wrecker

Seems like it's nothing about the bar mat at all.

She probably could have talked her way out of the bar mat, though knowing a drunken lout Ozzie girl, she was loud, abusive, flipped out, and got a shock when she found out she couldn't command the circumstances. Isn't this the problem with feminism in developed countries...... now the women wear the pants, and we men have become the bitches. They they think they can scream and rave and get their way like they do in Australia. Equality is fine, but not feminism or macho ism.

There's an unspoken rule of respect for all peoples, especially authority. I'm glad she's scared. And now she's dissing the Aust. Govt for failing to help.

Ever heard the way many of these Oz girls speak?

As she said "It's a crock"..... I wonder if she was going to finish that sentence... a crock of what? Now, if she says that on radio, we can guess how polite she is when she's drunk. :D

Maybe so, but the fact that an undercover policeman makes his presence known for such an absurd case says more about the police than it says about the tourist. Tourists happen to be loud and drunk. If you do not like that part of tourism, put a sign on the immigration boot and refer to the next plane that goes to Cambodia, The Philippines or Indonesia.

A bar mat and an undercover policeman? Thailand is slowly becoming Burma. Phuket, pattaya, Chiangmai are all places that should be avoided at all price. Their police forces belong to the most crooked in the country. Unfortunately the lady in question did not realize that she could do anything except looking for publicity. the fact that this case is now in the open means that she will get 2 years, half off because she will admit to the case (standard procedure, after all half the Thai inmates are in for doing nothing). If this case would have stayed out of the press, she could have paid the police, the owner, the prosecutor of the judge, which is all standard procedure in Thailand. Involving an embassy and appearing in the press will cut these possibilities almost off. Hiring a lawyer is an expensive waste time and resources. Good luck to the lady, after all Australia is not very famous for helping its citizens in the LOS.

Nothing to do with lese majesty as is so often the case. these laws are absurd and are only used to silence (political) opponents. Today they are used against people like Thaksin and Gilles Ji Ungpakorn. Tomorrow they are used against Abhisit, Chamlong, Chuan and Sondhi.

It is just a matter of who is wielding power. As police and prosecutors do not have any honor at all they will listen to whoever is strongest on a particular day.

With the lese majesty laws Thailand is on par with other repressive countries in the Middle East, Burma, Libya and so on. In those countries the same kind of tactics are used to silence the opposition.

I am actually wondering why Anupong did not came up with a swimmer, his friend Than Shwe seems to be carved out of the same wood but is more creative.

It might all be part of the new tourist strategy. " we love to have your dollars, but do not stay too long and buy only in the shops controlled by us". I am afraid that this is another example of an incompetent government. If you like to crack down start in places like MBK or Panthip at least you do not get too much negative press abroad.

Speculative post removed..

As always, articles quoted from the Thai press are notorious unreliable and Thai journalists have no trouble twisting facts or reporting according the wishes of the political masters of the moment.

We have a government who is constantly using a crystal ball, looking there is easier than making policy. If there is already a cause that there are less travellers it is because of the airport occupation and the fact that bookings made by tourists were simply paid for till the end of the high season which has no ended.

Fresh bookings have not replaced the old stock fully. Secondly, air travel worldwide is down this year so far with 15% because of the recession. Almost all countries are hit by dwindling visitors. The political upheaval and the mismanagement of it by the government who loved the sound of guns instead of bringing in riot police will absolutely have an effect, but this cannot be measured yet.

The hotelbranche however is good in extorting taxpayers money from the government. After the airport occupation the Abhisit government decided to pay their interest on loans (how silly) and since government help always taste good, hoteliers see another great opportunity to ask for a bailout.

Just let the market do the job, the big hotels are underpaying their staff for a very long time, so it is much better for the government to help these poor people instead of the fat cat Indian and Chinese who own most properties anyhow.

It is hard to believe that Pattaya's image took a hit when 50 protestors could walk freely into a high profile meeting. The hit was taken by deputy PM Suthep responsible for security. He is still clinging on to power, so no hits are taken. The only hit Pattaya possibly could have had is that it suddenly looked like a clean city without the entertainers.

The hit Thailand has taken is that of soldiers on a rampage (whereas in any civilized country, riot police would do the trick), but that hit is only measurable after 9 months. It is therefore far more likely that the current unrest is a godsend for this government. The problem of empty hotel rooms is after all to blame on the airport closure from the yellow shirts. After that fiasco lots of tourists did not book a trip anymore. This government seem to have a lot to learn about causes and action and about time lags in the economy. On top of the disastrous airport closure you have a creditcrisis which slowed travel down with up to 15% and in 6 to 9 months we will see the effect of the cowboy action from the army.

The bottom line is that this government can explain what it wants to the outside world but they lack credibility, after all how do you explain that a man who called the airport closure fun has to do the explaining as a minister of foreign affairs?

It's a long over due step. But I wonder what other passports he has..hmmm

Hopefully a lot, he still represents 65% or more of the electorate

Is there any serious person on this form who take Thai opinion polls serious??

Hopefully not, you would become instantly a part of George Orwell's 1984. Just like in Russia, opinion polls are notoriously unreliable. They are paid for by political groups or businesses or NGO's. Never is a margin of error published. Worse in most cases not even the real questions are given, what means that people might have been led to an answer. Moreover, Thai opinion polls are conducted in an incestuous matter. No more than a hand full of provinces are polled. Bangkok and surroundings, what means that Royalist and Elitist elements always will have the upper hand. I understand that it might be difficult to poll a poor farmer without a telephone but it is really essential in order to get the right picture.

regarding the fact that the state of emergency is not lifted, that is no surprise. Not one non democratically elected government likes opposition. What is more disturbing is that the people within the government who are responsible for national security refuse to go and Abhsit cannot sack them as he is not the man with the real power.

it is sad to see that no action was taken on the yellow leaders, they would have been able to play cards for 5 years together with the red leaders. In the end the government have no choice than to admit that thailand will never be able to go back to the situation of before thaksin. the movement fighting it is far stronger than the left forces in the 70's and 90's.

Thaksin is used as scapegoat, I am under the impression that this movement is supported by lots of left wing academics who do not support Thaksin, but saw Thaksin only as a person who filled a vacuum. I have read many newspaper articles in the German and French press who claim that the shots fired did not came from the Red Shirts but all from people in the neighborhood, even claiming that the PAD was responsible for it, which is possible because they had armed guards, not the reds and instigating army action was their goal. Also press reports claim that at least 10 people have been killed. No reaction on that in the Thai press. But maybe they have to write positive news, it is the state of emergency. I am glad that I am back in germany.

I really do not get it here. First you force an extra holiday on employers and banks on Friday, than instead of using riot police you use the army to shoot in full view of hundreds of millions of TV viewers worldwide, killing the tourist industry and discouraging companies from settling or even staying in Thailand. Than you extent that holiday again! great! Who is going to pay for it? Although I understand that something had to be done on the violent protests it seems again that this government has lost the plot completely.

Lots of crocodile tears. Not nice from the reds not nice from the yellows, not nice from the blues. But in the end we deal with a deputy PM who is responsible for national security and who failed the Nation by not having his affairs in order. Let's see if he is man enough to tell the Nation that he has failed and is part of this mess too and therefore he will go.

Regarding the victims, I would not be surprised if many more have died indeed with so much ammunition. Any government has the right to end lawlessness, but the problem is that this government came to power due to the lawlessness incited by others who got even rewarded with a cabinet post. I am afraid that this mess will repeat itself over and over again in the next few years, till a real compromise has worked out. Still I see comments that the rural poor are too stupid to understand politics, these statement is even repeated by foreigners who have no clue who have been informed in the bars of BKK. But let's see it is a great time to sent red shirt leaders together with the yellow shirt leaders to jail, maybe they learn to work out things in the next ten years together.

The army has not learned it lessons. You cannot win an uprising. Neither in the South, neither in Bangkok, neither in the North or North East. The army is big and slow, therefore the protestors can move quickly and strike wherever they want. if they want to disrupt the daily live they can do so. The army clear one crossing they take 4 crossings, when the army moves in, they move out, regroup and take new targets, huge armies have lost that way. There is not other solution than striking a deal which is acceptable for each and everyone.

Just watching it on the BBC in the UK. They are not tanks that have been taken they are Armoured personel carriers. The soldiers in them were laughing and smiling with the Reds.

They have also taken at least one tank, most probably two, plus some armored vehicles. Anyhow the army should be very careful if people get killed they will be vilified. Precisely because of that the police will never ever interfere anymore. When they took rightful action on the yellow shirts they were accused of using extreme violence, which they did not, at least not for Thai standards.

Actually both sides do have tanks now. The protestors have seized at least two, plus immobilized numerous vehicles from the army. Ther is always a rambo under the protestors who know how to operate machine guns which they seem to have taken too or a tank.

The problem is of course that this government is very very hypocrite. They try to let us believe that seizing the summit was worse than two weeks Bangkok airport seizure. NOBODY is in jail for the airport seizure Than you can expect that the other side copy the methods.

In the end it is entertaining TV because if crooks like Newin are allowed to play a role than this government has no legitimacy either.

Samak was elected. Suthep and friends have taken the law into their own hands. Abhisit and Suthep are the army's henchmen, that says enough. However the problem will not go away by locking up a million people.

What did you expect? Killing protestors and thus provoking an coup or an kind of revolution?

You might question the suitability of Suthep. if you sent in 8.000 troops and police and you cannot stop 1000 protestors. But than again, Suthep is not really busy with thailand, he is preoccupied with Thaksin. I think today made clear the man (Suthep) is not suitable for his job.

Who was the source? I have seen very different scenes..

Why would someone like to have three pittbulls? Three german Sheppards do a better job when it is about guarding a compound.

They are obviously not MAJOR drugleaders. 17 Million baht is a decent house. Four houses totalling 17 million a car and a few bankaccounts most probably mean that they arrested the drugsrunners. I have no idea what the street value is of 60,000 pills let alone a kilo of ice, but I suspect that even if you put a pill on 100 baht (which is probably significantly more) you are already talking about 6,000,000 add the ice to it and you have half the confiscated value. If they make a trip several times a month it is clear that this is small fish. The numbers look impressive but in fact are peanuts. So often you see that the big guys (with links to???) are sheltered. It is no business to make a career in anyhow as half the Thai people inform on the other half.

It reads like an Abac poll, these figures makes no sense at all. Unless there is an epidemic the department of health control ought to know the figures. I assume that also these statistics are completely bullocks. I expect that someone is putting a wet finger up in the air and writes down numbers. It is a good thing that especially elderly people get vaccinated, but making up figures is disgraceful and unworthy to the medical profession.

but the 40 years is a april fools day joke of course...

Another proof that the Democratic Party is under the complete influence of hardline Muslims in the South from which they draw their main support. Banning alcohol or even floating the idea on a National Holiday makes no sense. The ban on people working under 40 in a massage parlour will only encourage people to prostitute themselves in public places, like Lumphini, unprotected and with a very big chance of being harmed.

I suppose that this is the price we have to pay to keep power hungry Suthep where he is now. Never mind the fact that he will meet fierce opposition from the Mammasahn in his government, the minister ofCommerce, who runs one of the biggest Massage Parlours in the business. And I can tell you out of experience that you will not find much employees over 40 there, unless you refer to the agents of the girls.

The bottom line is that both attempts to belittle grown up Thai people are completely ridiculous.

You would be foolish to do so. You have paid and the paperwork is okay. Her problem therefore, maybe she could post at the local Massage Parlour where here husband is spending the money.

At first I though this was a joke, now I see the story breaking on the AP. This could literally blow up in Thailand's face.

Everything to please the PAD and their backers.

Sad story, but accidents happen.