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Please, Thailand, before it's too late, stop issuing visas or allowing Africans into Thailand until ebola burns itself out. The worst that can happen is that you'll inconvenience some Nigerian credit card scammers and drug runners.

Not to mention South African Tourists, Indian businessmen who live in Africa, Lebanese businessmen who live in Africa and all those business visitors from the African continent who either transit Bangkok or use it as a business hub. Also, not to mention all those wholesale customers of sticky rice and specialised car parts (Thailand exports a huge amount of these items to Africa).

DNA is hard to disprove but not impossible. Assuming that the real perps are not that 1 in 100million who have similar/identical DNA, the presence of a person's DNA at the scene could have other explanations. The most likely of these explanations are that either the DNA was planted by the police or others or that the test was fudged to make it look like the DNA was that of the accused.

My concern is that two fairly tall reasonably well-built Westerners could have been felled by two rather diminutive Burmese. Yes, the Burmese accused may have managed to get in the first strike with the hoe but how they managed to disable both persons and rape one of them without being injured is beyond me.

Change comes, dropping slow, to paraphrase WB Yeats

Stop trying to hire pairs. Hire them as individuals.

It is invariably a good idea to get a Thai person to supervise a Thai person. Your wife or someone you can trust to oversee the Thai workers.

Some recommend to hire women who are past the usual child-bearing age. I don't think that this is meant in a discriminatory way but it stops the unwanted male attention and women in the post menopause are often good workers.

Use the expat network, if it exists in your area. As people die off or move back to Falangland, pick up their staff.

Unless you find a real exception, never hire a man. No matter what age.

I would say that it was suspended because everyone knows that bribery of the police is invariably extortion of the driver in the case of vehicle offences. When an officer stops you for some minor or imagined traffic infringement and offers to make it go away, if the driver pays up who is actually committing the offence?

I think that the Met chief realised that he was going to see a lot of cases going to court where the driver would say that he was extorted.

Also, if the Thai police actually prosecuted each and every case instead of taking a bribe, the bureaucracy would probably collapse under the weight of the paperwork.

Besides, everyone knows that the police do not live on their actual salary and have high expectations of additional income. Depriving them of that would create unrest in the ranks.

"A major crime crackdown was announced and began on Friday and will conclude on 16th October, during which time extra efforts will be made to solve existing crimes and to suppress existing ones."

So no crack down or crime after October 16th..

I can imagine what the crackdown will involve, arrest of the freelancers along beach road and possibly walking street, stopping foreigners on motorbikes who are either not wearing a motorbike helmet or whose pillion passenger is not wearing a motorbike helmet etc while the pickpockets, drug dealers, muggers, rapists get away.

This is a lot more serious than some mere bungling of tax payments. Dealing with the UK tax authority (HMRC) It is like having to play a game with a 10 ton gorilla according to his rules. When you make a mistake, it is your fault. When he makes a mistake, you pay.

The following has happened to one family I know in the UK. They were told by HMRC that they had overpaid and then they received the refund. They then spend the refund (they have young kids - plenty to spend the refund on!) only to be told a year later that it was a mistake and now they have to repay. This has created significant hardship for them and their children.

My best advice is if you have significant tax to pay in the UK, get a tax accountant to do the paperwork for you - it will be worth it as they will no doubt find some deductions that you did not realise and they know when the HMRC get it wrong, thereby saving you again.

The suggestion that it does not appear to have been a coup is strange. How could you tell in such a militarised police state?

can't understand why people do this for people they do not know, probably drug dealers, kiddie fiddlers and murderers, do they get a kick from it? As has been said many more worthy causes including orhpans and HIV refuges. Orphanages are particularly sad places that need help, drug dealers and low lifes???????

About a year ago I had a conversation with a journalist who claimed that about half of the foreigners in Thai prisons were either completely not guilty of the crime they were accused of, were taken advantage of or were set up.

I thought at the time that this was an exaggeration but it was confirmed by a consul - I don't wish to mention which country the consul was attached to as it was said in confidence.

As usual somebody is diverting from the topic which is not about drug mis use but the freedom to practice ones sexuality. So thanks for simple1 for pointing out that about half of islamic states forbids homosexuality, according to him. What about transgenders like Mohamed?

In Iran, they offer sex-change operations for men to make them women. This is to ensure that transgender men do not sleep with other men as that would be against the religion and the law. Once they have been changed to women, then it is fine as long as they marry.

Rumor is: leader Kim, a heavy smoker who has become markedly plump since assuming the role of dictator, is "suffering from gout, along with hyperuricemia, hyperlipidemia, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure." https://news.vice.com/article/former-top-official-says-kim-jong-un-is-no-longer-in-control-of-north-korea?utm_source=vicenewstwitter

Plump = fat, hyperlipidemia (high fat in the blood), obesity (fat), diabetes (if type 2, then often due to metabolic syndrome and related conditions from being obese), high blood pressure (often from bad diet or being obese) and hyperuricemia (to much uric acid leading to gout - oh, they just mentioned that too).

Is it just me but has this report simply repeated everything in technical terms so as to make the guy appear more ill?

Reading this in my early morning pre-coffee bleary-eyed condition, I began to think "what ought I do about my Windows 7 laptop which is only 2 years old?" Then I remembered that I had bought a Mac.

Yes, I have had problems with my Mac - Outlook is missing certain items, as is Excel - but they are MS products and so I am not surprised.

No need to worry about viruses. Never have had a blue screen. Everything works. No conflicts between anti-virus and other items. I am never going back to MS Windows anything.

The first thing they should do is understand what is going on behind begging. Arresting beggars will not work unless they are prepared to arrest beggars for the next 10 years every hour, every day.

The reason is that the majority of beggars are of two types: children who are trafficked, who sell flowers or who beg - most are from SE Asia but are not Thai. They are controlled by traffickers who take the money. Often they keep the kids hungry until they come back with money. One hears stories about them using addictive substances to motivate the kids too. The tourist who would become angry if they were approached by a child selling sex is the same tourist who will buy flowers from the sweet kid whose life is being destroyed by the minders.

The second category are adult beggars, frequently disabled or mothers with children. They are controlled by gangs and placed at strategic spots, especially where tourists go. Each spot is carefully guarded to ensure that no freelance beggar ever encroaches. Many of these beggars are not Thai. Their controllers get the lion's share of the take.

If the police or others detain either group of these beggars, their replacements will probably be in place within a day or two. If there is a crackdown, the controllers will lie low for a while until the crackdown is lifted.

The only solution is to hit the traffickers and controllers hard. Take away their wealth and put them in prison for a long stretch. As soon as a new batch beggars appear, follow the controller trail and imprison that group too. The controllers have to be in control to make the system work - otherwise the beggars would just keep the money. They drop off the beggars and pick them up after the shift.

What the <deleted> is a "straight man lesbian"??

Eddie Izzard (British stand-up comic who wears women's clothing but who is married to a woman). You asked!

I don't agree with the PM's sentiment that appeared to imply that the dead couple were "asking for it." After all, wearing bikinis on a beach is normal.

However, I do think that something is lost here in the reporting. Thais don't go around wearing bikinis off the beach, such as in the street. Like most cultures, they think that such behaviour is tasteless and rude. Without excusing the PM's views, I think that in part he was echoing the Thai cultural norm that just cannot understand why people would walk around the street dressed like that, especially at night.

If you are talking about domestic flights, yes you can show up at the airport in Thailand a couple of hours before the flight takes off and pay in cash. As it is always possible for flights to be full, there is always the chance you will be stranded at the airport. However, if you go to an airport which has several companies serving the airport with several flights per day, you are highly likely to get a seat on one of them as long as you stay away from the very busy times (coming up to Thai New Year etc).

I used to do this flying from Udon Thani to Bangkok (Vientiane to Bangkok was very expensive at the time). Because I was living in Vientiane and it was always hard to predict how long it would take to clear the immigration with my Lao car on both sides of the bridge, I used to leave my house at 8.30am and drive all the way, parking at the airport. At Udon Thani airport I would go around the various windows asking for time of next flight, whether it was on time and how much. Sometimes Thai Airways even dropped their initial offer price! I once bought a ticket for a flight at Udon 40 minutes before it took off.

I have never tried this in the case of international departures from Bangkok. But I have bought international tickets at Surumabumri the day before the flight - but I only did that because Thai Airways only provide the full price ticket on their website - same when you try to buy a ticket where the flight departs from another country.

Thank you Sheryl,

As always a good and sound advice.

My platlet count was 140,000 - 400,000

The only other thing they detected is the Hematocrit being high 50.4%

White blood cells 2890

I'll see tomorrow morning again what they say.

That indicates dehydration. You need to really push the fluids.

The low WBC is par for the course with dengue.

I forgot to mention, be prepared for feeling depressed especially in the recuperation phase, and it may last quite a while. It is one of the effects of dengue.

Hi Sheryl,

This is the continuation of my story.

This morning went back to the hospital, wife took blood again and I got the results 30 minutes later.

The only difference was platlet count was 144,000 instead of 140,000 yesterday.

I was asked to see a different doctor as doctor No1 that saw me yesterday was off.

Now No 2 doctor decided that I don't have Dengue fever but a viral infection.

And she based that on the fact that my platelet count was higher and not lower as expected if I had Dengue.

She prescribed for me to have an intravenous drip with some kind of antibiotic.

And the same procedure has to be repeated twice in the space of 4 days.

But have to admit, wife was very satisfied pocking me with needles I could see that in her eyes.........

Please, tell me should I be worried or just go along with Doctor No2 instructions?

Thank you very much in advance.

lf Doc tells you have a virus infection and gives you antibiotics instead, than go and find a different hospital....He studied at Khaosan University (copied certificate). Antibiotics are against bacteria and complete useless against virus.

144.000 to 140.000.....I don't know how exactly that test is. 3% more might be just a variation in the test.

----> other hospital

or maybe it get good on itself

Sometimes a doctor will prescribe an antibiotic in the case of a viral infection because viral infections are frequently gateways for bacterial infections. Sometimes an antibiotic is prescribed because it takes too long to isolate exactly what is causing the symptoms and they do it just in case the symptoms are caused by bacteria.

Police has no gun in Laos, why would we stop ?

The Traffic Police have no guns in Laos. But the Ministry of Public Security police (sometimes known as Army), the district police and even the local people's militia in the villages are armed. They can track you down, even without computers.

I find it hard to believe that there were only 300 accidents in Vientiane last year. I got the impression that many accidents are not recorded as accidents. If you are on a motorbike and you accidentally drive into the Mekong, that may not be recorded as an accident.

What I don't understand is that if anyone tries to pickpocket someone in London, Paris or New York, they do not get their names in the newspaper or anywhere else, even if they are transgender, even if they are soliciting.

Why does this happen in Thailand? Is it the fact that the perp was caught? After all, many folks have been pickpocketed in Thailand, in Pattaya and by ladyboys and others.

I would like to see the evidence that 'jihadists' have stolen the aircraft, rather than say an entrepreneur, who has help himself to a few hundred million dollars worth of aircraft from a country at war.

"entrepreneur" is that a new name for thief? And do you really think that your suggestion that an "entrepreneur" just mooching about a war zone nicked a couple o' planes to hock spare parts off is more plausible than "jihadists"?

It does not have to be jihadists who steal the aircraft. An "entrepreneur" could sell the aircraft for parts or, if the IS are offering more, sell it to them. The IS are generating money from oil, conservatively said to be over $1million per day. They have the cash.

That said, jihadists are unlikely to get close to the USA, given the level of surveillance of the skys and the registration of aircraft and flightplans. A small private jet might get past but anything like a passenger jet without a proper call-sign and registration? Instead, they are more likely to hit either a NATO or USA installation abroad, such as in Africa where the checks are much less.

If I was in the police I would ask for all Chinese details

Full names, date of birth , how many kids, wife extra

Then phone numbers

Then a curtsy call to their wife's just to let them know that they are taking their husbands complaint about being ripped off when he was promised to watch a group sexy show very seriously so she does not need to worry

Then call his kids

And colleges ha ha

You may be surprised to learn that many cultures are much less repressed than Western cultures when it comes to a bit of harmless erotic fun. Wives do not always complain that husbands on a "boys night out" in Pattaya have gone to see a naked girl show. In fact, many wives will accompany their husbands to such shows.

Most cultures would not take kindly to you or anyone else encouraging a stranger, even a police officer, to phone children who, based on the photos, are most likely underage, to inform them about any sexual aspect of their parents (or any aspect of sex regardless). In fact, you could find yourself in serious legal trouble (possibly in Thailand where they have serious laws against libel/slander and defamation even if the claims made are true).

In this respect, you would appear to be the pervert in this context. All the men did was to go to see something that many of the adult tourists (male and female) see in places like Pattaya. You may not like it and you may not approve. That is fine. There will be plenty of people who will not approve of what you consider completely normal too (eating non-kosher meat, drinking alcohol, not drinking alcohol, cutting your hair, smoking cigarettes etc etc).

Personally, on the very few occasions I have gone to such establishments I found them boring. Some were a bit tasteless, some tried to be a bit artistic but it is not for me. However, I find your assertion that the families and children of these Chinese chaps have to be informed to be far more distasteful than any strip show could ever be..

Shisha, the fastest way to catch herpes in Thailand.

Actually it is not the fastest way to catch oral Herpes (HSV1) but then why would you try so hard to avoid infection with a virus that is carried by up to 95% of the human race. It is not the fastest mode of infection because the surface area of the mouthpiece is not conducive to passing on infections and the nicotine residue from the smoke will help to kill off bacteria and viruses.

Yes, HSV1 will also cause HSV2, the version that appears on the genital area. But that is not caused by smoking Shisha or by getting oral herpes (HSV1) alone. Besides, many of the better places where Shisha is provided will give you your own mouthpiece so that you don't have to share your mouthpiece with others.

It's not his business to be pointing fingers in Thailand. He is holding Thailand to an EU standard which in an idealistic utopian world is fine, but the real world is simplistic. And it's a bit foolhardy during a coup.

Even if we accept your assertion that holding Thailand to an EU standard (re free speech? re child labor? re anything?) is too idealistic/utopian, there is also the question as to whether the food company is scoring an own goal by having him charged with defamation and also suing him.

Remember the "McDonalds Two," aka "McLibel" which concerned the two penniless activists who McDonalds foolishly decided to drag through the courts over a leaflet. The two defended themselves and the whole debacle cost the company millions in legal costs as well as damaged their market image in the UK.

Just because people in Thailand have to accept the inequalities of the socio-legal system where the wealthy get away with crime does not mean that they like it. They also do not like being exploited and are against child exploitation. It is one thing if a child has to work in a low-level family business because of a bad economy - it is entirely another when a large food company allows for gross exploitation of children in its supply chain.

Remember, that much of what these food companies produce is exported to the EU. The EU has rules against ignoring certain practices in the supply chain. Anyway, public opinion will see to it that these food-stuffs will have less success in the EU.

Such companies, if they want to be multi-national and export to the EU and the USA, have to grow up and learn how to play the big-boys' game by the rules. Multinationals with far more complex supply chains than Thai food companies employ auditors who visit factories unannounced to check the conditions of the workers. Where inputs are made in the village, teams are sent out by large companies to ensure that child labor is not being used etc.

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amazing the cheerleading for a dead farange,

and no one suspects she murdered him, but left 200 baht for the police to be miffed?

Rule 1 (for short time hotels)

Never take more cash than you need.

Rule 2

Leave any valuables at home.

Rule 3

If you are 75 or over and have taken some fake Viagra pills, make sure you have left a will . . .