jdinasia

First three days of Songkran holiday claim 110 lives

Road accidents claimed 110 lives and injured 1,260 nationwide in the first three days of the 10day Songkran holiday, the Road Safety Centre reported Monday.

The number of accidents in the first three days was 1,130, 4.4 percent down on last year's 1,182, said Deputy Interior Minister Sermsak Pongpanit, in his capacity as the centre's deputy director.

Topping the list of fatalities by province is Songkhla, with eight. In second place is Chiang Mai, with five, followed by Chanthaburi, Chachoengsao, Nakhon Pathom and Phichit, each with four, Sermsak said.

On Sunday alone, the third day of the holiday, there were 399 road accidents, in which 42 people were killed and 450 injured. Sermsak said the accidents resulted mainly from drunk driving and speeding at 34.84 and 20.55 per cent, respectively. About 82 per cent of the accidents involved motorcycles, he said.

Source: The Nation - 11 April 2006

Watch for the exponential increase from here through the weekend

I know the guy meant SOMETHING (the OP) but what?

Book one night and go hotel-hunting the next day if you are not happy.

KA

I usually advise my friends to book for no more than 3 nights at the first hotel they go to.

I figure that the first night and day will be a lost cause for them, as they experience some of what Pattaya has to offer, and get over their jet-lag/hang-overs.

The 2nd night/day may give them an opportunity to see more of the city, and perhaps find a different area in which they'd like to stay.

Then, after their 3rd night, they can move to an area more suited to their preference.

My first trip to Thailand, I started out paying 1,500 baht a night (back in the early 90's). Moved to another hotel a block away, 750 baht/night but no swimming pool (not that I cared).

3 days later moved to a hotel by the beach. 600 baht/night. Finally moved to another hotel, away from the main entertainment area (quiet at night) and was only paying 300 baht/night ! New hotel too (at the time).

Some people like to be by the beach. Some like having bars right out the front door. Others like to be able to sleep at night

Had one buddy, all enthused and hyper. Rented a room for a month. After the 2nd day, he decided he'd rather be in a different place, but was stuck (no refund). Live and learn !

Wise wise advice

I failed to get the whole thing anyways .... as you said ... he's Irish

I may actually come down for a day or so .... heading to Kanchanaburi for the real holiday ... should be fun!

The checkpoints are a great thing! Sadly it makes some of the BiB a bit surly as they'd rather be throwing water and drinking with the family.

That was me! ... no wait ... I don't like linkin park!

Could always send him to the Penthouse in Pattaya

Bad Bad Bad Fart ... (and likely illegal) I just invite the Mormons in my neighborhood in to chat with me and my partner ... We offer them a beer ... I light a cigarette (seeing 2 gay men in an obviously Buddhist household sends them packing)

I'll stick with having the police be Thai tyvm

I have been tipping 150 for a foot and about 250 for a Thai, however that is only if it is a good quality massage. If they try to find the pressure points on the top of my foot via the bottom with the stick, the tip is less. I think the least I have ever tipped was 100 for a Thai massage but that was only because it was about the third massage she ever gave. Apparently she was more interested in providing happy endings and not a quality massage. It holds true if she has been at it for more than 5 years, you can expect a top notch massage. Hathias at the Thong-lo BTS station outbound side of Sukhumvit gives great massages, but getting the girl you want is difficult as they are always busy. They charge 300 for 2 hours. I find if you tip well you get much better service and will gladly modify the massage and spend more time working on any sore spots like neck and shoulders. Spending a few extra ThB on a tip is worth while in the long run. They treat you like a king when you go back. Personally I cant see tipping less that 50% of the cost massage. I have been in some shops at 4 PM and have been the first customer, so if you can afford a good tip you should. 250 ThB is the price of 2 beers in some places.

Tipping at that level is appropriate in places where the rates are that much higher! I go to a place that's 100/bht an hour .... tipping is how those people survive

Recently, I played golf and the caddy fee is 80 baht. The caddy was terrible, slagging off foreigners and us until I'd had enough and told her to quit. She answered her mobile while I was putting, and generally very un-professional. I thought I should give any tip for being so rude and bad at her job.

However, I offered her 70 baht tip and she stood there and asked for more. Now this is really not on. I said ok, give me back the 70, and then told her to <deleted> off. This attitude is caused by farang golfing and giving ridiculous tips like 200 baht. 70 baht was half of my wife's daily wage at the time and was a very generous amount.

I'm a bit of a Scottish scrooge, but why should I be expected to pay more of a tip, especially when a tip is not even expected.

Giving 100 baht tip for a massage I guess is normal tourist areas. The shops there also have to pay more, as they know that this is where all the idiots are.

Your wife recently made only 140 baht a day?

Why didn't you get a different caddy? I'd wait and send one back. Personally I don't see 200 baht tip as ridiculous when you have someone following you in the sun carrying your crud for hours. (That being said ... I NEVER reward BAD service)

I don't live in a tourist area. I tip what Thais tip plus just a little. Thais tip 40 baht/hr at the massage place I go ... I tip 50. <My partner set the rate that I tip from the beginning ... i would have tipped 100/hr happily ... I get great service there from super people!>

Wow are we doing to get LOTS of updates from the UK?

I would bet on between 500 and 1000, mostly YOUNG LIVES gone, and that does not include all the badly maimed that will never walk again

Then look at the loss to the famlily, Parents will loose Sons and Daughters, Children will loose parents.

Which one of us unfortunate posters is gonna witness death at first hand?

It should be illegal to throw water at motorcycle's and also illegal for motorists to spray water from cars or bikes.

Songkran's concept at the begining was nothing like what happens these days, splashing a bit of water on someone s head is totally different from what seems to happen these days where drunken yobs take great pleasure in causing as much pain and discomfort as possible to other human beings.

Supersoakers will be in the shops shortly now,,,, these should be regarded as lethal weapons and BANNED

I am not a killjoy, I like to have a laugh as much as anyone else, but Sonkran is out of control IMO and drastic measures should be taken to reduce this inevitably high death toll

Actually you ARE a killjoy ..... death by supersoaker? geeze ......

If you want to make a point ... it is the drinking and driving that is the problem. A watergun is just that ... a squirtgun! A "super-soaker" is less dangerous than a pail of water thrown etc .... but really ... get the people drinking and driving off the road and you'll get down to a very few deaths ... and those will be just unfortunate accidents.

Get a grip people .... it's a waterfight ... in most places in Thailand for a couple of days only (the last 2 years I have been in places where it was 1 day only ....) And it was fun! ...

We saw 1 death last year ... drunken idiot on a bike .... had nothing to do with Songkran and 100% to do with booze and driving a bike ... I am just glad the guy was alone on his bike and didn't hit anyone else.

Well wait till you see 2 University Student Girls get washed under their bike into the path of an oncoming truck......maybee you would have a different opinion. I honestly hope you never have to

Up here there are guys in pick ups with massive barrells of water just waiting and doing there best to knock kids off their bikes all day. They are NOT drunk nor are the kids...but the kids are very DEAD. I was at the hospital earlier this morning and they have a board full of pictures taken during last Sonkran...blood and dead kids everywhere, and there WILL be more pictures this year thats for sure.

That drunken kid on a bike that you saw killed .. sure he deserved to die didn't he? Bet his parents, brothers and sisters were over the moon that he got killed becuase he was drunk and bowed to the peer pressure put on him by his mates ... but you can easily laugh ot off and get back to enjoying yourself eh!

Jeeez jdinasia really make wonder about the human race, you have no compassion whatsover, let alone brains

LOL ... thanks for the little FLAME there TP ... That drunken "kid" <as you say> that I saw killed was a tourist. He'd have died any night of the year. Yes I see the results of accidents. I know for sure I wouldn't let my friends ride a bike on songkran (hel_l I'd not let them drive in BKK ever!) If you see people "up here" deliberately trying to hurt people maybe you should get them to stop? But if it is all just hype to force your P.O.V. on others ... best keep quiet

Not military property .... it is (like everything else around there ... the King's property. I have heard rumors about Condos ... but since the land won't be sold ... they will be VERY pricey and only 15 or 30 year leases?

I agree about Kino for new books ... and Dasa Book Cafe near Emporium for used books as being great. Beats the heat of hanging out at JJ and digging through the scads of books there.

Speaking of Books ... anyone know if the library at R.U. in BKK accepts used books in English? I need to clean out my bookshelves again. I donate my books in Thai to the school down the street but the Eng language books are way beyond their skill level.

lol ... nah I am just a guy that took a bit of time to LEARN ... why? because I LIVE here. Some folks are just living out some time here and planning on leaving soon. That's cool! More power to them! (Until they start whining about ... "I always pay more" etc etc etc

There were plenty of books in English there ... And amazingly an amazing number of books from all over the world translated into Thai.

It was billed as a WORLD BOOK FARE not a Thai Book Fare, Bangkok is trying to be named WORLD BOOK CAPITAL, with this type of advertising it was not unreasonable of me to expect more.

Why do you think that as you can speak Thai you are the only one whose opinion is worth anything?

I also learned Thai many years ago, so what ???

If you can READ Thai then what's the problem? Tons of books from all over the world that were there (in Thai). There were plenty in English too! How large would the bookfair had to have been to have the same # of books in English as in Thai? Then add Spanish and French and German and Hebrew and Arabic etc etc etc etc It did NOT bill the FAIR as the ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORLD BOKK FAIR and it did have books from all over the world represented!

TC ... actually numbers of tourists from Sinapore are WAY down

and who are the major stockholders of AOT?

Ugh ... and I picked Kanchanaburi to go to for Songkran?

did I miss it? Numerically what is the target?

i want a political break and a long vacation too!

I think Technically the King DOES call the election ..... but &lt;deleted&gt; is OhMy News ... can we cite more vague news sources?

I can't see why many of you don't realise that there will be another set of elections with-in the next couple of months.

You may well be correct but I don't see it happening that way.

You don't see much the way it has been discussed by the people in Thailand. It is relatively clear that there will be new elections soon.

Yes, the elections we just had were relatively free and fair.

I agree with you on this.

Yes, TRT 'won' a majority, as they were the only ones who contested the elections.

But, the parliament that we have now isn't a represetative parliament.

You have to sit back and look at the situation as a lawyer would or as the constitutional court would to make it's ruling. The TRT did run unopposed, except for some minor parties, and won a majority There is no provision that there must be an opposition and the opposition must win "X" number of seats in the constitution. There is an opposition as the results are now albeit of only one. "Representative" in the constitution relates to areas of the country not as split in the parties, A full house of 500 from any one party is not good but it is representative if they are all elected.

Yes you do have to look like it as a constitutional lawyer. 31 + Constituencies do NOT have an elected representative. That means they are unrepresented. There is no fulll Parlaiment elected by the people. The TRT did NOT win a majority in even more areas yet are being put forward to represent people that did NOT elect them. You cry and cry about it not being democratic etc for the Opposition (yeah remember opposition) not to have run. Since Thailand IS a democracy of sorts that means there can be no government without elected representation of the people. (remember Democracy? ... like the US or Canada?)

The powers that be, the ones who's job it is to maintain and guard the Constitution won't allow this current parliament to live for long. A one partly parliament is in nobody's interest.

You are very right in a one party Parliament is in no ones interest, but it has been elected by the majority of the people, in what you described as "relatively free and fair". Because of the constitution they must let the house sit, that would be in the best interests of the country, by dissolving parliament it would open up a complete other can of worms and allow every new election to be dissolved by groups that do not like the party that wins power. This is not "Them vs US" it's about Thailand, the constitution and the rule of law.

The people of the South did not elect this Parlaiment ... nor the MP's ... nor did the people of Bangkok. This IS about the rule of law ... not fair to have people unrepresented by people they voted for

Now, if I was the Democrat leader, what I'd do right now is let TRT and the ego's inside it try it on with each other. See where the dust settles. Whatever happens their public image is diminished with out Dear Leader at the visible helm. TRT was Thaksin. Without him, it is a lesser party. This is quite different to the Democrats, who the public view as a party rather than a person/ego.

I'd also stop some of the disruptive comments coming out of the Democrat party at the moment, like in ThaiDay. They (Democrats) also do not fear a public backlash if the party’s refusal to participate in the by-elections prompts the political tension to spill over into celebrations for the revered monarch in June. That's counterproductive.

offering to support a raft of TRT's 'populist' policies. The 30 baht health care scheme is a great one.

The problem with that approach is that the TRT would just counter, "See we told you we were doing everything right and now the Democrats even support all our ideas, because they have none of their own." The Democrats have to come up with a policy that everyone will be happy with, not an easy task. If they woo the Northern voters they may alienate the southern and Bangkok ones and without the north you can't win a majority, it's just a numbers game.

Oi ... someone missed the ministry of Health's response to TRT's claim to own the 30 baht health scheme .... etc.

The Demos won't get 50% of the Parlaiment in the next election ... they will probably get enough to censure the PM and require that they be listened to. Hopefully things will continue to progress.

wai'ing a massage girl ... well just wouldn't be done ... "accepting" a wai would be proper ...