Callmeishmael

I think the problem is at the China end. No matter how easy and attractive a trip to Thailand is, if the Chinese government puts up barriers to international travel because they want to keep the tourist money in their own country, the numbers will not go up.

This is actually not a problem unless you have a ponzi scheme economy that only survives with economic growth, rather than economic stability. Also, funding a national pension scheme could be paid for by cancelling useless submarines and multi-million dollar fighter jets!

If they were serious about this, they would assign seating after weighing you! Put the heavier ones in the middle of the plane and the lightest toward the front or back. Of course this would split up families - I am 6'1" and 86 kilos, while my wife is a foot shorter and 20 kilos lighter!

Here's my two bahts worth: I got married in Thailand 20 years ago. I had never married before, though I had a number of long-term relationships and was over 40. She was divorced and had an 8 year old son. Her parents were both already dead. I paid no sinsot, but I did pay for the wedding. Fortunately the exchange rate then was 42 Baht to the Dollar!

My wife is 5 1/2 years younger than me.

Did you see who was appointed to look into this case? None other than Dept. Interior Minister Chada Thaised, who is rumored to be very well acquainted with provincial corruption!

I would tell you, but I would have to kill you afterwards! ????

So, they want to reduce the "unaffordable" pension increases, but they don't want to do so until after the next elections.... ????

My Thai niece just got married. She's 5/8 Chinese, graduated from Mahidol U. (English Program), has a good job with a big Thai company and is quite good looking. Her sinsot was a 20 million baht house in Bangkok that her in-laws gave to her and her husband. Her in-laws didn't approve of the marriage, they wanted their son to marry into another wealthy family, not a middle-class family, but after they dated each other for 15 years, they gave in.

A doctor told me that about 40% of people with high blood pressure are not overweight, get plenty of exercise, and don't smoke or drink. I fit that description, but have to take medication every day. Some of us just lost the blood pressure lottery!

They didn't swallow the bags of cocaine, I'm pretty sure that they were put in from the other direction! The only question I have is how did that big one get in??!!

This map shows the deviation of rainfall from normal from Jan. 1 to Sept. 4. I hate to agree with the loathsome little toad, but the nationwide supply of fresh water is on some concern this year!

Will the Chinese sailors get a brief leave to visit Pattaya? I'm sure that they would enjoy it!

Meet the new boss same as .....

So, many here claim that taxing the rich will lead to less economic benefits for all. Let's take a look at historical US tax rates: Back in the '40s - '80s, most Americans could survive on one income, most Americans could buy a house, most Americans could afford college, most Americans could afford Medical care. AND... the rich were taxed at a higher level than they have been since then. Now let's take a look at the US Gini numbers (the measure of economic inequality): Notice that the two graphs are almost exact reverses of each other!

This shows the new PM's priority: making the rich even richer.

I had a heart attack 3 weeks ago, so no more bacon and eggs for me! ???? Today was mushroom soup (no cream), a piece of multi-grain toast, some grapefruit and a cup of herb tea.

I might add: The scans must be submitted as a PDF file that is no bigger an 2 mb. If you have multiple documents in any category, you must make a multi-page PDF file to submit them, otherwise only the first scan submitted will be saved. Also, many of the pull down menus are only in Thai, so you should have a fluent Thai reader sitting with you when you are filling out the forms. (my Thai reading skills were not up to the task)

Does this mean that the 'caretaker' cabinet will finally stop making sweeping changes?

I thought that people with elite visas weren't supposed to work? ????

Every Thai voter has two votes: one for a party and one for a candidate. BMJ is a regional party that fielded candidates that were popular in their constituencies, so lots of their candidates won. However, as a party they are not very popular, so they had few party votes.

No Bob, it's just you.

I think that the writer of the article should have called them 'uncontrolled' crossings, rather than 'unauthorized' crossings. Just another example of the high standards of journalism that prevails here in Thailand.

Meanwhile, EVERY DAY we hear about sweeping changes that the 'caretaker' government is making! Everything from mass reassignments of senior civil servants to taking away pensions from the elderly poor!

The Democrats joined the Military Junta and were punished by the voters. They went from being the 2nd most popular party to barely getting %5 of the vote. The only purpose they now serve is as a warning to PT as to what can happen in the NEXT election.