monkeycountry

because the suspect had complained to police that the Attorney-General's Office should interview four more eye-witnesses to ensure fairness.

How the hell does this country function?

It doesn't.

However, I did notice that sentence too. Interesting that the defendant in a case can decide which witnesses the prosecution should interview

Why make pledges that are very obviously impossible to fulfil?

If all your colleagues tell the boss (and voters) they can fix a given problem completely in 3 months, and you then tell the boss (and voters) that you can reduce a problem by 15% in 3 years, then you are going to look incompetent!

DSI: we have opened an office in Phuket so we can catch you if you continue your scams!

Taxi mafia: We don't care!

DSI: Ok, if you have not stopped by next Friday, we will arrest those of you who continue!

Taxi mafia: We don't care!
DSI: ok, we have evidence against you. You have one month to comply!

Taxi mafia: We don't care!
DSI: Ok, we have published a list with your names on it!
Taxi mafia: We don't care!
DSI: Ok, we are going to deal with you in 45 days

Taxi mafia: We don't care!
DSI: To be continued .....
Taxi mafia: We don't care!

At least they have a specified a target area. Residential areas and business district. Tomorrow they will announce a target group - humans between 14 and 90 :-)

This has been on here before but its a good Phuket vid anyway.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqi07Dc68Lk

One of the youtube comments to the video - notice the date:

"Happened to my wife and myself in Phuket June 2013. Rented a Jet-ski at Patong beach, upon return to shore, the <deleted> operator, just like in this video demanded 30 000 Bath for mysterious damages. He became aggressive and abusive, and threatened to have us jailed, as he is best buddies with the police. These <deleted> are a mafia, and the police is in on it. You will never win. Do not rent any jet-skis in Thailand!!"

Seems to me nothing has been solved, and the Phuket governor's report card saying “Doing much better than before.”, is yet another load of Bullshit

Four stroke jet skis running wide open burn would burn about 6 litres of gas for a half hour. HALF of what this guy says.

If they have two stroke engines then yes probably do burn twice as much fuel....anyone running a serious jet ski business charging the prices these guys charge should have all four stroke engines....much more efficient and less polluting..

170 jet skis in Patong? So much for peace and quiet. Who the hell wants to sit on a beach and listen to that crap noise all day long so a few tourists can get a thrill while destroying any semblance of the concept of simply sitting on a beach and listening to the ocean waves lap up on the shore?? No thanks.

Jet skis were a big problem in maui years ago but after a lot of complaints they were banned along most beaches. What they found is that the vast majority of tourists did NOT want them , didn't want to listen to them, didn't want to have to worry about themselves or their kids getting run down. I suspect that most patong tourists could also do without them just fine.

I am guessing that Maui is a lot less corrupt, have much smarter politicians and care a lot more about their tourists and repeat business than Phuket does

"Gov Maitri said that he would try to apply the jet-ski operator industry solutions to the so-far intractable problems of Phuket’s taxis and tuk-tuks."

Public transport is a necessity, jet-skis are not. Even trying to compare the 2 issues displays the lack of intelligence of Mr. Maitri.

And just exactly what are the "jet-ski operator industry solutions" the governor is talking about? I can't see any mentioning of solutions in the article, besides that the jet-skis are now registered. How is that going to help tourists who are in trouble with the jet-ski scammers and their police friends?

Further, this issue with legal/illegal operators, which also seems to be a major issue for taxis, is only an issue between operators when deciding how to share the cake - it does nothing to help the tourists. Both legal and illegal taxis, tuktuks and jet-skis are scamming the tourists, and when a bunch of taxi drivers or jet-ski guys are about to beat up a tourists it does not help the tourists one little bit whether it is a legal or illegal taxi/jet-ski.

<sub>"The jet-ski owners have also agreed that their business will be a closed shop from now on. The representative of the Kata-Karon owners said, “We have agreed within our club that none of us may increase the number of jet-skis we operate, though anyone has the right to sell and buy ownership of existing licenses, but only among local people.”"

As with the taxis, tuk tuk and others on Phuket, they seem to believe it is within their right to decide who can do business and who cannot on Phuket - which is partly why most people refer to them as mafia and not businessmen. It does not say directly what is going to happen to outsiders wanting a piece of the action, but I think we all know what will happen to me if I decide to bring 5 jetskis to Kata or Karon tomorrow. Anyway, as in my above comment, I support anything that limits the amount of jetskis - even mafia methods.</sub>

If additives are 100 baht per 30 minute trip, then the jetskis should be illegal for that reason alone. That is a lot of pollution to throw into the air/water.

Further, no one seems to mention the main problem with jetskis. They are sailing at full speed in and out between people swimming, and more often that not piloted by amateurs.

And not least, even if the jetski guys are right reg. expenses, which they are not, it does not explain why there is a profit of 700 per 30 minute trip. Multiply that by the amount of trips on an average day, and you will find that they charge 5-10 times more than the rent of a small similarly priced car. Anyway, the more they charge, the less people use them, so keep up the high prices please.

“In half an hour a jet-ski uses 12 to 13 litres of gasoline. If you cost it at B40 per litre, that’s B480 excluding additives. Those cost another B100 or so for half an hour. So that’s B580. Then you have to pay staff wages – that’s about B200-B300 per trip, depending on the location.”

I just checked a top-end jet ski, and it had a 1.5 liter engine -- about the same as an economy car. Unless the nature of how JetSkis work is vastly different from cars that's absurdly bad fuel economy. Can you imagine driving an economy car and sucking up 13 liters of gas in half an hour? Would you keep or drive a car like that? -- not likely. Oh ya, and let's not forget that each half hour of running a JetSki requires an additional 100 worth of "additives". If all this is true, these things should be outlawed because they are likely some of the most environmentally unfriendly contraptions in the world. Anybody who is concerned about the health of the planet should never ride one of these horrible little annoyances.

It's also interesting that these guys get paid so much. This guy talks about wages of 200-300 baht per trip and ties it into the 1/2 hour ride scenario, which could give us the impression that these guys are paying staff about 4000-6000 per 10-hour day. I really doubt that (without the extortion trick of swindling people out of money for false (or exaggerated) repairs).

So, the bottom line for me is that I have new reasons not to rent a JetSki -- terrible for the environment and I'm helping to grossly overpay somebody. Of course, the "facts" presented could also be highly exaggerated or simply lies, which would also prevent me from trusting these guys enough to rent one. Personally, I don't believe the costs this guy is quoting.

Actually that would be 4000-6000 baht salary per jetski. Most places have many jetskis out at any given time, so multiply by the amount of jetskis in the water on average. Of course there is also more than one staff to split the money, but still, there are a lot more jetskis than staff.

Not really sure what is going on, but the inflation rate under Yingluck has been staggering. As inflation always hurts poor people more than rich people, I am hoping that the bitter pill of inflation will not be forgotten by the poor people at the next election....

Not that I am a big fan of the PM, but let's get the facts straight. Inflation (consumer prices) in Thailand 2012 was 3.8%, amongst the lowest in SE-Asia. And better than the UK @ 4.5%!

Here's some other facts, the consumer price index "excludes food and fuel" which are some pretty important items to taxi drivers and anybody.

The inflation in "Vegetables & Fruits" which is a large part of what Thai's eat was 13.1% from Apr 12 to Apr 13. And the increase in "Electricity, Fuel, and Water Supply" was 14.0% from Apr 12 to Apr 13.

See attached from Bank of Thailand statistics area:

CPICapture.JPG

Virtually all taxis drive natural gas which is subsidised by PTT, so the price of that has not increased. PTT on the other hand is taking huge losses due to this subsidy as they are forced to buy the gas at market price, and sell it at a loss to the taxis and others.

One has to wonder why this crime described by the OP has not been reported anywhere, not even in Pattaya One who is really reporting every petty crime where foreigners are involved... so questionable whether true or not.

I am pretty disgusted by the people who generalize kathoey as "low life" or "thing" or otherwise... in my years coming to Thailand, I met many ladyboys who are hardworking, decent, nice, caring people in jobs like reception, sales, beauty and so on. None of them ever was violent or showed any kind of strange psychological behaviour

In my years in Pattaya, I have walked down all the soi mentioned and also others where kathoey are working in bars, i did sit in some of those bars and have drinks with those persons and talked with them. Yes, I was approached and grabbed and yes, they try to pull you inside the bars - it is their job and that's how they try to make money. But a friendly mai krap / no thank you has always been respected and I never got into any trouble with them. And just by the way, the girls in those soi do the same thing.

It is true that in Pattaya, you find kathoey that take too many hormones and drugs and are drunk on top of it... and yes, they do commit crimes like bag / necklage snatching and yes, they can be very agressive if they feel insulted - and "f*** off" is an insult for Thai people as well as showing the middle finger, whether girls or kathoey or men.

I don't say that that such a crime did not or could not occur... but given my own experience and given the fact that thousands of tourists walk down those sois every month, it not only seems a pretty rare thing (if it happened), but also, I do doubt that "f*** off" alone would have caused that reaction, more likely it would have been combined with pushing / punching each other before the escalation.

Thus said, NO blame to the victim (RIP), NO excuse for the crime (if it occured).

comparing the nature of a bar lb to a bar girl makes exactly as little sense as comparing the nature of a man to a woman.

I had written a lenghty reply to another post describing the difference, but it was deleted, and I am to lazy to write it all over again, sorry.

Previously when my Thai girlfriend bought rice, she just pulled the usual brand from one of the piles at Tesco without even looking at it. Now, while she still buys Thai rice, I notice she stands and looks closely, not at the price, but at the rice inside several different transparent bags before she finally picks one.

IN all fairness, they do apparently syncronise online..... but, I see there is a brand plate at the bottom of the clock. If could just make it out, who wants to bet I could find the same thing on eBay for less than half the price?

My phone cost 4,900 baht, and also syncronises the time online, it will continue to do so even during the earlier mentioned 8 hour blackout. Further, I can set it to any timezone in the world. In short, it has all the features of the 75,000 baht clock - and you can use it to call, sms, email etc. as well.

The worst part is that they can usually get away with simply not replying when the opposition demand documentation and answers.

Yes, I stole 15 million, in fact I do that every day, but a lot of people voted for me, so what are you going to do about it? Another no-confidence vote you say? Sure we can do that, but I have around 300 fellow thieves (MPs) who will vote in my favour no matter how much I steal :-)

"After the proposed prices are disclosed, the Commerce Ministry will negotiate with the winning traders."

Can someone please explain how thai bidding works? Where I come from the highest bid wins, and that price is the final price. You do not start renegotiating afterwards.

Perhaps to be fair to everyone, the laws should be amended so a thai married to a foreigner will have to show proof that the money used to pay the land/house was earned by the thai through salary, inheritance or anything else that has nothing to do with the foreign spouse, and not just given as a present by the foreigner. This way foreigners will avoid losing their money to thai spouses, and Thailand will avoid foreigners buying land/houses through their spouses. A win/win for everyone.

I expect that both Ombudsman Siracha and all the thai girls in Isaan and elsewhere will support my suggestion

"Mr Siracha became the centre of a heated debate in March last year when he claimed that foreigners owned 30 per cent of all the land in Thailand."

As with all other official statements, there is zero evidence to back up the claim. Perhaps the government should aks Mr. Siracha to provide some form of proof before wasting everyones time on it?

If asked, Mr. Siracha will of course claim that he cannot prove it, as the foreigners are hiding behind Thais in 49/51 partnerships, or through their wives etc. To counter that, I suggest Mr. Siracha simply include all land owned by companies where there are foreign partners, and all land owned by Thais married to foreigners, then to be on the safe side we can simply assume it is all controlled by foreigners.

It will not be anywhere near 30%, not even 3%, but perhaps somewhere around 0.3%.

Once we have the facts on the table, and it becomes clear to everyone, including the government, that Mr. Siracha is an idiot whose "study" was wrong by a factor of around 100, perhaps Ms. Yingluck can do what she should have done long ago, and fire this moron, or even better put him in jail for providing the government with information he knows to be false!

Do the customers get robbed as part of the experience?

How long before some are asked to leave the country ?

Noone is ever really forced to leave Denmark. Even convicted murderers and rapists who are foreign nationals usually get to stay in Denmark after having served a couple of years in jail.

Do the customers get robbed as part of the experience?

You beat me to it, but at least those LBs going to Denmark will no longer be robbing people in Thailand, so good news. Hopefully they open a whole chain of these bars - far away from Thailand.

TAT to announce Amnesty Bill issues will attract more tourists.

Well, it would not surprise me. Just a couple of days ago, someone from the government claimed that the increase in tourists was due to Yingluck's many overseas trips

What a load! Nice "hail Mary" by the Democratic Party. IMHO it's great they are looking out for the families of the victims they assassinated. They will never be back in power unless the is another one of those thingies the military usually does.

What a boring, meaningless collection of sentences that will probably miss their intended target audience. Perhaps they could find a list of official Governments on the Internet?

You obviously do not like the Democrat party, so why don't you simply bring your evidence that they assassinated anyone, even if just circumstantial, to the DSI? I assume of course that you have more than just hearsay when making such a statement? That would be the end of the Democrat party, and the red half of the country would hail you as their hero!

I think some of you guys mistake PTTGC's promise to pay for damages as a "free for all" cash buffet