samjaidee

"forecast the number of foreign tourists entering Thailand in 2010 would increase by between 8 and 10 percent, or about 15 million over last year"

Maybe I'm just no good at maths but if an increase of 10% is 15 million doesn't that mean that last year 150 million tourists visited Thailand.

Really?

I thought the total number of tourists who visited Thailand last year was 13-14 million.

Dr. Sethaput Suthiwart-naru needs a proof reader.

It's not the Baht that's strong it's the Pound and the Euro that are weak.

"Theoldgit" may be old, but he's is still sharp:

That's exactly what's happening, just that most don't think about it that way.

The Pound is falling.

The Euro is falling.

The Baht is falling, too, just more slowly, so it gives the illusion of being "stronger".

But they are all going down.

All over the world, every country's money is falling.

Thailand is no exception.

(Clever readers will ask, "Falling against what?"

That's a worthwhile question, but better saved for a different thread, because the topic here is the Pound and the Baht.)

This is not just a short term blip - this is the foreseeable future. There is nothing in the way of Sterling's fall. It will keep on falling because there is nothing that can arrest the fall. ... In 12 months time its likely that anyone wanting to retire in Thailand (800,000 in a Thai bank) will need about £25,000. ... I hope I'm wrong but I fear the worst.

Superb analysis.

Thank you, "Slim".

We might quibble about the amount of the "fall", but falling it is.

a number of expats have said enough is enough and returned to their homelands. ... I have to wonder what I would be going back to.

There is no "wonder" about it.

If your homeland is/was primarily English-speaking (UK, US, Canada, Australia, NZ, etc.), then its either going or already gone.

Similar with our European friends.

What we once had in our "home" countries simply is no more, and never will be again.

Not in the life time of anyone reading this now.

The cultural decay and the financial depression are too deep, have gone too far.

I'm staying.

There's nowhere else I can see that offers similar quality of life as Thailand, let alone any place better.

Yes, problems on the horizon -- not to be discussed here -- but there are problems everywhere.

I've assessed the risks and will take my chances in Thailand.

I'm open to further discussion -- on the forum, or in private messages.

(For this sort of topic, private messages are usually more productive.)

-- Oneman

Chiangmai

Well put Oneman however you could replace the word Thailand with the word Vietnam and it would work just as well.

Eight other railcars will also be renovated such as the Sai Yok Waterfall route in Kanchanaburi in order to promote the SRT's train trips.

I've been to that waterfall, it's beautiful, as are many of the waterfalls I've had the pleasure of visiting throughout Thailand. However, easing the transport of many more tourists can have some drawbacks, particularly if a significant portion of those visitors are loose about tossing/leaving trash around.

Suggestion: at the entry point of each parks, there could be a required mini-education that teaches about the importance of keeping the parks untarnished. Mention could also be made of leaving wildlife alone, though there aren't any wild mammals at any of those parks, and probably a dearth of reptiles also. the mini-education could be arranged so visitors would be forced to walk through a simple maze, with several stops to hear/see the advantages of not trashing the environment - altogether just a few minutes delay from entering the park.

It wouldn't stop all the trash tossing, but it would lessen it.

When I went to visit a seashore park south of San Fransciso, there was a park ranger stationed there at the entry point. Each group that came to see the seals there, were required to stand and listen for a couple minutes - as the ranger spoke about the importance of not going close to the seals or bothering them in any way. It doesn't directly relate to Thailand as they've long since killed and/or driven off any seals (and turtles) that used to reside on its coasts. But it gives a picture of a bit of what Thai officials could do to try and keep their parks from deteriorating.

As for cities, well, Thai cities hardly have any parks at all, so it's a moot point.

I thought this topic was about Thailand's railways and their rolling stock, not litter and environmental issues.

Hope they get sent away for long time...20M baht is just pure greed.

I say fry them. Just imagine the grief that this trio has caused everywhere they walk.

Comon! They're not shooting people no questions aked then taking their money and gold. It's a crime but it's not that bad so why fry them? Too many extremist expat racists on this forum like the guy above who referes to Pakistanis as "Pakis!" Sorry to let you all know but we're the "Pakis" here so watch your mouth.

My apologies for the "Paki" reference in my post. I was using it as an abbreviation, nothing more. The last thing, anyone who knows me, would accuse me of is racism. My mother was born in the West Indies and I was an active participant in ANC activities when I lived in South Africa. (pre 1994)

should have been caught in the first week not two ! at least they got caught though

Knew a guy in Bangkok, a few years ago, who got involved in something like this; fake cards and fake passport with his face on it and name to match the card. He got cash from the exchange places around town, kept 10% and gave the rest to the supplier.

He was doing it for some Pakistani guy who gave him 5 different cards and passports to match. He got caught when he got greedy took them back home to the UK. He’s now got free room and board with her majesty.

He managed to get about 2 million baht in 2 months. 200,000 for himself.

There were lots of foreigners working for the Paki guy so he must have become rich very quickly.

<snip>I've got over 20GB of music and all of it is acquired using BitTorrent.<snip>

<snip>I've got 50 gigs of music<snip>

I have a Hard Drive with 120GB of Music<snip>

I've got 144 GB of music.

Had I known it was a competition as to how much music each member had I would have lied. All I was trying to do was inform the poster as to how I had acquired mine.

It's always a problm for me to keep up with technoligy. I just wish it was as simplee as putting a coin in the local "juke box" however, it's all digital now. I will bring some CDs from home however last time some didn't work.. Particullarly the Karoke ones.

I'm guessing that the Karaoke CDs were in fact DVDs. Your problem would probably have been the difference in format. PAL or NTSC. Thailand uses PAL and the US uses NTSC.

Stick with downloading from the internet and you can't go wrong.

I sent my CD's from back home. Or you can convert your CD's to mp3's before you come here. You also can download much music from YOUTube.

If you want to watch videos I can see the sense in YOUTube however if you just want to listen to music then the obvious answer has to be using a torrent site. I've got over 20GB of music and all of it is acquired using BitTorrent.

Please. No lectures about pirating.

Good luck.

The Khmer Rouge Killing Fields participant meets the Thai Drug War Massacre director.

Sounds like a lovely match made in heaven. I hope they remember their condoms.

I defy you to present any evidence to support your claim that Hun Sen was ever a participant in the atrocities at the Killing Fields.

You should think very carefully before writing such inflammatory remarks. People have been sued for less.

Nipped into Nathon to get some ink for the printer and the shop I get it from in Nathon also does remote heicopters and planes and cars etc. He had just taken delivery of some eletric scooters. They look very much like the Honda Click. Supposedly do around the 45-50 kph and are good for around the 60-70 km per charge.I am going back tomorrow to have a test ride. They are selling at 20,000 baht so may be a good little replacement for the petrol bike if they cut the mustard. I will post a report after the test ride

I left Samui 5 years ago and now live in HCMC, Vietnam. There are electric bikes everywhere her. Click on the link to read an interesting article about electric bikes in Hanoi in 2003. Things Asian

I can't believe they've just arrived there. Talk about backward.

6 foreigners arrested in online investment scam

Crime Suppression Division police have arrested four Britons, a Filipino woman and a French man for having allegedly deceiving foreign investors to buy stocks online and cheated them.

Pol Maj Gen Panya Mamen, deputy Central Investigation Bureau commissioner, said the six foreigners were arrested at a house on Soi Thonglor while deceiving foreigners to invest in stock markets through Internet.

Police seized seven desktop computers, six notebook computers and 31 mobile phones from the house.

Information from the seized computers showed that they had deceived the investors to invest over Bt100 million in fake firms.

The foreigners claimed that they were hired by a man identified only as Paul for Bt30,000 to Bt50,000 a month to make phone calls.

-- The Nation 2009/09/19

Interesting that they call it an online scam. The foreigners were paid to make phone calls rather than type emails. Sounds like another typical boiler room to me. Maybe they were using Skype to make the calls. I guess then it would be online.

What I cannot get over is the numbers.... holy moly! Over a thousand arrests, it sounds like the there are more illegal "workers" than legal workers. I also cannot fathom how this airport can be secure, isn't the baggage area a secure area? But we hear that the "secure" area is crawling with unauthorized personnel, that's scary. Any terrorist can enter the airport posing a gang member... it's just preposterous!

Who said the personnel are unauthorized?

This is the excerpt from the article that you forgot to read.

But one area where it was difficult to conduct surveillance was around the baggage carousel where porters with clearance passes who work for the airlines could approach passengers to help them with their luggage.

Mr Niran said many of the porters were like "outsourced" workers for the gangs and it was difficult to expose them.

The preposterous thing is you inability to absorb all the information in the original post.

Police say there's nothing they can do about.

That's why the overhaul of the police department is way overdue

Maybe, Mr Losangels, you could suggest to the police a way that they could eradicate this problem from Thailand rather than suggesting an overhaul. Not a very inspired response.

It is also one of the most common forms of theft in HCMC, where I now live. There's not a lot the police here can do, either. I can't see a way to stop it. Can you?

It's strange the other day, there was a topic on here comparing Brits abroad in various countrys, the number of yanks that jumped on the band wagon taking the opportunity to give us a Brit bashing, "all the brits are scum", "all the brits are trouble-makers", "why don't the brits stay in their own country". (ha! - I haven't heard of any of them robbing banks, I remember a German guy doing it in Chonburi 6yrs back, and I remember a Norwegian holding up a gold store in Pattaya)

The number of people who come to this country and live on the bread-line is unbelievable, and in my line of business I see them all, so I can safely say there is definately a majority of one nation that pass through my doors who live in this situation (let's just say they didn't live the AMERICAN DREAM). My question is why do they do it to themselves, if you call living in Paradise - living out your life in a little box, not even a motorbike for transport, and penny pintching at every eatery (down the road its only 25bt, so why are you charging me 30bt), you really should be thinking of heading home, you are embarrasing yourself and your home-nation. All these people that I have come across, seem to be within 'the working age' have 2 legs & arms, and seem perfectly able. So go home, get a job, and come back when your life's in order, and stop inflicting your miserable way of life on the rest of us.

Way to many sad individuals in this country, spoiling it for the rest of us.

And to pre-empt anybody sticking up for these saddos and saying "look, some people just get dealt a bad hand", success is a journey not a destination. The problem with most of these low-lifes they haven't learnt to accept responsibility for their actions and love to blame others for their pit-falls, until they accept responsibility for their actions, their lives will never improve.

I always find it fascinating when an intelligent and educated person looks past the ignorance of some that prejudice a conversation by stereotyping a country because of one ignorant person. What is even worse is when they indirectly point at an American… So I am guessing with such a large number, like 300 people dieing in one year riding motorcycles and they are all Brits, should one reasonable think that all Brits are ignorant….No!, but one could conclude that Americans are just better drivers….and not as good at robbing banks.

Many members on this forum seem to display an irrational jealousy of Americans.

Here here. Any jealousy of Americans would have to, by its nature, be irrational.

I pay for my own work permit and i wasnt really happy shelling out 3000. If i have to shell out 7 or 10,000 thats almost a weeks salary.

Thailand does all it can to make life difficult for foreigners to live here, buy a home and stay here.

Winging or not, Im going to Vietnam. The visa thing there is certainly more difficult, but otherwise they are doing everything they can to get foreigners and their money to come and stay.

I lived in Thailand for 6 years and have now lived in Vietnam for 4 years. Visas here are easy compared to Thailand. Give your passport to one of many agents and for US$90 you will have a 6 month multiple entry business visa without any paperwork or even a photo. Completely legitimate. Repeat the process as often as you like.

I doubt that it will assure their status as one of the top airports in the word, but they're on the "Path to BE A Regional Hub."

Well they are already the the laughing stock of the world now so I guess that's one achievement of note.

And they gotta be magicians if they can think that they can build anything for a quarter if million dollars.

Changi currently has four terminals one a budget, and the terminals 1, 2 & 3 with terminal 4 in the planning stage.

So in so far as "but they're on the "Path to BE A Regional Hub" you have either got to be a Thai or come from cuckoo land.

What type of maths do you use that makes 10 billion THB equal 250,000 dollars? You would have to be a magician to achieve that sort of exchange rate.

According to my currency converter it's a little closer to 293,944,738 USD. You're only out by a factor of one thousand.

Didn't you start at the beginning of the topic?

Thailand is the Switzerland of Asia. Where you think all that Golden Triangle drug money has been laundered from these last 40 years? You've got Laos which when I went there in 2005 didn't have ATMs, Myanmar and Vietnam (which has been a part of the civilized world for an entire 10 years now)... Gotta clean that money.

No surprise that people like Mr. Bout end up in Thailand to conduct business.

Are you saying the the Vietnamese were not civilized before 1999? That is a particularyly ignorant thing to write. On what basis do you make that assumption? If you define civilization as follow the west then does that make the Chinese uncivilized? I'm sure other members would like to know the correct definition of civilization as defined by dondraper

Life is cheap and justice can be bought.

Wrong. Justice cannot be bought. By its very nature you cannot buy justice. You can pay money to avoid justice but it cannot be bought.

Here's a few definitions from dictionary.com

1. The principle of moral rightness; equity.

2. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness.

3. The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.

It may seem petty of me but I'm a pedant. (check a dictionary if you're not sure what pedant means)

life probably doesn't mean life. he will probably get 15 years and then get released and then be at the age where he can easily get a pretty young thai girlfriend pretending to love him not for his passport. not too bad a deal then.

i hope he dies of aids first, people like him never change and do not deserve a second chance, bring in the death penalty

What a fatuous remark. Do you know him? Have you ever met him? How do you know he'll never change?

I'm not, for a moment, suggesting that what he did was right but to hope that any human being dies of AIDS is the most extraordinarily inhumane thing to say.

By the way, as a young man, I had two friends die from overdoses so I despise anyone who deals in Class 'A' narcotics BUT to wish death from AIDS on anyone is just the thought of a sick mind.

Wait, a thief gets two free passes before they are fired on the third botched attempt to rip us off?!? What kinda crazy rule is that out. This is not baseball, it's crime. We always wonder why when we go to tland we always come home with more things missing then travels elsewhere, remarkably so. Now we know. Cheers.

Can't you read? The initial post clearly says the thief will be fired immediately and the contractor will get three chances.

Your post is yet another attempt at misinformation by a member. You think that's clever? If you do then you're obviously not clever.

Vietnam? Have you ever been there? Beautiful scenery in some places but to compare it with Thailand in regard to expat living is just a joke.

I lived there for 8 months, in Hanoi admittedly, but it is just not Thailand - if you require further reinforcement try and live there - The locals of Hanoi make the Thais look like saints -

Agreed, the aggression level in VN seems quite a bit higher than in the other SE Asia mainland countries (there are always exceptions, of course). Been visiting VN since '99 but have been put off from my last visit.

I'd like to stress, I do not think it's a bad place at all in general. Maybe not for the uninitiated.

I've lived in HCMC for 4 years now, after 6 years in Thailand, and find any suggestion that the people Vietnam are more aggressive than those in Thailand extraordinary.

The people here seem to go out of their way to avoid confrontation unlike Thailand where many people thrive on it.

Theft yes, esp. from moving motorbikes but violence, rarely.

Making it hard to own property = YES

making it hard to transfer money = NO - NEver had any issues wiring decent amounts of cash into the country.

Correct, in no problem, try taking it out !,. like everyting else money related in thaiiand its on a one way ticket and in their favour,.

I live in Vietnam now where it is just as hard to buy land as in Thailand.

You are able wire transfer money out of Vietnam as long as you have evidence that it originally came into Vietnam from overseas or that it has been earned legitimately and that tax has been paid on those earnings. Isn't Thailand the same? What's wrong with that?

Surely you're obliged to pay tax in western countries as well. It would be a sensible policy for any government to adhere to.

to samjaidee living in vietnam

in reference to the video shown this evening by channel 5, the video narrator went on to say that the couple was arrested when they were in an eatery, sitting at different tables.

when the man saw the arrest of the lady, he walked away but was later arrested too. the shoplifted item (it looked like a dark wallet to me) was not found on the couple when searched. the missing item from the shop was later found in a trash can.

and in reference to the poll, just set up by thaitv--it needs to be much more specific for the poll to be meaningful. pls have someone from statistics 101 tries his/her hand on it.... lol (i like thaitv ok)

I've amended my post having seen the video. There's not much doubt she stole it.

george

what do you think of the video shown this evening on channel 5 around 18:20 (bkk time) regarding the british couple who (lady) appeared to have dropped something into her purse?

perhaps, this was an exceptional case different from others who were wrongly accused?

it is something that we all need to reevaluate? right? or do you have another take on this?

Living in Vietnam, I haven't seen the video but since they didn't find the wallet in the lady's possession when they detained the couple then would it not be safe to assume that whatever she dropped in her bag was something else and not the wallet in question.

Any comments from people who have seen the King Power video would be welcome.

According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office the cost of renewing a UK passport overseas (i.e. in Thailand) is currently adult 10 year 24 page = GBP 124 and 48 page equivalent is GBP 150 (a lot more than prices quoted in the original Daily Telegraph article...anyone know why?).

I need to track down the new rate and find out how early I can renew mine, expiring March 2010. Any thoughts?

Foreign and Commonwealth Office This link will tell you about passport costs outside the UK.

I don't know why they are so much more expensive. It seems a little unreasonable to me but that's the nature of the current government.

There's no indication of price increases outside the UK, anywhere I've looked so far. If I find something I'll post.

This is the site for UK renewals. Identity and Passport Service