FairwayJack

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.

There are 2765 members

Guide to business in Thailand :

1.Make a set of rules.

2.Market to people.

3.Charge a one-time fee.

4.Revoke priviledges.

5.Blame the customer.

6.Repeat.

So true...If the Elite card is gutted then the sovereign country of Thailand is perpetrating a 3 billion baht scam on the 3,000 innocent citizens of other nations. I was pitched this program by the Thai Consulate in HK with the clear intention and knowledge that I was buying the card for purpose of living in Thailand. I bought in based on this promise... that my immediate family (me, wife and children) could live in Thailand. I was assured that I could not be cheated as this was a Thai govt program...not a private company. Within 3 months of them getting my 1MM baht, they took away my wife and children's visas. Now they are gutting the rest of the program. This is completely unbelievable. I am not wealthy. It took us a long time to save the membership fee cost. Now the government tells me simply we changed our minds ??? Disgraceful, shameful if it comes to be. I am waiting to hear what happens.

Ah this becomes clearer;

divorce with billion baht school at stake.

Alegedly the wife has a new, younger, nut case, boyfriend

and he has violent aides de camp with weapons at hand.

Ex husband drops a dime on them and their stash of weapons.

BEFORE they come and blast him away to get the school for her alone.

If he is out of the picture then she likely would drop her own dime on boyfriend

and take credit as good citizen cleaning up a violent gang yada yada yada.

Now I wonder who dumped who:

The woman Scorned, left for a newer model..

Or was wifey the loose cannon all along,

as might be hinted at by the NEW boyfriend and his crew.

sad pathetic and so NOT unusual for here...

Ha !! You should be a screenwriter in Hollywood...LOL

i never heard of that school. maybe its just there for money laundering. a station for drugs coming in through Burma and then being sold onto bangkok. What better guise than a school?

It's a pretty big deal out here in Rangsit. Costs about 260K baht a year to attend. I've heard disparaging things about its academic standards but I don't know that to be true. I don't think it is a cover for money laundering though. Quite sure of that...but not positive. Afterall....TIT

[quote But by the way .. I never heard of men biting off tits .. or even .. "organs" .. does it mean they are not as agressive as females or just not as hungry?

Marv Albert, a famous sportscaster for the NBA was arrested for biting a prostitute whilst HE was wearing a woman's negligee.

Felonious Fellatio....book 'em Dano

PS: Airfare was way cheap on China Air too at $700 RT

Hey Penkoprod....$700 RT is a great price...did you fly to the East Coast? My travel agent just quoted me 45K baht for RT to East Coast via EVA. Can you PM me your travel agent's contact details ?? I need 3 tickets. Thx.

Statistically, Thailand may not be as dangerous as other places in the world but its reputation is what counts. Perception is everything. I.E...the very lame movie called Bangkok Dangerous, world-wide coverage of local crimes against tourists, rioting in the streets....it is all adding up to give Thailand the status of a no-go area for tourists and business investors. Sad because this is still a great place to live.

Congrats and good luck John and Roong....remember to buy those little baby mittens.

before anyone jumps up and down and shouts ,i love it in Thailand and always have.our neighbours are terrific and i have a good familly who never want anything(except her young brother,lazy sod),but its those in charge ,who always seem to want our money ,but give us nothing in return .things like double pricing,150 baht charge to take your money out of an a.t.m. draconian visa regulations ,not being able to own land ,ect what is it? they keep coming out with guff about making Thailand the perfect destination but to my mind its just b-llocks.

what do you lot think?

What is this 150 baht for the ATM ??....Pls explain

Update:

Songkran road accidents' death toll rises to 272 after five days

A total of 272 people were killed in road accidents from April 10 to Tuesday, the Road Accident Centre announced Wedeneday.

Chaliew Yusimarak, a member of the Road Accident Committee, said 3,375 other people were injured during the period.

On Tuesday alone, 638 accidents occurred, killing 52 people and injuring 717 others.

-- The Nation 2009-04-15

Aha i read there are 13500 deaths a year in Thailand on motorbikes alone which is 36 a day already so maybe only 100 or so are due to Songkran, still apalling though.

In Korea the women have a saying, "If you want get rid of your husband...buy him a motorcycle." Sad but true.

I worry that a person with this kind of judgement is a teacher.

My feelings exactly.

Golf, tennis and the jim...beg your pardon...I mean the gym.

I do not understand the mentality of an owner of this breed. I guess they want to intimidate their neighbors. It is sort of poetic justice that the owners were on the receiving end of their misguided intentions. Having said that, I feel sorry for the woman and esp the injured child. Probably it was her husband who brought the dogs home and it fell to the wife to feed and "release" them at night. No winners here...even the neighborhood is in fear of the one dog that got away. Hope he is killed before he attacks again.

If this keeps up, my friends and relatives back home might start feeling sorry for me.

If the cousin wasn't paying rent, it seems that a peek at the peaks would be fair.

a peek at the peaks ?? Why didn't he just look at the photos. I'm sure he must have a few. If not, I can sell him some.

I had a Thai g.f. who left an alcoholic Brit to be with me. Glad she did, not just for me, but for her well-being also.

It's been said earlier in this thread, but I'll say it again; alcoholism is no excuse for acting like a total screw-up.

It's also not a disease, but that's a different, and more contentious assertion - especially among alchies reading this post. TB and Malaria and pneumonia and SARS are diseases, as they can be transmitted from one organism to another. Alcoholism is predicated on a person picking up a cup or a bottle of yeast poop and pouring it down their gullet. As far as I know, there are not being force fed. It's an addiction, sure, but not a disease in the strict sense of the word. Calling it a disease is a cop-out used for excuses, and designed to gain sympathy from others - for the harm alchies cause. Alchies also drive up insurance rates for all of us, and..... .....oh don't get me started. The list of harmful effects alcoholics cause is a long one.

Why not just drink vinegar or formaldehyde, guys? It's just one and two steps (respectively) further along the putrification scale - and may pickle your liver better than alcohol.

I agree. Intoxication etymologically means literally putting something toxic into your body. It doesn't bite you. It doesn't drift on the wind and it doesn't evolve from within. You pick it up and put it in yourself.

I seem to remember Nick Leeson said some dirty words to a Singaporean girl in a bar and was send to a cell...don't remember for how long. He was then jailed for several years until he got cancer for unregulated forex trading and setting up a secret error account keeping the losses off the book.

He was jailed for several years for talking dirty in a bar.

Then he got cancer for unregulated forex trading.

Glad I don't live in Singapore.

Nick Leeson was jailed for fraud and forgery in connection with collapse of Barings bank. He served 6 and the half years and was released after being diagnosed for colon cancer. Prior to that he was fined for talking dirty and exposing himself when he dropped his pants in public

Leeson survived the cancer and is now managing an Irish football club which presumably is an expression of their gratitude for bringing down the Queen's bank

Condos in Pattaya just seem overpriced and overbuilt here. I often find that the apartments here are much cheaper when I compare the amenities. So, what's the deal? People just prefer to live in big tall buildings?

Foreigner can own a condo in their own name, can be registered in their name. Houses not. To using a company for owning a house is illegal, to put it in gf's or wifes name, is lost. Therefore the only solution is buy a condo within the 49% Quota. There the same thing again. Condos from the 51% Quota are nothing worth, because the law says: Only 49% can be own by foreigners. So condos from the 51% (not registered in foreign names, noone would buy again).

About 2 months ago, I heard thru a local Thai lady that our mutual friend from HK lost 50K USD on a Pattaya condo. The 50K was his deposit and he bought off plan. The project was financed by Lehman Bros and when they went belly up so did the project. Can anyone else confirm if this really happened ??

Who`s ever heard of an Irishman called, Romeo?

I was just thinking that his name might have been the reason he is a loser. I mean what kid could survive a schoolyard mentally unscathed with a name like Romeo? We should lock up his mom and dad.

When I first moved to Thailand I read a tragic article in the Nation about this type of dog attacking a 9 yr old girl and serverely disfiguring her. Rott's do not make good pets. There is no place for this kind of dog in a community....a prison camp maybe...you will become the pariah of your neighborhood.

IMHO the priest was a hero. Does anyone know his name ?? I'd much rather know the priest's name than this whatzhisname tattoo'd loser. He probably spent more cash on his tats than he'll ever spend on milk powder for the child.

This time she asked to see my onward ticket. I said I had an open e-ticket with Air Canada, but she said that was not good enough. She said, "Because the visa is free, we are now requiring a real ticket with a confirmed date." I offerred to pay the SGD$50 fee, but she said no, they can't do that.

We had a visitor denied a visa on arrival at Suvanabumi a couple of weeks ago because of the same 'issue'. He had an onward ticket, but the date wasn't soon enough to satisfy immigration. They told him to change it or go home (welcome to Thailand!). Fortunately, when he went to the Thai Airway counter and explained the situation, they printed off a bullshit ticket for him with an acceptable date to show immigration!

So finally he got his visa, but it took an extra hour or two and caused him considerable stress. It's a shame that the government's efforts to boost tourism are being undermined by immigration.

The last thing you said was RIGHT ON TARGET! "........government's efforts to boost tourism are being undermined by immigration."

I would add that immigration is also undermining foreign investment whether they understand the connection or not. They create a system of extreme uncertainty...........the last thing investors look for when they are trying to decide where to place their money.

It is odd that government political parties change, but immigration does not........it is like they are separate and above government and do what they want to do.

I have lived all over and have never experienced a system that is so screwed up and xenophobic..........too bad.......time for a major change........wish the flag waving and clappers that invariably follow such comments would stop.

Time to wake up............time for change.

Totally agree...it is the Immigration Dept that is mucking things up. It is a classic power play / turf war. They gutted the Thai Elite program when someone in Immigration arbitrarily cancelled the "family visa". What was their motivation to prevent a Thai Elite member's spouse and children from living together in Thailand as promised in their original sales pitch? It costs the Thai government nothing and presumedly the type of people are desirable to have living here in Thailand.

Our young children go to a bi-lingual school for 30K baht per yr each. They get picked up and bought home, fed twice and are taught by a teaching staff that includes British and Philippine personnel (along with Thai of course). The teaching material covers all the basic subjects. We are quite happy. However, to ensure proficiency in the key subjects of math and English, we enroll them in a Kumon program at our local mall. They attend twice a week and receive daily homework assignments. I'm doing the best I can. I cannot afford the exhorbitant fees of an international school.

I stumbled upon this forum and would like to post a pic of a green snake I saw 2 years ago in a tree next to our car park. Anyone know if this snake is dangerous ??...certainly to birds he is. Thx.

Green Vine Snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) - it's bite can be lethal to humans under 10cm tall, otherwise it's venom can produce severe local swelling that subsides in a few days. Get treatment though as they tend to leave teeth behind in the wound.

Thx....Noted the danger this snake poses....BTW...I don't know any people under 10cm