fft100

so when will PAD people be prosecuted for occupying govt house for over 100 days, and the airport for 7 days ?

Or are double-standards still to apply ?

UK banks are so far behind it is quite scary. AFAIK None of the onshore banks allow you (online) to transfer money internationally. However, acounts in Spain, Germany, France (personal experience of those) do allow you to do international transfers online. Even Natwest private banking (op mentioned this) doesnt allow online transfers internationally.

RBS international does allow international transfers online.

But, it is now refusing (inline with other UK banks) to send credit cards to thailand. I pointed out that had sent me my last one 3 years ago but said that must have been a mistake. Natwest wont send debit cards either. However, banks in the rest of europe dont have any problem with this.... And are they losing money through fraud than the UK banks ? Not that i know of....

Yes it's getting worse.. I've been enjoying my DSTV/Dreambox for a few years now.. Been great to have decent programing and a variety of sports and news..

No it's on it's way out along with Guinness and some other beers/ciders that are no longer available..

Why does Thailand like to limit everybodies choices ? Cars, Bikes, Booze and TV ain't much else that I really like apart from food and women (now I've got a live in the choice of women is limited too )

Oh well TiT..

pdaz,

have you read any of this thread before issuing that reply ? This decision is nothing to do with the authorities in thailand, or anyone at all in thailand. It is all about a south african company deciding to broadcast on a different band from the one they use at the moment. The band they use at the moment is so wide it can be picked up in china. The new one is very tight (bit like sky in the UK), and therefore cant be picked up anywhere east of madagascar. Unless the S.A. company has a change of heart, then it is very hard to see how this can be got round.

hmmm. my son has both thai / british citizenship so does this mean he too has to forego his thai citizenship

The son of a friend of mine got a German and Thai passport, but at the age of 18 (still plenty of years to go) he will have to decide, which citizenship he wants to keep. How old is your son?

Germany and Austria dont allow dual nationality. When you get a German passport, one of the things you have to do is give up your old one. However, most people then go to there original country, and get a new passport from there, and those countries dont tell the Germans.

have you tried pressing the "audio" button on the remote and selecting English ? all sports channels have a choice of thai/english, as do most other channels, (discovery, NGC, cartoons, movies...) **all** the football has sky commentators.

UBC seems to cater for Thais only. I understand this but with all the spare channels could they not split their feed so that I, and others, could watch sports programmes with an English commentary? It was bad enough watching the 3 Stooges making with the soccer half time summary and opinion - they look as if a game of darts would exhaust them - but talk over commentary in Thai is way out of order for me. I plan to give UBC their box back as soon as I can find a replacement service to suit my tastes.

Any bright ideas on how I can satisfy my craving for a professional presentation? I shudder to think of watching the Open (from St. Andrews this year) ruined by some jabbering know bugger all.

We looked at buying a new CRV (old model) in HH Honda a few years ago, but they were so unhelpful and off hand ( they wouldnt even make a phone call to see if they could source exactly what we wanted) , that we went next door and bought a Fortuner on the spot ! They definitely seemed to be thinking about "today" and not "tomorrow". Maybe they had made the monthly target and any more customers were just an irritant ?

and Toyota ? even after 3 years, whenever we go in (servicing normally) , the salesman comes over, says hello and offers to make me a coffee.

in my case i already live in thailand, and it wouldnt be a UK death certificate, and she wasnt British, we never had a uk marriage certificate, i havnt lived/worked there for 15 years, i dont fill in UK tax returns (so never claimed married mans allowance) etc.

Going back to Europe to sort out some paperwork to come back here to get the freedom to marry seems a bit much. I just wonder which databases they look at to check. The only database i could be on would be the visa for my wife (as she was), and some of those would have been on my old uk passport, not the new one.

We were married outside the UK, we never lived in the UK, though she did have visas to visit there, and she died outside the UK. marriage was never registered at the uk embassy. Now 6 years later....

I dont have to hand the documents (that would also need translating) to show that. So, if i go up and say i am single, would they check the visas database against my passports (old + new) before issuing me with an affirmation of freedom to marry ?

Thanks, very helpful.

How about my Thai 5 year driving licence ? The new ones have my passport number on, so after i get a new passport it would not be the same. could that cause a problem if the police demand to see my passport and driving licence ? Or should i get a new driving licence ?

anyone any experience ?

Hi,

just want to make sure i have got this right. I have a 1 year non-imm 'O' that expires at the end of october. I intend doing my last 3 month visa run to Singapore just before that, so i will get 3 months when i get back to BKK airport. Because my passport only has 1 or 2 pages left, i then intend going to the UK embassy and getting a new passport.

The Visas will run out at the end of october, so presumably that doesnt need to be transferred to the new passport. But how about the little square entry stamp that says the date i arrive and the date i have to leave the country (and the plane i arrived on) ? Does that have to be transferred to the new passport, or when i next leave the country in January can i just give the immgration people in BKK airport my old and new passport and that will be ok ?

Thanks

Was the milk in the cartons - i.e. the same you buy it ready made from the supermarket ?

If so, that would be the reason. cartons over 100ml will always be a problem as it is very easy to put a different label on anything.

We have travelled from LHR, LCY, MAN overseas and also from BKK,FRA and elsewhere. We have carried lots of milk, but pre-made ourselves and in our baby bottles (upto 240ml ). We also carry spare milk powder, and get hot water on the plane when travelling long haul. At MAN they asked me to taste each bottle, to show them it was ok. That seems reasonable. After all, a suicide bomber probably thinks taking his family to heaven with him is the right thing to do.... At LHR and LCY they inspected each bottle by hand. BKK can be a bit lax, and FRA has a seperate security gate for families with babies, so no hanging around - but a thorough check.

Strangely, the only thing that i have lost flying into BKK (about 30 landings in BKK in last 4 years) is the bright yellow heavy duty luggage strap complete with lock that i was using to deter entry to the suitcase....

I am interested in a dual line load balanced router as mentioned above. Its prime reason would be to cope with outages from one ISP or the other.

At the moment i only have 1 phone line, and maxnet premier. Here in HH, it looks as though we only have TTT and TOT.

Questions :-

1. If i install a new telephone line, presumably that is only 'new' from the telegraph pole on the street outside to my house. If there is a problem anywhere between the exchange and my house, would that mean both connections would go down ?

2. Do TOT and TTT use completely different infrastructure, or the same ? i.e. is my idea of redundancy to beat outages realistic ?

3. Using a dual input router, would it be possible (instead of installing a second telephone line) to plug a use a USB router into one of the ports and use that as input ? TTT dont go down that often and i get okish speed, so just keeping the connection alive with an EDGE would probably be ok for a couple of hours. If i plug an edge USB into the computer directly, i guess that the software would use one connection or the other and not shift seamlessly between the 2.

Lastly, has anyone seen a dual router here in Thailand.

Thanks for your help

Ch 9 are reporting that the Blue Shirts were Police from Buriram. Whose powerbase is there ? The plot thickens.....

Don't worry, it's not the only reason for return that we are putting in for, but it still is a strong reason. Although the old passport was thrown away, my girlfriend is still in possession of the original return flight tickets, insurance and their bills. Although she doesn't have any hard proof of her return without overstay, I still believe showing that evidence would be better than not.

Like I said before, the amount of new evidence we have come up with to show our relationship and a reason for her return is much greater than in before's application.

Does anyone believe it would be beneficial providing a copy of her mum's visa to US (used for holiday for 2 weeks, around a month ago)?

We have got a total of 6 visas for EU/UK with no problems. I think the golden rule is remember that the visa staff are overworked and therefore like everything spoonfed to them.

Therefore, i alswys photocopy previous visas (despite being in the current passport). My covering letter is 5 pages long and includes details of the previous visas, my trips to thailand (before i used to live here), details of property / land /cars owned in thailand and elsewhere. Plus details of my finances outside Thailand. Then include photocopies of chanots, contracts, the thai car ownership document etc, anything that links her (and you if zou live here) to those items.

Never, ever, assume that the visa people will be able to work out from 2 different documents 50 pages apart that there is a link. make the link explicit. If in doubt - include it.

And dont claim something without evidence ! Probably better not to even mention it than

Family visa, i.e. 1B was filled in and was succesful. Mind you, i did supply 5 inches of documents !

Can you show you've been living together for at least 2 years? If so your partner's a family member.

Use VAF1B.

As i said in the OP, we have lived together more than 2 years. However the 1B form is as clear as mud when the family member is travelling with the applicant, instead of the applicant visiting a family member in the UK.

Hi,

I am British and have lived here in Thailand, with the occasional month of work in Germany, for more than 3 years with my unmarried partner. We have a 15 month old daughter who has both Thai and British passports. Our daughter has my surname. We have property here.

We are all travelling together to the UK for a week in May.

Should I fill in form VAF1F for marriage (and it appears unmarried partners), or form 1B for family visitor ? or just the normal 1A for a visitor ?

I asked VFS the above, and there email said they couldnt tell me, and it was upto the applicant to decide which visa best suited there purposes ! Not sure what the point of a help line is if they come back with that kind of response. I dont want to submit the wrong form, and then get knocked back.

Which is the best form to fill in given our circumstances ?

Thanks

there are still 3 or 4 flights a day in each direction between HH and BKK. used it a dozen times or so over the last few years. for a single person, there isnt a huge difference between that and a taxi, and it used to (not any more) time very nicely with my international connections.

When you are in HH terminal building, you will see upstairs there is an international departures lounge / booths / etc. I once had an hour to spare and wandered around as far as possible and asked people upstairs if there was any info. The airport also has large numbers of empty shops / car rental desks / info / etc. i.e. the airport was converted to be able to handle both international and domestic flights. The runway is certainly capable of handling 737's and A320's. Luggage belt may have problems !

Quite why the international flights never started has never been clearly spelt out. If you do a search on google, you will find mention of international flights from HH. It does appear as though the airlines were geared up for it, but something stopped them. whether it was the palace, lack of demand, airline priorities changing, i dont know. But, it is interesting to have a look at the airmap for HH. There is a big no go area over the palace, and planes have to bank left sharply if taking off towards the sea.

I would be more than happy for flights to start. HK, SGP are well within range, and even 2 flights a week would be very nice, rather than having to go to BKK. It would also be good for the golf business in HH. from BKK its only an hour to Pattaya, so i suspect that gets most of the trade.

From the BBC. old politics with politicians selling block votes to whioch ever party pays the most...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7775749.stm

"It's over, Boss." With those three words, veteran politician Newin Chidchob finally broke the deadlock that has paralysed Thailand for the past three years.

They were uttered in a phone conversation with Thaksin Shinawatra last week, the man to whom Mr Newin had been faithful for almost eight years, as the exiled former prime minister pleaded with him to reconsider his decision to defect to the opposition Democrats.

Mr Newin was also the first to break the bonds of money and genuine loyalty which have made the Thaksinistas the most powerful political force in Thailand for the past decade.

And he shattered any final illusions that might still have been harboured here that, a decade ago, Thailand's politics had entered a new age with the adoption of a new, populist constitution, and the rise of a new, populist party.

For Newin Chidchob has now reverted to type - the type being a provincial strongman, schooled in the rough-house politics of one of Thailand's roughest neighbourhoods, Buri Ram, who simply sells his team of MPs to the highest bidder.

This is what Mr Newin (who was named by his father after the notorious Burmese General Ne Win) did before the formation of Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai party in 1998. It is what every other provincial godfather did.

Corruption scandals

These men dominated business and politics in their regions, offering voters a tantalising vision of abundant new development money if their votes gave the faction a shot at a cabinet position.

They would then collect as many loyal MPs around them as they could after the election campaign, which they funded generously, and offer the support of those MPs in parliament to whichever prospective government made them the most attractive offer.

This practice delivered Thailand a succession of short-lived, messy coalition governments in the 1990s, better known for corruption scandals than good governance.

It was under such governments - in which Mr Newin participated - that Thailand sleep-walked into the catastrophic 1997 financial crisis.

Appalled by the calibre of their politicians, Thailand's middle-class applauded the birth of a new constitution in the same year - the country's 16th, but the first to be drawn up after extensive consultation with NGOs and other representatives of civil society.

A party emerges

This constitution was the first to enshrine protection of human rights and freedom of expression. It created a number of independent bodies that were given legal powers to rein in corruption.

But the new charter also had another objective. Several of its articles, like the one restricting MPs' freedom to jump from one party to another, were intended to strengthen political parties in the hope that Thailand would progress to a more stable parliamentary system, as in western Europe.

Its drafters hoped this would nurture a new breed of clean, professional politicians to replace the corrupt old godfathers.

One of those goals, producing stronger parties, was realised with surprising speed.

Thaksin Shinawatra, an ambitious provincial businessman who had made a fortune from telecoms, and managed to keep it during the financial crisis, built a new-style party called Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais).

It used modern marketing methods and a raft of new, populist policies to win the support of the rural electorate. It encouraged mass party membership, and its appeal went right over the heads of the godfathers, making Mr Thaksin an instant political superstar.

The godfathers did not go away. Instead, recognising this new political phenomenon, they opted to move under the Thai Rak Thai umbrella. Newin Chidchob was one of them.

Mr Thaksin's wealth and personal popularity gave him a far stronger hand in dealing with the godfathers than any other party in Thailand's history, so his governments were not crippled by the demands of coalition partners, as his predecessors had been.

In 2001 he won his first election, and became the first prime minister in Thai history to complete a four year term in office. In the 2005 election he became the first prime minister to win an outright majority.

He inspired passionate loyalty among his lieutenants, among them Mr Newin, and he left the Democrats, Thailand's oldest party, floundering.

Thailand seemed to have put the era of weak coalition governments behind it.

Fading force

The story of how Mr Thaksin turned a position of such strength into his situation today - where he is a fading political force, stuck in exile - has been written about extensively elsewhere.

Anti-government protesters

Months of anti-government protests look set to deliver a return to the past

But it is only now, when the newspapers are carrying front-page photographs of the clean-cut Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva giving a bunch of roses to Newin Chidchob, once the mortal enemy of the Democrats and every bit the old-style godfather, that it is clear Thailand has come full-circle.

After three years of turmoil, old politics is back, where politicians of whatever persuasion can climb into bed with whoever gives them a shot at power.

It is a depressing scenario, one which finally buries all the high hopes that were raised by the 1997 constitution.

Doubtless many of those now embracing old politics again, perhaps even Mr Abhisit and Mr Newin, do not feel particularly good about it.

Blame for this will be fired in many directions - at Mr Thaksin, at the military, at the Democrats, at the monarchy even, whose role in recent events is till unclear.

But at a time when Thailand is confronting its worst economic outlook since the disastrous events of 1997, old politics is unlikely to give it a government capable of meeting the challenge

Concern mounts at Thai airport security lapses (Airports OF Thailand Public)

By David Fox

BANGKOK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - As Thai authorities race to get Suvarnabhumi

airport ready for full international operations, airline officials and

diplomats fear major security concerns are being overlooked.

They say the ease with which a rag-tag group of anti-government

protesters took over Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports last week exposed

fundamental security problems that need to be addressed.

But with the tourist-dependent Thai economy haemorrhaging revenue as a

result of the airport closures, stakeholders feel they are being pressured into

restarting operations.

On Thursday, Bangkok-based ambassadors of some of Thailand's most

important allies and trading partners issued a joint statement saying they were

"seriously concerned" at the vulnerability to outside assaults of Suvarnabhumi

and the mostly domestic Don Muang airports.

"(We) urge the government of Thailand to take all necessary measures to

improve the protection and security of all Thai airports," said the statement,

signed by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and

the United States.

Airline representatives in Thailand contacted by Reuters were highly

critical of the response to the airport blockades, how the emergency was dealt

with and efforts to restart operations.

None was willing to be identified. "We have to work here," said one.

"We are under enormous pressure to open -- from the airport authorities,

from stuck passengers, from shareholders, from the tourist industry ...," said

one airline official.

"But our genuine security concerns are being ignored."

Chief among those concerns are the security lapses that allowed a

supposedly state-of-the-art, $4 billion airport, opened just two years ago, to

be overrun in minutes by a few hundred protesters, even if some were armed with

clubs and metal rods.

SECURITY MELTED AWAY

Airport security initially held back the protesters a few hundred metres

(yards) from the terminal, but when pressed, they melted away.

Suvarnabhumi is a key regional hub handling hundreds of flights a day and

over 150,000 passengers. Within minutes the airport was overrun and passengers

watched -- some shocked, some initially bemused -- as the yellow-clad protesters

coursed through the terminal.

"What if they were armed terrorists? What if this was India?" one airline

official asked, referring to the attacks a day later by just 10 Islamic gunmen

in Mumbai that killed 171 people.

Some Thailand watchers justified the lack of response as being typical of

the country's delicate domestic political situation. The authorities couldn't,

or wouldn't, use force against the protesters because of their perceived support

from parts of the royal family.

Airport general manager Serirat Prasutanond, touring Suvarnabhumi on

Wednesday after the protesters finally abandoned their siege, told Reuters:

"They did no damage. They love Thailand."

But such apparently flippant dismissals of security lapses only enrage

those who insist on more professionalism.

"It is a joke," said one Singapore-based industry consultant. "If that

happened here or in Kuala Lumpur, the protesters would have been shot. Whoever

was responsible for security, they would have been shot next."

Airports of Thailand officials say Suvarnabhumi will be fully operational

by Friday afternoon after the massive, sprawling facility has been thoroughly

"sanitised" by security experts.

But operators say it will take a lot more to convince them that security

is as good as it should be.

"In the next few weeks we (foreign operators) are going to be getting

together and making a stand," one industry insider said. "Things absolutely have

to change."

"This situation cannot go on. If a major event takes place now, we will

never be able to say we didn't see it coming, that we couldn't prepare."

(Editing by Alan Raybould) Keywords: THAILAND PROTEST/SECURITY

([email protected]; Reuters Messaging: [email protected];

+66 2 648 9733)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including

by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written

consent of Thomson Reuters.

This was in the Guardian this morning. may deserve a new thread

Shuffling towards fascism.

Thailand has in a sense been colonised by its own middle class, many of whom live like colonial settlers

Mithran Somasundrum

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday December 3 2008 12.30 GMT

Thailand's main airport is now re-opening, having been blocked by the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy, or People Against Democracy, to put it more accurately), at an estimated cost of 1 billion baht ($28m) a day to the Thai tourist industry. Airports are supposed to be high security areas, but not here, not if you have enough people, enough weapons and the right backing (which is the army and, to a greater or lesser extent, the conservative forces behind the army). Sunday's attempt to send in the police ended up with the cops getting beaten back and having their tyres slashed.

The police were largely resistant to using force, after their previous attempt to clear Government House with tear gas led to the death of a protester (highly explosive Chinese teargas canisters were to apparently to blame). Meanwhile, the Thai Chamber of Commerce suggested businesses refuse to pay their taxes until the government got the airport open. So for the police were basically dammed if they did and dammed if they didn't.

Politics in Thailand has in the past functioned via relatively weak coalition governments deferring to the holy trinity of the army, the bureaucracy and the monarchy. This changed with Thaksin, who became popular enough with the rural poor to achieve a large majority for his party (TRT). Able to push through any law he wanted, he deferred to no one, and by putting his people into all of the top positions within reach (the army, the legislature, etc), set about turning himself into a Thai version of Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew. He was the self-styled "CEO of the Nation". (Note the implication of that title – the Thai citizens are his employees?) He ran a war on drugs that reduced the amount of amphetamine use in the country at the cost, it has been alleged, of very many police executions, often of the innocent, to achieve the quotas the police had been set.

He attacked press freedom, built Suvanaphumi Airport, the Skytrain, the underground, introduced cheap healthcare for the poor, and made sure all of his businesses did very well. (When he visited heads of state it sometimes wasn't clear whether he was doing the country's business or Shincorp's).

Against a background of unease (largely middle-class) over the way Thaksin had centralised power, the protests of PAD began. From the start they tried to ally themselves with the monarchy in the eyes of the people, eg wearing yellow, the king's colour. It is not clear how much this support was actually reciprocated. When the PAD protester was killed by the teargas canister, the queen paid for her funeral, attended, and described the woman as a "defender of the monarchy".

Thaksin's reply to PAD's initial protests was to hold an election, which he inevitably won. There was some vote-buying by the TRT, and by everyone else, as there always is, but overall the election underlined his safety.

However, appointing his people to the top jobs in the army was a step too far. Hence the coup.

When the post-coup elections were eventually held (with Thaksin holed up in England), they were won by a new party (the PPP) consisting mostly of ex-TRT MPs. The leader, Samak, was accused of taking his orders from Thaksin. Samak has now gone, having been found guilty of a conflict of interest (the conflict being the fact that he was paid for presenting a TV cookery show – count on a Thai court to keep a sense of perspective) to be replaced by Somchai who, just for good measure, is Thaksin's brother-in-law. Somchai has now stepped down after the PPP was disolved by the Thai courts. Meanwhile, the PPP MPs left eligible by the courts have formed the Peuea Thai Party and are expected to form the same coalitions PPP did. This coalition will chose the next prime minister, and therefore leaves open the possibility of the protests starting all over again.

It's fairly clear that to win an election you have to be allied to Thaksin in the mind of the people, whether or not you are following the man's actual instructions. The party of the holy trinity – the Democrats – led by Oxford-educated Abhisit is seen as an urban elite, out of touch with the concerns of the rural poor. Plus, over the last months it has been fatally compromised by its closeness to PAD.

Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang, one of PAD's core leaders, responded to this electoral lock-out by proposing a "new politics", in which only 30% of the house is elected and the other 70% appointed by the great and good. The rationale is that the uneducated poor need to be protected from themselves. It will no longer matter if they vote for corrupt politicians: they will take what they are given.

Meanwhile, just to add another element into the mix, the leader of PAD, a media mogul called Sondhi Limthongkul, is gradually starting to believe in his own culthood. Having convinced himself Taksin was using Cambodian black magic from his mansion in Surrey, Sondhi performed a protecting ceremony involving placing used tampons around a statue of King Chulalongkorn. This is the man who shut down Thailand.

One of the first things you are sure to be told in this least nationalistic of countries, is that Thailand has never been colonised. But look closer. Thailand has in a sense been colonised by its own middle-class, many of whom live in this country like colonial settlers. As with all colonisers, they see the true centres of culture and education as being elsewhere (the US, Britain, etc). They send their children to school abroad, they try to look as western as possible (white = attractive, brown = unattractive). They have the coloniser's exasperation and disdain for the natives, who are treated with paternal benevolence provided they know their place. Poverty in this setting is an ongoing problem; it is not to be solved but is to remain ongoing, since good works provide the middle-classes with their validation: moments of upcountry genuine "Thai-ness", before air-conditioned cars return them to their shopping malls.

To read the English-language Thai press is to appreciate the full depths of this disdain. From an article in The Nation (October 14 2008, before the airport takeover), written by Thanong Khantong, The Nation's editor, in favour of PAD's protests: "I don't see Thailand backtracking against the democratic process ... It is a joke to believe that the rural voters love or have a better understanding of democracy than the Bangkok middle class ... The foreign media and foreign experts must stop distorting Thai politics with their convenient definition of democracy." From earlier in the article: "A country can survive without democracy but it can't survive without law" ... "The politicians are the main problem and a liability in our democracy."

The last two quotes are what I mean by fascism, since I don't know what else you'd call it.

It is not possible to have contempt for democracy without first having contempt for people, since democracy is after all meant to deliver the people's will. Likewise, contempt for people, or at least for a significant section of a country's population, will eventually lead to a corroding of democracy. That corrosion is occuring now, and, here, at this moment in time, is what contempt gets you – a ring of used tampons around a statue and a shuttered-up economy. And a feeling, growing among many – the poor, the dismissed, the un-noticed – that rights taken from them will never be returned.

It is all very easy for singles to get out of the country via the train (though it is 36 hours from bkk to kl) assuming the flooding has stopped at hat yai (which it hasnt , that is why the above poster took more than 48 hours), but a large percentage of the people stuck in Thailand are families.

Have you ever tried moving a baby or young children around like many of you are assuming ? I dont think so !

Firstly the costs are obviously larger (2 adults + child) then you have all the problems of food, toilets, waiting around, etc.

Thailand as a family destination - which is what it has tried to push itself as for the last few year - is dead for years.

Thailand as a single mans playground - which is what thailand has tried to stop / change - is now the main/only game in town.

They have shot themselves in the foot / arm / leg / everywhere

George,

dont know if the following from Reuters deserves a new topic - but i cant create one !

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4B00M820081201

Restarting Bangkok airport to take at least a week

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Restarting Bangkok's $4 billion Suvarnabhumi airport will take at least a week from the end of the current sit-in by protesters because of security and IT system checks, its general manager said on Monday.

Anti-government protesters have ignored a police order to end their blockade of Bangkok's main airport, which entered its seventh day Monday.

"Normally, checking the IT systems takes one week. We have to check, recheck, check, recheck," Serirat Prasutanond told Reuters, adding that the delay would probably be even longer as some of complex's massive computers might need repair.

"I think some systems are damaged," he said, but declined to give further details.

The closure of the 125,000 passenger-a-day airport by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) movement has stranded thousands of foreigners and is threatening Thailand's tourism- and export-driven economy with billions of dollars of damage.

With the army refusing to get involved and police reluctant to use force against the 3,000 protesters, many of whom are women and who include children and babies, attention is on a court decision this week that is likely to dissolve the ruling party.

Even if the dissolution, expected on Tuesday or Wednesday, is enough to convince the PAD to pack its bags, Serirat's timeline suggests the airport will be closed until at least December 11, eating into the key Christmas tourist season.

It is also likely to be factor in Thailand's decision whether or not to postpone an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit scheduled for December 13-17, even though the venue has already been shifted to the northern city of Chiang Mai.

"BUSY SEASON"

"We're coming up to the busy season for the tourism, but even if the airport is up and running any time soon, it's hard to imagine that you're going to see significant inflows of tourists," Nick Bibby of Barclays Capital in Singapore said.

Once Airports of Thailand has done all its checks, the Department of Civil Aviation and the airlines themselves have to do their own system verification before normal operations can resume, Serirat said.

It is not known how long those third-party checks will take.

The tourist misery is being compounded by the PAD's parallel occupation of Bangkok's Don Muang airport, which served as the capital's main air hub until Suvarnabhumi's opening in September 2006 and is still important as a domestic hub.

Serirat did not say how long it would take to reopen Don Muang.

Some international flights are now departing via U-Tapao, a Vietnam War-era military airfield 150 km (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok. Continued...

Where are these 10 airports that might be used for international flights?

I still haven't been able to call Qatar Airways. The missus and I are due to fly to the UK tomorrow. I haven't heard anything about Qatar flying from U-Tapao or any other Thai airport though.

Check it out, they fly today U Tapao

http://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/bangkok-alert.html

Look at the date at the bottom. That was yesterday - though it might be fair to assume that they will also fly today and tomorrow.

What is unlcear is whether they are also flying people in. They dont mention that and still tell people to rebook or goto a different airport. must give them a call.