iubito2001

7 hours ago, free123 said:

maybe he paid the money but they did not transfer the house to his name rather to the ladys name....when he was not amused they told him mai pen rai...not telling him before that he never ever can own a house  in his own name here...than he lost it..who knows all the details.?...the combo..millions.. & house..&.falang.&. thai women.&..passport is usualy a receipt for disaster

<deleted> crab - why in Thai Visa so many wrong things are posted. You can own a house - you cannot own the land. 

13 hours ago, impulse said:

I see miles and miles of empty beach in the photo and a few hundred meters of buildings that probably draw more tourists and more tourist $$$ than any 10 miles of that empty beach.

 

Wouldn't a better idea be to lease the encroached land to the folks who have been there for years and years instead of tearing down the buildings and leaving a gaping wound that won't attract anyone for years?

 

Anyone looking for a pristine beach isn't going to find it in town- they can travel 500 meters.  Families whose kids and grandkids grew up eating in the encroaching restaurants can keep on eating there.  Lease payments would go to the public coffers.  Hundreds (thousands?) of locals will keep their jobs.

 

Unless, of course, this is all a ploy to grab the land for high rent, high rise condos and hotels.  Because you can never have enough condos and hotels.   As long as you're willing to price them real low.

I agree, it would be better to legalize and grant lease to the restaurants with the obligation to renew structures and avoid pollution by taking the necessary steps. I am quite sure that such a step would also invite more investments and betterment of the restaurantgs. It should however be done within a masterplan how to improve the old part of town. The small road declared as walking street in the Bintabaht area is quite a joke, the entire old town at night should be a walking street and this would result in more nice bars, restaurants, boutiques letting visitors stroll without the fear of being hit by a madman motorcycle.  Then the problem of missing parking lots has to be solved, still one of the major headaches in this town. Anyone knows what kind of buildings have been partially erected at the old pier? Before we had at least a 50-100 parking lots there, they disappeared and the construction site is idle since long.

Another possibility: I have long believed that the ousted dictator, now in self-imposed exile, is waging a war here in Thailand. His connections to international movements, backed by the US, is well-documented and that would give him the contacts and reasons to support these kind of actions. There may be a slight possibility that by using foreign proxies to carry out attacks in his home country he would deflect suspicion away from himself. The pipe bombs used seem to be similar to other pipe bombs previously discovered in the hands of red shirts (the explosion in Nonthaburi is a fine example). The self-exiled dictator has some strange bedfellows so such a theory could be a possibility and it is the kind of link that should be investigated by the Special Branch. I may get flamed for this, but if you don't raise questions, you don't get answers.

I am with you on this one. After personally witnessing the incitement of the protesters from Thaksin's ravings on big screen TV underneath the BTS at Chidlom back in 2010 and the resulting major life threatening fires (Tesco Lotus, Central World, banks, Stock Exchange) that followed it would not be wise to simply dismiss this theory. The Thaksin family are not stupid and have offered a substantial reward for the capture of the bomber/s knowing full well that rewards and greed can draw attention away from themselves if need be and perhaps quickly lead to the capture and conviction of the wrong people. They may just be laying a false trail away from themselves. I travel and spend time regularly in Isaan and in recent months the Soi dogs have been barking that "something" was going to happen "soon". All gossip and hearsay for sure but where there is smoke there can sometimes be fires and explosions. I am not pointing the finger or promoting fanciful theories but just saying keep options and minds open. Others have pointed out that the man could just be the babysitter of the gear at the condo and selected for the job because he "knows nuttin". I suspect even terrorist groups and their subcontract demolition teams have village idiots for those sorts of jobs.

Yes the guy looks not very intelligent (from his looks he could be Turk, Yugoslavian, Bulgarian ....) My guess is that a criminal network has been employed by someone doing this nasty job. The key figures have already left (or have been eliminated by the contracting boss). The question really is: who is the contracting party?

What a surprise; just keep changing the immigration laws almost daily and make sure that even Immigration officials don't know the laws.

The problem is the consulates and embassies are probably not even well briefed. A friend of mine applied for a visa in Switzerland from the Thai consulate and received yesterday a phone call from a rude employee telling him, that he has been in Thailand too many times and they could not grant a visa anymore. He visits Thailand since 40 (!) years, staying each time 2-3 months, then returning to Switzerland. He is above 50 and financially well off. He spents a fair amount of money here during his trips.

That is not the way how to deal with friends of Thailand!

A high speed train makes only sense connecting densely populated areas and the only if the train intervals are rather short and regular, otherwise people choose other transport methods.

If you look at the experience from the shinkansen trains in Japan (from wikipedia) you can see that for long distance (Chiang Mai, South Thailand etc) people choose air over train.

Quote

Compared with air transport, the Shinkansen has several advantages, including scheduling frequency and flexibility, punctual operation, comfortable seats, and convenient city-center terminals.

The Shinkansen system and airlines often compete with each other for the business of city-to-city domestic travelers. If the Shinkansen connects two cities in less than three hours, most passengers choose the Shinkansen, but if it takes more than four hours by Shinkansen, the majority choose air. Some examples are as follows.

Unquote

I agree with streetCowboy. For long distance use an upgraded double track system allowing speeds up to 160 km/h and make it suitable to transport bulk goods. All other ideas are phantasy and the cost of maintaining a high speed train system connecting towns with low income populations creates a tax burden not only for the investment but the maintenance as well. Such a system cannot be operated profitably.

Agree 100%.

It would seem more sensible to double track with metre gauge track and get the benefit of through-running on the new tracks laid through Malaysia as well. They'll save most of the time upgrading the current system to 120 kmh and eliminating the delays at passing places, while that will also benefit freight, and it can be done in incremental steps. SC

This is without a doubt the most sensible comment I have seen so far regarding Thai Rail.

Now, if only the folks in Parliament can stop fighting long enough to do something about it in the interests of Thailand!

Is this just not a small part of the plan China proposed a year or two ago?

I think the point that sank that one was that it did not include Chiang Mai as it would not be feasable but it did allow for a feasibly possible spur to Chiang Rai.

A friend in the travel business told me that the big push next year is to get the hordes of Russians to Hua Hin. He said that Phuket is overloaded and the Russians are liking Hua Hin.

There is a real reason to fear that. Has there been any talk of Pattaya or Phuket receiving benefits from the Russians other than tourist baht. All I hear about them is they bring the Mafia with them. Not Russian bashing just reporting what I hear about them.

PepsiCo unveils Bt18.4bn plan for Thai investment

The company has appointed a global logistics firm - DHL - as its logistics and warehousing partner for Thailand. It also works with local distribution partners, which will handle production distribution and logistics in the five regions throughout the Kingdom and via the company's 50 distribution points.

http://www.nationmul...t-30193061.html

Well that's Samui off the list then. DHL do not know where Samui is. Anything sent via DHL to Samui ends up in the post from Bangkok. Last tracking schedule we had - Hong Kong - Cincinatti - Hong Kong - Bangkok - Phuket - Bangkok - Hong Kong - Bangkok - Phuket - Bangkok then EMS to Samui. Many such stories like this. Hopeless company.

I agree with you. DHL is hopeless. We tried a couple of times but each time they could not find Hua Hin. The Chinese DHL claimed it does not exist. I sent them a Google Map. Since we use EMS - which costs the same - it works (for imports from China).

The inbound tourism is still about 50 % sex and fun seekers and sex always sells. Thailand has unique position and this will prove to be some resilient factor. This will never be an official position but it is a fact.

Regarding local tourism. Here in Hua Hin the weekend trafic from Bangkok visitors is clogging up our streets and parking lots. There are plenty of Thais who can afford travel.

What you have is a tourism ministry that appears unusual compared to other tourism ministries in the world. The first clue is evident in their quoting of domestic tourism statistics. What is a tourism ministry doing selling Thailand to Thai people or taking credit or being budgeted for domestic travel? This is like the marketing department at Toyota budgeting for advertising to Toyota employees, or Phuket budgeting to advertise Phuket to people that live there. It is, if nothing else, unorthodox. Tourism ministries in the global marketplace promote their country as a whole and feature popular destination attractions, competing against other countries to increase their market-share of inbound arrivals from the global marketplace. It is the responsibility of each destination in the country to then compete for market-share of the inbound arrivals and for market-share of domestic tourism. One reason the destinations place high priority on inbound travelers rather than domestic is that domestics often stay with friends, or relatives, or in budget inns, travel by car, eat at food stands, and visit free attractions. Inbound arrivals actually generate incremental revenue for the national economy, which the domestics do not, and they stay in hotels, rent cars, use airlines, eat at hotels and tourist restaurants, and visit the high-end attractions. To advertise a country to its own citizens is at best, impractical. You will hear it justified as a strategy to keep Thais from traveling to other countries, which is like Khon Kaen justifying an advertising budget for marketing Khon Kaen to people that live there so they don't take a trip to Udon Thani. It just does not compute.

Then there is the mention in this article about a 2011 forecast that is compared to a 2010 forecast, as though the 2010 forecast, as a basis for comparison, is on schedule or has been met--when the year is not over and the 2010 forecast has steadily spiraled downward. Then in the following sentence the governor states that TAT officials plan to meet and discuss next year's business and marketing plans. So, what is the basis for the forecasts? Using the stated figures for 2011, each of the forecast 15M inbound arrivals will spend 38,200 baht and each of the 91M domestic trips will spend 4,748 baht. Will 38,200 baht buy a round trip plane ticket from developed countries? Probably, but there wouldn't be much left over. Will 65M people--every man, woman, and child in Thailand--take 91M tourism trips in 2011 even if they each traveled individually? How can that be when they travel in family groups, and when 11.5% of the population lives on less than US$ 2.00 per day and 13.6% of the population live below the poverty line? So the question keeps coming back to why a national tourism ministry requests and receives budgeting to promote domestic tourism to Thai people so that they do not vacation in another country when such a tiny fragment of the population have the financial resources to even make outbound trips?

Regarding political instability being the only threat factor still troubling the tourism industry, does the governor mean that all the threat problems in the south have been resolved so that nobody will read of bomb attacks and murders? Does the governor discount the surge in dengue fever and malaria as not being deterrent threats?

Regarding the governor's focus on niche groups, it comes as a surprise to hear him consider women and leisure travelers as niches? These are about as broad, no pun intended, categories as you can get--if you are not a woman you are a man and travel is either for leisure or business. As for targeting wellness and spa travelers, by wellness, it is supposed that he means medical travelers, which are traveling out of necessity and facing medical costs, not exactly the stuff that vacations are made of. Medical travelers may not be able to get around much due to their infirmities and often reside in hospitals rather than hotels. While it does bring incremental revenue into the national economy, most of the revenue goes to hospitals and is of very little benefit to the tourism industry or any tourism destinations. Thus, one would expect the promotion of medical travel to be funded at least jointly by medical and hospital associations. The notion that spa travel is a niche begs clarification, since it is at best an amenity. What seems to be overlooked is that international tourism decisions begin with what country to visit, and then which destination(s) and attractions to visit, and finally which hotel(s) to book. It would be most interesting to see research substantiating these stated marketing-target decisions as viable. While you might find a person that would come to Thailand only because a certain spa is here--hotels everywhere have spas--is this really a viable market to budget as a priority?

It is interesting that a tourism minister would ask his subordinates in overseas offices to create new marketing strategies when that is clearly the responsibility of a tourism ministry. Having offices in neighboring countries in Europe, or in North American cities, independently taking marketing messages to consumers and travel planners is counterproductive, due to inconsistent positioning and mixed messages that undermine the process of accumulative impressions that makes advertising work. As an aside, is there any reason why sports and film festivals fall under the aegis of a tourism ministry? How do sports and film festivals represent any kind of viable tourism market? And, the minister's use of the the phrase to lure tourists back to Thailand is a curious one, since to lure means to induce pleasure and a lure is a decoy to trap animals, or artificial bait. Perhaps, it is an inadvertent poor choice of words to give to the media, rather than a mandate to his subordinates to induce pleasure travel or to trap tourists.

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I only read your reply/opinion after my previous post.

But also want to reply to some of your points.....

First of all you wrote with some insight and your have many good points, but....

Will 38,200 baht buy a round trip plane ticket from developed countries? Probably, but there wouldn't be much left over.

The international airfare is sold in another country, and not calculated as revenue for Thailand. Only package tours, hotel, transport, food, drinks and souvenirs.

Average tourist from long haul destinations will stay probably 2 or 3 weeks, which will translate into an average of about 2000 baht/per day/tourist.

Very reasonable...

Will 65M people--every man, woman, and child in Thailand--take 91M tourism trips in 2011 even if they each traveled individually?

the 91M domestic trips will spend 4,748 baht.

Yes, also this 90 million trips are feasible, first of all you should read persons (wrongly written in the article as trips).

The Thais who can afford to travel domestic (I do not know the exact %, but I guess it will be around 15-20%), and this group will maybe travel more than once.

Look around when holiday seasons are coming up (int'l new years, songkran, long weekend for whatever reason, Loi Krathong, festivities of all kinds), Thai people travel and spent money, it all account for domestic tourism.

All larger companies, many institutions, governments, schools will have seminars, meetings, incentives, schooltrips or new year parties, when they will go for one or more days with a large group to some domestic destinations. They all stay in hotels, need to travel by bus, train or plane, undertake some excursions, eat food and buy souvenirs.

So also here the amount of about 5000 baht is not so crazy.

I am living here since a while but I not aware of a company Hua Hin Finder. Do they have a website? Regarding accounts: often it is easier to use private accounts than company accounts, this would not worry me. Here the banking is sometimes a bit complicated.

Try efax.com - i used this with success. The incoming fax is converted into PDF format and you can receive it by mail and you have also an overview of all faxes sent and received through website.

It is impossible to know what quality the water is, be it tap water (from the klong) or bottled water (most likely from the klong). To avoid the uncertainity I use WaterMicron AWG (air water generator) which means that water is produced from the moisture in the air. The air is filtered, condensed and cleaned again with a multiple stage procedure. No more bottles to carry home and you know what you drink.

DCC is dynamic currency conversion and used increasingly worldwide in hotels, restaurants etc. According to VISA and Mastercard regulations they card holder always must have the choice of currency and the exchange rate must be printed and shown. In a normal case DCC is not a cheat to the cardholder as he will get exactly the amount billed which he signed for. The spread which formerly was shared between issuer and acquirer is now often shared between acquirer and merchant. That is the reason the merchant is interested in using the system as he can get a kick-back from his acquiring bank.

Thanks folks, we will try and let you know later how it worked out

My wife has a Swiss and a Thai Passport whereas the name in the Swiss is our family name and in the thai passport her thai name.

Normally we only travel to Thailand on holidays and she would enter Thailand on the Swiss passport (no visa needed for below 30 days). Now we want to relocate to Thailand.

Normally she could enter Thailand with the Thai passport, but then the airline ticket name is not matching. If she would enter Thailand with Swiss passport she would perhaps come on a computer list of visitors having not left the kingdom. If we would issue the ticket on the Thai name I have a problem in Switzerland during the departure as it would not match the name in the swiss passport.

Anyone has similar problems and how did you solve it?