wensiensheng

The article is detached from reality in terms of the description of Bangla road, Phuket and Thai tourism in general. Until Thai’s face up to just what their more infamous “vibrant night spots” actually are in reality, they will continue to suffer damage to their reputation, as they see it. For people willing to view such places without rose tinted glasses, or total detachment from reality, such incidents are to be expected just as often as they occur in reality.

I’m sure the French guy will get the book thrown at him. The Thai tour company….not so much

Absolute madness. Are they living in an alternate reality?

I think you are posting on the wrong day. Tomorrow is when the stories are all about crimes committed BY tourists, today is for stories about crimes committed ON tourists. And so it will go on. One day it’s all about protecting the precious tourists, the next it’s about bashing tourists. But……nothing ever changes

Looks like an opening scene from Lost

Singapore is not a facist state. Quite the opposite in fact. It is a multi cultural state and democratic elections are taking place right now.

I think this is a separate thing. I believe that the face recognition thing was so that you could do transfer of over 50k by mobile app. This is a security measure to do with money laundering…I think. And if your phone and bank accounts are in the same name, there is no need to do anything. They match already. Might be wrong so don’t crucify me.

This isn’t new. It’s been ongoing for at least the last year. In fact, I recall it from many years back when phones were being used to detonate bombs in Yala. But don’t let that get in the way of a sensationalized headline and first paragraph.

Feel sorry for him, but he knew, or should have known, his situation before deciding to retire to Thailand. Bleating about it now does no good.

What on earth are they talking about? They highlight a very small intra day movement of the baht that in and of itself is totally meaningless. Meanwhile, a chart of anything from one month to 1 year shows an overall strengthening of the baht against USD, or, to be more accurate, a weakening of the USD. When the baht is above 35 to USD, or even 37 like it was a year or so ago, THEN talk about a weakening. This story is pure fiction and the writer should be sacked

TEN years to fix serious deficiencies identified in a review. Abysmal

Of course it’s racist, because it’s use is premised on the race of the person it’s directed. Non racist terms are not dependent on race. Farang is race dependent.

Better to focus on the (likely) non operational tsunami warning system . Plus all the white markings they painted on the roads near where I live saying, tsunami evacuation route, have worn off. Don’t think the latter did much good tbh, but if it was part of an overall plan, it’s now gone. An earthquake? Better to focus on building better buildings. Warnings come too late because the quake already happened, and where would you go?

Why the outrage over a normal Bangla Road evening? If This citizens want to change the normal to something else, the authorities should do something to change it. Starting with effective policing. Otherwise it’s same old, same old every night. In fact, it’s likely to get worse because those who are looking for a fight know where to go for it.

Abandon? Or forgot? Who says he was uncooperative? Oh right, the authorities. Uncooperative because he didn’t immediately confess to being a terrorist? Or because he kept his mouth shut and wanted a lawyer?

Maybe he forgot his bag ( abandon seems over the top) and there never was any explosive ingredients in the first place. Just faulty scanning equipment. i know which I think is more likely, your John Le Carre theory, or a cock up by the police.

Don’t be silly. There never were any explosive ingredients. That was just faulty equipment used by the bomb squad, or someone didn’t know how to use it properly. As to uncooperative. Imagine being accosted by a bunch of excited Thai policemen who think they have apprehended a master bomb maker/terrorist. I bet they slammed into him full speed accusing him of goodness knows what and like anyone else who is sensible, he kept his mouth shut while he worked out what the heck was happening.

Let’s face it, none of them are fluent in English. Most speak heavily accented passable English

no mention of action against the officials accepting the bribes?

The foreigner was an idiot of course. Certainly deserved to be ejected from the bar. Having done that, I’m not so sure that the bouncers had a remit to follow him out into the street. Simply stopping him re entering should seem to be their main mandate. As for the people who jumped him once he was on the ground, they deserve to be done for assault. Most came from bars across the street so the whole thing was nothing to do with them. Summery, a poor advert for Thai tourism all round. From scantily clad girls on the street, drunk idiotic foreigners, over aggressive bouncers and mob violence. Other than that, what’s not to like 🤷‍♂️

Got to pay them a decent wage if you want them to do their job. The system is rigged to encourage corruption and laziness

Blah blah blah. No different to last year which did nothing.

It isn’t that much money really is it? And it’s the law to carry your passport with you at all times, although 90% of people ignore it and at most have a photo on their phone

I don’t think the new requirements will change the current process followed by an immigration officer. Currently they scan passports by putting them on a reader, then flip the pages to see if there are any red flags, check the photo to the face of the traveller, press the photo button and then put in a stamp. might be wrong, but I think all that ( which isn’t much) will still be done. The details from the new system are just stored in case of need at a later date. One issue is that it won’t let Thailand be entered as a country of residence. Perhaps an issue for long term visa holders who actually live in Thailand. Have to make up something I guess

I doubt that very much. There is no money to be made in reducing over tourism and undesirables are a price that successive governments have been willing to pay