robsamui

Kissing?

Whatever happened to the last official concerns voiced about gratuitous sex all over the place?

In any case, the only Thai people that are there are either participating happily, or are raking in huge amounts of cash.

Another moral splutter!

R

On the subject of proof-reading:

When was SEX ever FREE?? I have had to pay in one way or another for years..

Why don't these newspapers and govenment agencies pay a REAL American or even a British subject how to write a story or at least proof read them...???

We all know they mean a display of "public nudity" and "public intercourse" ...

This sort of thing should be done in those rented rooms or behind closed door as I agree with any government against this sort of behavior. Okay.. yes some of us got it going on at Devonshire Downs in the San Fernando Valley in SoCal, at theworld infamous New York's "Woodstock" and Great Britians "The Isle of Wight" in 1969 .. I know as I was at all three concerts... Lots of public nudity and sex, drugs and rock n roll as well  But today we are all visitors to a country that is changing and is starting to grow up a wee bit better.. Yes things here are very slow.. but look again at how many kidnappings as Mexico City and all the grime and crime of Costa Rico.. I agree NOT to bang a hooker or your wife on the beach in public.. very tasteless.. :whistling:

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tourists having free sex could be arrested.

But paying for it is perfectly exceptable ???

TIT

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One working girl I have been friends with for years assures me that one ONE full moon party night she had 18 short-times...all in the beach area...

R

How typical for those in cosy secure democratic countries to mock this as a joke!

It's not a joke!

Mail is really being censored. Already.

Rob

INTERNET E-MAIL CENSORSHIP?? It's been happening for a while now.

I'm living in Thailand, and at Christmas I wrote a long and loving letter to my estranged wife in the UK. This was purely personal...very personal in fact, as I haven't seen her for a long time, and I made no reference to Thailand or anything political. Somewhere in the letter I remember I used the word &lt;deleted&gt;, though!

I was using KSC as my ISP, and 2 days later I received an automated reply from KSC...I quote"

"Your message has not been sent. It has been quarantined as it contains sensitive material."

WE ARE BEING WATCHED!

Rob

QUOTE MEOW....

P.S Sawasdee ka ..

Grin from Robert...dee cap!

Well, the last time I heard of 400B return was in 2000.

Last year my girlfriend (Thai) paid 600B one way.

Hang on to your Thai connections my friend!

If anyone's interested, tonight there were 6 boats on Mae Nam beach. All were running, ilegally, after dark, taking groovers to Phan Gnan.

Rob

BEST HIGH SEASON SINCE 1999

Every hotel and resort is packed to 100% in Chaweng and Mae Nam. Thousands of Euro holiday makers who had peviously booked their package to Phuket, on Dec 26 demanded a change of location. Guess where they were relocated to?

Samui is going crazy.

Rob

I've been living on the same coast of Samui where the boat came from for 6 years and I know many of the divers and dive schools here. It was tragic that the accident happened, but not any real surprise. For more than a decade there have been deaths every full-moon party and i remember a quote from the boss--police guy on Koh Phan Gnan about 5 years back...to paraphrase: "They come here and drink so much and take drugs then walk happily into the jungle. How can we stop them from falling down wells?"

In the last 4 weeks, all charter boats, speedboats and slower diving boats have had a LARGE printed passenger number on them...ie...we have 20 passengers...we have 32 passengers. Not only have theboats had the round life rings attached to the outside (never seen before) but each passenger has a seat and each seat has a lifejacket on it.

As a Thai spokeseman said a few weeks ago, "The regulations have been in place for years, but the problem is enforcing them"...what's new!

The other thing is that boats are NOT allowed to go out after dark...same thai spokesman, as quoted by the Nation here, about 3 weeks back. What is interesting is that these speedboats are bought on credit (I guess) and need to be paid monthly. The one way trip to the Full moon party is now 700 baht. Your boat "holds" 20 but every hour from 5pm to 1.00 am you have 30 people in it, then back again from about 2.00 am onwards to 10.00 am. Work it out.

For one night's work, that's somewhere between 300,000 baht and 400,000 baht, depending on how many you can bring back.

There is going to be some serious Samui Maffia backlash against nightboats being banned...and I can't see how it can be regulated anyway. Take a night speedboat away from where the officials are checking...land on the other side of Haad Rin where no officials are anyway, and stick em all in some baht busses for the 5 minute run round the headland.

Anyway, in a month or so it will all be back to normal anyway. Who can afford to ignore the best High Season since 1999?

Rob

These small speedboats are supposed to hold 25 or so. What doesn't seem to have been mentioned in the newspapers is that 2 boats were involved, both overloaded to the max with around 40-45 passengers. The boats were racing each other, with the stoned passengers cheering them on. The current regulations are already adequate, but like all these things, won't be enforced unless someone from the top decides to focus on this.

Seven years here now and I am so tired of keeping polite to these people.

Give a monkey a banana, and he won't eat it. He will bash all the smaller monkies with it, just to show them he has one.

Thailand a first word country?

WAAA HAAA HAAAH AHHHA HAAA!

R

Hmmm.

Just take a look round Pattaya at 4 am or 5 am. There are some areas (well-away from Walking street)...whole complexes that never seem to close. Rumour has it that these are the ones that are owned by various local police officials, but who knows.

I think the whole thing is much simpler. In a couple of months, Toxin wil BELLOW to the Thai nation that he has decimated drug trafficing, reduced prostitution, reduced drunkenness, stabilised the morals of the country's young people and created a more healthy economy.

If you could allow the millions of peasants who will then vote for him to visit RCA for one night, they might change their minds a bit! Want to see drunk, drugged and underage...forget the tourists, Pattaya or Phuket!

Rob

I would imagine just about every foreigner in Thailand is a burden to society in one way or another. However, for a concrete example, consider any foreigner who commits a crime. The police, courts, and prisons used to process the foreigner are all burdens (financial and otherwise) the Thai society bears. Should the criminal foreigner have imported and/or sold narcotics, or committed murder, then the explicit burdens to society are even more obvious.

CHUCK.....hang on a minute. Another example of someone writing without thinking while they are doing this....

Firstly, you fail to differentiate between farangs and other "foreigners". "Other foreigners" are 99% aliens from poorer neighbouring countries, such as Burma, Cambodia and Laos, most of them illegal immigrants with no money. Instant "burden", yes

Secondly, you fail to differentialte between Thai criminals and farang criminals.

Thirdly, you have wrapped up several totally different concepts under one sweeping statement. Plus you are mis-informed and making assumptions on how this country works. Let me enlighten you...

Firstly, just to GET into Thailand, a farang "unburdens" the Thai government considerably. The vast majority of farangs pay for a tourist visa. They pay the equivalent of one month's salary to do this. This is usually a 90 day visa. (or it might be a double entry). The clever Thais have a system, however. Upon seeing the visa for 90 days, they reduce it to 60 days with a rubber stamp. For you to get the other 30 days, you must pay again...1,900 baht, the equivalent of 2 weeks wages, for a Thai.

It simply is not possible for a farang to live like a Thai, on 5,000 baht a month, 5 or 6 to one room, sleeping on the floor, preparing food and cooking it on the floor, and washing in cold water from a bucket. Thus, the obliging farang will input a HUGE amount of money in comparative terms, into the Thai economy while he is in Thailand. Even the cheap-charlie travellers with the one-month entry stamp will spend about 300 baht a day...10,000 baht a month just in living costs only. (About the income of a senior office manager or a bank manager)

I'm still looking for exactly where the burden is....oh yes, the criminals.

First of all lets look at the difference between a Thai petty criminal and a farang petty criminal, and examine "burdens"

Take, for example, some one caught with a small ammount of marijuana...or someone shoplifting.

The Thai will probably go to jail. No court system (like you are used to) The police will lock them up. Simple. Perhaps fine them if they have money. If not, Jail. The following day, for a term decided by the police. Bye bye. Done. All that police time and effort (maybe 2 hours?)...a burden.

The farang? The little boys in brown are rubbing their hands in glee. A whopping big fine. Tens of thousands of baht. Straight to the police. No courts. Cash to the police. If it's a bit more serious, then we're looking at probably 100,000 baht minimum to the local police, to stop everything then and there.

The "burden" comes when the poor farang does not have this sort of money. In which case he is slapped in jail until someone comes to his rescue and THEN the Thai economy gains its "disburdenment" (A couple of thousand baht in police man-hours invested to get a quater of a million baht in fines back...what a burden!)

Getting the picture?

Finally, talking about "burdens", how may farangs lie and cheat and steal money from Thais? I don't know. from what I have seen and heard in 7 years of living in Thailand, very very very few. How many times do Thai people cheat farangs? Lie to them and try to con them? Steal money from them? Dozens. Every day. Thousands and thousands every month. All this money might not go to the government, but it goes directly into the Thai economy. Some "burden"!

So nex time Chuckie, remember...do not write before engaging brain. Better still...wait till you have some idea of what you are talking about!

Rob

Come on guys, this is rediculous! You all want to stay here in Thailand but dont want (or have maybe) to walk around with 10,000 baht?? ######, you all talk like this is $10,000. Look, this is ONLY $250 If you wer ein your own countries, would you not have this amount in your pocket, especially if you were going out of the country for some reason. Lets get this in to perspective, we all choose to live here and we all must have money to stay, this is the same all over the world. If we dont have money in our pockets we starve, have no where to live, rely on others for everything or die, this is the plain and simple truth of the matter.

FALCON!

What a blazing combination of total lack of awareness, arrogance and ignorance!

Dear Mr Falcon...let me try to put this into words that you can understand.

Let us asssume that America is full of rich Arab Shieks, and that every month they had to cross the Mexican border on foot, to receive another month's visa.

10,000 baht in Thailand is the same as 2 month's wages. The equivalent of this in America is having $10,000 in your pocket, plus change. 8 people per bus is almost $100,000, just for the taking. 20 or 30 buses a day...maybe half a million in cash, no armed guards, just "normal" people. Crossing in and out of Mexico evry day. Day after day.

Are you beginning to understand a bit yet?

Sigh.

Rob

Of Course it has to be CASH!

How many Thai immigration officials could tell the difference between monopoly money, your German domestic electricity bill, the licence disk off your Australian car or a travellers cheque? You could knock anying up on your computer and they wouldn't know!

And like the man on the border said..."You are farang. 10,000 is nothing for you."

I love this country.

Rob

Woah!

Mr Taxin is right. Thailand WILL be a First World nation in a year or so with a few more bits of legislation like this.

But how about a policy where the children of Thailand have compulsory education? Education is free but up to the parents if they send the kids. Many Thais I have talked to have done a running total of 3 or 4 years at school before they went into adult life at 14.

Anyway, I'm one of those people who smoke...who enjoy smoking...and who decided to stay in Thailand (in part) because I was allowed this freedom. I was pissed off with being one of the millions who had to leave the building every chance they got so they could light-up.

Keep Thailand ignorant, I say. Don't teach the people about rights and freedoms. Don't teach them about the world, or widen their awareness. Just keep telling them they are the finest nation in the world. Don't teach them basic health awareness and biology and science. Keep on not educating them!

That way I'll be able to continue enjoying "university-educated" Thais with Band-Aids on their face because they have tooth-ache, and also smoke as much as I want.

Rob

Just an observation...hope it's not off-topic...

Looking at the responses here, I am AMAZED at how many members have no idea what the 30-baht scheme is.

It rather makes me wonder as to their credentials to offer comment or advice in this forum.....

Rob

National HONOUR???

Stamping your foot and having a petulant tantrum is not exactly "honourable"! The problem is that a)Thai men and b)Thai politicians consider themselves to be a)god-like and b)BIG fish (in a teensy weensy pond)

Having been a career teacher for 24 years and having taught 9-11 years olds, I am constantly reminded of playground squabbles and the reaction and behaviour of these children when I read (oh so frequently) these depressingly immature, selfish and short-sighted responses from supposedly mature males that are instrumental in deciding Thai internal and national policy.

Honour? Perhaps a little more awareness of DIGNITY would be more in order?

Rob

Just a thought...and perhaps to answer my own question.....

If you visa has expired...by even only one day...then you are in the country without a valid visa...and this is illegal...right?

If you are apprehended inside the coutry with an invalid visa...this is a punishable offernce with up to 20,000b fine and/or deportation...right?

BUT if you leave the country and surrender/declare the overstay, this is not punishable...other than by the fine per day overstay? Am I correct?

If so this is starting to make some sense.

Any observations on this?

Rob

Seems to me that nobody in Thailand or abroad in their embassies has much of an idea. Go to one of 4 different Thai consulates abroad and get a no-hassle Non-Im O. Got to the others, you need differing amounts of paperwork.

My suspicion is that unless there has been some national directive on a specific aspect (the recent visa-stamp frauds, for example) then each official and each embassy and every country has a different interpretation of what is or is not required for your particuar case...even varying opinions from individuals in the same embassy.

A good friend of mine came here 2 years ago on a tourist visa to work on the book he was writing. Seems he was observed sitting outside his house everyday working on his laptop. After a visit from Immigration, he was subsequently deported for "working"

It's anybody's bet!

Rob

Thanks for the replies, but you haven't been any help! In fact apart from a lot of wind about "shouldn't do it in the first place" there have been no actual ANSWERS to my question.

ONE day overstay has never counted before...I can quote your own forum and info on this. The second day counts, plus the first...ie 2 days overstay. There is a standard fine per day (forget if it is now 200b or 500b...doesn't matter).....

So.....why have the Thai Authorities suddenly started detaining people and fining them HUGE sums (10,000 baht) for one day overstays?

Does anybody have any INFORMATION about this (ie rather than chatty observations about the nature of life...)?

Rob

3 stories this week from the Southern end. Firstly, a mini-bus with 8 farangs about to leave on a 1-day border run was surrounded by police and customs officials on Samui last week. 3 Farangs were carted off to the police station. The one i know of in detail was one day (ONE!) over the stamp-date. He was jailed for 3 hours (mugged and robbed of cash,watch and cigs while in one cell with 5 Thai men) then fined 10,000 baht.

More recently, 2 other farangs have been detained at Sadao and fined for small overstays also...precise details not known.

Is this a sudden clamp-down?

Anyone else hearing horror stories?

Rob

"Parents can get three months in jail or a 30,000 baht (US$770) fine if they allow their children to play Songkran with dirty water or use talcum powder as an excuse for sexual violation," police said in a statement.

If the Thai Government had the same approach towards the education of the Nation's children, then there might just be a chance that within a generation Thailand might move away from the current state of ignorance, poverty and racial hatred.

Just read all the replies and responses here.....hee hee hee.

Seems that

a)Thailand has 365 Fool's Days, so this would make perfect sense to a Thai.....

some nations contain people that are not too subtle or quick of wit.

Interesting to evaluate the respomnses in terms of the nationalities.....

Rob

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY TO YOU TOO!

Two startling points here.....

FIRST is how many people BELIEVED this!

SECOND is that this kind of thing in Thailand is too close to the truth. Blundering and juvenile (I don't mean status, I mean outlook and ability) ministeres being pressured by their CEO to jump and do it quick.....

Bird flue that doesn't exist (keep quiet and it will go away) Then still doesn't exist and we are decalred clean after 3 weeks (except for the 3,000 new cases...oops)

Hospitals closed, internet blankout (just the 1222 line!!) beggers and dogs taken away and dumped for APEC (even tho the delegates only have to look out of their windows to see all this) Plus foreiners leaving the country not being allowed back in during the period of the conference...(just as wekk none of the diplomats fancied popping over to Burma for some gambling)

12 o'clock closing to protect the Nation's youth from drugs and sex (all except for RCA, the biggest area of underage Thai debauchery) and this withdrawn suddenly at the last minute (with varying thin and contradictory excuses by the ministers)

Thailand deputy Prime Minister announces on a Monday that only 64 drug-related deaths accured last year, and on Tuesday the prime Minister says it was 2,400

and that's without thinking! (me, I mean, not the government)

So why should a shower ban out of the blue seem in any way silly?

I would like to thank the Minister for water, Khun Nammaimee and the deputy minister Khun Maekhong sa Namkhang for taking time out to help compile this.

Have a shower on me...free! (sie nam)

Rob