rheinwiese

I really hope this won't be swept under the rug, however we've seen it too many times that all of a sudden people magically disappear, suffer from amnesia or case dismissed due to a technicality. "Honest mistake" springs to mind also.

at last they found the scapegote for cooling down the pressure on PM. good move.

Who ordered him to admit he gave the order?

No way he did this out of conscience.

Exactly. IMO he is just the fall guy. He will quit soon, take sole responsibility and the YS govt is out of the woods.

At the rate that she appears to be aging, she will be too old to run for a second term.

:cheesy:

I live in Sukhumvit/Onnut.

The tap water is still ok, not colored, but the chlorine smell and taste gets stronger by the day.

Bottled water is becoming increasingly hard to find. Unless you can afford Evian or Vittel.

And I believe it's gonna get worse in the weeks to come.

Just heard on Twitter that it is flooding on Sukhumvit 50. Can anyone confirm this? It was only one report, also putting Bang Jak on alert. Any news as in the centre and need to know if I should dash home.

TV news reported Sukhumit 50, 54 and 56 starting to flood.

I can confirm the flood on Soi 56 this morning.

Left at 10am and saw last 200 mtr at the end of the Soi flooded.(30cm)

Seems that the water came from the sewers. Bad smell.

However, came back at 1pm all water was gone.

"Chapeau". Thanks for the great report

From ThaiFlood ศูนย์ข้อมูลช่วยเหลือผู้ประสบภัยน้ำท่วม

Emergency Call for Thailand’s flood rescue Units

1) Public Health Mobile team 1669

2) Disaster Prevention and Alleviation Call 1784

3) Irrigation Department Emergency Call 1460, 026692560

4) Highway Department Emergency Call 1586

5) Public Transport Safety Center 1356

6) Rural Roads Department 1146

7) State Railway of Thailand 1690

8) The Transport Co., ltd. 1490

9) Highway Police (info for flooded routes 24 hours) 1193

10) Provincial Electricity Authority 1129

Which part of Bangkok is Soi Pridi Banomyong (Sukhumvit 71)? Is it in the east, west, north or south of Bangkok? Would appreciate if someone could tell me whether Soi Pridi Banomyong, Ekkamai and Thonglor will be flooded in the next few days....

Soi Pridi Banomyong (21 Suk Soi 71) is in the South East of Bangkok about 3km north of Phra Kanong BTS station.

At this point nobody can tell you if the area around Ekkamai/Thonglor/Phra Kanong will be flooded.

Well, my friend was traveling from Malaysia to Thailand to Laos to China.

He WAS going to stop and visit with me last week, but based on the reports he was getting, and what he saw in Phuket, he decided to bypass the rest of Thailand altogether.

Hard to imagine he is the only one to do so.

My wife just received the cancellation of the annual company trip from her head office in Singapore.

55 people Nov 3-6 in BKK.

The group will now travel to Bali.

This sum it up precisely.

No mention of wine at all in this article apart from the title that is, but then how could anywhere with a 200% tax on wine be a top 10 wine destination in asia..............

Actually it's 390% Duty and Taxes on imported wines.

Flew to BKK Wed & returned to HKT yesterday. Excellent all over. On time, courteous, new planes (finally); 737-300 with the winglets superseding the old MD80s. Very much recommended.

Orient Air operates 3 737-300 modified with winglets. Age: 25,6 years

Their 737's are former Continental Airlines (delivery date: 17/03/1986)

Thai Airways International has appointed four new directors to the board.

They are acting police chief Police General Priewpan Damapong, ACM Momluang Suprija Kamalasana, Transport Permanent Secretary Supot Sublom and Pradit Sintavanarong.

Wow, real aviation professionals those newely appointed TG board members

Hurray, another master plan.

Can't wait for IKEA to open.

They will set new standards in terms of customer service and raise the bar tremendously.

So all you SB furniture, Index etc etc, brace yourselves.

You are about to lose a big chunk of your business.

The Government Lottery Office's director, Wanchai Surakul, recently mooted to a group of reporters the idea of building a casino in the northeast of Thailand. He had brought the journalists in his entourage to Macao to see how the casino business has contributed to the wellbeing of the people of that island.

Why not take the entourage to the Cambodian casinos to see how they have contributed to the well being of the Cambodian people.

........the integration of the ASEAN nations will make it easier for foreign investors

who are raising their families to consider Thailand their second home ........

I thought we are only guests here.......

Hmmm, 15k salary/month, installment 8k……

Plus gas, (1000km/month=3500 Baht, insurance (1.500 baht/month,) service, repair and maintance (1.000 Baht/monthly) loss of value (2.000 Baht/month.

So what are the proud owners of the cars are going to eat, drink and where are the going to stay???

Didn't we heard that before????

The Nation (30.4.2001)

Opinion

WELCOME TO THIGHLANDIA

The prime minister is touting tourism as a quick fix for the country’s staggering economy. The consequences are not a matter of prediction; the evidence is there for anyone who wants to look, writes Chang Noi (a pseudonym) in The Nation (30.4.01).

When the Thai economy hits trouble, the government turns to tourism. It happened in the last crisis in the early 1980s. With agriculture slumping and industry moribund, the economic planners seized on services. They sent on 200,000 Thai workers off to the Middle East and doubled tourist arrivals in five years.

As the prime minister [Thaksin Shinawatra] recently said, tourism is quick, cheap, and easy. The ingredients are already there. Sun, sea, smiles, culture. Some of these spare resources haven’t even been sold yet. With better marketing, the returns will jump. Twenty billion baht more from Chiang Mai. Ten more from Phuket. Another twenty from everywhere else. All by this time next year.

Amid this enthusiasm, it’s difficult to detect words like “control” or “consequences”. The consequences are not a matter of theory or prediction. The evidence is there for anyone who wants to look. Thailand’s main tourist product is the beach resort, with sun, sea, sand and the S-word, which the tourist planners seem so reluctant to talk about.

The development cycle is clear from the experience of 40 years.

Stage 1: Start with a place of outstanding beauty, which attracts people because it is drop-dead gorgeous. Impose absolutely no controls. Allow get-rich-quick entrepreneurs to encroach on the beach, blow up the rocks, scatter garbage and pour concrete everywhere.

Stage 2: The resort is now popular but rapidly losing its natural charm. Add large quantities of sex and comfort. Build large, luxurious hotels. Import lots of girls.

Stage 3: By now the natural beauty is totally obliterated. The seafront is an essay in bad architecture. The hinterland is a shantytown of beer bars. Develop the remains as a male fantasy theme park. Add anything with testosterone appeal – big motorbikes, shooting ranges, go-kart tracks, boxing rings, archery. Bring in more and more girls (and boys). There you have it: Thighlandia. Then stack it high and sell it cheap. You can travel round Thailand and see this development cycle in action.

Pattaya is long in stage 3. Phuket is hovering on the borderline between stage 2 and stage 3. The island has become a building site. Patong is spreading like a stain. Hua Hin is on the edge between stage 1 and stage 2. The architectural assault on the beauty of the beach-front is complete. Over the last year, Patong-ization has started, and the old fishing village is filling up with girls, bars and the trappings of Thighlandia.

Thailand’s second tourist product is the hill town offering a mixture of mountain scenery, old culture, and exotic people. This has also its development cycle.

The first visitors are attracted by nature and adventure. They climb the hills, paddle the rivers, visit the hill people and experience the temples. They generate little revenue, but they create a reputation.

At stage 2, as the numbers of visitors increase, the original appeal of nature and adventure is swamped. The temples are buried by high-rise hotels. The treks are too crowded to offer any fantasy of adventure. What’s left is buying things to take home.

At stage 3, the place is transformed into an exotic theme park with a huge specialty store. The hill people and other “natural” attractions are arranged like a zoo. The “traditional native products” are manufactured on industrial principles and sold through an ever-spreading flea market. Then add some of the bits of Thighlandia for good measure.

Thailand’s third tourist product is the festival. Mostly these have been marketed domestically. But in the last few years, the tourist authority has started turning these into export products.

Originally, Songkran was a subtle mix of two festivals found all over Asia. The first is an intimate rite of blessing by pouring water. The second is the world-turned-upside-down. For one day only, the hierarchy is upended, and social constraints are removed. Both these festivals have cultural meaning and social purpose. The rite of blessing brings people together. The day-of-misrule is an opportunity to release tensions and adjust hierarchies.

Songkran today has become a water fight. In essence, it’s a blown-up version of a paintball battle, a real world experience of a videogame splat fest. The underlying principle (as with battle simulations and arcade wars) is the exercise of violence, relieved of all its nasty consequences (blood and death). The rite of blessing has disappeared. The drama of misrule has been lost.

The current enthusiasm for tourism is more than Thaksin’s dream of a quick fix in a bad year, a yah bah [methamphetamine] pill for the economy. Last year, the World Bank produced a report on Thailand’s economic prospects after the crisis. Shorn of all the formal language, the report said: everything else is hopeless; turn Thailand into a theme park. The proposal now is to double tourist arrivals in a handful of years. That means another Pattaya, another Phuket, another battered “Rose of the North”, another “Splatkran”.

Tailing Pling

60 Pan Road, Silom

That’s the Soi at the Indian Temple on Silom Rd.

Great Thai food in modern setting

Prices should suit your budget.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not recall any government anywhere in the world reducing a tax on gasoline in the whole of human (gasoline) history.

This is insane at a time when all Thai towns and cities have polluted air from clogged roadways. Any responsible government should be increasing taxes to reduce dependence on vehicles, whether two- or four-wheeled. (Or three with some tuk-tuks.) With extra taxes you can begin the much-needed modernisation of the rail system.

Reduced use of vehicles might also lead to better health. Btw, how often do you see a Thai person walking in the city. I am in Chiang Mai, and the only people I see walking are farangs like myself (breathing in the diesel fumes as I wait for traffic lights to change....)

Spot on. You spoke my mind.

Glitches fixed?

Well, at least no more disruptions of service.

However, the ride on the new China made trains on the Silom line is far from smooth.

Screeching and jumpy breaking, water dripping from the ceiling, doors constantly out of order, etc etc.

Today there was a strong vibration coming from the undercarriage during the entire ride from Siam to Surasak.

Even after more than 11 years of service, the old Siemens trains on the Sukhumvit line run much more smooth.

There is a new Pizza joint really worth trying.

Opened last week.

Name: The Pizzeria (replaced Pizza by Janni)

Location: Central Chitlom Food Hall

Oven: Wood fired

Prices: very reasonable for the quality. paid 190 Baht for a 12 inch parma ham.

Toppings were very generous.

Pizza thin and crispy, just the way I like it.

Will definitely go again.

Nice pastas (carbonara/bolognese etc. 140 Baht)and salads (Caesar's 70/90 Baht) also on the menue.

I suspect that this preference for Chalerm is based more on his entertainment value, rather than on any political support.

You beat me to it.

Absolutely true.

It's like watch Thai soaps.