Robbie Dye

I really don't see the point of this.

Do they seriously think that by issuing free tourist visas it is going to increase the number of tourists coming to Thailand?

Firstly, how would any potential tourists even know that the visa was free until they went to apply for one. It's not as though the news of this wonderful freebie is going to be plastered all over the press, radio and TV.

And secondly, once they goe to apply for said visa, they have probably already booked their holiday or their flight, so the fact that it is free will no no way influence their decision to come here.

If this is the best idea they can come with to boost tourism, then they are in for a lean time in the coming months.

Couldn't agree more, it will make absolutely ZERO percent difference, I am glad I don't own a hotel is this country, I forecast the lowest high season known since records began will be 2009/10 and the country will get nothing less than it can expect due to its own actions which is so unfortunate for those hard working honest Thais in the tourist industry. And they thought the tsunami was the biggest ever threat to the country's tourism future? Hmmmm

How does 165000 to 27000 equate to a 33.45% drop? Even if this statistic was meant to be a drop "OF" 27000, it does not add up. This is wildly wrong or else I an misinterpreting "year on year".......

Anyone?

Hmmm my math... a drop of 611%, in as 27000 goes into 165000 6.11 times....

OR... this year is 16.3 % of what the previous year was...

Airport closures, riots, global economic recession, and now H1N1.... What's next???

I think what he means is that June went from 165 thou for a specific period to 27 thou BUT that for the "year to date" we are down 33%. This is nothing to where they will be by September, i wd suggest 65% down at least and little chnace of any high season recovery unless the Baht dives which i fear also unlikely. It is going to get worse, and I agree that we who live here still do not get treated with any respect, but we chose to live here, what can we do?

Who cares? This swine flu is one of the least harmful, and least dangerous flus that the world has seen in the last 100 years. So far

only a tiny fraction of people have been infected, and have died, as happens with the "normal" flus that are more common. There

is absolutely nothing to fear. This flu will subside within a couple more months, and alot of embarrassed people will be running around

wondering why they got so excited about nothing.

Agreed, good biz for mask sellers tho!

Thai airways is not the only company suffering from the global money problems, and the related travel cutbacks. All mayor airlines are hurting bad. Contracts are being cancelled, aircraft are being stored, you name it, and it is happening.

I agree to an extent but they cannot keep those 747's airborne too much longer and makes sense to have a few A380's so they can cut the number of flights to say london but just use bigger planes, end effect surely cost savings.

it is not good what the immigration and the country is doing to the foreigners.

first they make all the tourist visas free and now they are making border runs short to stay.

as to before they were 3 months and now they only give two months.

what will happen next???

I think this is a perfectly reasonable and sensible step and will help remove the "dodgers" of whom there are any number.

It will matter not as loan when translated into thai is gift, so, the wife is the rightful owner, no problem, next !

Not true

Thank God!

This mornings headline from the "Herald Sun" Melbourne, Australia Any comment would be superfluous

A MELBOURNE mother is facing up to five years jail in Thailand over the alleged theft of a bar mat from a popular Phuket bar.

Montrose mother-of-four Annice Smoel, 36, was drinking in the Aussie Bar in Phuket with friends when they played a prank on her, putting a bar mat in her handbag.

Ms Smoel said undercover police in the bar stopped her on her way out. She was then arrested and spent two nights in a Thai jail cell.

“They came up to me and said ‘show us in the bag’. I had only just picked it up … had a quick look inside and saw there was something in it,” she told 3AW.

“I was nowhere near the handbag. One of the girls involved went down to the police on Sunday morning and confessed to the crime and apologised and they told her to go away, they didn't care.''

"I have been treated unfairly and held here for something I didn't do."

Ms Smoel said she initially thought police were letting her go but when she got outside they arrested her and put her in a 4m by 4m jail cell for two nights and three days.

Police have confiscated Ms Smoel’s passport and she has been stranded in Thailand for the past 17 days.

“I am doing ok, I am hanging in there. I don’t feel like I can really deal with what’s happened until I can get home and see my kids,” she said.

Ms Smoel, who was in Thailand with friends celebrating her mother’s 60th birthday, has four children aged six, eight, 11 and 12.

NOT true, I know Steve and he has had this bar for years and is a great guy

London Bangkok London GBP 144 plus taxes!! Great time to come but it won't happen, this is the tip of the iceberg

Not impressed as they are losing a ton of money, they will just cut their already low international standards even more and losing more money will mean that they have to keep the older aircraft even longer!!

Sincerest congratulations both to K Abhisit and to the Democratic Party, I personally have been hoping that they would get their chance since the coup, and hopefully this will see off K Thaksin for good. I believe there may be more favourable attitudes to farang issues as well.

It is rumoured today that 2,500 Farangs are on their way to Phuket airport to effect a blcokade against any possible intervention by certain political elements who appear determined to cripple this beautiful country at whatever cost. Only Farangs with valid passports, air tickets and large quantities of baggage will be permitted access, and airport staff will not be allowed to go home until the backlog has been cleared. Further rumours are that Isaan Air (www.isaanair.com) are laying on extra flights to Perth, London and Udon to alleviate the situation. It is of course regrettably impossible to verify these rumours at this time

The print version of the Post is twice as good as the Nation; that is, it goes twice as far when lining my birdcage to catch the droppings. No difference I can see in the websites; both suck...

My dogs will pee on either, no discrimination, but I think the Post has definitely better absorbent properties

Since it is not legal to transfer airline tickets to another name am i safe to assumre this is a mileage redemption? Anything else would be extremely dangerous! How much is really cheap??

Thaivisa Travel is located in Pattaya, we can surely help you out, just call me on 0861 450011 when you are here and I can talk to you and guide you to the office

Guy and team

It was a lot more interesting when girls burnt bras to protest.

Wonder how we can email the Home Office to register our shock and horror? Not that they will pay a blind bit of attention, I guess HM Inland Revenue are rubbing their hands at the percentage they will make on the 3 billion baht profit on his sale of Man City coz I would somehow doubt any of that will get back to Thailand. Seriously though it may start an element of anti British feeling which we can do without, maybe we should email HE the Ambassador in Bangkok ???

Let battle commence might be more appropriate, the PADdys are NOT going to take this one lying down. Whilst betting is strictly illegal in this country as we know, what odds on him surviviing beyond New year?

My youngest daughter, just turned 18, has been invited by friends to go to Boston, Mass. to spend Christmas with them there. She has dual nationality and two passports [british & Thai].

It used to be that British nationals did not require a visa to visit the USA for periods of less than 3 months but, I'm not sure about current visa requirements, if any, [for a British citizen], as I haven't traveled to the US for more than 10 years now.

Advise please!

This should be no proble, using her British passport she fills in a Visa waiver form on board the aircraft. This has so far not chnaged we are all glad to know!

Blotty odd relationship if she has to find out for sure.

At least she is honest enuff to say it could belong to someone else...... geeeeeez.

If it is yours, do as suggested, register with British Embassy.

You would have normal parental rights with the child, that is a BIG responsibilty for you.

It would be on your concience for ever if you disowned the child.

Cheers.

And how about a DNA test? The mere mention of that should scare her off, and she will run back to her Thai boy friend ! Come on, this seems to have a very high chnace of being a scam don't you think?

cheaper flights and good deals to be had soon then

Or a nice drop in the value of the Baht to encourage tourists would'nt go amiss either!

Not sure this is the right place for this but....

Whilst browsing my HSBC Bank accounts in the UK online I was astounded to see an option to send money overseas. I clciked on it and saw that if you have an HSBC account online you can now send money to over 200 countries, including Thailand, albeit between 0800 and 1400 UK time only I believe. I created a beneficiary being my SCB account over here and lo and behold it works. It is GBP 15 a pop but that is cheaper than you get charged for faxing or mailing an instruction. Fantatsic is what i say, I was not aware of any UK bank offering this facility, Barclays will not even take a fax ! So there you are, give it a go

You are told to get the visa from the country you will visit first or will spend most of your time but, in practice, immigration officers don't seem to care which country issued the visa. If you were unlucky and got stopped, you might have a lot of questions to answer if for example you got the visa from the Greek Embassy and went to France and Germany. Since you are asked to submit detailed travel plans with flight and hotel bookings by the embassy, you might have a problem if you have deviated totally from what you submitted. I suppose you can just say you changed your mind. Anyway they don't usually seem to care but it seems advisable to stick broadly to their guidelines, rather than take the p*ss by always going to the Greek Embassy because there is never a queue without ever setting foot in Greece. Requirements and scrutiny seems to be the same at all Schengen embassies but the queue sizes are different.

My personal experience on this is that the ONLY time you may have a problem is when you next go back to the Embassy who issued the last Schengen visa and there is no entry stamp for that country at all! My wife flew through paris but transit to london and then we went to Germany, and nowhere near France ! Next time the French (quite correctly!) politely suggested we actually got a visa from the embassy of the country we were going to, so we did, from the Germans and no problem!

They could change the name to One Thats Gone

How about one-two-gone

Nok will be next and we should all care, even Thai Air Asia appear to be getting themselves in to trouble. It is good for all of us who travel that the low cost airlines thrive, otherwise the big boys will just put the prices up even more !

@ samuian

WHERE on Samui do you buy gold bars? i guess you live on samui anyway...

and how many grams is 1 bath of gold?

thanks

Most people I know seem to find that their ladies take the things to the pawn shop anyway, which I guess is safer than having a kid on a motrobike trying to take it off you by force! I recommend teeth fillings to keep it safe!

he and the Foreign Ministry had done the right thing

Except it was ruled unconstitutional.

No, that would be PoppadoM from The Delhi Diner, also not to be confused with Papa Doc who had something to do with Haiti maybe?

Doom/gloom is the trend these days, take the optimistic approach and half the battle is won.

Thai Airways are running scared. lack of investment has left them with too many gas guzzling aircraft and light years behind their major competitors such as Singapore and Malaysian Airlines. They admit to internal squabbling and basically are politically motivated and have not a clue how to run an airline, are we surprised? They are selling their Airbuses when in fact they should be mothballing the appaulling 747's which is where they are losing big money. On this sort of performance they will not be around in 5 years time. The Baht is going down, how far remains to be seen, and that will help the hotels be more competitive, but this whole thing about fuel surcharges is hurting everyone, but agin some airlines were smart and pre-bought their fuel and others, who have of course been mentioned here, did not and we are all going to pay the price if we chose to fly with them. I would say it is nonsense that many flights will be cut, they are all running nice loads and making money, especially the ones via the Middle East! Chocks away!