Sydebolle

I had a restaurant for many years and in regular intervals I got email offers to "boost" Tripadvisor ratings. For USD 400 the offer claimed 400 four and five star ratings from all over the world. I reported that to Tripadvisor and their laconic answer was, that there is nothing they could do about it. Well, for one, if you use i.e. Agoda as a booking platform for an accommodation, the rating window opens only, if you paid for the service - here an overnight stay. Unlike Tripadvisor, where every Tom, Dick and Harry can vent his spleen. A simple system would have been to scan the receipt of the meal in question to be submitted together with the rating. Best is and remains word-of-mouth ....... me thinks!

Bottom line is simple "8.2 million baht is the going price for keeping the shrimp prices low" and the decision makers (to burn the 8.2 million) did not even see a single lower-priced shrimp either ????????????????????????

How many women among the five pictured? They certainly have "shoulder" qualities ????

If it ever happens, and that is a very big IF , then the Chinese will do it. Too big, too complex for the Thai government (irrespective of who habitats the government house); latter only interested in the massive kick-backs. Here the question comes of course, if and how Singapore would react as it would take the entire transit East-West out of the equation for them. And, in all fairness, having seen both the Thai and Singaporean way of operating ports, the Thais are generations behind ????

Correct, Thailand should focus on quality tourism - quality over quantity. The visa-free country should get 45 days instead of 30 - covers 90+ % of all travelers in that group. The group of those countries requiring visas will not change. Immigration to be massively lightened by all this unnecessary burden of bureaucracy, forms, blue-inked photocopies, photographs etc. etc. etc. Do away with TM6 (only applicable now for overland arrivals), hence of no statistical value any longer as the majority arrives by air. Do away with TM30 as more than half the Thais do NOT live at their registered address (see bureaucracy as well). Do away with the 90 days nonsense, it gives Thailand and East German STASI taste - to say the least! Ultimately, train all immigration officers in English to a conversational level - it is scary how poor their English can be!

Correct, Thailand should focus on quality tourism - quality over quantity. The visa-free country should get 45 days instead of 30 - covers 90+ % of all travelers in that group. The group of those countries requiring visas will not change. Immigration to be massively lightened by all this unnecessary burden of bureaucracy, forms, blue-inked photocopies, photographs etc. etc. etc. Do away with TM6 (only applicable now for overland arrivals), hence of no statistical value any longer as the majority arrives by air. Do away with TM30 as more than half the Thais do NOT live at their registered address (see bureaucracy as well). Do away with the 90 days nonsense, it gives Thailand and East German STASI taste - to say the least! Ultimately, train all immigration officers in English to a conversational level - it is scary how poor their English can be!

Well, what does it cost the taxpayer to keep these two monsters alive for a month - considering their relative young life? Who guarantees that they will get to reason and never ever do such a thing again? There are three reasons for death penalty; rape, murder as a guardian (be it old people or young children) and drug dealers. You do not make these crimes "unhappen" but they will never ever be committed by the same people. Life sentence, no parole, limitations of 25 years etc. etc. etc. - Fact is, that there is hardly anyone serving the full "life" sentence and I wonder, how big the "repetition" case is. After X years in the slammer they had enough time to build up even more evil and hatred. We might have to agree to disagree on this!

Just imagine, they let him in jail for the next few years ....... out of sight. They could do what they wanted, plunder more troughs and the electorate would not really care. His party is toast anyhow .........

Naps 'r us then!

The Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Romans all the way through the Inquisition, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, Kim Il Sung, Pol Pot or Newin had one thing in common. They scared their underlings for power and, regretfully, were mostly successful. Covid 19 was no different; most governments misused this highly contagious flu to scare the "*ç% out of people and creamed off zillions of dollars in "fighting" against humanity's nemesis. This planet has been facing the ever-evolutionary flu, all originating from the virological family of corona. Knowing what we know now about "Covid 19" these days, it is up to each and every individual to query the serious threat to society based on "two new cases" of a flu virus. Latter is evolutionary and will do everything to survive by adopting continuously. Every North European or North American can confirm, that flu is, predominantly, a standard "winter nuisance"; some years you come down with the flu, other years your body manages to sail through without impact. Every year a few hundred thousand (mostly elderly or people with health pre-conditions) regretfully die on health deficits which are facilitates by the weakening of an evolving flu virus. "Pure" flu deaths exist as well but it is almost impossible to put a percentage on that small number. I took the public statistics of an European country and compared the total number of citizen living in the country and compared the total number of deaths in the same country - over 20 years. And, guess what, no spikes nowhere. Before you would die of cancer or heart weakness, the last few years you saw "Covid" in lieu of the afore-mentioned. It is like AIDS, nobody dies of AIDS but the body's weakening due to AIDS facilitates the death which a person might avoid, if NOT infected with AIDS. In closing, be careful and keep an eye on your health but keep the whole subject within reason and common sense. Two cases in a population of 70+ million ...........? The blackmailers now will refer to "it always starts with two cases" - your call!

Despite being critical about how business is handled here; such surcharges are not permitted and I never ever came across a vendor trying to add commissions and fees. There are "cash only" deals, clearly marked - that is OK. Anything else you can take up with your credit card partner; mind you though that American Express is a charge card and not a credit card and vendors flatly refuse AMEX cards for its outrageously high commission to be borne by the vendor.

I was late once (2022) and fined officially THB 2,000 - in Chonburi that was.

I think it is simply impossible after 10,000 kilometres only - although these air filters do not cost a fortune to replace.

Whatever the do-gooders and tree huggers opinion; the death sentence would have served society much better than feeding these two monsters for the rest of their lives. It must be the objective of society's gate keepers to ensure the safety. Rid the society from such terrible monsters - once and for good. You will not make anything unhappen but those two would never ever create trouble again and the taxpayer would be not unhappy too!

I would start with some clean up among all those unsolved murder cases ..... might be more effective than glass and aluminium together. Latter is definitely the poorer choice as far as environment issues are concerned and many beer drinkers might agree to the fact, that a beer from a can tastes not as good as from a bottle .........

The entire new placement of government is a poor soap opera and as it does not essentially correspond to the electorate's votes it is possibly not the best of soap operas. Thailand did better in the past and that includes the endless production and broadcasting of ..... soap operas!

Maybe someone resorts to a final solution; this guy has been in the (bad) news for a very, very, very long time -

Well, everybody must eat ..........

Decades ago there was one "wing" near the zoo, more than enough "airport" for the post-Indochina-war. That airport was planned and built by the Americans. Then a second airport was built some 30kms east of Korat which was and is a total waste of money. No capillary infrastructure and certainly questionable if shuttling by car is not more convenient and certainly faster. Now a third aerodrome - for how stupid do these politicians take the electorate, honestly? I don't mind as I do not pay for it (any longer) but it shows - new pigs at the same old troughs nicely kept filled by the taxpayers ????

Sutin Klungsang might want to keep his uniform ironed; not only as MP but the next coup is eventually around the corner much faster than all those chair occupants in the government want to believe.

Shut down the access to Facebook - civil war of unknown proportions; what would all those Thais do during "working" hours instead? Same same with Line! The ministry goes over the moon over "online cheating" of Thais by Thais; I could act as a perfect raconteur on all those stories, where Thais shortchanged alien for much, much more money and fraud - without Facebook and other virtual platforms ...... Educate your people and the problem is solved .......... if a deal is too good to be true, then it usually ............. you know the script!

Thailand's tourism does not need a boost with cheaper airfares. The medieval immigration, its endless and counter productive bureaucracy and - more often than not - inability to speak anything else but Thai ........ Clean up the mess on visas and define a clear policy on which countries needs a visa after a visa-free period of, say, 45 days - no "tourist" stays longer than that. All other non-workers fall into a second category; bring proof of financial means and health insurance against a fee of, say THB 5'000, which covers the visa and an automatic multiple re-entry permit. Forget the 90 days reporting joke; millions of Thais do NOT live at their registered address. Push banks to allow non-residents to open a normal savings account with an ATM-fee as some 30 years ago, when tourists parked their holiday money and withdrew it whenever and wherever they needed cash. Do away with two-tier pricing (Thais 20 Baht, Foreigners 400 Baht to pass through Khao Yai National Park) as it creates a clear message of "we do not want foreigners". Last not least, run all cartoons and kiddies programs in their original language (Japanese or English); within 15 years every child will speak and understand at least two languages - free of charge - which will be more than welcome by the tourism operators. When growing up with two or more languages, any additional language comes much easier. All this of course only, if you want the dreaded alien money WITH service as, quite obviously there is little to no alien cash if the latter choses to go elsewhere and Thailand certainly made sure, that millions of non-Thais have looked and found very acceptable if not better alternatives ????

How interesting; there must be quite some cash to be made by those innocent tourists. Thainess at its best ????

It is "tourists falling from sky" season already again? Usually more popular in Pattaya and, to a lesser extend, in Bangkok. I stand corrected!

The HS customs tariff code 920290 covers normal guitars without electronics or amplification. 92079010 is for electric guitars. If it is used you might hand carry it; I've had visitors traveling with their guitar .....