wensiensheng

I lived through both those. Life was no different except for maybe the first two days. I was in Udon which was considered a red shirt stronghold and therefore potentially a flash point kind of place. But mostly it was people taking water to the soldiers who had to stand out in the sun watching cars go by. It really was no big deal from a daily life point of view.

So this government might collapse. Here’s an original thought. How about the party that got the most votes from the Thai public in the last election, forms a government? I mean if no one else wants the job, maybe the guy the people voted for could do it?

Never mind this. What amazes me is when I pay at a restaurant, the wait staff ALWAYS give the change back to my wife. Or if she isn’t there, back to my daughter! Its like I don’t even exist, let alone being the one that paid.

Assuming he is guilty of course. There is the small matter of a court hearing both sides of the story.

Somehow it got through the oh so stringent scanning at a Thai airport on departure.

“This arrest marks a significant success for the nationwide crackdown, underscoring that foreign suspects cannot escape justice in Thailand.” yes, but what if he hadn’t been found during the crackdown? Would he have been found? Crackdown ends on 20th according to the article. So do crooks just have to evade capture till then? Also, not to be negative about the efforts of plod, but the arrest came about as a result of an informants tip. All they really had to do was turn up and put on the handcuffs. Should be grateful that RTP did something I suppose, but it all has a hollow ring to it.

Not commenting on whether casinos are a good or bad thing, but the benefit to Thailand would be perceived as the money from taxing casino profits, probably circa 17%, and increased revenue from tourism as a result of more tourists visiting because of the casinos. I guess employment within the casinos themselves is a marginal benefit. Security guards, restaurants cleaning staff, a bunch of employment positions, obviously not hundreds of thousands, but some. Again, not saying whether casinos are good or bad, but the above is a couple of “pro” arguments. There are “cons” of course.

Well, Trump would definitely whine on and on. But my eyes say he had finished that particular bout of whining, but the questions being shouted would under normal circumstances have resulted in another bout. So after checking with Trump, Carney moved in and shut down the reporters questions, as a result of which Trump was stopped in his tracks. Certainly Carney stopped the whole episode being about Trump and an even longer episode of whining, but he did not actually interrupt or shut down Trump himself. He redirected the whole interaction after Trump finished speaking (whining)

Hopefully the Thai lady who sold him the gun will also be apprehended….and also whoever she got it from and so on.

The thing is, everything you have put in bold has nothing to do with tourism and everything to do with retiring to Thailand. I agree with everything that you say in the context of retirement.

Or the G6 and the self proclaimed elephant that only wants to play with itself. The rest of the world might as well just move on and let the USA do whatever it wants to do.

Having now see the video, I think it’s quite wrong to say that Trump was brutally shut down. Trump was rambling on and finished his point. Media persons were shouting out more questions(hard to hear about what because they were all shouting over each other), Carney turned to Trump and seemingly said to him that he would like to step in and Trump nodded his agreement. Carney then spoke and said he was going to exercise his chairman’s role and move on. Nothing brutal about it, politely done with the involvement of Trump. Which is exactly what I would expect from Carney, the man is a consummate experienced professional.

I’m not sure what due diligence you expect. They are hardly going to engage in a clandestine operation to install hidden cameras and microphones. They got a tip off. They saw multiple people gathering and maybe even saw them around a board of some sort. They barged in, realized they made a mistake and left. so this is one that didn’t pay off. What’s the big deal?

Well, there ARE many illegal gambling dens in Thailand, I know of two in the area where I live. And the evidence all pointed that way in this case. Can’t really blame the tipster or the police. Of course, most illegal gambling dens pay off someone in the local plod to tell them about raids and such. These guys won’t have done that because they weren’t gambling.

Trudeau? What has he got to do with it? Germany was a major power when Hitler was in charge prior to 1940. Nobody stood up to him and the rest is history. Russia is indeed a major power just as North Korea is a nuclear power. The behavior of both requires the world to stand up to them and refuse to carry out business as usual. But first things first, get yourself up to date on who the current heads of government are, and then go from there.

Somewhat more serious than sex in the back of a tuk tuk. And this is not an isolated rage killing by a Thai. If my memory serves me correctly it’s the third in two days in fact. Extrapolate that over the course of a year and it’s quite a body count.

It’s better than nothing. But don’t tell me that every shop on that street didn’t know in advance what was coming and that’s the major reason why nothing untoward was found.

Prepare to repel boarders!

The numbers aren’t accurate anyway. I have been overseas and back to Thailand 3 times this year. So I’m a triple tourist….but I live here. Every visa run by every person results in an additional “tourist”. I don’t know how much it skews the numbers, but the anomaly is there and TAT don’t care because it is in their favoir

Well, ya, there are those too. I didn’t want to sound too downbeat in my post 😂

Gotta love the picture of an empty tuk tuk. Are we supposed to look for stains on the seats?

Take a look at the crowds outside of Buckingham Palace on any given day and add up how many are tourists. Take a look at how even Trump is enamored by the Royal Family and how it affects his attitude toward Great Britain. Multiply that millions of times. The contribution to charitable causes is well documented. No point to go over them again. One point of order, I’m not British. Singapore is my home country, which means that I can look at both sides of a ledger and appreciate the financial benefits of soft power and branding.

You are right in most respects, but the visa thing is a red herring. The island countries you mention don’t have much in the way of visa requirements.

I’ve heard this quality over quantity announcement so many times it’s getting down right annoying. TAT don’t seem to realise that if you want to change your target market, you have to change your product offering. The so called “vibrant nightlife” which is a euphemism for sleaze, plus the inherent dangers from a second rate infrastructure ( pavements electrical wiring etc etc) AND the elevated risks involved in road travel, just don’t talk quality.

No mention of the enormous amounts of money that the Royal Family generate? The benefits to charities of their support? The amount funded by the British tax payer is dwarfed by the other side of the ledger. Pretty useful in my eyes.