Sydebolle

Ben Cardin is well advised, to keep his well-meant advice to himself. Thailand's sovereignty has always been influenced by the US, not once to the benefit of the country. He might be right but it remains with the democratically elected people in the driver's seat to decide. If their decision is not what the voters want, then let the voters take the necessary steps and action. Any influence from the outside is uncalled for and, coming from the US, has always to be taken with salt; not a pinch but a 50lbs bag instead!

If it was not a mechanical failure then I wonder, why I have to go and retest my driving skills including a two hours video (yaaawwwn) viewing and a ridiculous brake test, lining up two sticks and a colour blindness attest. If it was a mechanical failure, fine the tour agency which, in turn, can take the garage to the cleaners. But, me idiot, I completely forgot, this is Thailand! All OK, fish the van out of the pond, quick fix any visual damage, dry the upholstery and put Somchai back behind the steering wheel 🙂

Define "essential expenses". I see gardeners trimming bushes and trees with two smart phones, either one costing certainly more than they would earn in a month. I see kiddies with motorbikes with all sorts of fancy nonsense on their bikes but no money for a helmet. I see cars with lucky draw car plates costing sometimes more than the vehicle those plates are affixed to. Only once you educate your people, that they: - have to work for money and - they can only spend the money they have only then you'll get the majority of the Thai people out of this financial death trap. My wife bought a plot of land for 2.5 million; the balance of a bank credit on the plot by the predecessor was 1.8 million. The initial loan was 500,000 Baht and they must have made some payments in the ten years between the loan taken and the land sold. The comment of the seller was, that they got 600,000 Baht for a plot of land they paid (with said loan) of 500,000 Baht. The real juicy cut was taken by the bank though but the seller did not understand that.

For once I am on the same sheet as Kim Jong un, mainly because the chances of triggering off an open war between Europe and Russia are considerably fewer than under Harris. It remains with the American voters to decide but if Harris makes it, then Europe is most likely lost as the US war gear industry by the chosen people will not stop at anything. Trump is the lesser evil, the one-eyed among the blinds but .... as said, the Yanks have to choose

If the Thais would have kept their mouth shut, the advertisement would have not reached 10% of today's figure. Thais still have to understand that there is no negative advertisement; obviously all those who did not even know about this advertisement now will actively scan Youtube, TikTok and whatever other platforms there are.

"Clean up the seedy side of the industry" - maybe the minister is something like 50 - 60+ years behind schedule in "cleaning up". The industry was always very "flexible"; remember the "Turkish Bath" network of "Happy Happy Landing" running sometimes 24/7 - for good reason? No need to mention in, it is there and makes billions of money; some of which feeds the underlings in charge of "hunting down" those nasty culprits - me thinks!

Pichai should know, that Thaksin's omnipresence has run this country for the last 25+ years. He might ask himself, why Thaksin's popularity remained so strong despite being off Thai soil for 16 years and thrown out of politics for 18 years. It does not only take a strong Thaksin but a very weak counterpart in politics, if at all in existence. Thaksin is the Robin Hood of the no-haves in Northern and Northeastern Thailand and even the Bangkokians have understood, that Thaksin might be the one-eyed among the blind. If you look at the muppets shows which ran the country even Pichai might understand ........ why!

You're moving onto very thin ice with such questions on the terms. The shortsighted nature of all those goons who desperately wanted to get close to the trough did not realize last year, that the deal cooked up with Thaksin will backfire big time. Interesting weeks ahead so get the popcorn out; its showtime all over again 😉

The government reflects the image of an unattended teacherless room full of small naughty kindergarteners - how ridiculously dangerous reading all those names of dinosaurs and their naughty offsprings!

If he would stop whining over his "misfortune", grow up and apply in the private industry, then he would realize, that: - a five- to sixfold salary is paid to qualified candidates who NEVER would take a government job - a government job, specially in Thailand, is safe haven for most of the least qualified who need to blow their own trumpet. The government's offices are filled with absolutely useless, non-common-sense goons wasting their, the government's as well as the Thai citizens time and money. The Thai government is nothing but a huge temple of inefficiency! So, once your tears have dried, take the finger out from your backside and get moving then but, for crying out loud, stop whining like a little baby who has lost its favourite toy

The whole Middle East with their totally wrapped-in women fly to Bangkok for all sorts of medical treatments; some of the "less cheap" hospitals have sign boards in Arabic on each and every floor, prayer rooms and loos. Banning Thaksin is nothing but making it crystal clear "who is who on the banana boat". The dinosaurs cooked up a deal a year ago to get the second most popular party into power and hence be able to form an 11-party coalition. The second biggest party was puppet mastered by who? It was a delicate situation keeping the dinosaurs in place and Thaksin out. So they just cooked up a deal - et voilà! Thaksins commitment comes to an end in three weeks - let's wait and see, if autumn will be as interesting as to keep the folks off the road for the next series of political soap operas? Anutin waits in the wings, Chalerm popped up again with his three little sweetheart sons and Thammanat is having his 15 minutes of fame as well. As said, get the popcorn out, it will be a splendid season of the "Ministry of Musical Chairs" again 😉

And the same country's GDP depends heavily on tourism, really? While I do not smoke nor vape, the sheer statement of facing fines of up to 30,000 baht or, in severe cases, a prison sentence of up to 10 years, is self-explanatory. If the authorities are too stupid to tax this stuff like everything else (booze, tobacco and luxury items spring to mind) ............ Levy normal taxes on it and the subject becomes obsolete as then you have a justifiable explanation for fines in this fine country 😉

In line with democracy, this question is to be answered by the American voters and by them alone. Everything else can be watched and you may think about it. We cannot expect America to stick to its own borders, geographically and mentally and, at the same time, start babbling into their domestic affairs. Of course I have my thoughts, fears and worries but it is up the Yankees!

Most likely she is a lesbian - run, while you can as you're dreaming - me thinks!

a) the big bucks are lost by King Power and only second in a row is b) AOT is not getting their cut on rent and commission for doing absolutely nothing which c) makes Thai Duty Free shopping very expensive; some luxury consumer goods (i.e. watches) can be bought cheaper duty paid in town during some promotions d) I personally think, it is a smoke screen for the fact, that possibly e) the little brown manillas were not adequately filled to the expectations of the licenser, but we shall see, if f) in the future they will celebrate a big re-opening with fanfares by the Ministry of Tourism, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Funny Hats Stay tuned!

Welcome to Neanderthal ...... has anyone told him that the present year is to be found in the 21st century? As if such a change would make a difference

The TAT boys might be more than careful with yet another strange idea of theirs. Carrefour was the former partner of Big C and, like Makro International, Tesco-Lotus or Auchan - just to name a few, de-invested in Thailand, packed and left. The opening games of the Olympic Games 2024 was a cluster"*%çk - to put it mildly. Big corporations withdrew their sponsorship already, we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars here. The first time in history, a country ridiculed its culture, religion and heritage on the world's biggest stage ever. You may follow any religion; the Europeans (which includes France) tend to be Christians. The way the took the "last supper" to the cleaners, this gender-woking around with transgender, a school girl and a fellow without underwear - all in the context of Christianity's "last supper" was an ultimate insult to literally everybody. Now, as we know, there is no bad advertisement but here, in this case, I am not too sure. I - for one - just wait for the Pope to vent his spleen. Try to imagine this scenario with another religion such as Islam? Hence, for once, TAT might be advised to walk away and not getting tied up with the same bunch of "weird marketing specialists" to put it mildly!

As long as all those search engines are less than accurate ......... it remains obvious, that the speed of delivery is not on the top position of the priorities. In general the delivery times are excellent and predictable but some money should be invested in more accurate search tools. Sometimes the output is so completely off the goal, that it has a more than entertaining character 😉

They are all medieval, live with it!

There will be many more foreclosures coming our way in the near future. If people only would understand, that they cannot spend money they do not have .........

Samak got fired from his prime minister assignment over a cooking show on TV, when he was given a ridiculous small amount for the taxi fare (standard procedure with that TV station apparently). As PM he was not allowed to work anything else against payment. So 14 August does not come as a surprise, me thinks. What I really appreciated though is Dr T's statement of "him openly sharing, that he will continue to depend on the government's monthly elderly subsidy of 700 baht) as so reported by Thai PBS.

Average spending of 3,600 Baht per person over three days? Must be the excellent weed they seem to smoke in those offices again ..........

Well, well, what do you know. Chalerm was a serious boozer back in the day and I assume he got cross not being invited to Dr T's birthday party yesterday - hence the anger. Not only the missing booze but the loss of face under one of his dozens of luxury cars parked somewhere on the Thonburi side of the capital 😉

Kompong Som was the name of the port back in the day. The Khmer Rouge stronghold were from Kampot all the way along the Thai border to Pailin. Of course lots of stuff got over the green border; weapons in and refugees out. But the main supplies were wheeled in through Buriram and Surin and I remember those military conveys moving towards the border then. I assume, that they were not shuttling kiddies biscuits then either 😉

Aha, a bill against themselves - how interesting is that ........