DaiHard

This has nothing to do with the 'national interest' & everything to do with the CP/True interest. What they want is another monopoly so they can rip off their mobile customers the same way as they do their cable subscribers.

This company acted the same way over the desire of the likes of Tesco & Big C to open large supermarkets up-country. They cited the damage to small shops, 'forgetting' that CP/7-11 has done more damage than any other company to those small traders.

Actually CP was Tesco's partner in Tesco Lotus and they are still partners in China. Now wouldn't it be interesting to delve into CPs Chinese links.

Main street Salaya in front of gate 5 Mahidol University had gone down to ankle deep early this morning (water was clean too!) but by this afternoon it had gone back up to knee deep (and rising) with filthy black water (lots of dead fish and even dead snakes) which I suspect is the Nonthaburi run-off coming this way. The sluice gate at Naha Sawan (by the Royal Gems sports club) , which was completely open, has now been closed back to what looks like less than a metre. River in Nakhon Chaisi (as viewed just north of Bang Kraboa) has risen again too as have waters at Phra Prathom close to Phetkasem road as it goes north towards Nakhom Phatom. The 338 road to Nakhom Phatom at Puttamonthon has about 2 feet of water and a current flowing south (it seems to be heading to Khlong Thawi Wattana meeting it around the middle of Thano Utthayan aka the 'beautiful road'). Image mall on Phuttamonthon 4 was open today as floods seem to be receding close to the north of Nong Khaem. The southern SRT railway line, which was dry but now has up to half a metre of fast flowing water again, is running a 75% service to the southern provinces but expect delays and a changed timetable as it has been reduced to single line working in places due to flood damage.

Reason for edit: Spelling mistake

One of the world's oldest travel agents Thomas Cook is in dire financial trouble partly due to the floods in Thailand. The biggest part of its business is with Russian tourists and their favorite destination is Thailand (followed, ironically enough, by Egypt). According to reports advanced bookings to Thailand are now almost non existent.

It remains to be seen whether tourist bookings will hold up from other sources due to the economic downturn and continuing travel advisories against travel to Thailand. Experts appear to be saying that holidaymakers are not even considering booking Thai holidays whilst the floods continue.

Levels on Thanon Borommaratchachonnani (338) outside Mahidol Golden Jubilee Medical Centre, close to Phuttamonthon, have dropped by about 20cm overnight but are still around 70cm so only trucks can pass. Salaya, on the other side of Mahidol, has seen levels drop by over 30 cm since the Thawi Wattana sluice gate was opened last night. They are now around knee deep, some brave unmodified pickups are going through it although one of two have stalled in unexpectedly deep potholes. There is a fairly strong current flowing into the area from the north however, but that might cease once the level gets below that of the railway (which is fairly dry most of the way into Bangkok now)

Going west towards Nakhom Phatom the current is quite strong heading towards the fully opened sluice gate at Maha Sawat. Further west low lying areas still have up to around 30cm of water but many houses and roads are now dry. The river near Nakhom Chaisi has dropped and many of the houses along the banks are now dry.

If the levels keep dropping at this rate Thanon Borommaratchachonnani should be passable, with care, by early next week.

"As for western Bangkok, drainage of water into the Tha Chin River and the sea could be done at 63 million cubic metres per day"

So it'll take around 2 months to clear.

"The country's post-flood rehabilitation plan had also boosted international confidence in Thailand"

"Yingluck also thanked various countries including Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, China and the US for their ... help."

Translation: thanks for the donations - its party time down at the Mercedes dealerships.

"Thailand's initiative could pave the way for a disaster-operations centre for Asean."

Run by F.R.O.C presumably, as they've proved to be so effective.

It's beyond parody.

Contrary to what the prime minister said about the flood- waters in Phutthamonthon having receded they have actually increased by about 2 cm.

It's all over nothing to see here folks. Police have now said it was only about a mill plus some jewelry (told you that 200 mill would disappear).

Mind you his house in Soi Lat Phrao 64 looks quite nice. It just shows what you can get by being frugal with your modest civil servants pay.

PS: Love the name of one of the robbers: Singthong - Karaoke with a lisp!

Your your illegal money have been robbed. Will you

a) call the police or

call the hit man

He didn't, the maids did, and he wasn't there when the police got there.

A former boss of my wife was burgled 2 years ago. The thieves knew were the safe was.

They carried off 10million in cash and a major part of his wife's gold.

There are wealthy Thais who keep large amount of cash at home.

However, a burglar claiming to have taken 200mil? Yeah, right...

Where is the evidence?

Presumably the police have the evidence after catching the burglars. It is

hardly likely it was the burglar's own money.

Mind you there probably isn't 200 mill now

Translation: Press for movement = extract more taxes to pay for UN apparatchiks

You don't actually think that this money would go to prepare for climate change do you?

Salaya still flooded > 1 metre and no sign of it going either up or down. It's VERY polluted now. Lots of the local floodgates are firmly closed stopping the water flow and others are broken.

Salaya still flooded > 1 metre, no sign of it going down and its getting REALLY polluted.

Sorry picture wouldn't attach

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Irrigation Department director general Chalit Damrongsak the guy who had a huge hand in creating this problem in the first place by not letting the water out of the dams in the face of the extremely heavy monsoon we had?

Was he the same guy that said: "The water levels that are going to enter Bangkok will most likely be only at 2.3-2.4 metres. Therefore, it will not surpass Bangkok's irrigation dike levels of 2.5 metres," he then went on to say: "I can confirm that Bangkok is going to be spared from the flood."?

Wasn't he also the guy that admitted that the situation might not have been this critical if sluice gates at Khlong Raphipat in Pathum Thani, the catchment area for northern runoff, had been opened sooner?

Isn't he the guy that Bangkok deputy governor Teerachon Manomaiphibul spoke about when he said that the RID had failed to respond to City Hall's call to open all floodgates under its jurisdiction. Mr Teerachon had said the BMA asked the RID almost a month ago to open the floodgates to divert northern runoff to the east and west of the capital?

Isn't he the guy in charge of the Flood Relief Operations Centre [FROC]?

Just wondering.

BTW you can contact him on facebook (http://www.facebook....100001770665452) to tell him what a great job he's doing.

My current (O) visa extension runs out on the 9th of November. I have signed a new contract with my employer but they have shut

until the 14th as they're flooded out. The visa requires paperwork from them which I obviously can't get. The other problem is that

I'm flooded in so I can't get out until floods go down.

Do you have any suggestions?

Will immigration be flexible on this due to the circumstances?

PS: My work permit expires on the same day

Reuters have released a little map showing flooded areas. Map

This is a PR exercise by CEOP who are under threat of closure in June this year primarily because, despite their massive funding,

they have been an utter failure. So they're obviously going round the world trying to drum up support to try and force the UK government's

hand so they can stay open and enjoy the lavish pay and perks of their non-job.

The Thai police are quite capable of managing pedophiles and Interpol regularly sends them watch lists of known (and suspect)

offenders and local Thai people regularly report suspicious behavior leading to arrests.

To be perfectly frank I am furious at the implication that Brits - in fact any English speaking white male - only come here because they're pervs.

Private Eye

28th May - 10th June 2010

News Section p.6

The US Embassy in Bangkok last week invited American citizens in Thailand to join in a "virtual town hall meeting" online, at which

the ambassador answered their questions about safety and security.

An English expat emailed the British Ambassador, Quinton Quayle, urgently suggesting he should do likewise. Back came the reply,

showing all the sangfroid one expects from an English diplomat in a crisis: "I am currently on leave in US [sic] 15 - 26 May and then

on a duty visit to the UK, 27 May 4 June. I will return to post 7th June."

It's nice to see our man taking things so seriously

He's been arrested. He's denied the charges. He's not been proven guilty.

However, If it's true, absolutely revolting.

What is it about people in positions of trust and kids - clergy, teachers etc.

It's about time that more thorough back-ground checks were made by the appropriate authorities, but especially by these schools that families entrust their children to. And you have to ask yourself - would you entrust your toddlers to a 51 year old man working in a day school - a kindergarden? That would set off an alarm bell immediately in my opinion. This guy is going to teach my toddler nursery rhymes?! I'm sorry, that doesn't compute well.

The school, I hope, is also held responsible if this case is proven in a court of law. It will be a lesson that all schools should be doing more thorough back-ground checks on people they employ to 'teach' children - regardless of their age.

Oh dear it looks like you brought your prejudices here from the UK. So according to you every male over 50 and expressing an interest in teaching is a paedophile eh? I usually find that those who shout loudest about paedophiles are the ones harbouring the most guilty secrets.

And for your information Thai schools have to obtain a Police Check from the person they are intending to employ. "But what if it's their first offence?" I hear you cry. Well in that case they're not going to catch them with any sort of bureaucratic procedure are they? Even the insane system in the UK (where everyone is a pedo and its up to you to prove you are not) wouldn't have caught them.

Don't hang this man unless he's found guilty in which case a few years in Bang Kwang will help clarify his mind better than anything anyone on here could do.

My missus has just got back from her biannual trek to see the outlaws upcountry (a village just outside Somdet in darkest Kalasin province) where she met this Swedish bloke who was living in her village with his Teerak. Well it transpires he speaks no Thai and his teerak, who is pretty rough from what I can gather, can speak no Swedish/English/whatever. She's also older than him and, this is the kicker, she is HIV+.

As they couldn't communicate my missus offered to translate at which point his darling gets all uppity and hauls him away. Apparently she has given three (count them) previous lovers AIDS and has subsequently seen them off and pocketed the resultant loot now she fully intends to do the same thing with her (latest?) farang.

My missus was warned off in no uncertain terms about spilling the beans (with serious harm type threats from both her and her family) because the moneytree (possibly the last opportunity for serious money and/or a foreign visa) would disappear.

My question is she she have gone ahead and told him anyway and saved his life.

If you are that Swede (and I know you read this site) then take the hint and move on. You know who you are, 40s, small pot belly living in a dirty house, with a load of other people, in a village about 5 km from Somdet on the Kalasin road.

PS: I know ex bargirls can be pretty nasty but this takes the whole nastiness thing to a new low.

University in West Bangkok looking for a full time native English teacher - WP provided.

This is a great place to work. The students are a joy to teach and the faculty is very friendly.

To get more details call the Dean (Dr Nares) on his mobile on 086 011 7964

The salary is good by University standards

I work at SEA private University and last year I pulled over 500,000 - so Uni jobs are not that badly paid.

They are looking for a farang teacher at present - you can call the Dean (Dr Nares) on his mobile (086 0117964) for more details

Dunno about the others but Mahidol's is here

When I first came here I bought legal versions of movies (at great expense) only to find that because of all the DRM/anti copying nonsense they won't play on my computer. However the bootleg copies I bought of the same movies (as the shop I bought them from wouldn't exchange them because they suspected the new copies wouldn't play either) worked perfectly.

Drop the price to somewhere between the bootleg and the over the top full price and remove the stupid anti copying nonsense which stops them being played and you might just find that we'd buy the legal versions.

BTW I always found Phantip copies were rubbish (recorded too fast on sub standard media) so I buy my bootlegs from Homebase - go figure!

I teach phonics to every new class I have at my University. For a start I advise them to forget the eI bi: si: alphabet and concentrate on the IPA and the phonetic sounds of the letters. It seems to work too as the students taught this way are about 20 – 30% ahead in listening and comprehension after 2 semesters than those on the more 'traditional' route.

I encourage every student to buy a learner's dictionary (I recommend the Oxford English/Thai mini dictionary from se-ed at 199 baht) and then get them to pronounce random words using the IPA symbols next to each word (usually in conjunction with the free tool from the British Council Download it here) at the start of each lesson. These are usually the keywords I will be reinforcing in that class.