DonniePeverley

It's an Americanisation that is annoying. It's clearly deceptive. It's banned in the UK and the EU for that reason. America is a nightmare as they add on tax on things you buy in a supermarket too !!!

Horrific news. Indians are turning away high spending tourists. I mean this literally ... we had some female friends who regularly go to Pattaya once every few months for a weekend break. Never again. The place has turned into India, and the Indian men are aggressive and assume every woman is a prostitute. It's ruined tourism there, not added to it. If you look at an arbitary figure and become obsessed with adding more people then go for it, but what happened to quality tourism and high spending tourism? It's an enviromental disaster letting so many in. No other country has given Indians a free pass to enter. It's a growing power, but GDP per person is one of the lowest in the world.

THIS. Adding a a service charge (tip) automatically disensitivises any quality in the service.

Democrats really needed to have an election to select their candidate. Appointing her just like that was a mistake. Her flaws are exposed, and she had no momentum of winning a race. Her answers are vacant, there's nothing there. Obama does a single speech, stars reciting an Eminem song and you think Wow this guy is inspiring

Russians in Phuket own so many businesses there. The employing a Thai front is abused to the chore. In Pattaya Indians have completely taken over. Chinese are all over the place too.

I got a bit miffed with my local to go place here in Bangkok, when they suddenly started to add VAT on their meals. Fine i let it go and continued to go there. Then tourism started to increase a bit more, and they added in a 10% service charge. Now the cheeky sausages, and my final straw, is they have added a 200 Baht per person charge !!! Absolutely ridiculously taking the biscuit with the per person charge, which i have only ever seen a few times in very high end restaurants in America. This americanisation of 'hidden charges' needs to be addressed. Or is Thailand now just purely on the lowdown for tourists and locals can go shove it.

POintless. They scrapped visa fees for Chinese and Indians. That cost must be in the billions. I would gladly pay ten times more if it kept out the mass cheap tourists the Thai government wants.

The EU did not help. It's the problem the system of the EU has, is that you can get some foolish people in charge at the wrong moment. All it had to do was make some concessions to the UK on immigration (which could have been dealt with in the longer term, in a time when there was less volatility in the politics and an economy on the rise again). They've already given concessions to the UK on not being part of Shengen, when the reality was it made no difference other than optics. Anyone who got a shengen visa also qualified quite easily for a British visa. The EU has been hurt by this too. You say the US and Beijing simply bypass the UK, and go straight to Europe. They don't. They bypass Europe now too. Without the UK, they have lost one of the few major defense partners in the world, and one of a few nuclear powers. Look at how the Polish leadership were annoyed with the EU leaders posturing over northern ireland, when if Russia made any advances to Poland it was only really the UK (along with France) that could come to help. The structural leadership of the EU is a problem. You have different countries, leaders with egos exerting influencing for short term gain, rather than looking at the bigger picture. They will never get a better opportunity to intergrate the UK into the EU than they do now. Labour will lose seats at the next election and be weaker. Make a deal with friction free trade. Make a deal on immigration (because that's what it's about with ignorant racist fools). And then slowly intergrate. Cast bind it, so no future conservative government can undue it without massive economic pain. But will they do anything? Nope. More posture, dealing etc The EU has stagnated, whilst China, the USA, and now even India are burgeoning. All we are now is a museum for tourists.

What's the indian situation ? Most are saying Pattaya is now little India

The European Union itself is weaker without the UK, the second biggest economy it had, and the strongest defense partner. Utter lunacy on their behalf to not try and get the UK back in somehow. It's like the idiots have learnt nothing.

Cheap mass tourism has turned away quality spending tourists. The solution should not be add more cheap tourists to make up for the shortfall in income. Disgraceful, and an enviromental disaster.

What an absurd joke. She's achieved nothing as of yet, and has got into her position because of nepotism. Nothing inspiring at all. The country continues to rely on cheap mass tourism.

If you don't live in the UK, you shouldn't be getting any pension or an ability to come back and use the NHS.

We have the AC cleaned every 3-4 months.

I will look on the remote for some sort of sleep mode. But i can't see it anything obvious.

I think scientifically this is perhaps going down the right path ... the lack of oxygen in the room.

They need to levy much higher fees for Indian and CHinese tourists. India has not bothered to reciprocate the visa free scheme for Thai's, so it's not a 'face saving issue' as it would be with the Chinese.

I will look into the humidifier issue. Honestly, back in the UK and no a/c system and waking up is a breeze. In Thailand even if i get my full quota of sleep i am waking up in such an extreme rough way.

It's usually set to around 23 degrees, sometimes 24 during these cooler days. I sometimes i am waking up around 1pm, so a/c on is vital. Opening window is not an option during the evening usually due to mosquitos. I do air the room during the day though. The a/c system we have is meant to be one of these new eco effiencent ones. Personally i can't see how. Even when the temperature is reached, it keeps blowing. Apparently this is meant to be more efficient for the room.

When in Thailand, the heat obviously lends to sleeping with the AC on all night. The system we have keeps air flowing, even when the temperature is reached. But my sleep is effected .... i wake up as if i've been 5 rounds with Mike Tyson. I literally feel hungover for 10-20 minutes getting up, such a heavy feeling. I'm not drinking alcohol or any drugs. I can only put it down to the a/c. Couple of times i've slept at mates in cooler temperature with just a fan and it's great. I am currently back in the UK, and the weather is cool. Sleeping much better. What's going on here ?

10% service charge, and adding the 7% vat on afterwards. They aren't getting any tips with this crappy Americanism with bills.

You mean back packers with a laptop. This is nonsense, especially with Indians and Chinese eligible for this. Just going to push rents up, which will harm local Thai's. Going to destroy any sort of tourism experience we enjoy too.

Pattaya is over run by Indians. It will be an Indian.

Suppose the accusation is the hypocrisy - as did he fair bit of moaning about in opposition. What does the guys who give him free stuff get out of it is the question? If you look at all the big decisions ... Rishi Sunak made the rite call on most things. Economy looked to be improving, and now Labour may use Albania copying the Rawanda scheme.

They can say what they want ...all they will do is open the borders for more cheap tourism. An addiction to cheap mass tourism and not diversifying the economy is horrific.