Ricardo

why they need 2 or 3 months to reach a decision about a criminal prosecution is beyond me.

Because it was fast-tracked ?

Someone flying on a route which doesn't start/end in the UK ?

There is a big difference between rural England and rural Thailand.

Well, knock me down with a feather, really ?

I never knew that....

I guess one learns something new every day.

I must remember this, next time I'm meeting someone at CNX International, as I would definitely not wish to find myself running the country, by accident !

Ian, that's what I believe is called a 'moo-katar', and I would strongly recommend the one (called 'Sukhonta' ?) with it's entrance next to Hillside Condo on Kad Suan Kaew, drive through the archway and down the soi leading to the car-park & restaurant.

The price is much the same, they seat what looks like a couple of thousand, and have live entertainment. Excellent selection of food, even ice-cream & donuts for the kids, of all ages.

I always take visitors there, so they can see the locals, relaxed & enjoying themselves !

As far as Thailand goes I won't be returning in the near future until the country is more stable and has at least two fully working international airports, one in the south and one in the north.

Erm ... Chiang Mai in the north, and Phuket or Hat Yai in the South, so it's already safe to return again by your criteria, in fact it always was, even during the 1-week problem in Bangkok.

Myself I wouldn't want to risk the UK, with all the goings-on at Stansted, and Heathrow almost closed by the snow, and please don't let me get started about 'Chairman Brown' and political or economic stability ! I'll just get my jacket !

Another cost cutting opportunity: Eliminate over-night hotel costs for crew after a one hour Domestic flight. I recently flew BKK-Surat Thani on a morning flight; found that the crew had checked into my same hotel and were not scheduled to return to BKK until the next afternoon.

Saw the crew returning to CNX this afternoon, after a night in town, I thought it was not necessary for the flight-crew to have an up-market limo while the cabin-crew had a minibus. Why not put everyone in the minibus ? Cost no object !

I think we have to thank Thaksin for Airasia

Yes ... interesting that, when the Malaysian owner of Air Asia wanted to start a Thai subsidiary, he felt that he could only do so, if he took the PM into partnership on it. Why ?

Mind you, they did manage to get some tax-concessions, not available to any other start-up airline at the time, purely coincidental of course. Nothing to do with who the part-owner was.

And remember when Shin Corp got sold, and Air Asia Thai almost got shut down, because it was no longer Thai-owned, they had to lend someone Thai a lot of money, so that he could be the new 'Thai owner' of Temasek's shares.

My God !

Advance the Big-Brother State !

Remember when the UK was a free country ?

I believe the OP will find that back-to-back visas are back, only for 14/15 days at land-borders, that was one welcome change last November.

But agree that the reduction from 30 days was not helpful, to keeping Thailand's tourist-industry jogging along, how about boosting it to 60 days on-arrival, wherever/however people arrive ? !

If Malaysia can do me 90 days, surely Thailand can manage 60, at least !

Anyone else think that the Thai economy is about to crash and burn? No exports, hardly any tourists, an over-valued currency!!! Everything that has made Thailand what it is today has come from foreign money, take that away and what are you left with!!!

Do you have fixed exchange rate in Thailand?

no.

Khun Naam, would you from your intergalactic viewpoint agree that it is partly-managed, and doesn't float totally freely ?

You guys are just over analyzing things, the Thai Baht is kept strong so the corrupt politicians have enough time to move their ill gotten gains out of the country slowly enough without raising suspicion and getting a reasonable exchange rate. Once it is all out the Baht will crash Viola politicians happy and exporters happy Simple!

Now that sounds quite credible

But how much longer to wait, until the crash, when they bring their money back and double it, in Baht terms ? That's the question !

Tourism is a different story. Remarkably, many headline costs (hotels) have not come down despite market conditions and a weakening of the Baht will only really benefit those already committed to Thailand - OK, it would increase their spending power and put more Baht into the economy. For potential new visitors any currency devaluation/depreciation is likely to be out-weighed by the fact that many Westerners cannot afford to come anyway - the strong Baht (weak Sterling etc) is just the nail in the coffin.

The many Westerners who cannot afford to come anyway, are already lost to Thailand's tourist-industry, at least for the next few years. But for those who can still afford to come, if they find a weaker Baht when they change their money, they will hopefully spend those extra Baht and this will boost the Thai economy, a bit.

Same for long-term residents, if they get a few more Baht for their pounds or dollars, they're likely to spend them, which boosts the Thai economy just a little.

Ditto the farmer who gets a few extra Baht, for his lower-priced sack of rice (if the middle-man doesn't grab it first !), may spend them, and boost the domestic economy just a bit. Remember when Khun Tarisa was claiming, about 8 months ago, that the saviour of the Thai economy in 2009 was going to be domestic-consumption ? This is it.

The closed export-factories are gone, history, won't come back in a hurry. The ones on a 4-day-week, cutting their overheads and workers' pay, might survive. But anything which helps Thailand to compete, for those exports remaining, has to be better than just sitting frozen in the headlights. When Vietnam devalued by 16% (?) in the autumn, Thailand should have been competing by following them, it's all about minimising the damage from the global slowdown.

OK the cost of imports, raw-materials or parts-for-assembly or luxury-goods, will go up in Baht-terms. But isn't the best time to do this, when global commodity-prices are falling, or have just fallen ? And so long as Thailand adds value to materials or parts, before it re-exports them, then there is still a net-benefit, especially if the alternative is to lose the exports completely by pricing yourself out of business.

Charge for the indoor loos, but make the outdoor open-air ones free, bejasus !

Buying student-uniforms makes as little sense as the million-cows project, the rubber-tree project, the computers-for-schools scandal, the mismanaged village-loans scheme (would have been good only if it had led to productive investments which could repay the loans) or a host of others. It will do nothing for raising educational-standards, but then again, how successful was Thaksin at achieving this key improvement ?

What has Democrat Party done to raise educational-standards?

Nothing much, in two-and-a-half months, as compared to nothing much, over five-and-a-half years.

I do hope that they'll do something, and start soon, as educating people better takes time to have any effect. But it helps people to help themselves, rather than being handed some benefit, by the government or a poo-yai. If you want people to work their way out of poverty, you have to give them the tools, which is why I called education "this key improvement".

The longer governments of all parties do nothing ... the more one suspects that they prefer to have a good supply of cheap uneducated workers instead !

At least we haven't, as far as I've heard, had any schools burned-down recently ?

Perhaps we might restrain ourselves, and cease this oafish behaviour, then again perhaps not.

Fishy meal.. mate, inflation has gone up sky high...

Sky high prices, must have been a flying-fish, then.

Who will give just pure cash 2,000 Baht because he can't think of anything better?

Koo, I must agree that cash giveaways are not a wonderful solution, to Thailand's economic problems. But would point out that the USA is also trying this approach, and the UK by cutting Value-Added-Tax, the aim is the get more cash into the economy, which will then be spent quickly and use the multiplier-effect, to generate several times the turnover.

What can Abhisit help Thai economy after the PAD's protests at airports? What crisis? I only hear that many jobs have lost immediately after airport protests. I didn't hear Thailand had any crisis when the man you don't like was PM. He won an election!

Thailand's economy grew when the global economy was growing strongly, now it is in trouble and so is Thailand, politicians may like to claim the credit for the good times, but are often less responsible than they would like to believe.

If the man had not kicked out by a coup in 2006, all these would have been done.

Thaksin resigned, and called an election, later annulled, which led after several painful months to the coup. Would you agree that his resignation was part of the trail that led to the coup ? So that he too bears some responsibility for not staying in power. Who knows what policies he might then have followed ? Or how effective they might have been ? ?

Sorry for those who cheer Democrat Party. What did this party do to develop Thailand? I only remember they borrowed money from IMF and now they have borrowed again.

Would you care to comment, on how Thaksin raised the money, to pay back the IMF loans ahead-of-time ?

They borrow for what? To donate uniforms to students. Students still have pants to wear now. They can wait another year. Thailand is having crisis. Buying uniform is not priority.

(my comments above in red)

Buying student-uniforms makes as little sense as the million-cows project, the rubber-tree project, the computers-for-schools scandal, the mismanaged village-loans scheme (would have been good only if it had led to productive investments which could repay the loans) or a host of others. It will do nothing for raising educational-standards, but then again, how successful was Thaksin at achieving this key improvement ?

Excellent news, just thinking of all the hundreds of transparent contracts to be awarded makes me go weak at the knees. Newin's father-in-law for one will be very happy. Problem is there's a worldwide recession on, hasn't anybody told them and if so where do they expect to get the money from?

Step forward, the credulous farang or Japanese/Chinese government, perhaps even the World Bank ? Who cares, so long as much of the money comes in brown-envelopes !

At least he was elected twice (or is three times) by the people (legally) and not put up by puppet Generals.

Fobuff

Erm, elected twice (not three times), as the third election was annulled, long before the coup. Do you feel that Samak, Somchai or Abhisit were also put up by puppet generals ? Surely you can only make that claim about the junta-government.

I wonder what Thaksin Shinawatra knows about national security and top secret files, eg the money path taken by Golden Triangle revenues.

He was privy to intelligence files for five years. He must have felt tempted to peek inside.

Lets hope his tribulations do not prejudice his ongoing duty of confidentiality.

Good point, which may be why he found friends initially in China, but I'm sure that the Chinese government also realise that the present PM has access to the same information, which may encourage them to take a more-balanced view.

It`s seems not only do they want to kill him, but eat him as well.

Source for your claim of wishing to eat Thaksin ? Even the claims of assasination seem to come only from Thaksin, who has played the same tune many times over several years, without ever producing any real evidence, so it looks more like a pitiful attempt by a fantasist or unstable personality to gain sympathy.

If Thaksin wants to come home, he can, but must face the courts & he can no-longer bribe or brow-beat them into letting him off, so easily. Fighting for justice is all very well, but he fears that he might just get, what he claims to want !

If he wants forgiveness, to return home to lead a quiet life, and a negotiated-behind-the-scenes settlement on his/Pokemon's money, then he has to stop creating bad publicity for his home country, and trying to destabilise it. If he still believes that it's possible, to return and become PM again, then he must be living, not in Nicaragua or Hong Kong or Togo or Dubai, but in 'cloud-cuckoo-land'.

One of the great tests, of any political leader, is whether they can recognise when history has moved-on, and they're no-longer relevant. A test which Thaksin seems to be failing.

I propose that they build more fly-overs, to bypass the bad logistics, at ground-level.

Would be nice if some of this money went to constructing the LCC-terminal, at Swampy, I've lost count of how many times this project has been announced, but not started !

I've been around a long time...

Wasn't that the latest exhibit, up at the Night-Safari, Ian ?

Where did you find a burger-bun big enough, after throwing it on the BBQ, or did you have to carve it ?

I hope the govenor ban that sh!t!

Erm ... ban a parade, which aims to educate people on an important health-issue, or ban the thugs who broke it up ?

the parade, its so sick

Not that I'm gay myself, or likely would have attended, but I can't see why you would object to part of the local community running an event like this, trying to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, which is a serious health-problem here in Thailand, for both straights and gays.

Ignoring a problem, or trying to sweep it under-the-carpet, is surely more harmful ? Ignorance kills ! People dying when it's avoidable ... that would be sick.

Did the UK actually start issuing these yet ? I thought it wasn't due to start, for another year or two, perhaps time is passing quicker than I thought !

Utilisation of 8 hours per day is rather low, should perhaps try to run a longer overnight route or two like HKG or India or Korea or Japan, to boost the numbers.