Zombienation

The irony of the piece is that most of the Thaksin supporters I know are older farang guys, living in Isaan with Thai wives that they met in a bar.

Most of the Thaksin haters I know are well educated, well to do professional people.

Maybe i am just lucky.

Anyway, lazy journalism from Dan Waites. I guess he just wants to get more attention. Stir up a bit of controversy.

I like this article

Very sad and horrific.

I hope they catch the person responsible. It sounds like a very violent end. Someone very dangerous is on the loose.

RIP.

I use CSLox info via TOT lines and the supplied me with a Billion modem/router.

My experience with it has been appalling as well.

CSLox info is definitely the worst ISP here. Constant line drops, poor speeds and a support which doesn't care. They've lost me as a customer forever. Avoid.

As above.

I have done the journey in a van and bus. It is a fairly torturous route. Some of the turns are ridiculous, it makes you wonder what the planners were on at the time.

A modern car can fairly romp along up the steep inclines, vans and buses struggle. Saw plenty of motorbikes being pushed uphill along the routes. I wouldn't suggest driving yourself there and back unless you are a very experienced driver, not only is it hard going at points, but some of the car drivers take obscene risks, overtaking on blind hairpin bends. There are a lot of accidents....

Hiring a motorbike in Pai can also be tricky if it's busy. You have to turn up real early.

anyone picures of this beauty in a higher resolution..... she is sooo beautiful

That's a she??????

Where's here? Solid sunshine in Bangkok, with light cloud hanging around.

A gentle reminder of what a red shirt leader said before...

Here is a YouTube clip uploaded at the end of January. From around the five minute to the six minute stage, we have one second-tier red shirt leader, Arisman, at a red shirt rally speaking on a stage who states:

พี่น้องนัดกันคราวหน้า ถ้ารู้ว่าเขาจะปราบปราม ไม่ต้องเตรียมอะไรมาก มาด้วยกัน ขวดแก้วคนละใบ มาเติมน้ำมันเอาข้างหน้าบรรจุให้ได้ 75 ซีซีคือหนึ่งลิตร ถ้าเรามาหนึ่งล้านคนในกรุงเทพมหานครมีน้ำมันหนึ่งล้านลิตร รับรองว่ากทมเป็น ทะเลเพลิงอย่างแน่นอน การสู้ของคนเสื้อแดงแบบง่ายๆอย่างนี้ บอกให้ทหารได้รับทราบ บอกให้ทหารสุนัขรับใช้อมาตย์ได้รู้ว่า ถ้าคุณทำร้ายคนเสื้อแดงแม้เลือดหยดแต่หยดเดียว นั่นหมายความว่ากรุงเทพฯ จะเป็นทะเลเพลิงทันที

"Fellow Thais, for the next time [we protest], if you know that we will crackdown, there is no need to prepare a lot. Just bring one bottle each. Then fill it with oil so it is filled to 75cc-1 litre. If there are one million of us in Bangkok, there will be one million litres. I guarantee you that Bangkok will be a sea of fire for sure. The way the red shirts will fight back/respond is simple like this. We need to tell the military, tell the military dogs who are serving the aristocrats so that know that if you injure the red shirts with just one drop of blood then Bangkok will be a sea of fire."

http://us.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-p...on-gandhi-style

Maybe banning petrol is a good move...

Sun, yes...fun, no.

Koh Lanta is package tour heaven...but forget nightlife and, ummm, ladies. It's very beautiful, but it sounds as though some company might help you get over your recent nightmare.

If I were you, I'd hit Phuket...Patong. Trust me...

The weather is very changeable at the moment, so don't rely on forecasts. They are nearly always inaccurate. You'll get some sun, it might rain now and then, but not for too long. I stayed for 2 months in Phuket at this time of year and got very tanned.

Have fun!

Looking at the satellite, Vietnam took the brunt of it. The storm is dissipating rapidly. There'll be another such storm next week too.

Hope those who have lost get helped. Sad for them.

I would also point out that the roads in and around Bangkok aren't great. Such major arterial highways as the Viparadi road have humps, potholes, points where the road has sunk around concrete supports for the toll way (where they've had to shave off the upper layers of the road) and can be quite dangerous on a motorcycle. Sukhumvit soi 3 and 21 have some atrocious points, where there's been metal plates placed down or botched patching, several inches higher than the surrounding road surface. There's been a hel_l of a lot of digging up roads lately, but no resurfacing work afterwards.

Likewise had a problem before with my MacBook Pro. Got it fixed under warranty. Went to the Mac centre in Fortune IT Mall, on Rachadapisek road. 2 days, no charge.

This place only deals in repairs, not retail. Don't remember the exact location, but 2nd or 3rd floor, far right and to the back of the building. Good service, Apple affiliated.

What Mr genius failed to notice is that we aren't in a G8 country. This is a developing country...

When the average wage is (depending on your source) circa 20K Baht a month, it puts this rise into more perspective.

I'd actually take the line that fat cats who abuse their privileges by lording it over the incumbent population should be the first ones to go. Such arrogant, myopic small-mindedness (as abundantly displayed above) should be the foremost criterion precluding an individual residency in this country.

Oooh Breaking news!!!..work permit fees up! What's new?? All gov. fees go up all the time eh?

e.g. Non imm O's, overstay fees, residency permits etc. All have done so in the 2000's by considerable rises.

No surprise and I personally don't care on this one as my Thai boss pays for the WP ....So who is this hurting here ...not the guava eh

Oh and when you actually consider costs ..it still amounts to bugger all of your salary: that is, if you are actually earning a reasonable amount ...if I paid for my own WP and Visa it would amount to way less than 1% of my salary LOL ...ohhh such a big cost eh.

Wow, what a nice person you are.

This may come as a shock to you...hold onto something....but you aren't the only person on this planet.

Ok, breathe slowly, lie down, the palpitations will pass.

Bring on the "I can't believe it - I'm moving to another country" crowd again.

So what if it goes up to 6,000 baht, that's still only around £100.00. Is a £50.00 (3000.00) a year rise for the right to live and work legally in a country really enough to make you leave Thailand? I spend twice that on a good night out - if it bothers you that much then your in the wrong country to start with, get yourselves off to Somalia, it's cheaper than Thailand apparently...

Bring on the "look how much money I've got" crowd.

Oh, here he is! Didn't take long.

If you're spending 12k on a good night out in Thailand you've seriously lost your mind....and are being taken for a ride....

Have you never been to a nice restaurant ? (without bog rolls on the table to wipe your face with) A bottle of decent wine can start at 6K easy.

It's not really very nice to tell someone they have lost their mind or been taken for a ride for eating at decent places !

As some one who does not need to work,I would not want to talk down to people who may find a 3,000b increase excessive,just be thankfull 3,000 is a small amount to you. 12k for a good night out in Thailand,including a ride,"sorry" you're being ripped off.

6k for a bottle of wine,this is more than most Thais earn in a month,better to buy a 20b bottle of water,giving the other 5,800

to a poor Thai family,the next morning you'll feel much better for you're act of kindness

Couldn't agree more. Well said.

Bring on the "I can't believe it - I'm moving to another country" crowd again.

So what if it goes up to 6,000 baht, that's still only around £100.00. Is a £50.00 (3000.00) a year rise for the right to live and work legally in a country really enough to make you leave Thailand? I spend twice that on a good night out - if it bothers you that much then your in the wrong country to start with, get yourselves off to Somalia, it's cheaper than Thailand apparently...

Bring on the "look how much money I've got" crowd.

Oh, here he is! Didn't take long.

If you're spending 12k on a good night out in Thailand you've seriously lost your mind....and are being taken for a ride....

Have you never been to a nice restaurant ? (without bog rolls on the table to wipe your face with) A bottle of decent wine can start at 6K easy.

It's not really very nice to tell someone they have lost their mind or been taken for a ride for eating at decent places !

You really haven't a clue have you.

I regularly eat at places such as Le Banyan, Celadon or Le Normandie. Paying 7,500 for a Nuits St George or 5,500 for a Gevrey Chambertain of moderate quality seems rather naive and/or stupid, especially when you consider how much the prices have been inflated. A nice Merlot, Cotes Du Rhone or Cabernet will usually suffice and cost considerably less. Paying over the odds for a mediocre red, just because, seems like effete snobbery and thus the very definition of stupidity.

It's rather dangerous to make assumptions, as you accusatory reply proves. Dangerous and.......?

Bring on the "I can't believe it - I'm moving to another country" crowd again.

So what if it goes up to 6,000 baht, that's still only around £100.00. Is a £50.00 (3000.00) a year rise for the right to live and work legally in a country really enough to make you leave Thailand? I spend twice that on a good night out - if it bothers you that much then your in the wrong country to start with, get yourselves off to Somalia, it's cheaper than Thailand apparently...

Bring on the "look how much money I've got" crowd.

Oh, here he is! Didn't take long.

If you're spending 12k on a good night out in Thailand you've seriously lost your mind....and are being taken for a ride....

I think for those in nice expat jobs, working for a big company, this means squat. For those in poorer paid professions, such as teaching, it could be a problem.

Regardless, it is a cynical tax raising opportunity by a government whose finances are under strain.

What's happening just lately in Thailand....there's been a list of new laws lately, most of which wont be policed, or an unenforceable. This is another fine example of a ridiculously irrelevant rule.

Give me bridges, zebra crossings, drivers who will stop....and then I'll heed this rule. There's nothing of the sort anywhere near to where I live.

Yeah, the remains of the tropical storm have moved inland, the north should get quite a drenching as it dissipates....just windy and grey here in BKK....

Having seen plenty of fights amongst Thai's at concerts and quite a few gun fights amongst Thai teens in Bangkok, I'd say that whilst you might not get the same pub culture as in the west, violence (some of it extreme) happens regularly.

And I know plenty of obese Thai's...take a wander around any of the Bangkok Uni's....

Just a couple of points.

I understand why foreigners must be reported, due to such luminaries as America's first lady (555) coming over.

Then there's the hideous mess of Pattaya, at the last summit....quite the embarrassing screw up.

Thailand wants/needs to get this right and those pesky terrorists are still about....and it would be easy to stage an attack in this country....

But there are plenty of Thai Muslims and there are quite a few extremists here too...just see the southern provinces...all nationals...who is monitoring them? Arguably the Thai security forces aren't exactly doing a sterling job of that....I'd be more concerned about sympathisers from within, than foreigners from the outside.

Btw, the reporting crackdown is obviously occurring as it isn't regularly enforced....so to those who say it happens all the time, get real, I know it doesn't....

People were clearly wrong, as the Boeing 747 was a freightliner prior to.

The A380 never had that luxury, it was pure CAD, hence all its design & build problems.

BR>Jack

BTW - EADS parent is still under investigation for insider trading - the stock crashed.

People said similar things when Boing launched the Jumbo.

But they are in service now and appear to be doing just fine. A beautifully conceived aircraft imho....and the future of flying.

Agree fully, flown TG many times, but only due to a lack of alternatives....they are always the only carrier with seats available at christmas....

Planes old, still have the US anti-smoking warnings signs in the toilet, so you know they've been around a bit...Staff always look bored and unhappy. Their business class and first class are still stuck in the past, while the rest of the world aims for the 5 star treatment, theirs is decidedly 1 star, by comparison.

So, a crap economy class, with no individual entertainment options, a retarded, archaic ( but profit making) business and first class. Shabby planes, awful staff who really don't want to help and then they have the incredible foresight to charge some of the highest prices. Genius.

They are in huge amounts of debt. The A380 is an attractive profit making plane, more passengers means more money and it is more economical. The decision to cancel might suit todays global market, but it displays a very naive and quite frankly suicidal understanding of business. Long term business will pick up, especially if you have new stylish planes with all the bells and whistles...I for one would've flown TG if they had been using the A380. I wont be using them again.

It (TPC) was doomed to failure before it was even launched.

[...]

Just like all the other pipe dream projects dreamed up by the then 'head waiter' the majority of which were dismal failures.

Failure? Didn't you see the numbers? It was an amazing success, only shutting down now after the unfortunate change of government. Hundreds of millions of Baht have been drained from public coffers to private bank accounts! The fewer actual customers the better - only 1000 members, only 1000 complainants when the scheme finally collapses.

People ridicule the powers in Thailand for being idiots. Once you stop accepting the face saving facade and realize all the schemes have the same goal - enriching the powerful and maintaining power - you realize that the Thai leaders are not idiots, but geniuses. Just don't go too far like Taksin. The airport was an amazing success, the new train line is already a success and has not even opened yet. Name your haha TIT folly and if you ask around you will find people in power who benefited from it being built and others who benefit from having it fail. If you want a project to succeed, it needs to continue raking in the cash after it is completed and you have to make it worth while to the competing concession holders so it doesn't get torpedoed.

I think you nailed it. To us it's a failure, as are many things according to our "alien" perception, but the true elite in Thailand get richer and richer and their grip on power goes from strength to strength.

The rich get richer, the poor stay poor.......... and used and abused. Farangs are simply a source of income, once used, move them onto the next scam. We fall for it everytime....and like the gullible mugs we are, we keep coming back for more...and more.

Horrifying genius.

Once again I'm reminded of the inequality that exists here. Abhisit stayed in the UK for years and years, was educated at the best institutions, enjoyed himself without having to worry about ridiculous ever changing rules. He certainly didn't have to report every 90 days........

Why is it that such people as himself, certainly knowing how things are in developed nations, fail to extend the same courtesy back. Whilst this change isn't an obvious scam or "farang tax" it does mean foreigners wishing to stay will be required to fly out of the country, as opposed to a quick cheap bus journey, causing inconvenience and incurring costs.

Why can't Thailand get its act together and seek to make life easier for those who seek to do business here, spend their money here and contribute to the economic wealth, growth and development of this country?

I'm beginning to feel more and more unwelcome of late....and I pay a shitload of taxes to this country. Certainly more than the vast majority of Thai's.