Flink

Having said that, maybe they were in the majority, after all TAT has said 1,000,000 arriving over Songkran.......ooh look! A flying pig!

Why, when reporting a negative item, do foreigners get priority treatment in the editorial? Pretty sure there are far more Thais than tourists involved in these shenanigans so why give foreigners top billing? Trying to insinuate the foreigners were leading the Thais astray perhaps? Not saying foreigners weren't involved, just not sure they were the bulk of the problem.

Doubtful, those who were looking for "winter sun " holidays have all been to Mexico and, more recently, Vietnam. The next big break is the summer holidays when it will be rainy season so that will reduce numbers. Thailand put itself behind the curve for tourists when it didn't follow the example of other countries and open up without restrictions. Add to that Anutin's announcement that bars and clubs still can't open as normal and they are just diving lower and lower beneath the curve. Vietnam is going to get all the tourist TAT is claiming will want to come here. Let's think: Go to Thailand - wear a mask pretty much everywhere. Pay for insurance that may/may not cover you if the arrival test shows you as positive and you end up in quarantine at a hospitel. Bars can only open as restaurants so you have to pay for overpriced food (those brown envelopes need stuffing somehow) just to have a beer in the afternoon. Nightclubs, gogo bars etc. all closed so evening entertainment is a meal out then back to the hotel and hope they have Netflix. Go to Vietnam - no mask mandates, not testing, no enforced purchase of useless insurance. Bars open as normal, entertainment venues open. Hmmm, hard choice......

Most of, if not all, the tourists coming in to Thailand have had more jabs each than the local population has! Jabbing them again won't make a blind bit of difference because: we already know that, vaccinated or not, you can still catch, and spread, Covid 19 strains to get a Thai Pass you have to prove you have had at least 2 vaccinations being tested on arrival means you are finding any carriers/infected on arrival. Now that the dominant strain is Omicron (which has less severe symptoms than seasonal flu for most) far better to let it run it's course. Thai news is big on listing how many foreigners arriving are infected. To be honest, I'd love it if the system was in place that everyone was tested on departure from their home country, shown clear, came here then got tested on arrival back in their home country and the Thai media report on how many came here uninfected and returned home and tested positive. Covid 19 (Omicrom variants) is here to stay, just like measles, Rubella, chicken pox and all manner of diseases that are endemic worldwide. The sooner Anutin accepts that Omicon is NOT Ebola and lets everywhere reopen and people get back to a normal life the better.

Chances are, over Songkran, they're as inebriated as the local drivers. Their biggest problem is figuring out which of the two trucks and 6 pink elephants they're meant to stop and fine.

That is undoubtably true. Mind you, come a budget announcement and an increase in fuel duty you can bet the prices at the pumps are raised within 24 hours. Odd that, because if the government raises the duty on Tinned beans it is illegal for the supermarket to increase the price on the tins they already have in stock. Wonder why filling stations get away with it? That being said, this is Thailand, they'd be out repricing the beans on the shelves, never mind the stock room.

With you on that one. The soi where I live there are 6 dogs on the go all day and most of the night. At least 2 of them have owners because they are well groomed and have collars. Most run away when approached but the 2 with owners are quite approachable. However, since coming to Thailand I have been attacked twice by dogs. Not dogs wandering the streets though. On both occassions these dogs came out of their owners property to attack. First one was from a scrap yard and it attacked me from behind and took a chunk out of my calf. I tracked the owner down and explained to him that if he didn't keep his dog secured on his property I'd secure to his gate by the throat. I doubt if he understood a word I said but he definitely understood the sign language and the dog was chained up after that. The second dog, fortunatley, didn't get a chance to bite (thankfully, it was a Rotty). I didn't talk to that owner as that would have meant getting past the dog first. The genuine "strays" are more fearful of humans so, in my experience, only turn nasty if they feel cornered. The "pets" on the other hand.......

Good point. If he was stealing not out of the lack of means to pay but lack of opportunity (because grandma was kipping) and gets arrested he'll pay a fine and be booted out of Thailand. Chances are he's on an O visa so they have to toss up between fining him a few thousand and deporting him or making him pay for the bottle (with a sweetener for grandma and the local plod) and letting him stay to enable them to keep getting the money he is paying into the community on a monthly basis through rent, utilities, shopping etc.

Can't be, he left the cabinet behind!

Conversely, to the Thais stealing from the shop, has no one ever told them you don't S@$t on your own doorstep? There's bad in everyone from papal figures and royalty down so it is only to be expected that some will falter now and again.

Yeah, cartels arerenowned for their pacifist attitude towards rivals, the police and anyone unwilling to work for them/hand over their land. As for the general public, the problem here is not drinking and violence as much asit is drinking and driving and killing themselves and killing/seriously injuring others and that remains the case whether you got off your baby feeders on booze or weed.

The fund is called BETMMAH, very popular in some quarters in Thailand. (BETMMAH - Brown Envelope To Make Me A Hi-so)

Really?? "throw some acid at him."??? How is that going to make things better? Slowly lowering him, feet first, into the acid, now THAT's a punishment.????

But if they do that how are all the "hospitels" going to recoup the amount they handed over in brown envelopes to get their hospitel status?

Depends on the IO. I did my last but one report late and went in person to do it with 2000 ready and was asked if I wanted a receipt. I said I didn't need a receipt and the IO gave me 1000 back. Pretty fancy and expensive receipt books immigration uses! (Well, I can't believe the IO would have just pocketed the other 1000 and ignored the date on the 90 day slip.......would they?)

Nothing I'd rather NOT be doing than paying 114 quid to sit in a (likely to be) half empty stadium watching a bunch of millionaire playboys and sex pests kick a ball around for 90 minutes. As for someone's suggestion the players play for free and the ticket money go to help Ukraine, sounds good but impractical. For a kick off, the players won't do jack s for free when they can call in sick on full pay of 150k a week. Then there's the "cut" for the organisers and all the brown envelope brigade. The Ukrainians would be lucky if there's enough left for a Morphy Richards kettle and a packet of cup-a-soups. Nah let them charge the exhorbitant ticket fees, give the players their cut of the gate money but withold 1 weeks pay from them when they get back to the UK. That should raise enough money to Charter BA to fly every woman and child out of Ukraine and have enough left over for a few AK's for the men left behind.

"The CCSA chief also emphasized that the emergency decree is still required to control the spread of Covid-19. He added that he will consider proposing that the rule be revoked whenever officials determine that the decree is no longer necessary." Which, if another article is to be believed, will be after the May election to ensure the right result.

The police in Saudi (even with their Aventador patrol cars) must be REALLY bad if the RTP are being held up as a shining example.

Yep, there are destinations out there that require none of the rigmarole Thailand wants to get here. And what the TAT seem to be overlooking is that these other destinations want repeat custom, not to just be a stop gap until Thailand gets back on it's feet so they are going all out to make peoples visits as memorable as possible. Even if (and it's a big IF) TAT drops ALL the requirements, they will still be behind the curve because all those bars and places that have been closed for a year will not just spring up and be popular again overnight. So anyone reopening will be facing heavy overseas competition and working at a disadvantage because those overseas places already have the customers.

Problem is, a camera, or cameras, in the classrooms would also show the behaviour of the kids (which can leave a lot to be desired from the older students) and that might cause parents to lose face if people get to see just how lazy/badly behaved their little prince or princess is. And since the parents pay for the director's new Mercs that will severely limit any chance of that being implemented.

Yep, if they can't question the teacher it's hard to be sure they have understood the lesson and since most of them won't do homework that's set during the semester, preferring to wait until the week before the final exams to do it all, it's kinda hard to be sure they've actually learned anything. That being said, hitting the kid! Really? I grew up at a time where that was acceptable from teachers but that was long ago. Obviously no one taught the teacher to say "Sorry, I don't know, I learned this stuff the way you are so I don't have any more knowledge." Preferable to lashing out.

Yes, Thais can go to the UK or USA and get a work permit for an unskilled job (just look at the residential homes for the elderly in the UK, without Thais and other foreign nationals they'd have no staff.) The issue here is that only skilled labourers are allowed to work here whilst the unskilled Thais can go to our countries and get WP's and jobs.

Bit of a difference unless you neighbour is a known drug dealer like the boyfiend in this case. She can't have been ignorant of what he was up to so accepting any package for him was unwise at best, culpability at worst.

And the rest! Starta testing program door to door nationwideandyou'll hit 100,000 by lunchtime.

So, if you arrive and test positive and they cart you off to a hospital when you are asymptomatic, on arrival at the hospital demand a letter from a doctor stating you are in hospital for necessary medical treatment. If they refuse, walk out.