paul1804

There is a lot of truth in what you write, but the current junta must be removed and held accountable for the atrocities they have committed! There was a majority elected government but not to different to other neighbouring countries the military want to keep their dirty snouts in the trough and hang on to power! We see very few countries where military run or heavily influenced governments are successful.

You can bet your life China will be sitting on the fence ready to fall on the side of the victors so they can get their sea port in the southern ocean among other options within Burma. Thailand has almost been supportive of the illegally imposed Junta but the willl of the Burmese people looks to finally be gaining the upper hand. The sooner the better, lets hope the current illegally instated military hierarchy are held accountable and punished for their crimes against humanity, surely the death sentence should be applied given the atrocities committed.

Why bother with the peoples poll, the people dont get their wish in Thailand given the status quo! Sadly the Thai leaders dont take a look at their immediate neighbours who are controlled by the military and all are basket cases except Malaysia.

According to the news article it broke in half & sank but the way news reporters report it may not be the case.

What a great experience, I did a lot of Scuba diving in Papua New Guinea and rarely had encounters with Oceanic white tips! Whale sharks were a little more common.

you sound like a sour old man with a very negative attitude, who gives a S--- what you saw! Normally when a boat breaks in half it sinks but that might be to difficult for you to get your head around!

Third world standards, what do you expect!

They dont exactly look like friendly & inviting people and by personal experience that often give foreigners surly looks which is the opposite of what they should be doing. When will their superiors realise this or is that too much to expect?

There appears to be a few Brits imposing as Kiwis in this picture!

With correct construction these blocks are awesome, I wouldn't use anything else in Thailand and have noticed over the last few years they have become very popular in areas with a better standard of buildings, ie Samui, Phuket, Krabi, Hua Hin and so on.

Unfortunately there seems to be a very fast growing number of Thai people with "mental illness" I would say its more like their fragile ego's with an inability to control their short fuse tempers often brought on by them not being able to cope with a "lose of face" A couple of years ago I tooted the horn at a slow driving van driver as he kept moving across the road into my lane, once I passed him he tail gated me for the next 10kms tooting his horn and flashing the headlights.

Yes well if it was a Brit it would all be hidden under the soap !!

2019, 40 million give or take a few! I find it hard to believe those that claim we have had 20 million visitors this year to date. Yes almost 9 million in the first 4 months but low season numbers came early and even August wasn't great, hotels chains sing a different tune to the authorities and I know who I would believe! Maybe there has been close to 20 million arrivals which includes returning residents, border runs and thais returning home but thats not visitors!

He may appear to have good intentions but given the extension of bar hours I would expect to see and increase in road related fatalities even with the reduced number of visitors this high season.

These shipments are coming into Thailand from Myanmar, this is what happens when your government sucks up to the illegally imposed Junta army in Myanmar who need this revenue to fund their murderous regime against the citizens. Myanmar has recently overtaken Afghanistan as the worlds biggest suppler of heroin and this will not cease until the illegally imposed military government are toppled, another convenient illegal revenue source to an illegal military leadership that have no principles or morals and fuelled by personal greed! If Thailands leaders had any thought for regional stability they would openly criticise the regime, cease all financial ties until the regime is toppled but because somewhere along the way this illegal drug money ends up in the pockets of people in higher places its allowed to continue. I wonder what really happens to these isolated seized shipments, do they really get destroyed and if so who oversees this, who would you trust in LOS to carry out this task given the widespread corruption here? I guess its no different to the global covid scam where many made millions & a few made billions at the expense of the people and the outcome is what we have now, the planet heading into a global recession!

I believe that even in LOS hospitals are not legally allowed to deny injured or critically sick people admission and service including both Thai & Farang but Thailand has this very biased attitude, especially towards Farang which I personally experienced!

There is a global economic downturn and many countries are bordering on a recession, there are 2 major wars going on right now and given Thailands ripoff the Farang attitude, the high levels of corruption and rising crime are you surprised that visitor numbers are down! Thailand is no longer the cheap destination it once was and air travel has become much more expensive.

Ranong is open definitely for locals, not sure about Farang, Sing Khon was closed and I believe Mae Sai open for locals.

I am surprised that anyone fronted for this although maybe they actually developed a guilty conscious and thought fronting up would fool the nation that they actually believed in the cause! Maybe the free catering was the real attraction!!

Hamas needs to be held accountable for the atrocities they recently committed, the brutal treatment they imposed upon female hostages is a fair indication of their morals & integrity, they do not deserve to be able to coexist with normal people. The Palestinians must accept if their elected leaders carry on in such an inhumane manner then they too should suffer the consequences of war. Before you criticise the IRD below are some interesting facts published by another reader on this forum. 1. Expulsion of "Palestinians" or the myth of the Nakba. The primary cause of the departure of Arabs was WAR, war declared by the Arabs themselves. In 1948, did the Arab nations not declare war on Israel and say they would wipe it off the map? In 1967, did not the massed military of the pan Arab attack force not promise to drive the jews into the sea? Did the Arab leadership not tell the Arabs in Israel to leave so that they would not be harmed as the Arab armies purged Israel of its Jews? You bet there were innocent Arab victims, that's the side effect of war. What is your position on the almost same number of Jewish people who were expelled from Arab countries, their land and all their assets seized, are you denying those expulsions? Yes, the Israelis took advantage of the upheaval, that is what happens in wars where the larger nations seek to wipe out the small nation. We saw this on a larger scale in the partition of India and Pakistan, and we saw this in the partition of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and again with South Sudan and Sudan, and we see it ongoing in the country now called Yemen. 2. All these UN Resolutions you reference, please be more specific. The Arab dominated general assembly has a history of passing discriminatory motions. One of the best was sponsored by Iran condemning Israeli human rights right after Iran strung up 2 boys from a crane in a public square for alleged homosexuality. Israel does not have the death penalty and doesn't persecute teenage boys for alleged consensual acts. 3. You reference Gaza as a concentration camp. You obviously have no idea of what a concentration camp is. The citizens until the recent war had ready access to Egypt. Was the border not open with Egypt? There was no restriction on the trade of food, medicines and most personal use items. The locals were allowed to enter Israel for work and for medical care if needed. It seems that the restrictions were not particularly difficult to circumvent as Hamas imported thousands of missiles, rockets and artillery pieces. It was able to fully arm multiple death squads and to build a sophisticated underground system of reinforced concrete tunnels and bunkers. 4. You reference US military aid to Israel. In 2021 the following summary was published, please advise if this is True or false; - From 2014-2020, U.N. agencies spent nearly US $4.5 billion in Gaza, including $600 million in 2020 alone. UNRWA, which also provides funding and staffing for schools, health services and food aid. - Egypt sponsored almost US$500 million in economic development and projects for the period of 2021 forward. — Qatar has provided in excess of US$1.3 billion in cash aid to Gaza since 2012 for construction, health services and agriculture. — The Palestinian Authority filed statements that it paid US$1.7 billion to Gaza government workers - The EU provides a US $80 million standalone aid budget to Gaza annually - The USA gave almost US$100 million in aid to Gaza (and PLA projects in West Bank) — The U.S. has spent at least $5.5 million in Gaza this year on cash assistance and health care, in addition to contributing $90 million to UNRWA operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Based upon historical evidence, inmates of concentration camps starved to death. How then is it possible that Gaza has one of the highest rates of obesity in the region? 42.0% of adult females, and 29.5% of adult males are considered obese. Why is diabetes, an affliction of financially well off societies so prevalent? 1 in 5 Gaza adults has Type II diabetes, meanwhile in war afflicted Africa, diabetes is a rarity.

Its the stupidity of both the residents and the authorities, the solution is very simple. Round up the monkeys, cull the old or sick ( many are ) and move the rest into an enclosure like a zoo. Desex the males and some of the females until the population becomes manageable. I have visited Lopburi many times and always said the ever expanding monkey population if left to its own means will become a nuisance one day but the local people just laughed, now the laugh is on their stupidity for allowing the population to expand as it has. The monkeys are aggressive, they raid businesses stealing food, damage vehicles and property, kill cats and small dogs given the opportunity and generally are a pest to all and this was happening back as far as 2010 when I first visited Lopburi. Now they are forcing the closure of businesses, how irresponsible of the authorities is that?

Welcome to the land of rip offs, they just cannot help themselves!

Sadly American food culture is probably the most unhealthy diet on the planet and if you have ever had an American breakfast in the USA you wont be impressed!

Yes correct but thats the tip of the iceberg!

Have you ever succeeded in telling a Thai they are wrong & such a loss of face!