samuibeachcomber

Whole dam_n World's falling apart.

I'm more worried about being trapped in the UK. Was supposed to be landing at Suvarnabhumi last Friday. Just want to get home to Roi-Et.

Whilst BKK and a few other places may see problems over the next few years, nothing will change in Issan.

As for the impact on tourism, this was going to happen anyway since the world has no money now.

cant think of a more depressing place to be trapped.

only bought for page 3!

Oh dear oh dear, more conspiracy theories.........

yes but it is a good point,all thaes checks will have to be done which will make "things back to normal"take even longer,"the economic ramifications will be huge.The problem for places like the airports is that this is an internal dispute between PAD and PPP,and excess force to remove PAD,could cause more violence all over the country.If it had been external terrorists doing this at the airport i'm sure the army would have gone in a long time ago.

i'd say concerned cos no one knows where this is going,and i dont know enough about it.

There are two issues here,one is the political,the other is the economic downturn and tourism.The latter could affect thai's more than expats,unemployment etc,which could have a ripple effect against farang here.Vigilence is the price of peace,so good to be aware.So many things are conspiring against thailand,i would n't like to have a lot of money tied up here,but for those who are married with thai family,just have to hunker down and bear it.

maybe the airlines are just showing their normal schedule(which will resume when this is all over)they still want your business and phone call.If they put up a sign saying no flights till further notice they would n't get your enquiry.

am not sure but i think you maybe able to fly sigapore to samui direct with bangkok airways,have to check their website.

There was talk about a 2nd airport down lamai way.can anyone confirm this?It would certainly help with samui tourism.with all the extra hotels/resorts being built need more people to come and fill the beds and the only way to do this is more planes full,and for that to happen a second airport.

interesting,i wonder if it came from ASTV.

^^^Americans didn't do much better! Atleast the French left some culture and nice architectural buildings....

oh i dont know the americans left napalm,hamburgers budweiser,heroin,coke,i could go on!

You go through stages here.

"Oh look, Cedric, that cute monk at that gorgeous wat! And the food here is so aroi mahk!"

"Cedric, don't touch that dog. You don't know where it's been. Watch your step! Those tuk tuks are so smelly!"

"Omigod, Cedric! Aren't these mountain roads breathtaking? Nothing like the moors of Devon!"

"Cedric, if I see on more plate of somtam, I will hurl my guts out. Watch out for that motosai!"

yes the love affair with thailand and everything thai usually lasts 2 years and then reality sets in but its not a bad reality.

Big sign in front of the store stating the store is closing Dec 1st until further notice

Hope they do not know someting we do not.

Is the bloodbath coming ?

the french admited defeat in vietnam and did a runner,so why not pattaya.seriously i cant see it,signage in bad english?

This is getting kind of annoying as he does look kind of familiar.

Maybe show the red shirts the picture, get them to write the name and let us know.

Put us all out of our misery.

I love this topic and such bl--dy funny answers,all the crazy replies,i cant stop laughing.Do i need to move to chang mai?

If it wasn't for the newspapers and the internet I wouldn't even know what is going on in Bangkok. As far as I am concerned it could be another country.

The only effect I've noticed is that there are fewer tourists walking around. Which is bad for the local businesses.

A much bigger effect has been the politicians in the "stable" democracies. In particular the Labour party and the Brown/Darling inspired BOOM and BUST. In spite of being out of the UK for more than 30 years, those two are causing me more worry than any political circus in Thailand. A few examples

- A substantial capital loss due to the Icelandic financial system collapsing

- A substantial income drop due to the GBP sinking

- A gradual eroding of my pension, as the UK doesn't index link pensions paid to Thailand

And for anybody still paying tax in the UK there is a nasty tax increase on the horizon to pay for Brown's spending.

Over my ten years in Thailand things have been steadily improving, for me and for the Thais.

And to take an unpopular view (depending on which colour your shirt is), Thaksin, in spite of all his selfish aspects, managed to provide a direction and, if he came back, would STILL get elected, due to overwhelming support in the rural areas. He also successfully built up a massive international telecommunications company (in comparison to all the career politicians in Farangland, who mostly couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery and make a profit). The IMF debt was paid off and the country was basically doing alright.

So, who would you really want? An astute and successful businessman who, in the process of successfully governing the country made some money for himself, or a couple of career politicians (Brown and Darling), who, in the process of failing miserably to govern a country, made a lot of money for themselves as well?

give thaksin anytime over brown/darling,a buch of scumbags.

Hubby and I moved to Chiang Mai about three weeks ago with our new retirement visas. Haven't had any problems and we've had many rental options for housing. Many properties we looked at had been empty for several months. We've settled on a condo rental and found the process of opening bank account, getting money from US into that account, setting up phone, mobile, internet, cable TV, etc to be much easier than in the US. Maybe it's because all those offices are at Central so it's easy to visit them in person vs. trying to do things over the phone.

The exchange rate for the US dollar is good. The weather is beautiful in CM. The people are friendly and the food is good, cheap and plentiful. Sure we haven't sold our house in the U.S. yet, but we figured it was more fun to live frugally here vs. in our home in the cold, grey, depressed Great Lakes region of the U.S. waiting maybe years for the house to sell.

good for you hope you enjoy for a long time,a good post for those who still sit on the fence re "will i wont i come to thailand"

being retired my time is my own,i guess if i was working i would n't access it a lot but would still make time in the evening as i enjoying viewing the threads and posts of other people...............just another form of communicating and like most people enjoy taking part.How much time per day?well it varies,probably the most each day would be 2 hours interupted with doing things around the house

Did not see the game...but it was the best result I could have hoped for if reading have any chance of catching either of them.

Realistically...I think Wolves are out of sight.......(and fair play to them).....Birmingham are catchable....by us I hope!

who do you support?

agree with you bonobo,i dont know why a lot of people took such offense with the OP'S VIEWS,a lot of people will be put off coming to thailand by recent events,there are a lot of sensitive people replying here defending thailand and living here when there does n't need to be any defence at all.LIfe goes on as usual and its pretty good,there again its fun to have these verbal stouches too.

Everywhere there are problems no matter where you live,but when living in someone else's country we do not have the same control or rights over our lives that we would have "back home",and thats just the risk we take living here.

thanks for sharing that,but you'd never know except after 10 pints.

The current troubles will not last, and in my opinion we still live in one of the safer places in the world. Remember Laos is a communist country and a lot less free.

And if another coup happens, who knows when the military will just decide for permanent control, and we'll become a carbon copy of Burma? Do you think it's possible in Thailand?

anythings possible,always have an exit strategy if possible.

------------ Six months time all the current mayhem may be but a distant memory.

Yep we will probably have a new round of mayhem to consider. For me? I stay! No reason for change, this is just another one of lifes events along with the ecconomic situation, global warming etc.

exactly,the only reasons i can think of to leave thailand would be if it became a very dangerous place to live or i ran out of money,or if the immigration rules changed so much that it became unviable to stay here,i cant think of a better place to go in asia9for the same costs).

early kick off found it on sky sports 3.fantastic football and thought 1-1 a fair result,good old attacking football,wolves plenty of fire power(my team)but shakey in defense,birmingham's jerome really good.can see both these teams going up next year.Really like watching the league championship,a change from premier league.

My Thai wife was in Bangkok, at 5:00 pm yesterday. Now she is asleep in our bed in S. Korea. How did she do it? Thailand military airport! She amazed me!

do you mean she got a flight out from utapo airport near pattaya?

Need to remove the PAD from the airport by any means possible... this isnt rocket science, this isnt that hard.

-Cut power/water

-blockade roads into the airport

-rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons

-jam mobile phones

Overwhelm them with a superior force. If you need to use force do so - after warning them what will come if they do not disperse.

there does n't seem to be any back bone for it though.

Do you want to give the Muslims a slice as long as you are at it?

why not,PAD seem to like fighting,but i dont think they would be a match for muslim extremists down south.

Quote: "I have lost millions of Baht because of this latest development but I may recover by moving my business, and jobs, elsewhere"

What are you waiting more to go???

Is out of my understanding why so many Tv members stay/live/have business in Thailand and 24/7 complaining about the country and the Thai.

IMO I'm sure people moving to Cambodia, VN, or wherever, just follow to complain.

It's a sort of national sport for anglo-saxons countries??

well iguess if your business/livelihood were going down the gurgler you might feel the same way too.