allan michaud

"......cut from Bt3.426 billion to Bt3.425 billion." With a number that big, who'll notice if a million goes missing.

The number sounds impressive until you divide it by 800; then it starts to resemble paltry. Remind me, what are the expected LOSSES from the rice pledging scheme? Wasn't it substantially more than 100 times the budget for new hospital equipment - EVERY YEAR it operates.

Yep, and I just googled the price of x ray machines and they run at upwards of $20,000 (B600,000) so that's only 10 machines on their budget of B6,150,000. Still anything is better than nothing after 30 years.

So not even the great Thaksin never bothered to do anything about this in his time, and now his party cuts an already small budget of 9billion down to 3.

Not even sterillisers? So sad.

Absolute joke.

Ah, those damned Burmese again! Bloody foreigners.

Yes, that's the long and the short of it. I don't really think Thailand "gets" how much credibility it has lost, and its deteriorating standing in the eyes of the world. It's becoming a lawless, chaotic place. No one takes anything a government official might say seriously, almost no matter who it is. A shame - it once seemed so full of potential and progressive.

Very true!

If you look back to the tsunami of 2004 Thailand still had a cashe of goodwill - but not any longer.

Drugs, appalling policing, political lawlessness and the rising assertiveness of an under class is making Thailand more dangerous by the day!

But isn’t this the same everywhere? Many places being a lot worse in fact.

Please tell me where in the world it would be safe for two attractive young girls, strangers to the area, to walk about alone late at night without being vulnerable to harm?

Another comment blown straight out of the behind.

I am sure there are many places worse, but here in Cambodia violence towards tourists/foreigners is almost unheard of, whereas in Thailand it has now clearly gotten out of hand.

Of course Thai authorities will do everything in their power to cover up anything that would harm the tourist industry...that's the way of Thailand....miracle Thailand!!!

Rubbish!

It only makes things worse. Thai authorities know that. This investigation will be getting all the police attention it deserves, just as it's getting generous media coverage.

and then they will cover it up if they don't like what the police have to say.

Of course Thai authorities will do everything in their power to cover up anything that would harm the tourist industry...that's the way of Thailand....miracle Thailand!!!

Total rubbish.

Firstly, although of course this is extremely tragic for the girls parents, why is the father making accusations that the Thai authorities are covering up the actual cause of death when the Canadian coroner hasn’t even issued the results as yet?

Surely the time to make such statements is when the autopsy reports are completed.

Also, I have stayed and still do from time to time at many hotels all over Thailand. I can tell you that maids and cleaning staff would rarely disturb guests if they think they are still inside their rooms. This is standard practice and there is nothing unusual about staff not entering hotel rooms if occupied. So nothing suspicious regarding the time delay in finding the girls bodies at all and I would also dispute the 48-hour time body discovery period as described by the father.

Sorry if I sound harsh. I have children of my own and really feel hurt for the parents, but we must deal with actual facts here and not speculations and accusations that so far are completely unfounded.

So why do you dispute the 48-hour time body discovery period as described by the father?

You are a CSI?

I would assume he has been told by examiners in Canada that the apparent condition of the body and the police account of 12 hours don't match. We don't know why he made the comment so please explain your remark.

To set the record straight; the bodies were not supposed to be embalmed. Those were the instructions relayed by the embassy. The autopises were performed at the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Montreal. It will be several weeks for results to be given to Dr. Roussel, who will then interpret the findings. Should she require assistance, she has access to many qualified experts in the region, as well as to the advanced partner labs around the world.

Please be patient. The Quebec coroner's office will get to the bottom of this. And the coroner is well aware of Thai practices as this is not the first suspicious case from the "developing world" to show up at the lab.

Am I going blind here, where is the reference to the bodies being embalmed coming from?

"Also, the hospitality of the local people leaves much to be desired, especially concerning unfair service." -That wasn't my experience.

I spent 9 days in Myanmar over Songkran. Yangon, Inle, Mandalay, and Bagan, from guesthouses to 4 star hotels. The service I experienced was the same or better as other places in the region, and the hospitality of the people was much better.

I have not been yet but I know many that have and I have only heard good things about the people of Burma and these friends great experiences. Several people also commented that it felt like a 'real' Buddhist country, unlike Thailand.

Does anyone really care about Phuket's tourism on this site? I certainly don't after watching the CCTV video of the woman being violently stabbed. Travellers should go to Vietnam, Vientiane, Laos. Go to Cambodia. Nice places.

Right, although far less safe, at least you won't be bothered by the thought of having your murder recorded on surveillance camera.

Far less safe! Utter crap. Certainly Cambodia is far safer than Thailand for Farangs (Barangs here) I can assure you. In 11 years here I am still only aware of 2 people that have been murdered (in a drug fueled robbery) and 1 young Brit who disappeared. We have the odd drug overdose every year or so and on a handful of occasions people have died in traffic accidents but that's it. Violence against foreigners is almost unheard of... unlike Thailand where I have lost track of the seemingly dozens of dead tourists already this year.

do they have the number plate on the motor bike?

the footage showed them on the motorbike from the back, not straight, but with special software police can make a lot of things visible...

Yeah but I don't think you can do that with Angry Birds Rio, the BIB will need to invest in some real police type software.

"This is an important case that must be solved urgently. We should not let only two people cause damage to Phuket's tourism. I promise that police will arrest those two perpetrators as soon as possible," Pansiri said.

Shame with Thai men like this, everything boiling down to $$$.

One day human life will be viewed on an index. So sad.

Its not just the men. I seem to recall a well known Thai lady being asked on television what was the most important thing in the world. Now you might expect answers like, my family, or my children but no, it was sadly very predictable. MONEY!

"Chalerm spoke of the threat posed by mafia gangs in tourist destination towns following a meeting with tourist police, senior officials from the Tourism and Sports Ministry and governors of tourist-destination provinces at the Royal Thai Police headquarters."

Well at least he's talking to the right people, these guys are the countries leading experts on the mafia.

"In addition, plenty of flood prevention measures have been taken to block the water flow"

Outstanding, so where is the water going to go?

Maybe they are going to some more of those gigantic world record breaking pumps we have been told of previously.

I must admit it seems hard to believe there will be flooding on the scale of last year as its normally once a decade, but it's hard to ignore the heavy rains we have had, just like last year.

Given it appears the various provincial govs are working to protect their own areas and probably not coordinating their work, I see no reason why it should not all go tits up again.

I agree, he's talking crap I'm afraid. My wife was the victim of a bag snatcher and fell face first (no crash helmet) and looked very much like a panda for several weeks. As someone else mentioned the bike will have very clear evidence of being crashed. Having ridden bikes almost daily for the 32 years I have had a few crashes and even the most minor resulted in some scratches.

RIP to the victim.

Pretty sick you take a vacation and end up going back in a body bag!

Seems to happen to a lot of tourists to Thailand

Now this is scary. There must be human to human transmission/ Get your masks out.

You just get points for "starting or partaking in a brawl, possessing a gun or explosives, and selling drugs"

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

The article says

"The real police officers questioned the victims and checked the CCTV footage and found out that the stocky man is Mr. Wattanahai Srikamnoi, or “Ong” aged 22, living at house # 313/102. Moo 10 Banglamoong. Profession : civil defence volunteer.

The police will interrogate Mr. “Ong” whether he is involved in the case or not."

In what sense could he not be involved in the case?

TIT. If he pays a share of the 12,000 to the right people then clearly he will not have been involved in anything dodgy.

PM confident tourism income will reach Bt2 trillion within 5 years

so she expects it will well over double in that timeframe from the current 770 billion?

well they could always pick up an extra trillion by redeploying Plan D

Elite Card, launched in 2003, promised fast-track immigration, discounts at resorts and golf courses and other perks. With members paying 1 million baht for a lifetime membership - prices later rose to 1.5 million - the goal was to attract a million subscribers in five years for revenue of 1 trillion baht.

But your forgetting the clear plan to run the economy into the ground so the Baht will be back up over 40 to the dollar. 2 trillion might not be that ambitious after all.

Why do you need a special program like this, surely the best students should be top of the list anyway?

Oh, sorry I forgot TIT!

Come on folks - a little perspective. It's a big world with lots of nasty people and tragic events. Google "tourists die" and you'll come up with 29million hits. People die under tragic circumstances all over the world. For those of you who want to blame Thailand, as one paranoid poster put it "a hub of death" go home and hide under you bed, you'll be safer there.

My condolences to the family during this tragic time and to the sisters - RIP.

Here in Cambodia where I have lived for the past 12 years the number of deaths of foreigners each year can be counted on 1 hand. The occasional drug overdose, we had a couple of machete murders a few years back, but it's very rare. Why is it Thailand seems to have farang deaths on almost a daily basis? I realise there are far more farangs in Thailand than Cambodia but still it seems very excessive.

Why is it Thai journalists seem incapable of using a calculator. "Police found the bank books showed 30 transactions of Bt50,000 and Bt100,000 deposits amounting to Bt10 million"

No

30 x 100,000 = 3,000,000

Quite simple really, like the editors/journalists apparently

Thailand seems to be the place to go to die on holiday. I am amazed at how many tourists die accidentally, commit suicide, are murdered etc in Thailand. There have been several dozen deaths so far in 2012.

Hub of death!

Pathetic country. They race to charge 9 Burmese workers but have no idea who is behind it.

1,620 cubic metres of water per second = 427,958.7 gallons per second?

According to this link the Thai's will have 2 pumps that are 3 times the size of the previous world's most powerful pumps! Maybe it was a more realistic 160 cubic meters a second.

http://gizmodo.com/5800072/the-worlds-largest-water-pump-moves-15-olympic+sized-swimming-pools-every-minute