Bangkok Barry

I would have bet everything I have on him not spending even a night in jail. Exactly the same thing happened with an influential crime boss some years ago. Transferred to a VIP suite at a hospital within a day or two and that was the last we heard of him. Got off scot free. It would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic. The sad thing is, many will think he's actually sick.

I'm finished discussing with someone who has no knowledge of what I've done. where I've stayed or what each hotel's policy is. As I said, your experience might be different to mine. If you need to feel that you are right and I'm wrong, that's up to you. I really don't care.

I didn't write 40 years ago. I wrote 40 years of staying in hotels. For about 15 years of that time I stayed in hotels for around 10 months of the year.

I've never used a hotel without using a credit card, directly or via a booking site. If you don't have one, which is surely rare these days, then they'll ask for a cash deposit. I'm staying at a hotel in Bangkok next month, booked on Agoda, and according to Trip Advisor they'll be asking for a deposit of 500 baht, I assume because Agoda don't give my CC details. Your experience may differ, so there's no point in arguing about it. I'm just telling you what I've found in over 40 years of staying in hotels (for most of the year during a period of 15 years at one stage), ranging from 5 star to 2 star properties.

Contractor found on Facebook. Obviously a company with high business standards and one to be trusted. Anyone who can't/won't/is too lazy to set up a professional website gets no business from me.

You wrote that you have never in 15 years in Thailand had an amount blocked on your credit or debit card for ancillary charges which is then cleared/settled on check-out. I wrote that it is common for hotels to do that, and that you would not be aware of their policy because they didn't tell you. Often they don't, which is a bit sneaky. Is it clear now?

I'm about to reach 75, so obviously my days are numbered. But, apart from stiffening up a bit (sadly no longer in the right place) I'm healthy enough. Most of my family lived well into their 80s (the exception is my father who died of cigarettes at 66) so I've probably got a while to go, but I'll have no regrets when the time does come. I've lived a pretty incredible life and have few, if any, regrets. Who could ask for more? I have driven across the Golden Gate Bridge and Tower Bridge, and walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge. I have shopped on Fifth Avenue and the Champs-Elysees. I have flown across America in a private jet with Steffi Graf and taken care of Anna Kournikova in Thailand. I have walked across a frozen river in Finland and seen reindeer walk past my window on Christmas Day. I have flown on Concorde from New York to London, and in a hot air balloon in Albuquerque and Eastbourne. I have stayed at the Hotel California in Santa Monica and visited the salt flats of Death Valley. I have been to the top of New York’s World Trade Center and ascended the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I have strolled the boardwalk at Coney Island and trodden the sand of Cottesloe Beach in Perth. I have grown up in London, and grown older in Bangkok. I have been inside St Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. I have had Christmas Lunch on a boat on the Brisbane River, and spent New Year’s Eve fighting the crush of revellers in Bangkok. I have ridden the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, and the Staten Island Ferry in New York. I have written for the London Times and the Sydney Morning Herald. I have slept in a field in Yorkshire without a tent, and in the Shangri-La in Beijing. I have managed record stores, and managed a band. I have passed Mohammed Ali off Times Square and seen legendary British actor Arthur Lowe queuing for a bus in Shaftesbury Avenue. I have attended a First Night on Broadway and seen Bob Dylan go electric in London. I have sailed across Auckland Harbour and jogged around the harbour in Wellington. I have drunk a Singapore Sling in Raffles and Naked Ale at Young & Jackson’s in Melbourne. I have ridden the train from London to Moscow and driven across the Everglades from Miami to Naples. I have been to Venice in Italy and Venice Beach in California. I have ridden a cable car in San Francisco, and a cable car to the top of Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. I have been a disc jockey around London, and on the Arctic Circle in Finland. I have shopped at the Khalifa Tower in Dubai and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumper. I have explored the streets of Berlin when it was two cities and when it is one. I have strolled the narrow streets of Soho in London and of Shinjuku in Tokyo. I'd quite like to go up in an airship and cross the Atlantic on Queen Mary 2, but I can't complain. I'll fade away with a smile (unless I'm killed in a car accident here).

The only time I tried that was when I had to go to Phuket on business shortly after the tsunami. The person who took the booking seemed so disinterested that I called the hotel again the next day to confirm they had my booking. They didn't. You'd have thought that after the disaster they'd be begging for business, but TIT.

Never had that in Thailand in over 15 years. In my 40+ years of travel I've rarely had anything else. They usually don't tell you what they do, which is why you are unaware of it.

It's what he wrote, suggesting they were 'enforcing' undisclosed traffic rules. The Tik Tok-er though presumably doesn't know what they were stopped for so has no grounds to suggest it was a shakedown. People seem to think they can post whatever they like on social media, with not a shred of proof to back up what they write. Was he right in what he was thinking and writing? Well, we all know the odds for that, don't we. But posting it on-line will never, ever end well. Best he just shut up and accept the culture for what it is.

They speak nonsense as they don't know the rules but would never, ever, admit to that. Common with immigration matters when IO demands whatever. The problem is that they hold all the cards and if they say jump then you jump. It isn't unusual for Thais to keep their maiden name after marriage, as far as I know. The whole world doesn't follow what we do. Another example is that some Indonesians have just one name. But the damage is done and she has changed her name. I assume your wife does has details of the marriage - can she change back to her married name? As for the demand for proof of 10,000 pounds, send them the info that a poster above helpfully supplied showing what the real, rather than imagined, requirements are. On the subject of not being able to print bank statements, that is also nonsense. I check my HSBC account each month, do a screen print (using Windows 11) and save it for if ever I need it.

As I believe happened with a crime boss in Chonburi. He was in jail for one day before.....

And without his wig. After all, if he is in a cell he can choke himself with it.

Seeking guidance on the matter, Pranee recently visited the office of renowned Thai lawyer Ronnarong Kaewphet. Ronnarong said that the nursery had initially violated the law by accepting a three-month-old infant under their care, as regulations did not permit nurseries to look after babies of such a tender age. And was the person in charge of the baby properly trained? Was she trained at all?

Correct. Just pulling out is normal for motorcyclists, isn't it. And doing so at the last minute instead of looking ahead and giving themselves time to check it was safe to do so. Which clearly they didn't. No traffic awareness.

I think you need to revisit the reports of the time. Read a bit, look at the photos.

Just another example of the violence that lurks just beneath the surface in the Land of Smiles.

That isn't how it works in Asia. Just look next door in Myanmar. And Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China and North Korea aren't exactly bastions of democracy.

What a bizarre comment, based on your opinion. Which is, of course, your right to offer. Thrives on censorship? How? Doesn't give a damn on (sic) their users? When they employ thousands around the world trying to limit the damage caused by those who misuse it. The misuse has nothing at all to do with Facebook. Invent anything and people will find a way to corrupt it. It's what people do. People are the problem, not Facebook. Facebook is the messenger which then has to spend huge sums trying to limit the damage that people misuse it for.

For a Minister supposedly in charge of IT things, no matter how temporarily, he is appallingly ignorant about how the digital world works. Everyone knows there are ways around 'blocking' a site, even in China. Everyone except him, that is. What he says about Facebook is true, we all know that. It is full of scams and fake ads, so many with its billions of users around the world that it is impossible to keep tabs on it all. As I wrote in another thread yesterday, all they can do is put a plaster on a gaping wound to try and limit the damage. Worse than scams and fake ads though are the hate messages sent usually via Twitter/X. Why not block that too. Maybe even prioritise it.

People INTERACT on it, not gossip. And I've found it very useful in my business for being able to contact people. I've also been able to use it to contact old friends and to video chat with people I know, including family. The fact that you, clearly, have no idea how to reap the benefits of it doesn't mean that it isn't useful to billions of others. There are reasons so many use it, even if you are unable to see them.

Sounds okay. Why should there be any? I don't remember Queen Liz ever overturning a court decision to jail someone.

And the supervisors of the construction company will, I assume, be jailed for manslaughter (sarcasm). This happens over and over again doesn't it, and no-one really cares. So many Thais simply are too lazy to do a job properly. Near enough is good enough, and sometimes people die due to their indifference. And much of the time there are little to no consequences, except for the victim(s) and their family.

Yet another person too stupid to live. If you can't see or hear a train.... But it's Me First, isn't it. Too busy to wait for a minute or two until the train passes.

ALL social media platforms are out of control and are too huge with tens of millions, sometimes billions, of users to be monitored properly. All the companies can do is put a sticking plaster on a gaping wound and hope not too much damage is done. But, at the end of the day, it's people being people. It's what they do, causing harm or scamming or sending hate messages to total strangers. In their millions around the world. Every day.