Sydebolle

Get the popcorn ready, guys ........ the fight of the Titans is going to start anytime soon 😉

It would be helpful, if you would read what I wrote and then only comment. A translation of a passport does not automatically add an address - to my limited knowledge. As I can read Thai fluently you may rest assured, that I came across the most hilarious translations, partly or completely wrong. The ultimate winner, 10 out of 10, is and remains the following straight off a menu in a restaurant. The (European) sausage "Cervelat" got translated into ไส้กรอกเสียเวลา. Translate the Thai back into English and you'll get the "time wasting sausage" as "Cervelat" got understood as "เสียเวลา" ... or wasting time. Another beauty is the reversal of translation. The beach towards the South of Pattaya is called หาดจอมเทียน; the English signboards all over Pattaya refer to Jomtien, Jomtian, Chom Thian, Had Shomtian, Chomtien ... among others. The only valid reference to spelling of a name is ...... in its original spelling; the rest is linguistic juggling.

You can three if not fourfold this number ......

In any other country, the army is the executing arm of the legislative - called the government. So, if a colonel goes apes1h4t, then you could nail him for treason, unless the government managed to sneak through the backdoor of the government house due to a botched election. Treason stands for การทรยศ and, in many countries, will result in losing the nationality or a hefty decades-long jail sentence. Those who disagree with the government to that extent usually seek political asylum elsewhere ........

In any other country, the army is the executing arm of the legislative - called the government. So, if a colonel goes apes1h4t, then you could nail him for treason, unless the government managed to sneak through the backdoor of the government house due to a botched election. Treason stands for การทรยศ and, in many countries, will result in losing the nationality or a hefty decades-long jail sentence. Those who disagree with the government to that extent usually seek political asylum elsewhere ........

Mind boggling; any passport holder entered Thailand with a valid passport, got stamped and could manage to the a one-year visa (as this seems to be the regulation). Along comes the municipality office insisting on a translation of a passport, legalized by the respective Embassy and notary-stamped by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So, what is good for the permit to enter the country as well as to obtain a one-year stay visa .......... is not good enough for the municipality. Maybe Srettha or any other goon in the government might want to wonder, if this is the most efficient way to deal with (mostly) NET spenders like retirees. What a farçe and reconfirmation of the absolute brainless operation of these government offices where left does not even know of the existence of a right. Bureaucracy seems to get worse than all those loose cannon states in central Africa - well done!

Interesting times ahead ...... getting the popcorn ready!

The Swiss ....... again in the news 😞

They came to witness, how people can kill themselves with smog and haze. Bees are equally affected and hence those giant bees are on a study trip - me thinks!

Well, well, this pristine example shows - once more again - how completely off this particular Milky Way certain "politicians" become once they sneak into power. Without her family name she might be in a typing pool in one of those endless dungeons of "Thai office jobs". This sissy clearly has not the slightest idea of what she is talking about. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Head of the National Committee on Soft Power Development and leader of the Pheu Thai Party speaks of 20 million jobs for Thais and the salary hovering around THB 200K/year? Seriously, what kind of excellent weed is this absolutely brainless woman talking about. Thailand needs WORKERS and not JOBS; Thailand needs more educated workers; every Burmese, Laotian or Cambodian has better education and certainly better working ethics than the semi-divine Khon Thai. The THB 200K is not enough to live comfortably but then again, the oligarch elite has managed nicely to keep Khon Thai as uneducated as the Sentinels in the middle of the Gulf of Bengal; those in charge of education are the very same who benefit of a pool of non-educated followers of whatever the elite has up their sleeve. Everyone in business will confirm, that there are more jobs than (fairly, low, poor or non-educated) workers - so Shinaewatra's latest fart is not even hot and clearly proves that she is not a chip of the old block! Get her off the stage and back into a corner where she cannot do any damage. Such statements are nothing but populistic vomit for the listening pleasure of the non-educated voters ......... to be remembered in future upcoming elections 😉

My unsolicited piece of advice would be to change the entire police force; it is one of the most cancerous agencies this country has - shortly after the armed forces 😉

Increase the bureaucracy with all your TM forms even more, in duplicate, to be signed with pink or lime green ink. Photocopies may not be made two-sided and you cannot copy a photocopy and sign it then, i.e. it has to be from the original. In addition, keep dragging your feet in clear and present dangerous environments like Koh Tao where countless dirty farang got suicided and, upon tremendous pressure from the entire planet, two Burmese were thrown into the slammer on death row while nobody really believes that these two kids did it. Carry on the good work and you will be celebrating your entire tourism industry for the semi-divine Khon Thai, who leaves a fraction of money without any inspiration to quality improvement and standard. Next please; this subject is soooooooooooo worn out already and the TATs and all those unqualified ministers passing the revolving door of the tourism ministry are absolutely clueless. Well done; you had the goose laying the golden eggs in the late 80s and did nothing but starve the goose to a slow death. Enjoy the avalanche of the zero-dollar tourists from the red North or the so-much-smarter South Asians you do not like either due to their black skin. Laotians and Cambodians will not fill up your tourism statistics for the time being - me thinks!

Well, Thailand belongs to the Thai people Shinawatras and hence let them do as they please. If the people of this country are fine with it ..... After all, it does not affect the non-Thais for a change .......

Given, that the trains would have run 24/7, the average occupation per each single hour, throughout the entire period, would have been 39,000 passengers. Given the sad state of the rolling stock, the notorious heavy delays of the SRT's services, someone should go and replace the batteries on the calculator as there is no way these trains could have handled more than one third of the quoted number. Who are they trying to blind this time?

For decades, the PATA Department store in Bangkok with its "Pata Exotic Studio" it also calls a "Pata Zoo Company Limited" burps up in the media regularly - without any action whatsoever. The way the owners flatly refuses any correction in how to handle all those caged animals - the gorilla tops the list - would book him a oneway ticket into a slammer in the West. As long as the authorities are turning a blind eye to it (against eventual "licensing fees"?) and visitors go there, pay for access and find it funny ........ Educational disaster to the gruesome reality of those animals, what a disgrace!

When will Thais understand the implication of burning all their fields? It enriches the feed mill operators and benefits all those using animal food, and that's a handful in Bangkok only. What will have to happen until this is brought to a screeching halt? With helicopters the burning plots can be identified; there is fantastic software on the internet (https://landsmaps.dol.go.th) to identify the title deed = the land owner = the culprit. Slap juicy fines of five and six digits and this madness will stop - overnight 😉

No, I have been completely blindfolded since 1985 by all those people driving throughout Thailand and expert advice of how to refuse a most likely justified fine.

Well, the alternative is being jobless or working for a meagre payout which does not allow living but existing only. The army feeds, dresses and keeps 'em busy. Not the first time you see an increase in voluntary conscription and possibly also not the last time 😞

Drugs on a Thai island - absolutely impossible!

Another case of gotten suicided? I am appalled, that nobody - over the last few governments - was willing, lest able, to clean up the place. The last big file is +/- ten years back and two Burmese workers were thrown into the slammer and left to rot. That case created a huge collateral damage to tourism and image of Thailand as the only acceptable verdict should have read "mistrial". The two boys, if ever pardoned, will be psychologically damaged for life. Irrespective of all this, hardly anyone believes in "accidents" in the context of Turtle Island (Koh Tao), despite the technical possibility of being ...... an accident.

Well, since me driving here as of 1985 I can tell you, that the last pit stop is the department of motor vehicles/land transport. You cannot extend the tax with open fines; getting caught without a valid tax square will cost you ....... a fine again. So - quite simple - avoid fines, and if you did wrong, pay up. Compared to Europe the fines are ridiculously low as they are based on the Thai CPI - and in many cases - are settled non-receipt able 😉

Provided the article is complete, then the TM6 still applies (along the Thai-Laotian border) at: Ban Huak Border Checkpoint - ด่านพรมแดนบ้านฮวก Huai Kon Border Checkpoint - ด่านพรมแดนห้วยโก๋น Phu Doo Border Checkpoint - ด่านพรมแดนภูดู่ Nam Hueang Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge - สะพานมิตรภาพน้ำเหือง ไทย-ลาว Bueng Kan border checkpoint - ด่านพรมแดนบึงกาฬ Nakorn Phanom Third Thai–Lao Friendship 3 Bridge - สะพานมิตรภาพไทย-ลาว แห่งที่ 3 It also applies to all crossings with the Kingdom of Cambodia except Aranyaphratet, it seems .........

Face saving step-by-step; they cannot simply abolish which they were cherishing for decades. Hence "temporary" in Thailand has a completely different meaning and, in many cases, can mean permanent. In six months nobody will talk about it anymore. Remember the customs declaration slip you had to fill in aboard aircraft arriving in Thailand? Disappeared also on a temporary basis as customs officers collected them after baggage collection and threw them into a big empty cigarette transportation box which they got from the duty free shop just next to them.

Forget about the law, the courts and the judges as the ultimate reference to everything in the form of sweet heart Anutin has spoken again. "Mr Anutin is on record as assuring the Swiss man that his appeal against the cancellation of his visa will not succeed." Bottomline, forget the law! What a farçe he makes over this particularly ridiculous case. Culprit accused, caught, brought to police, passed onto court, verdict and execution of verdict - like in 196 other countries. The former Swiss ambassador Budliger must be boiling; she was Anutin's darling, shoulder rubbing in her red shoes and too small clothes and thought that the Swiss were an exception to Anutin's clear stance of "dirty farang". If the Swiss bloke is guilty, proceed as above - after all, Thailand has a pretty good set of laws yet is not always applied, as Vorayuth's case (the Red Bull grandson who was so high and drunk, that he killed a police officer on duty with his grey Ferrari in 2012) proves. Rest assured, the collateral damage of this case will cost the industry millions, but Anutin can retreat with his private airplane back to his ranch "Rancho Charnvee" which features a private runway in Khao Yai - some might know the area as a national park - GPS reads 14.634830, 101.463031 for those who want to wing in 😉

Well, I would have to disagree; settlement is certainly not covering bribing ....... You settle a dispute amicably (or not), you settle a bill, i.e. it is the end of something when you "settle". A bribe can and is more often than not reoccurring and does not explicitly have to be based on a dispute or an open bill; it can be a "token of appreciation" which would not be covered by "settlement". As a non-native English speaker I am always amazed, how diversified and to-the-point English can be; for good measure throw in idioms and Bob's your uncle!