Robroy

The latest Wikileaks release is the best thing to happen to government transparency in many years.

Let's hope there are more of them.

Anyone got the latest info on Lao tourist visas?

I'm waiting for a work permit, so have to survive on tourist visas till that comes through.

Currently I'm on my third (aat $30 a pop). Can I renew indefinitely, every 30 days, or is there a limit?

Can I get more than 30 days?

If not, can I extend my 30-day visa once in Vientiane?

Thanking you.

Ugly & useless things. Can't they be banned?

Violence and extortion at Pattaya.

Who'd have thought it?

Not a mention of mealybugs for some months now.

Can I assume that no-one is having any problems...?

Best way is prevention rather than cure: negotiate a contract that makes the deposit the last month's rent.

If they refuse, walk: there are plenty of apartments.

Minuses: high crime, worst driving in Asia, garbage everywhere, worst governance outside Afghanistan, regular food poisoning, & female population divided into sex workers & virgins.

Pluses: very easy longterm visas, pretty low cost of living, & a certain 'end-of-the-world ambiance you don't get elsewhere.

Faster than a ball of flaming bitumen, the Catholic Church screeches into the Fifteenth Century.

I've taught at 3 schools in Phnom Penh. The pay is $10-11 an hour. The work isn't too demanding.

Getting a job isn't too hard - for example Westline School were looking for teachers recently.

Phnom Penh is chaotic, dirty & crime-ridden compared to Thailand.

On the other hand getting and keeping a visa is devoid of the usual Thai nightmare.

I had very serious arthritis 15 years ago (spinal spondylitis) & was told I'd be a cripple by about now.

I ignored the specialist, rejected the painkillers (pain was a useful incentive), & changed my diet & lifestyle.

Out: alcohol, ciggies, dope, acidic food, grains, dairy.

In: fresh fruit & veg, lean meat, fish, supplements such as fish oils, & lots of exercise.

The arthritis went in a few months. My ESR (blood inflammation level) went from 43 to 1 (the lowest possible reading), where it remains.

I have told this solution to many arthritis sufferers since: no-one has taken it up.

Most sick people do not want to get well. I think it's something to do with one's identity getting bound up in the illness..

An international anti-corruption conference in Bangkok is a bit like convening a conference on alcoholism in a brewery.

It also somehow reminds me of an Indian friend's recent attempt to get a passport: he first had to get a certificate from the police verifying he was not guilty of any criminal acts. But the police would only issue him this certificate upon payment of a substantial bribe.

Nice to see the good guy win one of these occasionally.

I knew of a Brit who did the same thing, but in reverse.

He had been a front row forward (macho rugby type) & now had a chain of restaurants in Britain, & was pretty wealthy.

He came to Thailand, & fell for a girl - who naturally said she cared only about him, not his money.

He told a friend of mine in Chiang Mai about his wonderful love experience, & my friend (cynic he is) suggested a test. It took a long time to persuade the front row forward type, as he thought this was shockingly disrespectful of his true love. But eventually he agreed to the test.

On their next date, the Brit told the girl that he had exaggerated his wealth a little: he actually only had one restaurant in Britain, & wasn't really all that rich. 'However with you at my side, and some hard work, I know we can build up together & do well...' (Etc etc.)

The gal stood up, gave him one icy look, picked up her keys of the table, & walked out of the restaurant (& his life).

Next day he appeared in my friend's office, weeping like a baby. ('I just can't believe it,' etc.)

These girls are indeed devilishly cunning, & their sweetness disables our normal con-woman-detecting radar: but they can be outsmarted, especially in this electronic age.

I believe this is the guy who, when Chiang Mai had its 2006 smoke emergency (300,000 across the north treated for smoke symptoms, 58 deaths) blamed the event on Korean barbecue restaurants - & ordered them shut down.

He subsequently improved on that by ordering fire trucks to spray water all over the roads - to 'wet the air and attract rain'.

So you guys in Chiang Mai at least know you are in good hands.

Keep posted for a mayoral edict to light Korean barbecues across the city, to evaporate the floodwaters.

"The rogue officers might be transferred and investigated. They might even face criminal charges, the Deputy Governor said."

I think 'rogue officers' is a misnomer. 'Rogue' means 'no longer belonging...not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade'.

Thus a true rogue in Thai law enforcement would surely be honest and uncorrupt.

I got a bus from Phuket to Hat Yai a couple of years ago, and the driver kept slumping, asleep, across the steering wheel.

We spent much of the journey shaking him.

I do not quite support the view. I think we are not to be blamed. Only Thaksin & the Red-shirt are to to blame. Without them, there will be no bombing & arson attack, and the death of 91 people this year. I am open to different views.

Seeing as you are open to a different view (well done on that), here is one:

The Thai elite has sequestered most of the nation's resources to itself.

Poverty exists for the many, in the face of porcine indulgence for the few.

The redshirt campaign is a response to that, not some mindless anarchist campaign.

If the reds could throw Thaksin overboard it would be very helpful. Being both violent and corrupt, he is clearly part of the problem, not the solution.

The violence is not to be excused. But as we have seen in the twentieth century's various communist revolutions, when a system is locked up so only a few can live a decent life, tempers eventually fray.

If you look at causes, and not just immediate effects, a holistic picture quickly emerges.

More propaganda.

The Thai elite has sequestered most of the nation's resources to itself.

Poverty exists for the many, in the face of porcine indulgence for the few.

The redshirt campaign is a response to that, not some mindless anarchist campaign.

If the reds could throw Thaksin overboard it would be very helpful. Being both violent and corrupt, he is clearly part of the problem, not the solution.

The Okay Guesthouse in Phnom Penh, about a k from Riverside, will give you a nice room for $4-15, depending on what you want.

Most tuk tuk drivers on Riverside know it.

My experience in CM was that the official Mac shops were incompetent.

I found an English guy named Richo who proved a godsend - works from his apartment: +66 89 491 6602.

I think he lives out in the sticks now, but comes to CM fairly regularly.

There are plenty of apartments.

I don't trust anyone with deposit monies.

My solution is to pay one month deposit maximum, and for that to be retained in lieu of paying the final month's rent.

If they are unhappy with that, I move on to the next apartment.

Drove ot maybe 20 times in the last year, for my work:

4-5 hours by car; up to 6.5 hours by bus.

Depends on time of day (traffic) & rain.

Yes, a terrific article.

Clearly the income & opportunity disparity between rich and poor is what lies behind the Red Shirt movement - &, but for their embrace of Thaksin (who is part of the problem, not the solution) one could support their aims.

This income disparity problem is on the list of candidates (along with global warming & nuclear proliferation) as the world's gravest threat. It's even strikingly evident in China.

The Thai elite could learn that 'a rising tide lifts all boats'. If they enable the poor to become less poor, there will be more customers for the companies they own to sell to. By sharing the wealth they will get richer, not poorer.

I arrived in Vientiane yesterday.

The entire riverfront area (the main reason for being here) has been torn up - a length of 3-4 ks. There is nothing there but piles of dirt, earthmovers & choking dust.

I was going to stay here a few months, but will reconsider. Anyways, don't bother with Vientiane.

If you like pretty girls & bars, why not go to Pattaya? Not much in Laos in the way of bars, tho plenty of freelancers hanging on the streets.

Burn Pattaya to the ground and things get a whole lot easier. It's like a senior citizens home for convicts combined with a brothel. I'd say that it is definitely a blight on Thailand's reputation.

That would have to be the first step.

Also, whilst (at a wild guess) 70% of Thai women are honest enough, a certain percentage are out for money & nothing else.

I know of two farangs (both big travellers, so away from Thailand a lot) from who met each other accidentally in central Thailand, & got talking. Turns out each had a wife in Chiang Mai, whom they had bought a house. Eventually Farang #1 got out some photos.

Farang #2 was gobsmacked: 'Thet's MY wife!. That's MY house!'

That story is far from unique. Occasionally the spouse even murders the farang to get her hands on the $$$.

Thai girls get away with this behaviour because they can pull off a horrendous deception that can destroy a man's life with a delightful smile, hundreds of jokes, and an air of naivete & innocence. Farang radar isn't equipped to read the signals - we're used to other forms of cynicism & deception.

These stories make their way through the farang grapevine over time.

How to change this I don't know, as there is a vein of this right through Thai culture.