Sydebolle

So Auntie has enough loose change for Japanese food and uncheap proper education not available in the motherland. Well, Auntie got used to the "dirty farang" world and hence seems to be in hurry until certain switches are flipped, certain envelopes moved above or below and everything is happy, mellow and grateful. For how stupid is the Thai electorate taken - seriously?

Professionalism would be to study the needs of tourists and then create the product. The airline or the tourism promotion board does not have to eye around, they have to create the product which, if attractive will have growing numbers of followers. Thailand was "discovered" as an alternative some 40 years ago, prior to that it was more known as a country of ill repute; "Amazing Thailand" campaign was born. Tourists, returning back to their home countries, created the need for Thai food and Thai restaurants in faraway lands and cities; the demand came from returning tourists and not the endeavours of anybody inside Thailand. Nothing has changed to this day; do good and talk about it. Forget about the red light reputation - every country has that. Do away with your racism, your two-, three- and multi-tier pricing policy, stop looking down on other races, stop calling Westerners "rich farang", teach your people English across the hospitality board, simplify your tremendously complicated and corrupt immigration acts. Once a competitive, clean and good product is here, the market will follow - it is called marketing!

How glad am I - this month the "hub" is about aviation with Airbus - looking forward to the celebration of "hub of all hubs" then anytime soon 😉

Well, well, how blind are the boys at the immigration then? Have a look into your fancy computer screens and run a report of all those who are overstaying. The bureaucracy notes the colour of the underwear and the brand of toothpaste of the alien; every ninety days the entire crowd of non-Thais has to make the pilgrimage to the geeks and still some suspects of other countries manage to go undetected for how long? What a joke all this is!

Foreigners 300 Baht vs 40 Baht for the semi-divine grown-ups; alien kids 40 Baht vs. the local brats at 20 Baht. Instead of letting Thais go free; everybody could level with this as it is their country, their heritage, their national park and their museum - while visitors are requested to pay for the up keeping and maintenance. Thai logic resulting in seasoned foreigners turning around. After 38 years living, working and paying taxes in Thailand the following incident might be noteworthy. Road 2331 wanted to charge 500 Baht while my Thai grandson would have sneaked through for 20 Baht. I patiently waited for the staff to hear off the ticket, rip it across to invalidate upon which I put my wallet back and proclaimed a change of mind. The staff went ballistic, well knowing that these two tickets had to paid by the staff. There is only one way to drive the message home - through the wallet. Racism could be avoided by Thais = free, non-Thais = pay; simple as that and practiced in many other countries without argument!

Did not jump off the band wagon when they could have. They know no other life but drinks, smokes, weed and crack and whatever else. Look at Fellini's "La Strada" made in 1953, an epic film wrapping up the situation quite nicely during post war days. So they rather massage some old geeks on a barstool, get them cigarettes and some snacks from across the road for little tips - back home there is nothing waiting for them. Eventual kids are either gone or do not want to deal with them as the kids were pretty much neglected throughout the childhood as far as motherly love is concerned. A vicious circle; instigated by greed, power hunger and face saving - sad actually 😞

Repeating myself; in case of being guilty, then get rid of pedophiles, rapists and drug dealers with a single bullet. Society interests must prevail and you cannot un-rape nor reverse the horrors of a pedophile to a minor! But you can ensure, that this particular individual will never ever be able to do any harm to anyone else in the future; apart from spending millions of whatever-currency. Harsh statement, I know, but while you will not be able to rid the planet completely of such creeps you can get drug dealers to eventually reconsider the professional activities while the others will resort to prostitution or face the gallows - definitely a step in the right direction - me thinks!

Now that makes sense. Bring taxation down to normal levels and you will have much less "tax planning" and outright cheaters to hunt after. 35% income tax is ridiculous compared to what the state offers those pristine tax payers in return; 20% corporate taxation is also more than border line. This will also do away with the planned (over-)taxation of non-Thais. There the mathematics are even simpler. A non-Thai has a pension of, say, THB 40'000/month. If the state takes away 15% (THB 6,000) it means, that this person spends only THB 34,000 and not THB 40,000 into the SME industry of Thailand (food, drinks, rent, entertainment, transport etc.) - in essence the state cuts into the earnings and profitability of the Thai SME. VAT depends on consumption; those consuming more = pay more money whereas the percentage is linear and not progressive. In addition, the VAT system is in place and works (mostly; the convenience stores of Somchai and Yodsak remain excluded but pay at least in-put VAT). If this goes through, then Thailand inched itself closer to the 21st century indeed! Carpe diem!

Let me guess, the fire insurance policy remains updated and paid ..........

What a cheap PR stint by all parties involved. If you are serious about it (and sofar nobody really ever cared) then push for law IMPLEMENTATION. Only stringent adherence with stiff fines, impounding of vehicles and possible free stays in jails will push the subject in the right direction. Not only drivers but car owners have to be held responsible for whatever happens with their vehicles. At the same time get the biggest available hoover out and clean up the police force. Sounds too futuristic? Yes, you're absolutely right. But it certainly serves for some free advertising of doing good. Staggering though to understand, how the British Embassy was gotten involved - a do-gooder with no clue of what happens on Thai roads maybe?

Why don't you get it from the horse's mouth and check with the immigration office which will handle your extension application in due course?

Do-gooders and tree huggers; just make sure you hug the right tree then 😉

As the country is ruled by a congregation of goons they never voted for in the first place ...............

What a joke, three months and 27 days too early - me thinks!

Well, here it is crystalized but in all fairness the procedure is a joke with ALL airlines. You book - they charge IMMEDIATELY. If you do not/cannot pay online (no credit card or online banking) then you're given a time slot of a few hours the most to pay for your online booking. Once it comes to a refund, the situation is completely different. I have NEVER received a refund as fast as I had to do a payment; some airlines took 60 - 90 days while two airlines never gave me the (marginal) dues back. Same with booking platforms of airline tickets; same delays there and they blame the airlines for the delay. Vote with your feet and hit the drums as loud and long as you can. Only like that the airlines might have a look at this absolutely unacceptable behaviour!

If they do it in batches of 72 people at a time then they will be finished towards the end of the next millennium - keep up the good work!

Well, one thing is for sure; money usually does not get lost ........... but ends up somewhere 😉 Just saying!

It is a saying but yes, lots of money got "disappeared" in this rice scheme. For starters some smarties managed to sell some inferiour quality rice - from Thailand and neighbouring countries - at THB 15,000/ton as Thai rice under the governmental rice scheme. Result is that the government later on tried to offload the meanwhile "less than pristine" rice to African countries and a Minister even claimed, that this inferiour rice will not be for the pickier Thai market. If you need some solid figures then I suggest to read up the details from ten years ago, when the whole bubble bursted. I like the "Leo brigade" - we used to call it the stone table warriors on Amarit back in the day - essentially though the same quality assessment.

It is like everything else in this country. The customer does not care, WHY something does not work. The choice of "supplier" is done by the airline and the customer is dealing with the airline. Latter has to take responsibility but, in true Thai fashion, blames a) a third party and b) is not responsible. Only once Thais understand, that irrespective of suppliers, weather, sunshine or black tires - the customer buys a seat to travel from A to B - as offered by the carrier and it remains with the latter to make it work ...... or refund the money. This airline will be paying it straight through its nose and will cost them an arm and a leg - the marketing department must be in overdrive - well done, you goons and clowns in-midst of the Thai aviation circus and keep up the good work.

Good luck he is Italian - aka "dirty farang" or "alien" - otherwise this would have never made the news. Catch him, book him - next please!

Most jobs are botched - not the worst though. The winner are those artificial eye brows tattooed in such a way, that you are not sure if the ink is dry already. Always out for looking "better" than they are born - welcome to Thailand

Just wondering, where all those billions and billions are stashed away. Do these crooks and gangsters know, that at the end of the day of their life, they cannot eat money?

Don't get me wrong but $126 billion is chicken feed. The US figure for "defense" of their borders (with Canada and Mexico, as far as I know) is $882 billion (eight hundred and eighty two billion USD = 882,000,000,000) but yes smaller countries (USA compared to Russia) need much more money to splurge around in all those conflicts all over the world - except defending their own border, for which a "defense" budget is normally applied. Too many loonies running this world and, certainly, Putin is one of 'em! Let's see, what 2025 brings once Trump moved back into the colourless house on 20 January next month!

In any other country of democratic structure it would be called a "CONFLICT OF INTEREST" but the official USA gave the pardoning a completely new and different angle.

As weird as it might sound; let it be. It is not your issue and whatever you do, you will not change anything. Worst case scenario is that some in-laws of the 27yrs old will hunt you down with all possible consequences. The girl is psychologically damaged goods already and there is absolutely nothing you could do to stop/reverse that. Follow the advice of your wife as she is - regretfully - absolutely right.