Sydebolle

Bought and sold many cars through FB. The editing-out of the registration plates happens, I never understood why though. I offered cars with complete pictures of all pages of the car registration but edited out my personal details, pictures from the outside of the car from each 45º angle (what you also do for an insurance application), all doors open, interior, lit-on dashboard (for mileage), open bonnet for engine details. Never took a down payment and never paid a down payment; met the buyer/seller with a mechanic of my confidence at the department of land transport and transferred the car against full payment of agreed price. It helps to get fully informed on what paperwork is required for the transfer from Thai-Thai, Thai-Nonthai or Nonthai-Thai. Usually started after lunch, looked/testdrove the car, started transfer at 14h30 and was always finished 30 minutes later. A roadworthiness certification is mandatory so the seller should get that done the same day; usually takes five minutes. Never bought nor sold a turkey - simple as that.

We're back on the perpetual loop of immigration confusions - really boosting tourism indeed .........

The kettle and the pot story springs to mind ......... Pheu Thai requests "explanations"? Really?

Maybe keep some AI material in the land, there is dire need of it literally everywhere .......

And Prayut, back in the day, who never took a taxi in his whole life most likely, was fighting Grab, Bolt, Uber and whatever-else with hands and feet to protect the poor cabbies of Bangkok. Apparently there are more than 90,000 vehicles registered in Bangkok and in 50% of the time you're getting scammed with an "upgraded" meter, a unnecessary detour due to a non-existing construction site or an obvious hearing problem when asking for taking the elevated highway (coming in from Don Meuang at Din Daeng is a classic "overhearing area") rather than the snail way or "forgetting to run the meter". Last not least, no change - sorry. Years ago I took a cab in heaviest rain over a short distance, flag fall was 35 Baht and did not inch any higher to destination due to the short distance, as said. No change for a hundred, sorry, was the cabbie's comment. So I offered him three solutions; 1st one drive around the block until we are close to 100, 2nd just wait until the meter inched its was to near hundred or 3rd recheck the change in the various pockets around the driver's seat. Guess what, 10 seconds later - et voila - there was change ;-)

Well, well, why does this not really come as a surprise. Apart from the pleasure of getting patted down by Somchai or Apinya it will also create another hundreds of jobs for the crown which spent 6 years in primary, 6 years in secondary and then another 4 years in university with a degree in political science or business administration. Lovely indeed!

Attempted murder - 1st degree! Book the fellow for life and throw the keys away .......

And then they are surprised, that hundreds of thousands of retirees have packed already and moved elsewhere, be it Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka or Bali. What a joke, seriously!

Why on Earth would you do this? Best case scenario = boring for either or both who do not want to socialize. Worst case scenario = they bond and you're in the Mariana Trench ...........

Reviewing the shopping list of the government as far as submarines are concerned, reviewing the priority list of a bridge to Samui and other ideas spring to mind. So, be honest, and do not misuse the "elderly ticket" for smoke screening matters again :-(

Absolute nonsense, Pattaya is visited for its natural beauty, lovely surroundings, quiet and healthy environment and considered a family destination of the top league. There is no such thing like prostitution, corruption and all those other nasty things .....

Late 80s and the nineties - hands down!

The only whining folks will be the experts in forums like this one here. The Thais could not give a flip and know how to handle this without running dry - so nothing new then in Stonehenge country ;-)

Call the sitting deputy prime minister for consultations on how he managed to walk after four years in an Aussie slammer for some flour he took along to Australia .....

Never understood, not understanding it now and possibly never in the future as well. Quantity is one thing, quality another. Thailand downgraded the quality of their tourism business steadily over the last 20 years. Rather have five million of the upper crust than 40 million zero-dollar experts. The flip side of the Thai coin would be the Kingdom of Bhutan and they make X times more money per capita, sustainable quality tourism. Thais became too greedy, the quality dropped on par with the price increases; unjustified difficultation of Thai bureaucracy and still not understood, that not the whole world runs "Thai" style. TIT is out but hammer that into those tourism geeks at all those agencies - to start with.

Well, well, it is another five days to final Election Day - drum up the forces to show every Tom, Dick and Harry, how well the Thai government "protects" it sovereignty, people and culture. Lets see the situation in a few weeks; once the cards are on the table - rien ne va plus - like in the Casinos ;-)

Good riddance; hopefully you learnt something out of this story. Latter being repeated hundred thousands of times on a yearly basis in Thailand. Look forward and keep your wallet closed, unless you want to be the perpetual ATM machine ......

Bunch of imbeciles - sorry. I have never understood what British or German soldiers under the NATO flag are doing in the dunes of the Middle East, Afghanistan etc. In addition to that, the Germans are by law not allowed to be involved in military activities except defense of their own borders. I must have slept properly in geography lessons as I cannot recall Iraq, Afghanistan and other beautiful places bordering Germany ...... Trump proclaimed that the US entered the WW2 European theatre to liberate Denmark from the Germans; absolute nonsense. The US got caught with their knickers down on 7 December 1941 in Pearl Harbour. The ultimate involvement in Europe did not serve Denmark or any other European country - the US simply wanted to stop the Western expansion by the Soviets under Stalin. Latter would not have happened anyway but it gave the US the reason to activate the Jewish typewriter relating to war compensation payments by European states. And for all those, who think America is such a friendly peace keeper and police guard of the planet, the enclosed list (incomplete) shows their unilateral attacks in military invasions since WW2: ■ Japan: 6. und 9. August 1945 ■ Korea and China: 1950–1953 (Korea war) ■ Guatemala: 1954, 1960, 1967–1969 ■ Indonesia: 1958 ■ Cuba: 1959–1961 ■ Congo: 1964 ■ Laos: 1964–1973 ■ Vietnam: 1961–1973 ■ Cambodia: 1969–1970 ■ Granada: 1983 ■ Lebanon: 1983, 1984 (attacks on Syria and Lebanon) ■ Libya: 1986, 2011, 2015 ■ El Salvador: 1980 ■ Nicaragua: 1980 ■ Iran: 1987, 2025 ■ Panama: 1989 ■ Iraq: 1991 (golf war), 1991–2003 (american invasion), 2003–2015 ■ Kuwait: 1991 ■ Somalia: 1993, 2007–2008, 2011 ■ Bosnia: 1994, 1995 ■ Sudan: 1998 ■ Afghanistan: 1998, 2001–2015 ■ Yugoslavia: 1999 ■ Yemen: 2002, 2009, 2011, 2024, 2025 ■ Pakistan: 2007–2015 ■ Syria: 2014–2015 ■ Venezuela 2026 More to come until the US either reasons up or implodes on its trade and monetary policies with the petrodollar ;-)

The Gokteik Viaduct is not completely destroyed, the trestle has taken a (junta invoked) hit, can and will be prepared. The damage was to discredit the various freedom fighters - nothing new there either - unfortunately. If you want to take a virtual trip across this most magnificent witness of public work construction, which opened 125 years ago to the public, then you can visit the following two clips which I uploaded some time ago. Not professional videos but it will revive memories for sure ;-) Mandalay-Lashio Express 131; Goktheik Viaduct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW6hI0Wg2Dw Lashio-Mandalay Express 132; Goktheik Viaduct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLauO7nPNKE

A workshop, not with the uncles and aunties in the village of course - nothing goes wrong and there is, believe it or not, some professionalism in this land as well .......

Arrest him, take him to court, let him pay for damages and eventually serve a small holiday at the Phuket Hilton and then throw him out of life. Only newsworthy as it is an alien.

Nope Sir, you're barking up the wrong tree - I took Australia as an example as I had just read about all this lately. For argument's sake you could have taken any other country so go back to your barbie and enjoy Australia's most quaffable wines and beers while you are at it ;-)

No, I am certainly not qualified to qualify the mission or its participants. My point however was a completely different one; read my original posting. It was about the goals of this mission which should be much more than just to find out, if the moon is still there after 50 years? Given your words I could conclude however that the thousands of young men and all other American-Amercians should stand back to give the "segregated members of society" a chance? Equal nonsense of course but the genders and ethnic race cannot be the overpowering reason behind such odyseeys - or am I wrong here as well?

Certainly agreeing on your input; and yes, it remains a fact that "caretaking" is an easier ticket. 35 years ago, when politics was a boiling pot of led again, Anand Panyarachun coached Thailand twice through troubled waters as a caretaker PM on behest of HM Rama IX. No political ties, no political career, a successful business executive with 20 years of experience in the diplomatic service whose only interest was to calm the political tides which have created havoc over Thailand since 1932. Future will tell; I - for one - am not betting on anything as ....... betting is illegal in Thailand ;-)

Well, well, "WAR ROOM" - what a solution to a very, very simple problem. Instead of analyzing, what the Thais provide as tourism products and compare this with what others do, they want to establish yet another money pit, this time a war room to tackle tourism. It has been listed over and over and over again; of course nobody in the Land of Funny Hats and Rubber Ducks cares and now the chicken come home to roost. Clear up the absolute avalanche of bureaucracy in immigration and visa policy, boil it down to a few, simple to understand, visa types. Forget all that nonsense with so-and-so many visa exemptions, the digital arrival/departure system (no Western country has time for such nonsense), the TM30 and the draconian consequences for the tourist, if the Thai hospitality partner fails to do their jobs. Stop the nonsense with prohibiting AirBnB, get the cabbies to understand basic English, fine doctored taxi meters, do away with multi-tier pricing for visiting sites or medical services and reverse the increasing number of Thais not speaking any foreign language. Serving foreigners should be a pride but the disinterest everywhere combined with the rip-off almost everywhere ......... does not require a war room but common sense and some professionals at the helm of all those money-wasting organizations, clubs, associations and congregations. And, if you are it, have a word with this imbeciles at the BTS and the denial of issuing prepaid rabbit cards for tourists - just a hint for all those dozens of experts moving into the war room while we speak ;-)