Sydebolle

It might be smoke-screening over the recent trip of the sitting PM to get Thai citizen visa-exempted into the Schengen-states ..... Future will tell

You should boot out all those governmental clowns inventing all this complicated mess; the immigration officers - more than once - told me that they hardly can keep up with all those continuous changes. Either enforce a mandatory visa for countries of Thailand's preference and the rest should go visa-exempted for 60 - 90 days. I am glad, that the business from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru justifies a visa exemption for 90 days. The South Koreans are the only other country with the same deal and all the others ........ are being confused; travellers as well as executing officers alike. Well done!

Excellent, keep up the good work. Unlike the airport tax on departure, which can be levied very simple by the number of passengers on an outgoing aircraft, it does not work the other way round by collecting this "landing tax" through the ticket sales. You'll have Thai citizen (who might go head over heels), PR and work permit expatriates, retirees and other long-term visa holders and an infant might also be questionable to be taxed. All this upon arrival, 137 different currencies, fantastic queues in getting baggage and immigration sorted - good luck with this stuff. I seriously wonder, what kind of excellent weed is smoked in certain offices in this countries ........

Wissanu Krea-ngarm is coming to the rescue whenever the proverbial "*ç%ç%"* hits the air movement device - how nice of him! He also got entrusted to teach the prime minister on how to do his job.

Now the "dirty farang" and "alien" crowd has to come to rescue Thailand’s economic resilience for future challenges, such as purchase of three subs without engines, the ever-so-profitable Thai Airways and the State Railway of Thailand. Keep up the good work. You can take it to the bank that thousands of retirees will pack and move elsewhere; there is a limit to pounding, squeezing and getting treated like garbage by the official Thailand and its endless bureaucratic systems of making a foreigner's life difficult.

Yoovidhya's reputation went out the window twelve years ago. He should have taken his little sweetheart by the neck and get him to face the music - like everybody else. The kiddo is accused of murdering a police officer on duty while apparently driving a Ferrari under the influence of some "booster stuff". But yes, if you spoil your kid with Ferraris to start with, then you've ruined the kid and - in many cases - the reputation and good name of a family and, in this case, of an absolutely unnecessary product. Good luck with the law case; let's see what's next - the saga seems to continue into the next decade.

Throw him out of the country and ban him for life - next please!

It's a total write-off for sure. The offering of a reward of 100,000 Baht is a step in the right direction but if the stuff got stolen and is not lost ........ look forward and invest in less insecure shuttling of valuables. A tote bag ...... the mind boggles!

"Dr Adinun Kittiratanapaibool explaining that staff acted with good intentions to protect patient welfare." Now this is quite an interesting wrapping around the "freedom of speech" subject in Thailand. Poor in communication to start with, Thailand added some interesting stepping stones preventing what is known elsewhere as ....... freedom of speech. Dr Adinun explanation confirms the incident; assume though that the silenced gentleman will be speaking his mind once he gets off the plane in Adelaide. Maybe Dr Adinun should have kept his mouth shut instead - just thinking out loud?

Stuck in the year 5,000 B.C. But as the saying goes, the oligarch elite is not interested to educate the underlings to a level which would allow the latter to think and ultimately get rid of the Phooyais. Simple as that. Any country charging for education is a banana republic - sorry. School should be absolutely free and paid for by taxes which allows any kid to learn and study as far as (s)he can/wants/is able without a financial sword swinging over its head. Such programmes have been running most successfully in the First World, i.e. some European countries. Here though it starts with taxes - the majority does not pay income tax due to the absence of a decent income. Fun and Games overruled the education system here ever since there is a Thai word for education. Education secures the future of a country but this needs to be understood and shared ......

Tax the stuff like booze and tobacco cigarettes and get on with it ........ next please!

Given the way the hosts are treating the visiting Burmese ....... it is no wonder. While these Burmese kids need to be taught a proper lesson it might also be noteworthy to see, what it takes to "legalize" a Burmese in Thailand. The hospitality industry in Thailand is in dire need of staff yet to get the paperwork for qualified Burmese (same of Lao or Cambodians) is an absolute nightmare. As "suggested" by the department of labour in Cholburi, we used agents later on, at THB 20K per person, to get the paperwork sorted. Guess what, after the "guarantee of six months working" the same agency took out the alien worker and placed them somewhere else. Modern slave trade indeed. We sold the restaurant luckily and would never ever touch a business in Thailand requiring manpower again. So those naughty kids might be just too tied down by the Thai bureaucracy, cannot join school, learn a profession or - heaven forbid - work!

When is Thammanat's recital of an Aussie jail sentence - in comparison to the Thai treat - ready for print?

Yes, but it still needs forms, photographs and visa procedures and that's what these rich Thais do not like as it puts them in line with the commoners. Some are even called in for interviews ......... But, as said, it would facilitate everbody's life and cut a lot of bureaucracy if Thais would be given a month visa exemption in Europe. And crooks are crooks and always find means and ways to circumvent whatever regulation there is - possibly without North Korea though ...........

Well, the toad needs to be briefed, that he was queried on his apparent statement, that the rice would be not for local consumption. This - arguably questionable quality of 10+ years old - rice would be for export only. Then there was a reference of 150,000 tons and Africa in the same sentence. Now what kind of marketing stint is this, honestly! The government paid for the rice; it remains unknown, how much of this money went to Thai rice farmers and how much evaporated on the way to the bank. Some of the poorer quality rice was wheeled in across the neighboring borders and fed some traders nicely. This rice being advertised for export only might backfire big time but yeah, Thailand makes so much more money in technology, banking and as an education hub - who needs the export rice these days ..... This seems to be shared by the CEO of the land; the PM is busy thinking about befitting names for Hua Hin airport at the moment 😎 Just wait for the puppet master once he had enough of all this ........

"Petchcharat Hua Hin" - well it will become "Petchcharat Intercontinental Aerodrome" anytime soon. We have "Udon Thani International Airport" already yet the internationalism remains a pending element ... or pure megalomania. However, I am soooo glad that the PM has no other issues on his plate so he now can focus on the tinier elements of tourism promotion. My only query is, how do the dirty farang, who cannot speak Thai, tell the cabbie to take them to Petchcharat ....... unless of course a professional phonetic English version is rendered 😉 Suvarnabhumi and Don Meuang (from formerly Muang) spring to mind 😎

Smoke screen - no pun intended. Wondering what the real script is behind Anutin's pushing FOR the weed and the RETRACTION once Anutin moved from health to interior ministry. Interesting script which I have not completely deciphered yet. Retaliation of any kind by the puppet master?

The country's CEO has spoken again "This agreement is expected to boost investment opportunities for Thailand?" No, Sir, it will facilitate the travels of the oligarch elite which does not sit on diplomatic or service passports. But, from a business point of view it is not a bad idea - on a reciprocal basis this makes sense. The hookers and pimps though do not have to worry about the stringent Thai rules on overstay or jail - these apply only in Thailand whereas in Europe they are glad, if an overstayer just gets out of their country.

.... thank you, every day is school day. And what exactly is "factual" in this case? I must have missed something it seems.

Well, studying the impact of Cannabis was apparently concluded some years ago - when Anutin was Health Minister. Now, as Interior Minister, the very same person is doing a ...... study of impact? Keep up the good work, the excellent choice of ministers and possibly some data recording. Next will be the convicted flour trader in charge of ..... naaahhh, don't let us get there!

What good weed was smoked, when they hatched this idea - honestly? I've ordered a plastic screw which came at 84 Baht incl postage from China. So now the platform will add 7% or 5.88 Baht on check-out, run statements with order details and VAT accruals - you must be joking. Imagine the mess when an article cannot be delivered/cancelled by seller or goes for refund compensation due to wrong delivery? That would apply to local platforms only. How about eBay, AliExpress et al? eBay will not collect 7% on behalf of anybody and can easily just do without the Thai customer base. The statement, that "this adjustment in Thailand will help local businesses compete more fairly" is total BS. If local business cannot compete with foreign supplies and respective logistic costs, then the locals have to go back to the drawing board and start homework all over again. This of course only under the assumption, that the local businesses have clean taxation procedures in place as well - yeah, I know - a silly joke my end! How many local sellers copy/paste a product from overseas and just double the price and only order it, once an innocent loser ordered the seriously overpriced article (equally imported). Free market economy - Thai-style - explained

Follow Anutin, arrest all those illegal dirty farang, book them into the slammer and lose the keys - the rest will be OK ........

So Zarathustra spoke - again! Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul orders the arrest of foreigners operating cannabis outlets illegally in Thailand. I did not know, that a minister has such power without an arrest warrant being issued by the competent authorities (possibly the court?). The statement leaves open, what happens to all those Thais operating cannabis outlets illegally. I - for one - am not affected in any way as I never tried the stuff as a kiddo 50 years ago and today I rather have a glass of good red wine 😉

Yesterday's arrival from Frankfurt in Bangkok was the last nail in the TG coffin. The crew was too busy with being so overly important and the food was absolute rubbish; some tiny meat chunks inmost of some overcooked rice and two tiny carrots and had to ring three times for some water refill. TG charged EUR 450; SQ would have been EUR 320 - albeit via Singapore. Trust me, next time I rather opt via Johannesburg if I can avoid Thai.

Good luck he is Thai. In Vietnam and PR China they hand down the death penalty for those who "enrich" themselves too much! Wondering though, how the treatment is at Klong Prem .........