Ricardo

A cardboard cut-out  ...  were the frog & the chicken not thought to be up-to the task ?

This feels like being in a British pub, back in the good old days, when eventually someone would call  "Time, gentlemen, please !", and we'd all move on. 

The usual mid-January Sale on Qatar is currently being loaded onto their booking-engine, perhaps allow another 12-24 hours before they're all available ?

Book by 16th january, for flights until 10th December, according to the blurb.

https://www.qatarairways.com/en/offers/global-travel-boutique.html

And I gather that Emirates have some improved-offers, I'd certainly expect both them and Etihad to respond within the next day or two, going by past years.

Happy Hunting !

1 hour ago, Konini said:

One place was in House and Land mooban on the 1001 - anybody out that way know if the planes regularly go that far north before turning? I don't care about the odd one going to China, it's just what is the norm.

I live outside MaeJo, and the planes to China use the roof of my house as an aiming-point, I sometimes think.  But you're right, that's only 10-15 times per day, and they're mostly narrow-bodies and fairly-high by the time they pass over here.

Thai Lion just got one/some new wide-bodied planes, also TG use bigger planes in winter, and they tend to be slower climbing-out and turn further-North than the B737s/A320s, IME.  But most planes are turning over the Super-highway or Mee-Chok, as you say.

14 hours ago, NamKangMan said:

Send the Thai Military in to clean this mess up.  Oh, that's right, they have been in control for 3 years already, yet, have achieved next to nothing on Phuket. 

 

No hope for improvement on Phuket.  What we have now on Phuket, will be what Phuket will always be.

IIRC the military cleared a number of buildings/businesses from beaches, during the first year in-power, which were reportedly occupying the land illegally ? So some progress at least. This may be a borderline case ?

Personally I steer well-clear of Phuket, have done for years, as we simply got tired of the constant scams.  Vote with your feet and your wallets !

But will it increase, or decrease, the likelihood of a major earthquake in Thailand this coming year  ...  we need a Thai professor to tell us !

3 hours ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

I have a question: why has there only been 2 or 3 bankers prosecuted in either the UK or the US for their total incompetence?

The UK Gordon (ex-chancellor) Brown government ignored what was going on in the US so Brown is culpable for what subsequently happened in the UK. As chancellor for years before he was responsible, and even with one eye should have seen what was coming. Ludicrous unsecured loans and crazy funds could never last, which were just invented to increase performance bonuses for unscrupulous predators.

IMHO Brown should have let some banks go bust and recompensed the customers for their losses, not bailed out his mates with tax payers money.

Agree whole-heartedly, the 'light touch' on the City & 'prudence' he so-often mentioned as both Chancellor & later PM, turned out to be a recipe for disaster, he deserves to be given the full credit for his mistakes !

But one can't go punishing the top-bods at the banks, they might move to a different tax-haven, and screw-up their economy instead !  If I were one, I'd have moved-on overseas, after legally moving my earnings offshore natch !

China Southern are 4-star and 8/10 on www.airlinequality.com, but you do get some pretty-bad reviews on there too, other people seem perfectly happy ?

http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/china-southern-airlines/

58 minutes ago, lamyai3 said:

Did you mean to post this in the laser whitening thread? 

No, nor in the popular  "Hide the Sausage"  thread, I understand that's a popular passtime in Pattaya & Bangkok?

But good catch, there !

The never-ending Thai version of "Where's Willy".

Yingluck appears to be in London enjoying the New Year's Sales, like a good populist ex-PM, while the ordinary people hope for a B15/day pay-boost, her brother's pre-election promise that 'they would all be rich within six months' having somehow failed to be delivered-upon.

I can't blame her, she should never have allowed family-loyalty to push her into accepting the job, in the first place.

But at least it puts to bed some of the conspiracy theories.

2 hours ago, Sakeopete said:

They belong to his friend the Chinese submarine salesman. 

And are therefore scandal-proof, to a depth of sixty metres, only !

B15 would be too little, and this increase is overdue, IMO.

3 hours ago, The manic said:

Utapao has been renamed, revamped and is now a functioning commercial airport.  There is no room for military ordinance or personnel. 

" U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield is a military airfield of the Royal Thai Navy approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) southeast of Bangkok in the Ban Chang District of Rayong Province near Sattahip on the Gulf of Siam. It is serves as the home of the Royal Thai Navy First Air Wing. "

and 

" U-Tapao is the main flying base for the Royal Thai Navy. Squadrons based there include:

• No 101 Squadron flying Dornier DO-228-212 (seven aircraft)
• No 102 Squadron flying Lockheed P-3T/UP-3T (three aircraft) and Fokker F-27-200ME aircraft (a total of three, at least one of which is in store)
• No 103 Squadron flying Cessna 337 H-SP (10 aircraft, some may be stored)
• No 201 Squadron flying Canadair CL-215 (one aircraft), GAF Nomad N-24A (three aircraft, a fourth aircraft is in store) and Fokker F-27-400M (two aircraft)
• No 202 Squadron flying Bell 212 helicopters (approximately six)
• No 203 Squadron flying Bell 214SP helicopters (recently grounded after a fatal crash killing nine crew members on 23 March 2007), Sikorsky S-76B (six helicopters) and Super Lynx Mk.110 (two helicopters)
• No 302 Squadron flying Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters (six in service)

Two squadrons are dormant

• No 104 Squadron which flew 14 A-7E and 4 TA-7C Corsair strike aircraft
• No 301 Squadron which flew AV-8S and TAV-8S (two aircraft) "

...  which is pretty good going, for a place which has  "no room for military ordinance or personnel", perhaps it is joint-use by the military & commercial-aviation, as with Don Muang in Bangkok ?

At least, that's certainly what it looks like to me, whenever I pass through there.

7 hours ago, Lupatria said:

Here I'm used to read about fake cops, fake soldiers, fake surgeons. Not in my weirdest dreams I would have expected someone would go as far to impersonate as 'a humble servant of the people and country'. 

Not the first time Thailand has had a fake-PM who pretended to be that.

4 hours ago, Lemonltr said:

We must spend the Nation'a budget frugally by getting rid of that horrible Thaksin 30 baht health scheme and replace it with a much cheaper one which will be named ' Prayut's gift to the people'

It's actually been free-of-charge, since the previous military-government, so too late for that !

" Although the reforms have received a good deal of criticism, they have proved popular with poorer Thais, especially in rural areas, and they survived the change of government after the 2006 military coup. Then, Public Health Minister, Mongkol Na Songkhla, abolished the 30 baht co-payment and made the scheme free. It is not yet clear whether the scheme will be modified further under the military government that came to power in May 2014. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Thailand

So the new uniformed-politician will have to seek his crowning-glory elsewhere !

I won't believe that he's a politician, until he announces that he's quitting politics, that's the acid-test here.

But if he's confident in his own ability and support as a politician, then that will give him more confidence to test both in a November-2018 election, won't it ?

He's got the frog-vote & chicken-votes tied up, after all !

Q. "What's the time, Mr Wolf ?"

A. "Time to please change the subject, pretty-please, don't you know who I am ?"

"Nurse, we've got yet another one, who doesn't know who he is !"

An earthquake in Thailand might provide a convenient excuse to delay an election ?

And Yunnan or Myanmar or the Nicobar Islands is close-enough, to count, no ?

Logically the former-US airbase at Utapao, close to the military-port of Sattahip, which is also often used during Cobra Gold exercises, might be a good place to put it ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-Tapao_Royal_Thai_Navy_Airfield

22 hours ago, webfact said:

a 10-year plan to invest 38 billion baht to increase the annual capacity of 28 airports to 30 million passengers in 2025

Either Don Muang or Suvarnabhumi already handles more than 30 million per-annum each, so cannot be included in this total annual capacity figure, or it should be much much higher ?

Please can the Department of Airports also speed-up work at these two main Thai airports, so that flights from the regional airports (which they're presumably talking about in this article) have somewhere to land again, expanding the regional airports is only part of what's needed !

The two Thai hubs need to be grown, as part of their plan !  And that's all coming through way too  s l o w l y  , at present !  For example the third-runway at Swampy is already needed right now, just look at the delays/cancellations whenever maintenance is needed on one of the existing two, let alone with the new terminal-extension under-construction right now !

4 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

And there it is.  No, I'm not going to do your homework for you.  I've already told you why businesses and banks dislike cash.  You've given me nothing in return except government mind-control paranoia.

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't prove that the government isn't out to spy on you, and control you !

When in-business I liked cash myself, OK I got the very-occasional counterfeit, but I lost more to rubber-cheques  ...  though I once was paid a £50 reward for confiscating a credit-card which had been stopped !

1 hour ago, baboon said:

You see, I wonder what song the junta supporters on here would be singing if a group of 'red' Generals staged a counter coup and installed themselves into power...?

Or what would the red-supporters say, if a PM declared that democracy was just a useful tool and that his party was going to be in-power for the next twenty years, or that reporters need not bother asking his ministers any questions, since he was the one who made all the decisions ?

I myself think we'd all welcome the next halfway-proper election, a.s.a.p. !

"Nationwide e-payments to push cashless society goal"

I mean, what on Earth could ever go wrong with that, with the government (any government) in-charge ?

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1018217-promptpay-computer-error-causes-frenzy-on-last-day-of-2017-as-transfers-fail/?page=1

Vote with your feet, or your wallet, it still is up-to-you, for now at least !

35 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You actually think the hackers won't be able to bypass your fingerprint security.

If so, I have a bridge in New York I can sell you, real cheap 5555555555555

Perhaps I should put in my own bridges, across the Thames & the Seine, then we could launch a company & become overnight-billionnaires ?  Ker-chinggg !

Meanwhile I shall continue to use Cash wherever possible, as I value my privacy & anonymity, and don't want to bother the system with my own affairs (or even affaires ! ) , it's my life & my business what I do and where I go so long as I'm legal, and will continue to be for as long as can get away with it.

My father told me about how ID-cards were accepted in the UK, until the end of the War, when people 'lost' them or openly threw them away.  They were standing-up for the Freedom, which they'd been defending, IMO.

And other people are welcome to take their own different line.

Just so long as they reach the destination by the time promised, November this year.

4 hours ago, halloween said:

Can't possibly be Yingluk as I am (reliably?) informed her 15yo son is being held in a military academy as a hostage of the junta.

Could the source(s) of your information possibly had an axe-to-grind themselves, do you think ?

It can't possibly be Yingluck, because there's no queue of elderly-ladies eager to press red roses into her hands, obvious innit !

A newcomer might have assumed, that it was already the job of the Transport Ministry to improve the roads, but TiT so they would clearly have been wrong, and they need to be assigned to do their proper jobs ! 

I'm sure that will immediately make all-the-difference, until this time next year, when the same instructions will be issued, regardless of who's in-power then.