Sydebolle

Not sure, this is Thailand after all .........

Run in the other direction. The legal creation of a juristic person, the licensing, the hard- and software of a restaurant - all this is no problem. The problem is the human resources to find the staff you will need. While opening stubbies of beer, slicing lime or putting an ice cube into a tumbler is less of a problem; once it comes to kitchens with food the locals don't eat or are not used to ...... You're almost unable to legalize non-Thai ASEAN citizen to work for you and the agents, "helping" you to find Burmese, Cambodian or Laotian staff against a commission of one to two monthly wages will relocate the "help" once the six months "warranty" are over. Unless you're looking into (21st century) Bangkok, you will also see that most Thais stick to their fare rather than fancy foreign cuisine. Some don't dare to try it, some don't like it and some simply cannot afford it. The price difference of a fried rice to an Italian risotto salsiccia is 1 - 10 so it takes a lot to convince Khon Thai to lean out of the culinary window here. And, to avoid a s*ç%tstorm now, yes I know, an Italian risotto from the plains of river Po with Italian sausage meat is certainly not the same as a fried (round corn Asian) rice with sliced chicken; the latter is using local ingredients, the Italian delight's ingredients come all the way from Bella Italia 😉 Unless you can rely on a steady professional staff base, it will be an endless uphill battle; I gave up after 15 years of HR frustration, sold the place before the pandemic and never looked back ........

Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok and Line - among others - are your hashtag friends. Works wonders but make sure, that you remain non-emotional and that you can prove each and every letter you write and Bob's your uncle! Daily updates on the entire front of social media and, if nothing happened since last posting, then hashtag "not happened again". Cheeky queries like (anyone still alive at their end etc.) helps to build up readership! Good luck!

Without advisor to the Minister of Interior and founder of the “Sai Mai Tong Rod” (Sai Mai Must Survive), this incident would have fizzled away into thin air most likely ....... What is being done to prevent such an accident in the future?

Increase the tax on petrol by 10% and diesel by 5% - take the money and make the public transport network all over Bangkok free of charge. Instead of letting some government goons run the buses etc., outsource the operation to private companies and you will see wonders. Will do away with all those queues, gates and watchmen poking noses or being glued to the the screen of their phones 😉

So this soap opera with a deadly outcome is going into its next season .........

My prayers have been heard and how lucky and glad am I now. The leaders of this country are being nailed for gesture so I assume that this country has not a single other problem to focus on. We're living in paradise where only issues like hand-gestures are being taken up to the highest levels. Well done, Thailand, be proud of yourself!

Legalize gambling, open casinos and you will have your tax income problem solved; easier, quicker and more transparent than trying to kill your golden-egg-laying-geese with worldwide taxation of 35%. The boys in brown will not like it, of course, as they will no longer be able to line their pockets and it might be even more ridiculous to arrest retirees playing bridge in a bridge club - as so happened some years back in Pattaya 😉

I leave it up to your imagination but I certainly know how to deal with stray dogs and whining cats meanwhile. So, while I appreciate your concern and sorrow about me you may rest assured, that I leave in peace next to neighbours without barking, biting, attacking and manuring canine everywhere ...... The problem is "people" and not the unwanted livestock and hence you rid a problem at whatever level is appropriate!

Well, I am looking forward to the challenges which await the Ministry of Finance. Most tax-related documents are in the national language of the issuing country; Korean, Japanese, Spanish, German and French spring to mind. The different accrual of taxation, marred with double taxation treaties and exemption rules throw in extra challenges. And this in a country, where common sense is literally unknown, it is almost impossible to get low skilled labour and a university degree of a local education institute is insufficient to tie up shoe laces? On the other side of the fence, why should Thailand cream off taxes on overseas activities and what is Thailand offering in return like access to health services irrespective of nationality, education for off springs in a Thai educational institute and riddance of a two-tier pricing mania which has taken over everything everywhere? It is an American taxation model - understandable - as the US has a "defense" budget of bordering 900 billion (not million) USD to "defend" their country against the warmongering Mexicans and the aggressive Canadians. The rest of the war chest is burnt in 80 conflicts all over the world just to please the local war gear industry owned by the selected few. You cannot burn money by the pile for submarines, F16s, unnecessary infrastructure projects, airports etc. and then think, that the non-Thai sheep on the way to the financial slaughterhouse will not realize, what really goes on. Thailand could optimize the household budget by billions if not trillions if run by professionals and everybody would get their slice of the tax burden. Tax optimization is the name of the game and only in Thailand they feature "proper tax planning" for the rich as they certainly don't pay 35% taxes on their entire income but benefit of all those little loopholes everywhere. In addition to that nobody asks questions to a higher level in the Phooyai class 8-) Good luck with that one; the wealthier non-Thais are considering leaving and some have left already. Do NEVER forget, that all non-Thais packed up their stuff and moved already once - here namely to Thailand. And there is absolutely nothing those goons in the Thai government can do to prevent, that those very same non-Thais will pack up and move .... again! Those who have left will never return, and instead of letting those non-Thais spend their money straight into the Thai economy the greedies now want to take that cut to the disadvantage of the SMEs. And, as said, once gone, both the government as well as the private industry will see a serious drop in income - trust me on that!

I gave that particular bureaucratic challenge to a travel agency who did all the phones, emails, birth certificates and blood tests against a nominal fee of 1,000 Baht. Money was never spent better, trust me!

Well, all the others are busy in all those watering holes of ill repute with live shows, health institutes like massage places or isles of relaxation called karaoke. I do not know, what this particular foreigner thought (or not thought) but it is certainly not really newsworthy in a country like Thailand with so many "blank" alternatives literally everywhere (albeit against payment then).

Apart from poor entertaining value, can someone tell me, how such self-centered semi-divines are sitting in the driver's seats of this country? Instead of govern and work in the interest of country, flag and people, they are bickering worse than two kids in a kindergarten over who has the stronger father. The hick hack between an old tattering decommissioned general (they have 1,000+ more of those) and a spoilt PhD with a laundromat degree is not only nothing short of ridiculous but you should kick both of them off the political stage - for good that is. The drooling old geezer should realize, that he is of a dying species of Neaderthalers and should shut up while the spoilt kid, whose sacred abilities of "Lourdes" qualities include conversion of flour into illegal substances, should be kept away from any public office. Unclear though remains, how the entire country can silently watch these "leaders" of their country; is Thailand really not able to find anybody more qualified and better focussed on the assignment given to them by the taxpaying voters? Asking for a friend of course 😉

Excellent news then. Wondering now, when the semi-divine government of this country will start applying the same rules for domestic sale of chicken in those huge supermarkets, where fresh chicken parts arrive in huge plastic bags. Slit open, the newly arrived meat is simply poured over the remaining old stuff which, surprise surprise, ensures, that the meat section can also be found in case of power cut and no light, as the "smell" is more of a stench. Addressing the issue in the store resulted in "thank you, we shall take care of it immediately" and, of course, nothing ever happened afterwards. The delightful invitation to view the product in an open chest freezer looks like that these days (see enclosed video)! Same with pallets of boxes containing frozen seafood and fish. Neatly parked into aisles in the frozen food section and ...... left to thaw. It so happened that I had to return a few hours to the same shop again and, to my utter astonishment, the pallets remained unmoved in a puddle of melted water. Here again, the duty manager of the store assured, that this exceptional case will be addressed immediately; 30 minutes later = nothing happened. So adherence to common sense on domestic issues = no have Joe; internationally it requires arm twisting and stringent rules for Khon Thai to implement. Remember Thaksins "frozen chicken for Airbus" some decades ago; when the Europeans sent back countless containers of frozen chicken as some chicken samples featured "avian flu"? So this "Good Hygiene Practices (GHPs) and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system" applies in many cases only on export; if the locals eat substandard if not hazardous food, it is not the export promotion bodies of this country's concern - me thinks! 457239166_8218206184963836_5809053534361878673_n.mp4

A generation ago I would assure friends and acquaintances visiting me in Thailand, that you cannot go wrong with street food. Tasty, freshly cooked by people who have done this for years. Today it is the opposite; Thai food is, more often than not, already cold in huge aluminium pots along the road which has been cooked hours ago and meanwhile went cold. Tons of sugar and MSG is added and youngsters today explain me, that this is how genuine Thai food is cooked not knowing, that I ate here before they were even born. And, in the ratio of sinking quality and quantity the pricing went up even more. I could name dozens of eateries which either went already out of business or "optimized" the cooking to the benefit of owner and/or staff which is getting lazier by the day. Riverside along the Mekong in Nong Khai, in a restaurant they even listed "ice" for drinks with 80 Baht for a small pale while every single drink (small stubbies of local beer) had outside temperature and were undrinkable. The governmental fiddling with salaries and pricing of merchandise has created only havoc in this industry while ensuring, that the supply chain outside fresh markets (or the gruesome wet markets) is monopolized; look at who owns 7/11, Lotus's and Makro ..... to start with. Today's opinion is, that I do not have to leave home for lousy food, I can do better at home; having the time and the fun, I have not eaten any decent Thai food outside in a very long time - unfortunately!

After 40 years in this country I still have to come across a "friendly happy" pack of stray dogs; got attacked and bitten twice with tetanus and rabies vaccinations to follow. You want dogs, then have dogs and take care of them. All the rest a nothing but yet another evidence of carelessness of today's society. As non-vegetarians I also note, that in Northeastern Thailand, Laos and Vietnam they serve dog meat - I might not order it but meat is meat and the rest happens in people's imagination. Pattaya is full of those dog lovers and shelters and strangely enough the biggest problem with stray dogs is ..... also in Pattaya.

https://aseannow.com/topic/1337758-pattaya-search-for-culprit-who-muzzled-10-dogs-with-tape/?utm_source=240910-11?utm_source=240910-11#google_vignette

Well, then I will spray you with a nice red chili spray to drive the point home. Those wild street dogs are a godforsaken nuisance, their manure literally everywhere and barking the whole night. What a nightmare. I called the municipality more than once, they come around and pick-up the whole lot (last time 63 of them) and within months ..... back to Square One. I for one can fully understand, why someone wants to use pepper spray and, in answering to the original question, yes, pepper sprays work wonders. If it is me with a potential tetanus infection through a dog bite or an inconvenient spray of pepper, you can guess what I opt for.

Address him across the coffee shop by throwing him out and clearly state the reason ....... no miracles there!

I travel A LOT, in and out through land borders with Laos. Leaving Nong Khai and re-entering at Pudu (Uttaradit) takes me 3 ½ to 4 hours for the +/- 240 kms. Irrespective of border point, the Thai immigration is online and realtime and updated. Hence running a scan through their database popping out all those who have overstayed their visa is no rocket science. Everything else is ....... Thai style - me thinks 😉

She is in a diving cave full of sharks, lacks the experience and - in all fairness - is a placeholder. Unclear to me is, why people are surprised, two other politicians, namely the Lourdes-candidate converting flour into something else while flying South to Australia, spring to mind who "nominated" his brother. The other gentleman has had some ethic issues and, likewise, delegated his daughter. Carry on the bickering instead of govern and you'll give the boys in uniform all the reasons for the next coup d'état. Latter is no novelty as Thailand went through 21 military coups in less the last 100 years.

It is absolutely irrelevant; the fact is not, that Thaksin is so strong but it clearly proves - over decades now - that Thailand is far, far away from a functioning democracy. If Thaksin can control the country with an invisible remote control while being in "exile" it proves not only his composed, resilient and focussed strength but also the inability of any opposition to be a real opposition. The only thing they can do is bickering around, accusing each other over corruption or disloyalty to the flag. Most have not understood yet, that Thaksin is doing this to reinstate his face, position and reputation which he lost in September 1996 - and we all know, that the face is above absolutely everything to 99.9% of Khon Thai 😉 The rest is levered out by the semi-divine nine men at the equally semi-divine court - as so proven dozens of times already since 1932. So in all honesty, what are you talking about - seriously?

"suspected" - really? A little late in the season, don't you think so? But anyhow, that episode of Thailand's political soap opera was a year ago and hence yesteryear's news. Next please ..........

This slice of undeserved money and extortion might be just a bite too big for the Thai greed. Let's wait and see. I - for one - will be wondering how they will deal with my transfers from overseas as literally all the money I have was earned and duly taxed in Thailand over my 40 years of working life here. But let's cross the bridge once we get there. Of course they need to generate LOTS of cash now, apart from the public debt somewhere around 90% of the country's GDP it is also clear, that if the promised 10,000 Baht (digitally or analogue) are not being paid out anytime soon, then we shall have riots like in 2019. The frustration then was when they threw out 6+ million votes, last year it was more than double with 14+ votes. Latter remain silent for the time being but the tremendous heat is there and will not go out anymore ......... So they need the money for the most idiotic vote buying scheme I've ever seen, apart from the usual corruption on the massive shopping list by the boys in uniform; the latest with the canteen trays at 515 Baht/piece (on a 10,000 pcs order) compared to a walk-in, buy just one, pricing of 335 Baht. Latter will drop definitely below 300 Baht if you place an order of 10,000 pieces - but uniformed Somchai needs his usual cut of anything around 50% ...........

I am soooooooo glad, happy and feel safe over the fact, that this country seems to have no other problems whatever. What a farçe, is anyone - in the government or in the opposition - aware of the fact, that all this manure is accessible from OUTside Thailand as well? What kind of impression does a non-Thai business person, -investor or potential -employer get seeing such stuff? On the other hand it explains, why most government officers operate from under the rock, without any common sense, intelligence or humour. Welcome to the last traces of the Neaderthalers ....... PS: see the fortune teller and get an extravagant explanation on why this will bring down the Sun anytime soon or what it actually means for (un-)lucky lottery numbers 😉