samuibeachcomber

Rightly or wrongly(politicians scamming and wasting money on tin pot ideas) the people are suffering.Leaving the euro currency is the only option,go back to the drachma.Initially it would be painful but they would come out ok and at least be masters of their own destiny.

A fool and his money

Speaking from the wife's experience, the police will not get involved, all they say its a family thing, sort it out yorselfs, Females get little or no protection from violent boyfriends ,

same the world over.It should be made an educational thing at school from a young age "how to respect and treat females"....."do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Unfortunately in today's world there is less and less respect for women,any man that abuses females or children should be locked up or chemically castrated,but women in thailand particularly the mother's and grandmother's turn a blind eye to what male family member's do.

As others have said making females aware of the "law" as a means of protection is a total waste of time...they would be better off being trained in martial arts!

benefits to expats are always the first to suffer....easy targets,small representation.Yes you can keep your benefits by continually returning to your home country.OK if you dont mind doing this,but the older i get the less i want to travel.

This is why you only invest what you can afford to lose they are a very crooked lot in phuket.

An often used, but, ultimately meaningless statement.

Why?...it's a very good saying and worth remembering when throwing lots of money around.

In First on Emirates you get your own personal cabin....huge TV...6 and a half foot fully reclining bed and a pop up thing full of snacks and soft drinks.

The Dom Perignon is a button away too.....

Just to keep y'all informed hehe.

next you'll be telling me a lady is supplied free of charge(pen pal,only of course)

Sorry I don't sit out with the circus .... always first class .. even on Emirates.

You should try it sometime ... the screens are not on the headrest & it's quite and peaceful. I get my limo driver to collect me at the airport and it's straight to the Sheraton or Marriot.

your lucky............i go cattle class and get picked up by a licensed bandit in a taxi

I knew my idea was too good to be true,oh well back to the drawing board.Where"s

tony blair when you dont need him

Why are people getting so upset with Thailand's pursuit of the Chinese market?

Methinks there is a double standard at work here. Australia has been bending over backwards to attract Chinese visitors. Canada has been chasing the Chinese market for years and in my emails yesterday, Air Canada was congratulating itself over its new JV with Air China .

My takeaway is that the Chinese tourists going to the developed world countries are the quality tourists that Thailand wants. Unfortunately, Thailand is getting the lower end segment. In the developed world we would call these the junketeers, the folks who we see flying in on Thompson, JetStar, Air Asia package holidays. They are the folks one sees heading to Spain and Cyprus. In North America, they are the folks who frequent Carnival and Costa Cruise lines. Someone makes money on them, and I suppose somewhere, somehow someone is making money on these visitors to Thailand.

quality tourists dont usually go to 3rd world countries like thailand but come here cos they believe it to be cheap.The same as expats come to live here cos it is thought of as cheaper than back home.High end chinese go to the USA,europe,australia.

It always makes me laugh when i hear TAT are chasing high end tourists.

the old saying "you get what you pay for" is certainly true.A good brand in boots pharmacy is an aussie brand named blackmore's.They are expensive for example 150 tabs 1000mg vitamin C slow releasing is about 800 baht.built into this price will be customs duty probably but i can vouch that they are 2nd to none.I have tried their vitamin c ,B complex and magnesium....all good.

A sydney naturopath recommended them to me.

I prefer 1A.

Cessna?

no i think 1A is in the toilet

The joys of air travel!...1st class, business class,economy class.May i suggest a 2 new classes..............family class(with all that it implies) and bogan class or chav class!

Israel will never accept an independent homeland for the palestinians,they know it would eventually end in their demise,thats why they keep building more homes in the west back taking more territory.As other's have said "there is no solution"....the enmity between arab and jew goes back thousands of years.Yet funnily there are thousands of arabs that live quite peaceably side by side with jews in israel.

Maybe if the palestinians gave up their bid for an independent homeland and allowed israel to make the west bank a part of israel things could work out,with a coalition of arabs and jews overseeing govt. and sharing jerusalem for worshipping purposes,it would steal the thunder from hamas,hezbollah etc.

If the Palestinians had not started all those wars, they would not have been "ethnic cleansed". They started the violence and brought it on themselves. Payback is a beach.

did they start it?...i thought it was the israelis that pushed the palestinians out of palestine in 1948?.......The zionists in america got their way.Britain needed "lend lease" and i think that was the price Britain had to pay.Some british minister's offered the jewish people a homeland in madagascar...fat chance of that ever being accepted.

"If she says because you are handsome or that you excite her then I think you are on the right track"

I think that you are confusing sexual desire with love which isn't uncommon for most foreign men here.

No not at all, I know the difference. What I am saying is that when you first meet someone you either get that feeling of physical attraction or there is no spark. That spark is what brings people together and starts the love process. Here in Thailand we see too much financial attraction that has little to do with the physical and everything to do with the material.

money(taking care ) is what is uppermost in thai ladies minds.For them love (emotional) is not so important,its ok just to like the guy who will be taking care of them in the future.In some relationships there is love ,but see how much love remains if the money ever runs out! ( a good lady would try and take care if this ever happened especially if you have provided security for her in the form of land/house etc)

the most important thing to do when embarking on a serious relationship is to set the ground rules right at the beginning both from a financial point of view,and also establishing whose going to "wear the pants"this should make for a smoother path in the future.

muslims who are dobbed extremists are usually the one's that feel marginalised in their adopted society(not all).There will always be such people no matter how much anyone wants to help them.The moderate one's need to get off their backsides and denounce them and excommunicate them from their faith.

Australia could take a leaf out of saudi arabia and ban all religions from being practised in australia other than christian.Personally i am all for the tough stance australia is promoting,the more restrictive the better.This is not a time to be soft,liberal,politically correct,its a time to face up,take seriously, this menace of islamic extremism.

plenty of tea money swirling around..............mexico and thailand 91 and 94?

I feel for the kid. God knows many of us did some crazy stuff when we were 18, but most of us were lucky enough to have some parental guidance, a few friends that looked out for us or something to gives us that wake up call before being easily led or going to far, like playing sport or the prospect of a career. We must remember that this kid is a victim too. He was obviously manipulated by an elder, though he carried out the crime and must be punished. I hope someone cares enough about him to try and help him find some happiness and contentment in his life at some point in the future.

I hope too that the Thai lady and her husband can repair their marriage after what sounds like they became victims of the proverbial Indecent Proposal, for those of you that have seen the film.

As for the Australian guy, I hope he makes a recovery and mentally grows from this to realise that although poor people are often easily bought to satisfies one's selfish desires, it is morally reprehensible and has the potential to cause a lot of pain and suffering.

Are you by any chance a marriage counselor?

"debt of gratitude" straight out of the mafia rule book

thai culture "naam jai".............in our language "he owed a favour"

This has come during a year when scandals from the past have finally caught up with those guilty, whether it be sex or financial scandals. I'm not sure as to why this is but everything seems to be seeing the light of day all at once when for years we were left with open secrets buried by the threat of lawsuits for libel.

It's the law of nature "what goes round comes round"

More of a dream that a prediction, the 2022 World Cup will not take place in a hot sand pit, and it will not be controlled by FIFA.

I really hope so.

Blatter has been running Fifa as his personal Kingdom for years , has denied so many times that anything is wrong and has done all he can to prevent the truth being exposed.

Serious brown stuff hits the fan but he knows nothing and can't be held responsible.

He's speaking about the shame brought on the game now but what does he know of shame, he has none !

so f..king right nongkhaikid!.........he has no shame,he stands up saying "it is not my fault,i knew nothing"..lying through his teeth as usual.He may have won the battle but he will lose the war.

This is bad news.

Originally, ISIS only wanted to bait the U.S. to fight them directly in the Middle East.

It seems they are getting more ambitious.

Suppose they succeed in a much greater attack than 9-11 on the U.S.

WW3 brewing?

So Singapore being a international finance center ... seen by ISIS as a proxy for the west?

I think this is just the beginning...their plans all along have been world wide domination.The nations will be drawn into a "dog fight" against ISIS that will culminate in the middle east,think of gunfight at the ok corral!

Sadly is there anywhere in the world that anyone would be safe in public, and drunk, at that time of morning, ?

I feel sorry she seem'd not to know this.

What a lifetime memory ahead she'll have in learning that lesson.

(And yes, many rapes happen in private, from persons known to them.)

no where is safe these days..........anywhere! everyone needs to be vigilant,dont get too drunk so you dont know what you are doing,do not walk alone,and this advice is for guys and girls.It's a fact that we live in a much more violent world than say 40-50 years ago.Perpetrators everywhere are not afraid of the consequences of their actions cos there in no respect anymore.

takes special courage to achieve what you done, and i am sure everyday can still be a battle,like a smoker giving up,it never leaves you,but you have a good life now with your own family to give you strength.best wishes for the future.