KhaoNiaw

I asked at KBank today and they told me their system will be up and running from the 12th.

Received mine about the same time as you yesterday evening. Immigration didn't have a holiday yesterday though. Submitted 25 April, approved 1 May. CW office

I think you're talking about accent rather than dialect. If you really want to distinguish between the more formal taught Thai and everyday spoken pronunciation, you should do a lot of messaging. In text messages they tend to spell following normal pronunciation. So my friends often type มั้ย instead of ไหม. Years ago, when my daughter was a kid, she used to buy those comic/cartoon books that Thais love (not sure if they still sell them these days) and they did the same thing in the speech bubbles. Quite interesting to see the differences written down.

So nothing to do with experience, ability or policies then. More of the same old same old Thai politics.

May well be. I'm expecting Pheu Thai to choose Srettha though, especially if they need to do a deal with Prawit. Srettha seems to have a lot of momentum behind him whereas even some in Pheu Thai seem to feel Thaksin's daughter is just Thaksin's daughter.

Bank holidays, not Government holidays. 1 May is a bank holiday but not a government holiday. 4 May is both. 17 May is a government holiday but not a bank holiday.

Just pointing out that he's not really a man for the poor. Famously, of course, saying that any areas that didn't vote for him wouldn't receive any development funds. Also quite open about the fact that he had little interest in furthering democracy (until he was removed undemocratically). Very much a case of distributing largesse from the centre and by doing this in the early days of his administration and focusing on funds going through village heads, kamnans etc. to get their local backing, it allowed him to get on with his own business. He undoubtedly did some good early on but it was well planned and targeted for his own benefit. Removing him in the fashion they did was a daft move.

Government offices get a holiday on Ploughing Ceremony day instead - May 17th this year.

But some of the very poorest parts of the country never voted for Thaksin parties.

Move Forward has no chance of getting anywhere near the number of seats that Pheu Thai will. What might be interesting is if Pheu Thai didn't get their landslide but could form a clear two-party majority with Palang Pracharath. Would PT then accept Prawit as PM as the price for forming the government? Maybe they would offer Srettha as PM candidate rather than Thaksin's daughter, with Prawit to help swing the senators?

One dead. The most recent one still living. Although they were divorced, the police have discovered they apparently reconciled and have been living together again. Some of the families have said that she borrowed money from the deceased. But after the deaths, she would contact the families and say that in fact they owed her and demand payment from the families. She even turned up with her lawyer. On occasion accompanied by the husband.

True that you need a UK address. But that will work in combination with a Thai phone number.

Potential victims from 6-7 years ago. A lot of the latest victims seem to have been in one of those 'share' loan groups. If the killer's been running share groups for years who knows what the total might be.

Police are saying probably at least 7-9 victims from more people that are now coming forward. She's actually married to a police officer. I wouldn't be surprised if this gets a capital sentence.

There were some free buses but don't know if they're still running. They weren't all the buses on those routes so you'd have to look for the sign on the front. If you really needed a free bus, you could wait until one turned up on your route.

It doesn't say he can't enter via land border. It just says that he was denied entry at the checkpoint on this occasion. I don't know whether that means that in practice he would be denied future entry at any land border. I remember some past forum posts about the 'lack of funds' stamp being used whether the IOs actually asked for proof or not.

It says you were denied entry for not having the necessary means to support yourself.

Yes, I've seen a friend who always does this. I think the traditional key card just pushes down to make the connection for the power to come on. He just puts some thick card into it to keep the aircon on.

"Goy" is prepared in a slightly different way to "larb". "Goy khua" is a good option if you don't want the 'fresh' variety.

Showing me this right now:

IQAir showing it as second behind Beijing at this moment in time. Ahead of Dhaka and Delhi. (That's on the major cities list).Is your point that it's not worth talking about unless it's the worst at all moments in time? Or that it's all a big overreaction and not a genuine problem? Or you're just one of those who always reacts against anything that puts Thailand at No.1?

Bhumjaithai are no different to Pheu Thai. A party of the rural masses, albeit on a more localized scale than Pheu Thai. Pheu Thai themselves are a very conservative party. Absolutely no initiatives for advancing democracy. Amazing the number of people on here who simply say elections are democracy. The Soviet Union used to hold local elections. When Thaksin was in power he completely set back and destroyed the more open and critical media that was just beginning to emerge. How can you hold democratic elections under such conditions? What say do Pheu Thai members have in the running of their party? Over party policies? Bhumjaithai, Pheu Thai, same same, just different people trying to take the biggest share of the pie. Better than the military I suppose. But inching closer to democracy? Not in any way at all.

Mine are nearly always 25 baht. Maybe depends where you are?

Didn't carry all the way into central Vientiane for me. However, there was an AIS option that popped up that I didn't work out for a couple of days. It was a couple of hundred baht and it worked for the rest of the week that I was in Laos. Would look it all up before I go next time.

I agree that they should investigate first. But it's also quite possible that surviving passengers saw it. My girlfriend's often been on the vans to the border and she's had the driver ask her to talk to him so he doesn't drop off.