ManInSurat

Could it also be possible that they suffered a violent or allergic reaction to DEET?

That they were killed by an amount that would not have been lethal to Thais and the amounts they put in their sadistic cocktails

They were sisters after all.

"It is thought that an overdose of DEET was accidentally mixed into the young women's drinks."

It is this line that is the most revealing for me.

Where are you going to be buying drinks that an amount of DEET large enough to kill you is accidentally mixed into your drink?

A bucket or a cocktail that purposely has DEET mixed into it, is a different thing.

For those of you who are implying that the girls knowingly drank this DEET, read the original article again. Don't tar them with a brush.

This would lead me to believe that they were at a bar that sold these dodgy buckets/cocktails and either a) got the wrong one or b ) the cocktail mixer messed up the order.

Makes these deaths appear even more unecessary. If that were possible.

That's the last I'll also say on this matter as I've already wasted enough energy on dealing with religious bigotry to last me a lifetime.

This is outrageous. No other word for it.

Is the fact she was 16 at the time helping reduce her sentence here? I do know that 14-18 is the age you would enter a youth correctional facility. So they do make a distinction between adults and youths and would have different sentencing.

She should serve her term now. In full. No excuses or suspensions. Adequate compensation should be paid to the families involved. Sadly neither of these things have happened and it's not in the least bit surprising.

They're called Mynah birds mate.

A slingshot, if you're accurate with them would also do a job.

I'd lend you my cat, he's a master hunter, but I'm over in Krabi!

sadly alcohol is much more dangerous than heroin.

good to hear someone else agreeing to that. Actually, prescription drugs cause more deaths annually than all illegal drugs combined - and alcohol causes more deaths and harm than prescription. It also runs up insurance costs for everyone else, and alcohol-related problems are the #1 cause of missed workdays. In other words, a gargantuan adverse economic impact.

She deserved her punishment for being an idiot of epic proportions.

Is being an epically proportioned idiot, grounds for a life term prison sentence? I though we're supposed to show some compassion, or at least leniency, for idiots. That's what we (as a society) do when allowing the insanity excuse for a heineous crime, isn't it?

I do not mean she's fat by "idiot of epic proportions" I mean the scale of her idiocy is epic. You're totally misunderstaing what I mean there.

I'm not taking any digs at this lady for being large. I am taking digs at the lady for remaning large for 9 years in a Thai prison and then trying to convince us that she was starved, force-fed and malnourished all at the same time.

Idiocy in the respect that she bothered to know what the punshiment was for drug smuggling in Singapore was, where she wasn't intending to commit a crime and didn't bother to find out the reperucssions of the actual place she was planning on committing a crime.

She knew it was bad. Singapore's basically in the same ballpark as Thailand for most westernerns, so she knew the consequences would be harsh.

It's not only idiody at play here, if it were, I'd actually feel a small amount of compassion, she knowingly tried to move heroin over an Asian border to collect $50,000, that's calculating, premeditated criminality that directly could result in the death or extreme suffering of the weak and vulnerable. Many people never have a say in whether they choose to take heroin for the first time or not. They're also normally the weakest and the most easy to abuse, i.e. unborn babies, pregnant mothers, prostitutes.

You talk about the hounding of heroin as evil incarnate and how unjust this is. Maybe it is an maybe it isn't. What I do see is that an American (you are American aren't you?) is clearly aware of this portrayal of heroin. It's exactly the same in the UK. Everyone I knew grew up thinking it was a nasty, dirty, destructive, lethal drug. She would have had this image too. She still went ahead with it for the money. That I find disgusting. I don't think you should be offered a reprieve from a life sentence for what she did.

I think it acts as an excellent deterrent and if it ends up saving lives by virtue of less heroin being on the streets, then I can never see a valid counter-agrument to that.

I am not in favour of capital punishment.

What I will say and I am repeating myself here, if she was from many African, Asian and some European countries she wouldn't have been allowed to leave.

The only reason the prisoner exchange system exists with Thailand and America is so they can both make money from one another and curry favour with one another for whatever global/regional political aims they currently have.

They couldn't give a toss about the people involved.

If she was from Ghana, she'd still be there.

In my book, she should still be there. Nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.

None of what she did was a surprise to her, she wasn't just an idiot, she did it for financial gain. That would be enough, but now she is trying to make more money out of it a decade later, after living in obscurity for 10 years.

Now we're all supposed to have the outpouring of support for her?

If I though it would work, I'd start a campaign to have her re-arrested for touting her story around for her own financial benefit. I think there should be a law that stops you from earning from things like this.

All money derived from her appearences on TV shows and selling her stories to the papers should be given to charity.

Can't you see that her current mission for self-promotion is abhorrent?

When i went there for the first time a few years back, we checked into our resort and immediately noticed the noise of construction work coming from the beach direction. Took a stroll down there wondering how long we would have to put up with it, and couldn't see any construction work in sight. That was when it dawned on us that the noise wasn't construction work, but the noise of the long tail boats going back and forth. Couldn't believe it! It totally destroys any tranquillity and it lasts from sun up to sun down. That would be the biggest con for me and enough to put me off ever going back again. And it's not like i'm unaccustomed to the banana boat / jetski nonsense. This was worse.

What? You're criticizing the noise of longtails boats near a beach in Thailand? Are you mental?

This is the only time I can ever remember of hearing someone complain about the noise of longtail boats in 7 years.

They're not there in the same role as jetskis and banana boats. They are about as far removed from playthings for tourists as they possibly could be. What do you think a longtail is?

They're the de facto method of transportation to and from Railay/Tonsai Beach (which are only accesible by boat), all the islands and other numerous destinations. Moreover, forgetting the tourists, they're a very important to lots of Thai fishermen too. These guys need to make their livings.

They support a very very large proportion of the Thais in the coastal Krabi areas and their families and have been doing so for decades. Long before your ever so tender eardrums even heard of this country.

They're a feature of every beach resort and rural seaside town I've ever been to and I've been to hundreds.

You can rent any one you see (normally) for the day and get them to take you basically anywhere you want. They're cheap, fun and an experience you can't get out of the Asean region.

The alternative is a speedboat, which with 2-3 250hp engines strapped on the back is the epitome of quietness (!) Obviously longtails outnumber speedboats and catamarans greatly and will continue to do for decades to come. It simply comes down to cost.

This is easily the most ridiculous post I've read in a while!

Here's a suggestion, if you don't like the sound of longtail boats near the sea. Book a resort with sound proofing or go to Chiang Mai and stay there for the whole duration of your holiday. May I also recommend Lhasa in Tibet and Thimphu in Bhutan.

Longtail boats make noise! Hahaha! Yeah, the rain's wet and grass is green.

Sunset, looking out over the part of Ao Nang beach infront of the coastal road, drenched in red, orange, purple, pink, salmon, violet and blue watching ardent longtail boat skippers roll in the surf and ply their trade is probably one of the prettiest vistas this life has to bring, in my opinion and that picture is ruined if there's no soundtrack.

You're never coming back? Oh no. Destroy all longtails in Thailand, quickly!

Thanks for the laugh. Complaining about noise in Thailand? What?

You seem to struggle taking on board opinions that differ from your own. I have lived in Thailand many years and visited just about every beach resort there is, and this was the first time i have found the long tail boats creating this level of noise and diesel pollution. And no, the ones i saw were not being used by local fishermen, they were being used to ferry tourists about. Of course tourists do need ferrying about, i appreciate that, but whilst making the pick up / drop off point right on the main beach, guarantees maximum profits for the boat operators, it doesn't do anything for the tranquillity of those trying to enjoy the beach. Mock, deride, laugh, cuss, all you want. That is my opinion, and like others, i shall desist commenting any further on this thread as it is clear that you are incapable of accepting any opinion but your own. The floor is all yours. Cheerio.

"Taking on board" Love your cheeky unintended little pun. Oh don't be upset about what I said. C'mon now hear me out! I'll behave, I promise.

I can take on opinions that differ from my own. The fact is that's always been the main pickup and drop-off point for Ao Nang, it's never been any different and I'm trying to work out where you were staying that is so close to the longtail pickups that it was a disturbance.

You did say you noticed the noise as soon as you checked into the resort. You must have been staying on that main drag then. Not down the promenade heading towards Railay, but actually on the main road opposite the longtail parking.

Those resorts are set back from the road. Longtails are separated from the resorts by the beach itself, the sea-wall by a road, a wall of high trees and a wall of shop fronts add to that the fact that none of the resorts there are at beach/sea level and are raised significantly.

Not to mention that that's the heart of the gogo area. If you were at a resort on the promenade heading towards the Last Fisherman and Railay's limestone karst then no longtails park there.

I tend to check the reviews and location of a hotel or resort before I book it. If you could say which resort it was, we can see if there's other people that share your anguish. Surely they'd have made it clear in the reviews section of TripAdvisor.

There's a pier in Ao Nang at Nopparat Thara, but they would never be able to house all the boats in the area and the river mouth there is dangerous at low tide and even more dangerous when congested.

They all have to leave from that beach. The boats are there just to acommodate us. We cannot complain about the noise of an industry that is generated by our presence here.

You cannot argue the fact that the boats take up a very small part of all the available beaches in the Ao Nang area. The whole of Nopparat Thara beach, which is massive, bigger than Ao Nang beach and very beautiful, has almost no commercial longtail landings, other than the small collection near Luna Bar.

Khlong Muang beach and Tub Kaek beach are even quieter and only a short bike/car/tuktuk journey away.

For you to be constantly disturbed by the longtails on Ao Nang beach you would have had to have stayed permanently in that 200-300m stretch of beach that they park in. Why would you choose to do that? Move slightly to the left or right, say by 500m and you're on quiet expansive beaches. I spend everyday, with a few exceptions on the side of Ao Nang beach closest to Railay, there no longtails ever there, there's no noise pollution of any kind and there's certainly no diesel pollution in the water where I swim.

I'll go and take some pictures today to show you what I mean.

Opinion is fine, but what you're trying to impress on everyone here isn't opinion. It's misinformation.

My point is you'd have to go out of your way to be disturbed by the longtails on Ao Nang beach, even if in my first post, I did come across as loud and brash, this hasn't changed.

You're either hyper sensitive to sound or diesel or are tyring to experience a problem where there isn't one.

If you did actually choose to go and lie next to where all the longtails park infront of the big wide steps on Ao Nang beach and spend your whole day at the beach there, then you're a bit silly. The beach isn't good that side anyway, which is why the boats are there and there's never ending coastline in the area you could easily walk to in about 10-15 mins from Ao Nang beach.

How could you have missed Nopparat Thara beach? It's bigger than Ao Nang beach!

If you were somewhere else, say in a room in a resort right on the beach in Railay, well I could see that might be a problem, but all of those resorts cleary have reviews from people that think the noise is an issue.

Apart from two very small strips of beach on Railay and Ao Nang beaches, there's no other longtail parking, en masse.

It has to park somewhere.

Your argument is silly and does not paint an accurate picture of how longtails (an iconic feature of Krabi heritage and always seen on posters and websites advertising Krabi) work in the Ao Nang area.

Tell me where you stayed and I'll tell you if it's loud. I can go there right now and take some photos at the intrusion of longtails on the beach.

Lastly, you say you were here a few years ago, which means the marina/pier I am referring to wouldn't have been finished yet and parked in.

You can't possibly know what the boat parking arragement is like now in Ao Nang. I do. I could drive there in about 5 mins.

Another point I though about was, outside of the tiny parking strips they do have on Ao Nang and Railay beaches and coming in and out of the river estuary on Nopparat Thara beaches, all longtails keep a very long distance to the shore when they are making their journeys. In the kilometers. There is no way possible boats passing along the coastline could disturb you from that distance.

Anyway, will endeavour to take some photos to show people what I mean here and I'll still maintain the fact, which is based in currently reality, that you'd have to go out of your way to be disturbed by longtails in the Ao Nang area unless you had a resort bungalow closest to the beach where they park in Railay. There's just nowhere else where it could be a problem.

I can prove what I'm saying and I will.

Your comparison of longtails boats to banana boats and jetskis is just totally bizarre. You can't deny that. How are they related in any way?

Longtail boats are a historic iconic image of not just the Krabi area, but Thailand as a whole, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and most of the Asean region. They not only provide a means of income through tourism for Thai locals, but they also allow them to fish in the low season.

The others are just toys, normally used by drunk holiday makers zipping around the surf at high octane speed, presenting a large danger both to the riders and the people in the water around them.

I don't understand your "opinion" here at all. How do they equate?

(I do not actually think you are mental, it's just a turn of phrase and said in jest in the UK. My apologies if any of what I said offended you, that was definitely not my intention. At no point did I cuss. Stop being a fuddy-duddy.)

"most tourists don't realise parts of Thailand are more Muslim than thai and they come expecting to see wats not to be staying in earshot of a mosque waking them up everyday"

What a massive pile of steaming bullshit. I can't believe what's written there even though I've read it several times now.

If you can't educate yourself that southern Thailand has a strong and vibrant muslim community before you come here then you shouldn't be going on holiday or coming to live here. It's not new. The area has been this way for centuries. Religion should shut up as it disturbs holidaymakers?

Are you just having a laugh here as there's not many sane and rational humans I know that would form an opinion like that.

"Expect to see wats" The people you are talking about expect to see neon and McDonalds, some semblance of a beach, but most importantly bars, girls, bargirls and girly bars. They couldn't give a toss about religion and a day trip to Wat Tham Seua with no information about it or its history, just a moment to decide whether or not they can get up the mountain, will fulfill their "expectation of a wat."

That kind of tourist is destroying this area. I wish you'd force them to leave and would close any business you have that encourages this kind of behaviour. Thailand will be so much better off without you here.

People who do actually come here expecting to see religious structures in some form and appreciate their beauty aren't not going to be upset when there's the building of other religious places of worship for a religion that has been in the area for centuries, perhaps even millennia and are an integral part of the local culture, cuisine and history.

All that is apparent to me is that you dislike Islam generally, probably have this fundamentalist media-reinforced view of your average Muslim and definitely don't think it should be in Thailand. Certainly not in Ao Nang. If they could just disappear it'd be lovely for your oh-so-precious clientele.

You're not normal man.

You should leave and the Muslims should make more noise.

That's utterly utterly horrific.

I only hope they shot him in the temple first and didn't make him suffer.

How humans can act this way to other humans makes no sense to me.

I agree, stop speculating! The Clouseaus and Poirots that infest this forum get very tiresome very very quickly.

My condolences to his family.

I have no problem with mosque and understand ao nang is a huge mislim area but they shouldn't

Really build them in the middle of atourist area in which is considered to be a Buddhist country

Ever stopped to consider the local Muslim population might not want noisy bars and tourists in thier area? After all, they were there first!

They don't and I've seen them out protesting on the street in their white kaftans numerous times.

I talked to one of the younger men involved in the protest and they also really take umbrage to the northern Thais that come and make their kids sell "All Purpose Flying Fire Lanterns" until 2am, as well as the go-go culture, late closing times and various states of inebriation they get to see the foreigners in at 6 am - 10 am when they're on they way to do a hard day's graft.

Sadly, the tourist dollar is now inextricably linked with Ao Nang, to its detriment, and lots of Muslims are the beneficiaries of this.

The devout will continue to complain, as is their right, but I think they're drowned out by the rest of Thai community that reap serious financial dividends by setting up shop here.

As for this comment...

"I have no problem with mosque and understand ao nang is a huge mislim area but they shouldn't Really build them in the middle of atourist area in which is considered to be a Buddhist country"

That's about as ingorant as you can get about the whole of Southern Thailand and its history, it's bordering on inflammatory.

So wats are OK and mosques aren't? On what basis? That Thailand is 95% Theravada Buddhist?

Ok, let's go and destroy St Agnes Church while we're at it!

They were here centuries before we even got close to this place and have been working the land and sea in the area the whole time and up to the present day. We've been here since the late 80's and that gives us a right to dictate to them where they can and can't build their houses of worship, because they'll get in the way of the gogo and hamburger culture we've imported?

Some of the comments in this thread are outrageous!

Think you need to calm down a bit people are aloud opinions you know sorry I mentioned the mosque now but I have run a business here for five years and these are the general comments of most customers I speak with,no use starting to talk about catholic church after all they do not blast music at all hours of the day and yes most tourists don't realise parts of Thailand are more Muslim than thai and they come expecting to see wats not to be staying in earshot of a mosque waking them up everyday.

And if you want to talk about the bars well sorry but after nearly 7 years here I would say 8 out of ten of the Muslims I have met or am friends with drink alcohol or smoke weed.

No more comments on this subject from me.

Lol, you have such a twisted perception. It's not the responsibility of Thailand or the Thais to let you know Krabi is a more Muslim area. It is your responsibility.

You're trying to say that their mosque gets in the way of the tourism and you also said that it shouldn't happen as this is a majority Buddhist country. Basically a wat would be OK and a mosque wouldn't. Have you ever heard a wat being constructed, it's not a particularly quiet experience.

I was joking about the church obviously to try and get you to realise the point I am making here.

You come across an islamaphobe out of ignorance more than anything else. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'm married to a Muslim Thai, I have been for six years, the northern Thais here are far more aggressive and rude than the muslims and most of the petty tourist related crime is committed by Buddhists. Not to mention charging you double fee and ripping you off on basically every purchase you make, if they think they can get away with it.

Ao Nang and the muslim community don't owe you anything. They don't have to explain why they're here in more numbers than in other places. Find out if you don't know and don't act surprised when you come across it.

When travelling in a notoriously noisy and loud country, which Thailand definitely is, it's your responsibility to bring silence to Thailand and not for Thailand to provide you with silence.

If the morning adhan wakes you up, get some ear plugs, they have much more of a right to practice their religion than you do a right to not have your hangover made more worse. You complaining about the call to prayer is quite offensive to me and would definitely be to the rest of my family. I am not a muslim, I am an atheist, but I'd never complain about something like that. It's utterly ridiculous.

Ao Nang does not have to make way for you and the peace and quiet you demand. Islam has been in the Malay peninsula for over 500 years, Krabi's muslim community are peace-loving and friendly if you don't come across as ingorant and unwilling to understand about their culture, which you really seem to be doing here.

I'm calm and you're right, people are allowed opinions, but if that makes you a bigoted islamaphobe, in my opinion, I'm allowed to tell you that too.

With the greatest possible respect, I couldn't give a toss about how your business is effected by the adhans and/or construction of the mosque. You should have considered this when purchasing the business, the mosque that you're referring to has been in a construction phase for way over 5 years.

Your guests don't like it? They'd rather crush the muslim culture in the region so they can have a quieter holiday? Do you realise how ridiculous that idea is?

You just don't seem to get it.

The muslim Thais here owe you no silence, no beaming smiles. You get in their way and not the other way around. You disturb them when your clients stagger home still drunk at 6am - 10am in full view of hard working families and kids on their way to work. and/or school.

So you know some muslims that drink alcohol. Big wow!

Every Christian I've ever met eats meat on a Friday. Every Buddhist I've met doesn't believe that the ground is so sacred, they must walk barefoot to reduce their impact on living organisms they may accidentally kill. I've met Jews that eat bacon. I've met atheists that say Jesus Christ and Oh My God on a regular basis. Cannabis and the islamic religion are heavily intertwined, in most places around the world.

What's your point? You know some people that don't follow their religion to the letter, but the fact they want to pray to their God 5 times a day and call other people to do the same means they get in your way?

You have severely twisted logic and it appears to me you and your customers discriminate against religion because it's a bit noisy and you don't really like it. Well tough. Deal with it.

Oh and lastly please do and try and tell your muslim weed smoking and drinking friends that you socialize with in bars that their mosque shouldn't be where it is as it's obnoxious to your ears. Let's see how that goes down.

I like Krabi and Ao Nang, I like small towns, free of stress, noisy and pollution.

good beaches, many things to do (no at night), mixed culture, people friendly, cheap home with kitchen , many places to eat...

no shopping mall xD

the unique thing that I don't like are these gangs of young people (I think muslims) making bad things, and that the people like so much to burn the rubbish, and in the afternoon and night the nasty smoke is everywhere, about the muslims chants good luck that the monk have good and soft voice, i like it

Ok a few things here.

I can see English isn't your first language, so could you please try to be clear about what your mean by "gangs of young people (i think muslims) making bad things". You do not know they're Muslim. Thinking someone is Muslim isn't good enough. What do you mean by bad things? That could include an awful lot of things.

People burn rubbish as the rubbish collection service is totally awful. It's not the Thai people's fault the Thai goverment don't want to spend the money they get given for dealing with waste disposal and would rather use it to pay themselves. People will burn refuse if no one comes to collect it and they should be allowed to until there's a satifactory level of refuse collection. I'd rather have the smoke than the smell of rotting rubbish on my property.

Also the smoke isn't everywhere. It's just where you are. I've never come across smoke in the main tourist areas of Ao Nang nor at my house. If it's happening right next to the house you're staying in, that doesn't mean it's happening everywhere.

A muslim "monk" is called an "imam". What you're hearing is the "adhan" or call to prayer. It has nothing to do with good luck in any way. It's announcing to pracitisng muslims in the area that they should come to the mosque now to pray.

Often it's performed by a young teenager, 12-13 years old, but can also be one of the older men in the congregation.

Please do explain to me what "bad things" means, I'm very intruiged.

Some of you guys are like Kindergarten kids ridiculing a fat kid who falls down and rips her pants. Grow up. Yes it's easy to ridicule a person who is fat. Look at your own bellies, and think twice.

Strangely, no.

How stupid? Like for reasons of buying heroine from a dealer and distroying his life, for example?

Sorry, there is no argument. Get caught dealing or doing drugs and you`re owned. Like it or lump it, that`s the way it is. We don`t want their drugs here.

Now try replacing the word heroin or 'drugs' with alcohol, and see how your sentences read. The main difference between heroin and alcohol, is one causes far more harm and deaths than the other. Can you guess which one?

If you don't believe that, then you've been very successfully brainwashed by the alcohol industry's concerted trillion dollar campaign to make their drugs products socially acceptable.

If heroin was distributed as widely, was on sale as cheaply and was as easy to purchase as alcohol is now, we'd all live in "dreamy hippy land" would we? Rubbish.

Proportionately more people use alcohol responsibly than they do heroin. A miniscule amount of heroin users use it recreationally, by and large it's all consuming, almost right from the start.

It's all about proportion here. Use some perspective.

The restriction and destruction of heroin worldwide is a godsend not a curse.

I'm not singing praises for heroin. I'm trying to put things in perspective and hopefully authorities won't be so draconian in doling out cruel penalties.

You talk about IF. That's conditional. I'm talking about what actually happens in this unfair world. You also bring up a hypothetical scenario, and then say it's rubbish. I'm talking about reality, you're spouting hypotheticals.

Sure heroin use can be bad. Is it worse than booze? You tell me. There are no penalties for using or trafficking booze, yet there are severe penalties for heroin.

I favor legalization of all drugs. There are many reasonable reasons for this, but too many to articulate here. We won't agree, but so it goes. Personally, I don't do any drugs, not even alcohol. Though I have tried heroin, so I have a better idea of its effects than others who have not tried it.

Tomatoes used to be banned in New England as being poisonous. Hemp is currently illegal in Thailand and the US, even though it's not possible to get stoned on hemp. The laws need fixing. Currently, they're too unfair and often cruel. If you think it's justified because the girl in the OP is fat, then that's another thing we won't agree upon.

I said I wouldn't respond anymore, but you taking things I've taken said, completely out of context means I have to really.

Who's saying she deserves her situation as she's fat? She deserved her punishment for being an idiot of epic proporions.

We're laughing at the fact that she managed to be incarcerated for 9 years in a Thai prison and she appears to stay the same weight, even get fatter, through the years in the photos.

She goes to great lenghts to tell us how she was force-fed maggots and starved at the same time. I still don't undestand how you can be force-fed and starved at the same time. The food was apparently inedible, infested with insects, yet she manages to keep all that meat and gravy on them bones. It doesn't add up. That is laughable and she does deserve to be derided for this.

She paints a picture of malnutrition and culinary squalor, yet it's patently obvious she's been eating very well for 9 years. It's a total lie. Just look at the photos.

I'll reiterate, for the umpteenth time, calling someone fat is not an insult, it's an observation. The stuff that makes you fat, is called "fat".

Unfair world? She was aware that Singapore carried the death sentence. If she's trying to convince us that she didn't even for a second think that a country 2 borders overs and known globally through film and media for its tough stance on drugs, would be unfair then she's lying. It's not unfair if you ingore the law and flout it for financial gain, which is exactly what she did. If she was an unwitting party to this whole thing, that would be unfair.

The law is what it is, unfair or not, that's a reality and non-hypothetical. Every person who is in Thailand's borders abides by these laws or faces the punishments handed out if they are caught breaking the law.

If as a drugs mule, you do no research whatsoever into the repercussions of your actions according to laws in the foreign country you are in, you can't be in a position to complain when the syringe slowly pumps life-ending chemicals into your veins several years later. Everyone knows this about Thailand, it's a very common globally held perception of the place.

Having said all of this, in 100% of cases, Thailand commutes the death sentence for drug related offences to life inprisonment for foreigners.

These are all realities, unfair or not, until you're a bonafide citizen of the place there's nothing you're going to do about the changing the status quo and I don't see why you should be able to dictate to a foreign government how harshly or leniently they should set their punishments for drug smuggling.

You accept these laws now as a legal alien in this country. You're never going to change them.

Can we stop this now?

You think heroin's not so bad, I think it's heinous.

Point taken and I'm going to move on now!

So........... if they have a kid, he's a grandfather and father of the same kid?

Mind... blown...

My last input on this for the night is that the photos of her infront of a door with the งาน (obscured) อก. \ สตม. are those of the prosecuter's office at an immigration bureau and not a prison. Mostly likely at the IDC in BKK.

งาน (Ngaan) - Work.

อก. (Or-Gor short for อัยการ or Aya-gaan) - Prosecutor.

สตม. (Sor-Dtor-Mor short for สำนักงานตรวจคนเข้าเมือง or Sam-nak-ngaan-dtruat-kon-kao-meuang) - Immigration Bureau.

The photos from the prison could be anywhere and the prison outfits could equally be from anywhere.

Thanks for the Thai lesson. Do you think those photos were made at Disney World?

Sure Sirchai, jump in without reading the thread or what other people have referred to earlier on in the thread. She states on her personal Twitter account that she was at the Bangkok Hilton. There's only one of those I know of. It's also known as Bang Kwang and the 'Big Tiger' owing to its ability to eat a man.

Unfortunately for Ms. Carnegie it's also a men's only prison as stated in the first line of the Wikipedia entry about Bang Kwang.

The original article, which isn't authored by TV and is authored by the Daily Mail and is linked in the original post even goes to great lengths to make sure we know it's the Bangkok Hilton. There's a small featurette of the horrors of the place, the words are written many times in the smaller article headlines.

All of this is done for sensationalism. To drive traffic to this page.

I thought that perhaps by identifying which prison she was actually at, by virtue of looking for some evidence in the photos, that'd I'd be able to out her as an out and out liar about this.

She even has Bangkok Hilton in her Twitter blurb.

I was trying to work out if the photo with the Thai writing gave an indication of the prison she was in, as I have a feeling it was Samut Prakan Central Women's Prison. Which doesn't have the same ring and won't pull in the same money as Bangkok Hilton.

As I do actually read and write Thai I was trying to let others know what was written on the door. It's an immagration office and I proved how I came to that conclusion.

I'm not trying to give anyone a Thai lesson, I'd rather just back up my statements with, you know, facts.

I'm not the only person in the the thread who has pointed out this glaring mistake that has been publish and broadcast by Nat Geo and the Daily Mail.

I find the sensationalization of this woman disgusting knowing that's she's got to be getting paid for this. It's reprehensible.

If I'm wrong and the Bangkok Hilton, aka Bang Kwang, aka The Big Tiger, isn't a men's only prison and she spent 9 years there from 1993-2002 go ahead and show me evidence to the contrary. I'll happily stand corrected.

EDIT: Doing some further research Bangkok Hilton is a TV mini-series about a woman who's incarcerated in a fictional Bangkok prison.

When you search for "Bangkok Hilton" on Google, the second entry - handily also a real place that exists - is Bang Kwang.

I actually think she was at Lard Yao now. Which isn't the Bangkok Hilton either.

It appears to me that Bangkok Hilton is a phrase used by the press for any Bangkok prison and all just to get us to feel sorry for this poor victim.

It is that principle that I really detest as she gets a big wedge of the pie!

I'll bow out of this thread now. Nothing more I really want to add!

I lived there for three years in the early 90s. It's honestly my least favorite place in all of Southern Thailand. Sorry, but I have absolutely nothing positive to say about any aspect of the way it turned out.

The unfortunate part is that many tourists think they should go there instead of Phuket when it's worse than Phuket in many ways.

Krabi Province is beautiful. Ao Nang is a cookie cutter mass tourism hell.

Lol, least favorite part in all of Southern Thailand? Pattani, Naratiwat, Songkla and Yala with bombs going off, teachers being murdered, schools being torched, religious fundamentalists and the government being at an impasse on an almost daily basis and you choose Ao Nang? What did Ao Nang ever do to you!?

Did you get an STD here?

Have you been hidden away from the spate of high profile murders, beatings and grand scams in Phuket that have been featuring as front page news of TV for the past few months? Not to mention Chalerm's vow to 'clean up Phuket'. I don't remember the Thai gov't having crisis meetings over the rampant levels of crime in Ao Nang and the way they'll seriously affect the Thailand brand and image to the outside world.

Phuket's a total hole!

They should rename the place the United Soviet Socialist Republic of Phuket. I love the mafia-enforced Russification of Phuket, I really do.

I have no problem with mosque and understand ao nang is a huge mislim area but they shouldn't

Really build them in the middle of atourist area in which is considered to be a Buddhist country

Ever stopped to consider the local Muslim population might not want noisy bars and tourists in thier area? After all, they were there first!

They don't and I've seen them out protesting on the street in their white kaftans numerous times.

I talked to one of the younger men involved in the protest and they also really take umbrage to the northern Thais that come and make their kids sell "All Purpose Flying Fire Lanterns" until 2am, as well as the go-go culture, late closing times and various states of inebriation they get to see the foreigners in at 6 am - 10 am when they're on they way to do a hard day's graft.

Sadly, the tourist dollar is now inextricably linked with Ao Nang, to its detriment, and lots of Muslims are the beneficiaries of this.

The devout will continue to complain, as is their right, but I think they're drowned out by the rest of Thai community that reap serious financial dividends by setting up shop here.

As for this comment...

"I have no problem with mosque and understand ao nang is a huge mislim area but they shouldn't Really build them in the middle of atourist area in which is considered to be a Buddhist country"

That's about as ingorant as you can get about the whole of Southern Thailand and its history, it's bordering on inflammatory.

So wats are OK and mosques aren't? On what basis? That Thailand is 95% Theravada Buddhist?

Ok, let's go and destroy St Agnes Church while we're at it!

They were here centuries before we even got close to this place and have been working the land and sea in the area the whole time and up to the present day. We've been here since the late 80's and that gives us a right to dictate to them where they can and can't build their houses of worship, because they'll get in the way of the gogo and hamburger culture we've imported?

Some of the comments in this thread are outrageous!

When i went there for the first time a few years back, we checked into our resort and immediately noticed the noise of construction work coming from the beach direction. Took a stroll down there wondering how long we would have to put up with it, and couldn't see any construction work in sight. That was when it dawned on us that the noise wasn't construction work, but the noise of the long tail boats going back and forth. Couldn't believe it! It totally destroys any tranquillity and it lasts from sun up to sun down. That would be the biggest con for me and enough to put me off ever going back again. And it's not like i'm unaccustomed to the banana boat / jetski nonsense. This was worse.

What? You're criticizing the noise of longtails boats near a beach in Thailand? Are you mental?

This is the only time I can ever remember of hearing someone complain about the noise of longtail boats in 7 years.

They're not there in the same role as jetskis and banana boats. They are about as far removed from playthings for tourists as they possibly could be. What do you think a longtail is?

They're the de facto method of transportation to and from Railay/Tonsai Beach (which are only accesible by boat), all the islands and other numerous destinations. Moreover, forgetting the tourists, they're a very important to lots of Thai fishermen too. These guys need to make their livings.

They support a very very large proportion of the Thais in the coastal Krabi areas and their families and have been doing so for decades. Long before your ever so tender eardrums even heard of this country.

They're a feature of every beach resort and rural seaside town I've ever been to and I've been to hundreds.

You can rent any one you see (normally) for the day and get them to take you basically anywhere you want. They're cheap, fun and an experience you can't get out of the Asean region.

The alternative is a speedboat, which with 2-3 250hp engines strapped on the back is the epitome of quietness (!) Obviously longtails outnumber speedboats and catamarans greatly and will continue to do for decades to come. It simply comes down to cost.

This is easily the most ridiculous post I've read in a while!

Here's a suggestion, if you don't like the sound of longtail boats near the sea. Book a resort with sound proofing or go to Chiang Mai and stay there for the whole duration of your holiday. May I also recommend Lhasa in Tibet and Thimphu in Bhutan.

Longtail boats make noise! Hahaha! Yeah, the rain's wet and grass is green.

Sunset, looking out over the part of Ao Nang beach infront of the coastal road, drenched in red, orange, purple, pink, salmon, violet and blue watching ardent longtail boat skippers roll in the surf and ply their trade is probably one of the prettiest vistas this life has to bring, in my opinion and that picture is ruined if there's no soundtrack.

You're never coming back? Oh no. Destroy all longtails in Thailand, quickly!

Thanks for the laugh. Complaining about noise in Thailand? What?

My last input on this for the night is that the photos of her infront of a door with the งาน (obscured) อก. \ สตม. are those of the prosecuter's office at an immigration bureau and not a prison. Mostly likely at the IDC in BKK.

งาน (Ngaan) - Work.

อก. (Or-Gor short for อัยการ or Aya-gaan) - Prosecutor.

สตม. (Sor-Dtor-Mor short for สำนักงานตรวจคนเข้าเมือง or Sam-nak-ngaan-dtruat-kon-kao-meuang) - Immigration Bureau.

The photos from the prison could be anywhere and the prison outfits could equally be from anywhere.

Let's look at the timeline:

1993: sentenced to life in prison

2002: released from prison

2012: National Geographic movie and stories in lots of newspapers

Another poster mentioned his surprise that there was nothing about it on the Internet until now, and doing a search just now I couldn't find anything older than 2012 either. Very interesting. What are the dates of her Facebook and Twitter entries? Did they also start in 2012?

Hmmm. The plot thickens.

Well the photos confirm that she was at a Thai prison at some stage. I can't seem to find any definite information which one. It can't be the Hilton, unless there's a special woman's Hilton I don't know about!

I can't bring myself to read all her Twitter entries, but from the 10 mins perusing I did do, it's completely full of congraulatory messages - as you would expect - it was hard even going through the ones I did read. "Yay you're so great for knowingly breaking the law of another country and then using a loophole to get out of actually serving your life sentence! Yay you!"

Her Facebook profile is set to the lowest privacy settings, so everyone can get full access to the lies and deceit that's still ongoing. Lovely.

As you say quite clearly, there's an internet void between 2002 and 2012. I also find it very odd that it would take a decade to bring this woman's story to light.

I imagine that Nat Geo, in their 8th or whatever it is season of "Locked Up Abroad" are really scraping the barrel and needed anything, even if it meant the glorification of a drugs mule and dug this woman out of obscurity. Either they or the DM may have brought each other to the attention of this woman.

It's all lies. Manipulative lies to get you to feel sympathy for a convicted felon that should receive none and sell papers, advertising and subscriptions at the same time. Nat Geo are equally culpable in this. They say her story is used as an educational tool to avert other would be smugglers and warn them of the harsh conditions, but then goes on to show these same people that you'll do a small reduced sentence, which is probably less than the sentence you would have received in your home state and get paid off by the media for your story. Great example-setting there! Not only that, most of the world community will congratulate you for your "fight with adversity."

Maybe in 2012, as a generalization, we, the public, are less likely to kick up a fuss about this and they can get away with their ridiculous portrayal of this woman as some kind of victim. We're more desensitized a decade on.

It's all a bit sickening really.

The world's a worse place for having someone like Angela Carnegie in it. I wish she would return now to the obscurity that she was languishing in for the previous decade.

...I suggest Thai Visa and its writers purchase copies of the AP Style Guide. Do not presume that the use of journalese and sensational headlines makes your articles de facto news.

You got everything right in your post except the above part. ThaiVisa did not write the article reproduced in the OP. That story, including the headline, was copied from the publication cited at the bottom of the OP.

Yeah, the Daily Fail.

Ostensibly not known for their:

- Sensationalist headlines.

- Weekly - everything you touch and eat gives you cancer now WAIT! nothing gives you cancer now - features.

- Daily - don't go outside everyone will kill you WAIT! everything in your home can kill you, just stay in the hallway to survive - features.

- (Most aptly) Deification the 0 size model and promote this as the only way to look at the expense and ridicule of plus size people!

It's extremely fitting that this toilet paper publication should carry a story actively seeking to promote, glorify and popularize a convicted drug smuggler, who didn't even complete their sentence. I would imagine they'd have had to have paid Ms. Carnegie for the use of her image and story, not to mention the fact that they promote both the Nat Geo TV show AND other sources of media throughout the article.

Why is it that today's society seeks to slap people like this on the back? "Sure the heroin you were smuggling would have lead to pregnant mothers infecting themselves and their babies with the HIV virus through use of infected needles, not to mention also passing on the physical addiction, but hey you stayed the same weight in a Thai prison for 9 years!"

"Don't worry your pretty chubby head over all the pimps that will literally force-feed their prostitutes heroin on a daily basis to keep them subservient and amenable to being a sex-slave." "It's cool about all the people that through sheer lack of knowledge and foolish experimentation will kill themselves through overdosing (which is extremely easy to do with heroin.)"

"You're a star. You did something depraved, evil and even now are still trying to cover it up with lies about how the end of a relationship forced you to become a narcotics mule and not the 50 grand!! Let's not mention the fact you're openly lying about your nutritional intake over 9 years. It'll sell a few papers for us and that's why we'll turn a blind eye to what you did and your web of lies and even try and paint you as the victim in this whole tear-jerking episode."

On a side note, the "Bangkok Hilton" or Bang Kwang is a men only prison, as far as I am aware. It's highly likely she was in Samut Prakan Central Women's prison, but I can't find any proof to back this up. This idiot even uses the term Bangkok Hilton in her own Twitter feed. The self-delusion never ends.

So apart from not getting the prison right, the location, reinforcing her self-delusion that she was force-fed and starved at the same time (how is that possible?) It's also trying to make thousands of pounds through advertising on its website off the back of presenting this woman as some "hard done by" victim.

Such a lovely publication.

This woman is pure, unadulterated scum.

If she was from Nigeria, she'd still be in Samut Prakan (?), for life. That's where she should be right now, with a possible chance of early parole, after having served at least half of the sentence handed down - something like 45 years.

An oxygen thief sums her up pretty well, or should that be a fat oxygen thief?

Perfectly said.

Shapely Smack Shifter

Dumpy Drugs Deliverer

Hippo-like H Hawker

Chubby Chiba Chaperone (my personal favourite!)