orosee

Driver may be among the injured or dead? Because there is no metion of "the driver fled the scene"

There's only one important lesson to be learned here: Never let your bag out of sight. If someone can manage to put something the size of a small bath towel inside you bag, how much easier will it be to drop 100 pills or 100g of an illicit substance into the same? Try arguing yourself out of that situation

Other than that, the pub sells liquor and lives from people buying and drinking it. The result is usually impaired judgment so why would anybody seriously be surprised if people in bars to stupid things?

There are now A4 paper signs up in Bangkok airport warning of jail sentences up to one year for insulting behaviour towards officials.

I didn't want to incur their wrath so I didn't bother with a photo.

Is it then still possible to swear at the airport taxi touts in the arrivals area? I'm not sure whether they are "officials" or just employees of a private organisation

I would say that if Thai immigration feels the need to hang such a notice, then there is certainly a need for passengers to act accordingly. After all, nobody would put up a "Don't step on the grass" sign on a concrete parking lot.

All and all I still find that Thai immigration is the most ineffective and unfriendly I have been able to find in Asia (based on 13 years of residence in Bangkok and frequent traveling in Asia). Sort of like a sweet chocolate surrounded by a bitter coating. Among the more efficient and friendly immigration officers I have found in the past and recently are:

Korea - possibly one of the fastest passes ever, rarely more than 20 seconds review and always time for a friendly smile and "Welcome to Korea"

Hong Kong - the queues can be nightmares at some times, but the queue handling is efficient and the queue manager even had time for a chat and an apology for the waiting time for me, again the passport check itself was done in less than 30 seconds and the officer even used a tiny bit of free space to cram in his stamp, which a frequent traveler always appreciates. Oh, and "Welcome to Hong Kong"!

China - goodness, they even have buttons where you can give the office a smiley rating for his/her service! I wonder how that would turn out in Thailand? Time still under one minute, and wait for it... "Welcome to China"!

Vietnam - Fast and efficient, no hugs but still a friendly smile.

For the rest of Asia, more of the same.

So what's the problem with Thai immigration? Piles? I suggest to put up a sign encouraging travelers to say "F___ You!" to the officials until they get their act straight. The only time someone (female) in an immigration uniform features positively for me is in certain erotic fantasies - "You! Visa expired!" ... "Oooh, spank me ma'm!"

I didn't go through all replies so I hope this has not yet been said.

Thailand is commonly advertised as the "Land of Smiles". So it should be natural to expect that behaviour even at immigration. I think the reason for the lack of smiles (and sometimes, as in the case of carelessly thrown back passports, lack of courtesy) is because the immigration officials at the airport are not allowed to take money from the travelers. Once you get past that, there are smiles abound: customs (chance for an occasional bottle of wine, a carton of cigarettes, ...), taxi limo touts ($$$), taxi meters ($), and then the rest of the country. Much nicer there!

I lived and worked in Bangkok 12 years and had to travel to regional offices regularly in about every country in Asia. Thailand is the ONLY country where I felt a lack of welcome at immigration, even though my documents could not have been more in order. Based on this measure, I thoroughly enjoyed immigration procedures in Vietnam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Korea (which now seems to have one of the fastest processes I know).

On behalf of immigration I would like to say: As all immigration personnel, these are selected based on their inability to speak and understand (much) English. So naturally all communication is abrupt ("You stand here! You look here!") and lacks the refined pleasantries one could expect from more proficient speakers. The job must be terrible considering the vast planeloads of immigrants, many of them completely clueless about immigration procedures such as filling out the forms. I's still expect some form of reciprocation for kindness but the truth is, this annoyance takes just a few minutes and is negligible compared to the waiting for luggage and the misery of getting from the arrival area to the taxi stands.

Once inside all is forgotten and forgiven.

Sue? I'm not American.

But you are a douchebag.

You're not paying £300 a day at a hotel in Hong Kong because of these idiots.

There's nothing I can do except make a point of actively NOT supporting the people behind the PAD by avoiding the companies involved.

Ummmmmmm. . why don't you move to a less expensive hotel? Or are the PAD occupying all the HK hotels bar they one you're staying in?

While I sympathise with your plight, blaming the protest for you losing 300 quid a day is a bit rich.

Agreed, there are many options to reduce the financial strain. A cheaper hotel is a start, and there are good hotels in HK that go for half and less that rate.

Go to Macao and have a casino subsidize your stay, perhaps get your money back at the slot machines.

Move over to Guangzhou and stay there.

Fly to the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam. All cheaper alternatives.

Considering that the airports may need an additional week or more to be fully operational again, the savings potential is still huge even with another international flight involved.

Looking at the wounds of the "students" (a very loose catch-all term not entirely comparable to a student in the West) it seems like almost accidental, i.e. not targeted. Might as well have been some house wife or jobless alcoholic. "Students" in these days are quite content killing each other and if possible, taking some innocent bystanders with them. I consider this an event that cannot clearly be attributed to an escalation or even to one of the two parties. It has been said already in this thread, but for all we know someone may have been angry at somebody for staring too long at his girlfriend.

When I read the news these days (BK Post and Nation) I feel it would be more helpful for "the cause" if a few journalists would be shot instead.

You are very young which is both good (time on your side) and bad (lack of experience). Here is how it worked for me:

In January 1995 I had been working 2 years for an inspection and certification company (ISO 9001 was very big then). This company had overseas offices and I applied for a job in some of them with the person in charge for international coordination. Six months later I was in Bangkok (I was actually aiming for Vietnam) and worked there until recently, about 13 years.

What I'm saying is that if you research a bit what Canadian companies (or US companies if that would work) are stationed in Thailand or nearby, you can talk to them whether they are looking for expats to work there. For example my company does a lot of business related to the European pressure equipment directive which also involves welder qualification and non-destructive testing of pressure equipment.

You can get much better conditions when you start in your homeland and are sent overseas. With luck you might even be covered by the labour protection mechanisms that would cover you at home.

If you can (since you're young), look for trainee positions in Thailand or Asia. Valuable experience and contacts can be made this way. Upgrade to become a certified welding engineer. One interesting thing is that speaking the local (Thai) language is not important if you go this route, although it can never harm.

Carefully consider this: Once you are there and want to stay there, you are limiting yourself quite a bit. People do the craziest things in the end just to stay in Thailand (or other countries, mostly those where they met their partner/spouse). Hence the advice above to delay and make money first before moving. It increases your options for the future.

Comfortable living in Thailand requires 60-120,000 Baht a month (cheaper is possible but this is what I found missing from my account at the end of each month). If you have found a way to get this much regularly then you can set yourself up. 800,000 US$ put away at 6% will do the trick, and if you can get a steady 12% then half of that will do.

Now my own question would be, has anyone already done this?