Sydebolle

The first canonization of a devote Thai citizen following the Buddhist faith! Congratulations. For all the others - that is how the legal system can work in the land of the semi-divine 😉

Try taking while the taking is good - fantastic news back home in PR China for all their outbound tourism to Takeland ..... ahem .... Thailand

An impolite rude non-Thai lost the plot. Incorrect, would call for an apology but is it really newsworthy? I've heard much worse among and between Thais and never ever read anything anywhere. It remains a fact though that Thais are among the most selfish people you can meet. I've had issues in the MRT and the BTS on the subject; all Thais inside the train are glued to their little screens pretending that nothing happens whatsoever around them. A slight touch with a finger to a shoulder and "sorry, please let me pass, will you please?" always did the trick as they are to insecure to say a word and hence - make way. This grouping at the entrance though is not a Thai exclusivity. In some countries they managed to let passengers in at the beginning of the train and the exits are at the back of the train with a separating wall at the respective station. In case of emergency all doors open, otherwise you have to get into the train in the front. Many buses (i.e. Hong Kong) you'd board in the front to pass the driver where you threw in the fare into a cashbox with a transparent window to check, if the correct fare was paid. In Switzerland's past you got into the last door of the trams or busses and passed a sitting conductor selling tickets while the vehicle moved again. And look what can be achieved with a CCTV and a corresponding announcement 😉 Passenger with the juicy melons.mp4

A pristine example of a transparent, clean and direct democracy .......

The 99 years lease will not create extra business to talk about; the backlog of approximately 1.3 million unsold condominium units is nothing but a speculation gone wrong. If you look at the insane and obscene profits those few developers made ........... As said earlier, I'd like to see any condominium after 20, 30 and 50 years; there are such exceptions to the rule of run-down condominium blocks all over town. If the condo become inhabitable, as the sinking fund is not fed, the elevators don't get maintained and serviced, the pool turns into a bio topical laboratory and the tennis court looks like a forgotten potato field ....... the land owner heirs can redo the job all over again and sell again condominiums with a 99 years lease ticket. The digital post-voting token of appreciation to the voter - with the compliments of pre-dominantly Bangkok's tax payers - is another thing but it will allow the rest of the crooks to keep buying more submarines, Air Force toys, tanks and just some more warfare equipment. Good for those insecure petties suffering from severe inferiority complex lining their pockets but then again - that is and remains a Thai domestic affair. Trying to finance this with (meanwhile failed) arrival taxation of tourists or re-taxing already taxed pensions of all those retirees (latter being the highest spenders in the land) are all attempts to quick-fix a monetary abyss which has deepened over the last decades. The bottle neck is always on top of the bottle; slow steps in getting Thailand towards the 21st century would be appreciated 😉

Absolutely impossible lies across the board. There is no prostitution, corruption, extortion, overpricing, dual pricing and ripping off everybody left, right and centre! All this is forbidden by law and hence, of course, it cannot exist anywhere in Thailand in general and in Pattaya in particular. Pattaya is a holiday destination for families and well known for its temples and butterfly farms (pun intended)! Legalize prostitution and tax them (for the submarines and the digital cash shortage); how many of all these people live directly and indirectly (supplying food and beverage, hotel operators, utility providers etc.) of an open city? Nobody puts up a temple next to a gogo bar and nobody puts up a gogo bar next to a temple!

They've done it again; the joke of the week reading - this week - as follows: "Lease condominiums for 99 years, aiming to stimulate the real estate sector, which has over 200,000 unsold units". With some very few exceptions I could not recall a majority of condominiums which were built 50 years ago in Thailand. Why should anyone want to lease something (s)he will never own, will be completely in ⅓ or the lease period if you can rent something. Just yet another excuse of "government facilitated everything so it is not the government's fault". Clean up your racism on all levels, abolish all this nonsense and start treating everybody the same irrespective of race, religion, ethnic background etc. For the time being Thailand applies "everybody is the same except some are samer than others" - even among their own tribes ......

Sorry but I honestly query the statement of "100,000 participants took part in a June 11 to 25" which would have been to ask 7,000+ people every day. There must be a political script behind all this smoke screen (pun intended)!

Hygiene again! But grossly misused to scare the s"*ç%*t out of people instead of educating people on the grassroots level basics of life; on all sides of the borders

Facing 14,780 years of a Thai slammer? The story might feature a flip side. The official punishment is 20,000 Baht fine and one year banned from entering Thailand. The rest is left to imagination

It remains valid as stipulated within the re-entry visa stamp, usually with red ink in the centre of the visa.

Ha, this will send another few tens of thousands of retirees packing. These retirees are net spenders of an income/pension which got taxed once already. And, as the saying goes, once they turn away they will never come back. So get prepared to see only South Asians, Chinese and other quality tourism, long term or resident!

a) Thailand does not need it, it is the goons running it b) two years ago, if at all, they got a brand-new to from Airbus for billions of Baht which took almost a year to commission the plane in Airbus' facility in Hamburg/Germany c) maybe the boys in uniform could name those "important" people; this list must exclude the crown d) how do they intend to finance that seeing the big red figures everywhere with unfulfilled promises of 10,000 Baht per Thai above 16 years of age and they have not the slightest clue how to finance this while no bank would be willing to borrow the money e) for all the wrong reasons they've tried all funny hat tricks like a tourism landing fee of 300 Baht and scared away hunderts of thousands of non-Thais with taxation hatchets on the entire assets and income of them. This already killed much more foreign exchange coming into Thailand then the above list of toys.

In other places in the Kingdom people pay money for essentially the same activity - albeit without fried rice or noodle soup 😉

A) I am fluent in Thai B) I asked him politely to park his bike further down C) he replied "up to you" D) I would have done exactly the same with a foreigner - nothing to do with race, religion or gender

You're looking for a housekeeper with benefits ..........

Let's all rush to the airport to get wasted on those days then ........

... like wings, breasts (with or without skin), drum sticks - the works. What would you call it?

Every day is school day; until now I was - wrongly so - of the firm belief, that Pattaya's beach road Soi 6 was an area infamous for other clandestine activities.

Never came across more selfish people than the semi-divine Khon Thai 😉

Please meet the new Minister of Stone Age Affairs, an offspring from the Neaderthal breed called Teera Watcharapranee. I consider Burma/Myanmar much more Buddhist than Thailand; you also find followers of Buddhism in Laos and elsewhere; the only country banning booze is ......... Thailand. It serves to ooze power by the semi-divine superior government and nothing else. Needless to say that drinks as usual are being served at remote border post between Thailand and Laos or Cambodia; on querying it the Thai officers unisono said that the booze came from their neighbours on the other side of the border. Excellent news for tourism as well. If luck has it, there are Buddhist holidays and some pre- and main election weekends ahead where the dirty farang cannot get a drink during their holidays. Explain that prehistoric law to them - although some of them will be opting to go elsewhere.

I don't understand the problem. Get some truck, upload the bikes and wheel them over to a guarded parking next to a police station and release these bikes against proof of ownership and a fine of 500 Baht (or higher). Within a week the problem is solved and half a million Baht is in the piggy bank - as simple as that! I parked my car nicely and upon leaving the car, a motorbike drove into the space between the car in front of mine and my car; switched off the engine, left the key in the lock and walked away. When I asked him to move the bike elsewhere he returned to take the ignition key along. I did my business and returned to the car; the bike as still there. So I simply rolled out the bike into the road, got into the car and drove off - leaving a honking crowd of angry car drivers behind me who we getting excited over that selfish biker leaving his bike in the street. Thais tend to bend and break each and every law; the biggest problem in this country is its own people on all levels 😞

As far as extensions and/or new constructions are concerned; keep an eye on projects handled in the past and learn from them: Korat/Nakorn Ratchasima - new airport with zero flights; going back to the old Air Force base between the zoo and much closer to town Betong - two airports = zero flights Chiang Rai - an absolutely unnecessary new airport was built to replace the (meanwhile empty) old airport Phrae - no flights Pai - no flights and that's how the list goes on. Just keep in mind, that these airports costs billions of Baht and serve not only passengers. Maybe they should have a word with privately owned airlines; they - after all - will have to handle the traffic. A pristine example was Prayuth's push for a new airport in Betong (border to Malaysia) by arm-twisting Nok Air. They started to fly and once they realized that they could not even generate the ground handling fees with their revenues they ........ stopped silently again. Nobody ever complained as the 15 minutes of fame were over 😉 Same with Chatichai Choonhavan's Indochina aviation hub in Korat; what an absolute joke ......

It's not the packaging (box vs. bottle) but rather what you put into the packaging. It's called the science of "oenology" and a component in wines called sulfites, a preservation method known by the Romans already. Most cheaper wines here are poorest quality or then alcoholized fruit juice made of imported pulp etc. And, before the manure-storm starts, products like Mont Clair have absolutely nothing in common with what is called wine. The Thai government ensured in its eternal wisdom - once more again - that the wines are completely overpriced and hence the selection is prorated accordingly. The government-enforced closing of duty free shops on arrival put another nail into that coffin; the wine prices (as so announced earlier on) still have to drop a lot. Only once Thailand understands, that imported stuff can be better than the local fare and hence not to be slapped with "protective" duties and taxes. Thai wines are no match to anything grown in the old or the new (wine) world, same with cider and certain imported specialty beers. In closing, same applies with cheese or cured meats; try to imagine the revolution if the Western world would slap a 400% duty on Thai cheese, wines or Isan sausages ......... In closing, drink less of the cheaper stuff or have it "hand carried" from the Cambodian border at a fraction of the price 😉

a) beans are not staple food b) a kilogramme of fresh local tomatoes are priced at 85 - 100 Baht per kilogramme (staple food) c) a kilogramme of fresh chicken parts can cost less than a kilogramme of tomatoes d) Tilapia fish can cost less per kilogramme than tomatoes or local asparagus (250 Baht/kg) e) you can easily do the beans treat yourself; it requires an activity called cooking If this is the only problem of the couple then happy days are, indeed, here again 😉