you try Uber or Grab Taxi apps?

19 minutes ago, wump said:

1600 Baht? You're having a laugh. Even if I could afford it, this service is certainly not worth an extra 400-500% of the fare. Why would anyone support this rip-off?

 

Even in Australia a taxi would be cheaper than this.

A very sensible approach. Prices soar due to tourists who inflate the prices for all,  solely to the fact that it costs less in Europe. This encourages cheating the farangs and an experimented traveller will always adapt to local customs or prices and not compare with the costs in his native land. No offences to anybody here, but just a fact.

3 minutes ago, Naam said:

the Thai Baht didn't get stronger during the afore-mentioned period but weakened considerably. presently you nearly get double the amount of Baht for one Dollar.

you are right, and corrected my lexic in the cited post, thanks for reading.

11 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

Everyone talks about Thai baht  and how it affects trade and tourism. When I first came to Thailand I got 18 baht to the dollar.and the rest of the world did not even know they were there. It jumps to 30 baht and hey they are a player the world took notice.. Their exports were dismal at 18,but at 30 baht the exports became the highest in the region.Can some one explain to me how that works?

Perhaps through the years the quality and choice of exports improved which may explain why exports did rise to some extent despite the monetary fluctuation. Maybe that globalisation also made the prices soar elsewhere and that also helped. But on the other hand tourists don't give a shit for such economic variables and want to get a long run for their bucks. If one was to speculate that tourism drains in as much currency as exports, if not more, it may be a wrong turn to take in strenghtening the THB and lowering the purchasing power of farangs?  I am no financial guru, just was informally sharing a few thoughts. Have a nice evening.

13 minutes ago, Here It Is said:

Doesn't make Swampy a bad airport, does it?

 

Get the AOT Limo from departures.  Knowledgeable and friendly drivers, no queues, air-con, Easy Pass and plenty of space in the boot for your luggage.  Not cheap but very efficient and have never been ripped off.  Fantastic service every time.

Not at all my friend. That's why I wrote "solely"...I chose UBER or similar now.

29 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Greed?  Whose greed exactly?  Are you suggesting that some all-powerful Thai person is controlling the value of the baht against all of these international currencies?  And making it stronger to hurt the export and tourism industries?  But aren't there powerful people in the export and tourism industries who would have a problem with that?   

 

Your argument contains no logic and is frankly, a bit looney. 

Greed in the sense that despite a product costing less on import dut to a strong THB, you continue to increase the retail costs. This has nothing to do in controling or not the value of the THB but with the greed policies of retail moghouls. Now if this seems to lack logic or make you feel looney, sorry I cannot be more explicit.  Have a nice evening!

Drunk <deleted> are a breed in any country. Take the drunk hooligan style brits who are no better. Look at some french natives of north african descent, who are equally awful. Take some species of americans who speak loudly for the whole street even when not drunk. Look at some germans when they are in their group and start screaming....look at some french people from Paris who even when in paradise beaches would claim that their beaches of France are the best....and the list can go on and on.

The point here is that there are rotten drunkards in every country, but that is not reson enough to stigmatise all the natives of any country as you have good and rotten people anyhere and everywhere in the world.

The issue would be on how the problem is being tackled by the local authorities? If the locals seem to be systematically favoured and the foreigner systematically condemned then there is a problem. If the police are totally absent or corrupt and close their eyes, then there is a problem. I am not pointing at any country in particular, but I am sure you get the point.

1 minute ago, wump said:

Totally ridiculous having Frankfurt in a better rank than Suvarnabhumi. It's a crappy airport where you won't even find your check-in counter because they are somehow spread randomly throughout the entire building. Duty free is overpriced, as is anything else (coke in a vending machine for 3.50€, anyone?). Looks old and outdated as well. The only positive thing is the nice immigration staff and not having a separate immigration for every single gate manned by two people like Berlin-TXL has.

you are right about extravagant duty free prices...unfortunately duty free is now in the hands of a couple of globalised groups who outforwardly just cheat you on the prices...perhaps cigarettes remain cheaper. Naturally it depends in which country you live, if your country is cheating you with a 20% style VAT obviously duty free is the only solution,. But if you live in a country with reasonable tax rates, duty free is far from being a good deal nowdays.

Whatever but this won't prevent me from takin Air Asia during stops in LOS!!...I mean who would want to miss those lovely chesty female flight attendants who are real friendly to chat up and if you get lucky, on arrival  she might even show you her private parts!!.....that is her private and secrets parts of the city naturally, what else?

Every different bank has it's own policies.

Each different branch of the same bank can change those policies to the way that suits the branch.

From town to town the policies vary from bank to bank and branch to branch.

A mess? Oh c'mon....enjoy and welcome to Thailand!

Strange criteria used by the survey company?$

Emirates is not included as it was neutrally rated the best airline in the world....Heathrow is not in the worst airport list as it is just a mess..and Dubai Airport? I find it one of the best...

What about Lufthansa? Many pilot strikes and flights cancelled due to strikes etc in 2016 - where is this airline on the worse list?

Why no americain airlines/airports on the shitlist either?

I would add Zurich and Madrid airports in the worst list also - rude security staff on many occasions - unclear passenger signs and no smoking rooms for passengers in transit in Madrid.

Nobody likes to walk long distance before boarding and  it is definately a criteria. I would also consider the politeness of the airport staff, the rapidity of getting through immigration/customs (Suvarnabhumi needs to make efforts to avoid those long immigration queues even if it's worse in other countries), and the rapidity in getting your luggage from the belt.

But....but...if one was solely to look into the honesty of the taxi drivers to and from the airport - in that case, I would unfortunately rate Suvarnabhumi  airport the worst in the world, due to the regular and tiring arguments you must put up with the cheats in Bangkok taxis who systematically refuse to turn on the meter with tourists.

To make it short, this survey company is selling bullshit with it's survey list that seems totally biased from 1 to 10!  Was it the airlines that put in the most "tea money" that make it to the top best????

looks that the poor boys made a mistake in calculating the exchange rate from  Yen to Bhat...THB6 million is barely the cost of a decent pool villa

who is corrupt? he who takes or he who pays?

what if one does not pay the local policeman?

and why pay the local policeman?

why not film the scene of the cops taking the bribe and send the film to the PM's anti-corruption office in Bangkok? Hear it does work out also for the common people...

19 hours ago, Mattd said:

Quite the opposite really, if it was dropping like a rock, then I'm sure it would make a lot of folks on TV very happy!

THB is way too strong in my opinion and for no good reason.

Your analysis is pertinent. Today, to use easy currency reference let's take the US$. It will give you around 34,. something in THB. 

If the THB gets stronger, imagine 1 US$ that get's you only say 25THB - keeping the THB so strong will make Thailand more expensive for tourists, who will turn to other places to spend their  cash, or invest in places nearer to their homes if there is not a substantial difference in cheaper cost of living in Thailand.

Thai citizens and those who get income within Thailand would perpahps profit on a short term with a overcharged BHAT - but one can doubt it as even when international market prices drop, the prices don't follow in Thailand, despite the fact that imports would cost less. But Thai exports will suffer heavily, tourists and investors will chose other places with weaker currency and the economy will crash...

Greed won't get them anyplace if they don't adapt the THB to it's real value, say 40 or 45 THB to 1 US$ that would seem an honest figure...and a sensible move to encourage investment and boost consumers..

2 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

"Why Thailand is the most dangerous country in the world for Aussies abroad"

 

You've gotta be frickin joking! You're more likely to have something happen to you walking down the Sydney CBD on a Friday or Saturday night or at the Gold Coast then you are anything to happen to you in BKK on those same nights.

the point here is that it could have been a tourist from any country...that's what makes the whole context a bit scary and as a tour operator,  I would not like to send a customer to a country that claims all is smilesand safe,....where he runs the risk to get bashed up, be him an Aussie, a Brit, an Americain or whatever....

1 minute ago, WhyYouTalkMeBad said:

Hahaha
We have a new record. The very first response to injured Ozzies has been turned into a don't buy a condo post
You can't make this stuff up lol

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

Lol and we also have a brillant literary critic on his 2nd post!