monkeycountry

Ha Ha the family connection raises it's head again.

What a pathetic and irrelevant comment. I recommend he takes up the hotel offer - can you not understand simple English??

I don't think you would get it for 2000 baht these days - fresh off the plane. How long ago were you quoted this price?

This is the 'official' rate of the Taxi-Meter company, quoted 2 days ago. But it would only apply for pre-bookings. If you go to their airport office at a busy time then the rate will certainly be increased.

Simon

I did not notice you put "official" in brackets, which I appreciate, but I wish we could also use another name for the "Taxi-Meter company" - as that name almost makes it sound like a legal operation. Thanks

Thanks for the replies. I will consider them.

We are not planning on traveling until February 2014.

AirAsia in February, Udon-Phuket-Udon, if I book now, comes to 6,235 THB for Two R/T's.

There is a direct flight from Udon to Phuket. My wife & I live in Udon.

Living upcountry is good, but it has it's drawbacks, one of them happens to be traveling. It's difficult finds decent connecting times from one domestic flight to another.

Plus, I really don't want to spend all day traveling, IE: checking in for one flight out of Udon, then collecting my baggage in Bkk., checking it in for a second flight out of Bkk., then collecting my baggage again in Krabi, etc. Not to mention all the "dead time" waiting around airports.

My wife and I travel so infrequently these days, that when we do travel, we want a carefree holiday, and the journey to our destination, to contain the least bit of hassle.

I don't think "carefree holiday" and "Phuket taxi" go well together, but I wish you and your wife good luck

In case anyone is interested, I got the news about the new regulation reg. not being able to extend visa beyond the expiry date of your current passport just 3 days after applying for a 1 year visa extension. Unfortunately my local visa office had not heard of this regulation, so they insisted that they would just transfer the stamps as usual when my passport expired. Since I insisted the rules had changed, they did call their headoffice to check, but received the same answer - "no change, do as usual".

Anyway, since it takes a month from applying to actually getting the extension stamp, I decided to renew my passport in the meantime (it expires at the end of November 2013), hoping that I could then get the stamps in the new passport - for a full year.

When I came back to immigration with the new passport to receive my 1 year extension stamp, they had finally heard of the new regulation, and insisted the extension stamp etc. should be stamped in my old cancelled passport, and that I would then have to apply for a new visa extension again in November, when my cancelled passport and thereby visa extension expires.

What a good idea separate taxies for women, men, and katoys, and how about another one for foreigner's only.

No thanks, they already have that in Phuket, and they charge around 3 times more than Bkk

Can we assume the drivers of these female only taxis will be those with the fewest rape/violence charges/convictions?

"In his reply, Adul said he was already aware of the issue as the prime minister had instructed him to root out corruption."

The end! - literally

Jokes aside, imagine if there was a ministry for obsolete officials. Alot, if not most, government officials only have their job because of their family name or because someone owed them or their family a favour. These officials have no idea what they are doing, they are often corrupt, and more often than not they do more harm than good in their effort to extort money or prove to their superiors that they are not completely useless.

If all these officials, and future officials were all employed in the Ministry for Obsolete Officials (name could be changed to make it sound more appealing) and were specifically tasked with doing absolutely nothing, then they would not run around causing trouble for people with real jobs.

Yes, it may sound strange to waste money by hiring alot of people to do nothing, but it is actually better than hiring alot of people to do damage. If they had no responsibilities and no power at all, it would also prevent them from extorting money from everyone through abuse of power. They would simply go to work in the morning, watch tv or take care of private matters all day, go home and at the end of the month collect their pay. Promotions could be given to those who manage to interrupt the lives of the general public the least.

Considering that simply not hiring all of the above mentioned officials is not a realistic option in todays Thailand, I thing the Ministry of Obsolete Officials would be a great alternative, and a win/win for everyone! - and no, I am not joking.

It does not really matter what they call the authority in charge of water management, as long as they keep putting idiots with zero skills or expertise like Mr. Plodprasop in charge, which I have no doubt they will :-)

Why were the soldiers retreating?

The peaceful protest got too peaceful?

Since when did Iranians become "farang"? He may have moved to Germany, but he is still Iranian imo

KTB has 3.7% for 37 months, 3.3% for 14 months. Other banks something similar.

Withholding tax is 15% deducted by the bank. Depending on your tax situation, you can get the 15% back when filing a tax return to the rev. dept. The following year.

The government guarantees deposits up to a million I think (don't recall exact amount), so it makes sense to open several accounts.

You can negotiate interest when borrowing money, but have never heard of it when lending the bank money, so can't answer that one.

Btw, I believe there are already several threads on TV covering this matter, so you could check them

"Mr Danaichet accepted the assault charges by police, and is now out on bail."

And this will be the end of it - case closed!

Can't they just block a road somewhere in Finland, and make the Finnish government pay?

"and push water in rivers out to sea as much as possible."

I assume the infamous "water pushing machines" are back then :-D

The opinion of one person. It is rather badly headlined as "Thai Opinion". The Thai people as a whole can have their say at the next election. Simple. That is how democracy works.

The last bunch actually spent 1.4 trillion on giving people 1000 baht notes in their hands and there was hardly a quibble from all those moaning now. And yet the people voted them out clearly not trusting them to run the country in a way that actually helped the majority. The current opposition after being unceremoniously booted out in this way should learn the lesson and adapt and try to get elected instead of spending all their time throwing tantrums, chairs, insulting the rural poor and locking everything up in a myriad of court cases to prevent any policy being implemented. Thailand needs a viable electable alternative to the current government. Right now they lack one. The history of the initial rise of Thaksin shows it is possible to appeal to the majority and electorally come from virtually nowhere and defeat established parties. It just means finding common ground with the majority. The opposition would be well served by learning form their nemesis and modernising their own archaic regionally hampered party structure although admittedly getting the inbuilt southern executive control to agree to give up their power of controlling the party without consideration for others is going to be hard and beyond a lightweight like Abhisit.

Imagine Yingluck asks everyone in Isaan and elsewhere if she should borrow 10,000 baht on behalf of each one of them and give the cash straight to them. Unlike them she actually has the power to get such a loan. The repayment will be done over many years by the government incl. Interest. Do you think they would say yes or no to that? Now imagine if she changed it to 100,000 baht each, what do you think they would say? Now imagine a million baht each, cash in hand today, eventually repaid by the government incl. Interest, what do you think they would say?

can we agree they would all be lining up for the cash? Can we also agree that people who think taking out such a loan is a good idea, should not be making any decisions at all?

You may be unaware of this but debt financing projects is common practice although the economically amateurish handing out of 1000 baht notes to all and sundry by the previous regime was lacking in any form of fiscal or economic discipline so we should draw a line at that. Also the main concerns of international economists that have been written about in international economic journals etc have been that this necessary expenditure will be delayed because of political or court action and the Thai economy will then weaken. Of course this latter possibility is still there, and could as with the delaying of the flood prevention plans by court action result in more misery for the people. Local, regional and international financiers and economists in general welcome this plan by the elected Yingluck administration although from reading the vitriolic rantings of the local media especially you would be unaware of this fact. Still it is advisable to read widely and not just believe what is written in local propaganda apparatus.

I guess you decided not to answer my question, but whatever.

I was not aware the previous government handed out 1.4 trillion in 1000 baht notes to the entire population. Do you have a link to that information?

Further, do you have a link to those international economic journals that claim that a giant loan to high speed trains in Thailand is a good idea? I wonder how they can have an opinion, one way or another, about a project without first seeing even a basic budget?

Oh, and do not forget, when local and regional bank managers and financiers support the idea, it could have something to do with the fact that their banks are going to make enormous profits from the loans, at minimum risk. The same goes for construction company managers and supporting industries. In general, for the business community, and the stock market, the loans are a great idea.

Yes, debt financing is quite common, but usually for financially viable projects that benefit the general population. Debt financing, or any financing for that matter, for a large scale project such as high speed trains, that the vast majority of the population cannot afford to use, and that will be running at a major loss forever, is definitely not common - at least not in countries with low corruption.

In western europe and Japan almost everyone can afford the high speed trains, and in China the trains generally connect cities with tens of millions of people, so while there is a lot of poor people, there is still enough middle class and rich people to fill the trains. In Thailand the trains will connect Bangkok with some small towns of a few hundred thousand mainly poor people. Hell, they cannot even fill the low cost planes to those towns - and they are a lot cheaper to run than a high speed train.

Last but not least,you mention that handing out cash to the population should not be allowed. I agree with you, but at the same time if I had to choose between the two evils, I am quite sure handing out cash for people to spend would be more beneficial to both the general population as well as the GDP, than a high speed train that will be running either empty or at a huge loss - most likely both!

Some people say one has to be invisible. Again, depends on who you ask. I suggest putting it to a test. One night, dress nice, go into a bar, sit in a corner and behave really nice, have a few drinks, perhaps with a girl, and go home. The next night, wear a bathrobe, go into the same bar a bit drunk, behave like a monkey (not obnoxious) and make sure you ring the bell and throw around 100s plenty of times.

The next morning, try to recall both nights, and see which one you felt more perfect :-D

If still in doubt, go back to the bar and ask all the girls and the boss which night they liked you the most :-D

Perfect for whom? When going to bars, the more cash you throw around you, the more perfect you are. If in doubt you can always ask the girls if they would rather see your visa, check your nicely pressed long pants, check your hairstyle, hear you speak thai or have you ring the bell :-)

The opinion of one person. It is rather badly headlined as "Thai Opinion". The Thai people as a whole can have their say at the next election. Simple. That is how democracy works.

The last bunch actually spent 1.4 trillion on giving people 1000 baht notes in their hands and there was hardly a quibble from all those moaning now. And yet the people voted them out clearly not trusting them to run the country in a way that actually helped the majority. The current opposition after being unceremoniously booted out in this way should learn the lesson and adapt and try to get elected instead of spending all their time throwing tantrums, chairs, insulting the rural poor and locking everything up in a myriad of court cases to prevent any policy being implemented. Thailand needs a viable electable alternative to the current government. Right now they lack one. The history of the initial rise of Thaksin shows it is possible to appeal to the majority and electorally come from virtually nowhere and defeat established parties. It just means finding common ground with the majority. The opposition would be well served by learning form their nemesis and modernising their own archaic regionally hampered party structure although admittedly getting the inbuilt southern executive control to agree to give up their power of controlling the party without consideration for others is going to be hard and beyond a lightweight like Abhisit.

Imagine Yingluck asks everyone in Isaan and elsewhere if she should borrow 10,000 baht on behalf of each one of them and give the cash straight to them. Unlike them she actually has the power to get such a loan. The repayment will be done over many years by the government incl. Interest. Do you think they would say yes or no to that? Now imagine if she changed it to 100,000 baht each, what do you think they would say? Now imagine a million baht each, cash in hand today, eventually repaid by the government incl. Interest, what do you think they would say?

can we agree they would all be lining up for the cash? Can we also agree that people who think taking out such a loan is a good idea, should not be making any decisions at all?

Thought I read somewhere that the Govt had held meetings with local banks to explane to them why they should invest in the 2.2 trillion loan.

If this is true then they are looking to borrow the money from the Thai people, as they have done with the 350 billion, probably because they know no overseas investor would lend at a reasonable rate.

I don't recall the source, and cannot be sure it is accurate, but it quoted the government as saying that 60% of the borrowing would be domestic and 40% would be from overseas sources. This, of course, does not mean that the funds can be found. That the government talked to Thai bankers does not preclude also talking to foreign sources, and it does not necessarily mean that the Thai bankers will take the risk. This brings up the question of the rewards that the bankers can expect for taking the risk, and whether or not those "rewards" will be induced by coercion. . In a form of government that has elected representatives, the solution is to vote out the government and replace it with a government that has no intention of borrowing 2 trillion baht, but of course that has to be done before any commitments are made. .

Much of it will be from government controlled banks such as KTB, so yes, they will definately take the "risk", since the borrower and the lender is the same. So will private banks, both foreign and domestic, since the country guarantees the payment. The only issue is the interest rate.

It is (almost) always easy for governments to throw away money from their taxpayers in order to be able to say, .."we did something".

Both the article and a number of comments seem to assume that the government will be able to raise the 2 trillion baht, which may or may not happen. If I recall correctly, a significant portion of the debt will have to come from lenders overseas, and with the Thai economy plunging as a result of other faulty government actions, will external lenders be willing to assume high risks? After all, debt is debt, regardless of whether it comes from building condos with inadequate collateral or repairing/creating infrastructure. Government projects and policies rarely, if ever, tell us the forecast impacts on all of the people. Fir example, how much inflation will the additional debt cause...i.e., how much higher will the prices of food and other products go? When prices increase because4 of higher taxes to repay the debt, how many people will lose their jobs? How many people will not get hired because of higher costs of production? Will these shortcomings be outweighed by the jobs created to do the projects? These points are aside from the questions about whether use of the high speed rail will justify the investment and debt incurred. Incumbent governments are rarely around when their projects go wrong. But all projects use scarce resources, and have impacts far beyond the objectives stated, The Thai people must start asking not merely what the benefits of such a project might be, but who will be harmed and to what extent.

Unfortunately there is always someone overseas who is willing to lend money to almost any country, as long as the interest is high enough. And since it seems the PTP governments main goal is to skim the mandatory 30%+ from the loan, they are probably not too worried about the interest rate.

I suggest the PTP make a flyer to distribute to all Thais, in which they make it very clear that they intend to borrow appx. 35,000 baht on behalf of every Thai (from infant to old) and that unlike many loans, all Thais will eventually have to pay back this loan, with interest, one way or another!

Many good points in this article. I cant but help think, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody wants to hear it, does it make a sound.

Thailand is going to be a great place in the future for people who dont like change.

True it will be a great place for people who love to take train rides with a 50/50 chance at arriving at their destination. It will be a great place for people who want 30% of all their tax baht to go into the private pockets of politicians and bureaucrats. It will be a great place for people who want to see schools graduating people who are unable to reason or use logic much less add two plus two with out a calculator. These are the results that will come about if this bill is passed with out an intelligent plan that they must adhere to before they pass it.

As for the sex and drug trade they will change become more available. I don't think there will be much of an uproar over that.

Actually Thailand is a great place for all of the above with or without the loan bill / high speed trains

Just to be clear, no private investor on earth is going to be interested in an infrastructure fund for high speed trains in Thailand for the simple reason that the trains will be running at a big loss from day one. This of course unless the government is willing to bear the loss by guaranteeing the investors a minimum return on investment for a very long time.

Don't forget, unlike most citizens of Thailand, investors are capable of reading and understanding budgets (I believe no budget exists for the operation of the high speed trains), and they do not care at all if some Thai minister(s) are running around yelling what a great idea it is to invest in such a fund.

Very sad indictment by a local businman with family connection. Taxi mafia break legs ...

My words are perhaps metaphorical (spelling), But like me, you also live in Phuket and must be aware of the potential for personal harm if you try to go 'against the flow'. I run my small, family businesses and prefer a peaceful life. If anyone wants to try to fight the system, then let the Thais do it - it's their country

Why would the Thai's "fight the system" - they are all in on it. :)

I agree, all the taxi drivers and a few politicians are in on it, pretty much everyone else, both locals and farangs despise them. If in doubt, try asking some of the locals Thais - but preferrably someone outside your family :-)

Trying to convince anyone that your family member's "meter taxi" business is better transport option

What on earth are you talking about? Read my post again - carefully. 2 family members are drivers for the Taxi-Meter service at the airport, not a family taxi business. That taxi-meter service does not usually use the meter(!), but does publish a rate from the airport to various destinations. The rate to Patong is 800 baht, not 1100 baht.

If you arrive at the airport at any time of the day or night, and there are few taxi-meter vehicles available, then that taxi-meter office will 'up the rate' (supply and demand). Hence, it makes far more sense to prebook one of the taxi-meter vehicles to meet you outside the arrivals hall. By prebooking, you ensure that you get a licenced taxi who charges the published rate, and not some higher rate as previously mentioned in this thread.

As to whether 800 baht is a fair rate for travel to Patong, that's an entirely different subject. I don't agree at all that it's a fair rate, but that is the rate that these drivers have to charge because they work for the taxi-meter company and cannot offer lower rates than published by that company.

Likewise, if one of my hotel guests needs to take a private transfer from our hotel to Patong, then we also have to charge the same rate of 800 baht. I cannot undercut the taxi-meter companies because I enjoy my legs very much as they are right now, and prefer them not to be broken

Simon

So in short, you agree that the taxi mafia is in fact a bunch of criminals who will break peoples legs if opposed, yet you suggest people support this mafia, but using their service???

Remember, none of these drivers have to do what they do, they can work elsewhere. They choose the job they have precisely because they can get away with cheating everyone and thereby make good money.

Not once have I heard a single one of them argue at their association meetings that they should all lower the prices - have you?

Good to see your family members are "only" charging 800 baht to Patong

Yes, because that is the Taxi-Meter published rate from Phuket airport to Patong, which is charged by all taxi-meters and not just my family members who work for that company.

What is not a published rate is charging a higher fee after dark - it is still 800 baht.

Simon, if all the gasoline companies agreed on 200 baht/liter tomorrow, and advertised that rate everywhere, and beat up anyone who dared compete with them, or oppose them. Would you hen consider that ok/legal?