Sydebolle

Hilarious! I was always wondering how long it would take, until Thais get sick and tired of what resident non-Thais got excited much earlier on without any possibility of getting their concerns heard.

Certain European countries take culprits to court for such illegalities irrespective from where they happened. I think the Swedes and the Swiss are doing the same. Yet it might be a long way until Thailand is walking the same footpath .......

Well, a former Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, had to clear his PM office for less. He participated in a cooking show on TV and was compensated with some ridiculous amount for transportation (I think it was THB 500) in connection with his appearance on TV as a hobby cook. The law stipulates, that the PM is not entitled to receive any money apart from his remuneration as PM - which sent Samak packing and he disappeared from the political stage. He was a hopeless nuisance politically and certainly an apparent crook (remember the fire engine deal for Bangkok's BMA?) but the whole dismissal was politically motivated.

Melly klitsmats - in that case. Possibly they will start to evaluate, what precisely is inclined in the 120-days rule. Per calendar year, per lunar year or by some chicken bones lying in ashes ....... Until this is verified, the sick Dr T must remain, of course, under careful medical care for which he, apparently, can even get the state to pay for - unlike non-Thais injured in hit-and-run incidents by Thais .....

Fallout from the documentary by a German TV station, really? I would assume the contrary, if the authorities and the government would be - for once - honest. Despite the decades of denial on the planet's oldest trade it remains a fact, that Pattaya is overloaded with "houses of ill repute". That, in itself, is OK for me, provided the service providers are a) of legal age and b) do it voluntarily. By experience, it is literally almost impossible, to find non-horizontal staff in Pattaya, see all the hotels and restaurants desperately seeking staff. The sleazy trade pays off quite a bit more, despite all the Baksish left, right and centre. This TV programme, which I have not seen, will only propagate the trade and facilities and will, if anything at all, promote the non-spoken reputation of Pattaya and will see increased numbers of visitors without scaring away the quality tourists - latter not interested in Pattaya in the first place - me thinks!

A rip-off which went wrong and then the TAT goons in general and those medical temples in particular wonder, why medical tourism is completely behind budget and forecast. Go to i.e. Rutnin Eye Hospital or Bumrungrad hospitals; all the rich Middle Easterners and the Dirty Farang from Europe are missing as many of them got sick and tired to be grossly overcharged over what a Thai patient pays. The latter, most with their 30 Baht badge, are of course not admitted in the eliterian health institutes of the Kingdom - go figure!

This was to be expected as the greed in this country is definitely second to none. The popularity of 7/11 is market-leading as being the first ones and rarely did a 7/11 close. I've been to a main intersection in Pattani/Southern Thailand many moons ago; they featured a fully operational 7/11 in each of all four corners of the intersection. And you know what, all of them were busy and had customers. The key of 7/11 is, that they operate exactly in the "disposable income" range of necessities. If you take a shampoo, nicely portioned in those small pouches and multiply the latter to a family-sized bottle, you would be never ever buying that brand again for outrageous pricing policy reasons. This applies to almost every product in 7/11's shelves. The rest is education which is a scare commodity here; the average Joe cannot work out the difference of 4 small milk packages of 250ml compared to a one litre bottle. And is exactly, where those "convenience stores" come in. In addition to this, all this is electronically wired, the order to replenish shelves is done automatically, the logistics is done professionally and rarely a product goes out of stock. The facility of paying utility bills, airline tickets etc. through 7/11 brings in tens if not hundreds of millions of interest-free cash - similar to what department stores do when suppliers deliver consigned goods against a VAT-invoice whereby the department store claims back the input VAT which they never pay on "consigned" goods. David and Goliath, here it is the fight between two Goliaths and, unless a miracle happens, both will survive with tremendous bruises and unnecessary financial endeavours. Given Thai-Chinese company structures the sitting generation built it up, the next generation might keep the level and the third generation will ruin it. Is all this to the benefit of the uneducated customer? Your call.

The 23rd February is 2 ½ months away and then we shall see the reshuffling and musical chair in full swing - be patient and get your popcorn ready ;-)

OK, the police man gets a verbal shake down and a maximum fine of 500 Baht. The Chinese will get 458 years in solitary confinement at Bang Kwang or Klong Prem without any chance of parole or amnesty. What a joke this whole soap story is. Without mentioning it to the media it could have been sorted out in a quiet manner, talk to the police officer to make sure that future sees only him wearing his uniform.

It is difficult to make ends meet if someone else keeps on moving the ends. The immigration's orientation is a mystery of its own. I sit on a PR permit and half the immigration officers at any given border has never seen it, queries it and has to ask around. Once understood, it is imperative to check where they stamped what - and in many cases they were wrong. Given the fact, that the semi-divines never make mistakes, it can make crossing the border with Thai-issued documents a challenging undertaking. So now you take that to an Embassy overseas which gets its marching orders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The immigration in Thailand is under the police = Ministry of Interior. So quite a few things might get "lost in translation" ......... You figure it

Live with it. There is no bad advertising and this latest example will pour more tourism dollars, euros or pounds into Thailand's tourism coffers. As long as the service providers do it voluntarily (there are alternatives in the hospitality industry everywhere) it seems to be done for the much better cash. So Marisa from the Sukosol-clan should keep her shirt on and stop on her path of self-profiling herself as the hotel association's president. After all, her mother built an empire with two prime properties in Pattaya and not every guest in their hotels came to Pattaya for second-hand book stores or rare butterflies in the surrounding butterfly farms

Don't forget to take the real beneficiaries of all those burning fields into the equation - the faster the next crop can be planted, the faster the result can be harvested. But nobody wants to mess with the Phooyai in the feed mill industry here in Thailand .....

In all fairness, I do not think it was his idea. He is a successful business man and as such he would never support such a disastrous decision. But if you look at it as keeping a vote-buying-promise during the election campaign - with money the government does not have in the first place .... well, it makes perfect sense. Those 560 billion Thai Baht are nowhere in any budget hence need to be borrowed. No commercial bank would follow suit so it will be a government bank. The latter will get the money and subsequently go down the halligalli - we've seen it all some 25 years ago. It worked then so why should it not work this time. On the other hand Dr. T will be walking the walk anytime soon which could result in major reshuffling of the primi-inter-pares of Pheu Thai; let's see what Father Christmas has up his political sleeve for 2024

Only once Thailand understands, that tourism is a very delicate commodity to deal with, they might treat it like a little sprig of herb - too much or too little of anything can ruin the endeavours. Thailand should not focus on one particular group (Chinese arrive by the millions as zero-dollar-tourists); less is more and maybe they want to look how they did in the late 80s and early 90s. A fraction of arrivals with a much longer stay per capita and a considerably higher spending per capita as well - as said - less is more. Of course the quality tourists expect a comfortable return on their hard-earned money, so the government and its executive arms (immigration, TAT, service providers etc.) should review the present status-quo. Two-tier pricing in National Parks (locals 20 Baht, non-Thais 500 Baht) and other funny ideas go down very very bad with tour operators and travel agencies. It officially states racism which is not the best of commodities in relation to tourism promotion - me thinks! Get Thailand, presently on 101th position of a total 116, to improve English and other languages. A simple remedy could be to broadcast all those cartoons the kids love to watch these days ...... in their original version, be it English or Japanese. Once the kids reach 10 to 12 years of age, they are familiar with those languages, even if it is only a passive command - the rest can be taught but listening and perfectly speaking is a given. That, on the other hand, would mean, that the education ministry would have to rid itself of the conflict of interest in keeping the next generation(s) uneducated for the benefit of under-paying and misusing the electorate which voted them into office in the first place. You're welcome

Go Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, other days can be busy. You will need to get a visa for Laos, approx. USD 40 (depending on the passport country) in crisp new USD bank notes - or live with the exorbitantly bad exchange rate to Thai Baht - that's what I hear.

I did until I retired - it is a legal obligation ;-) The "irregularity was noticed once I was in retirement only

WE had accrued losses of THB 20 billion; TG recorded THB 10 billion profit - the banking crisis and the finance companies vs commercial banks springs to mind!

Interesting input for which I thank you. The "chattels" are history and if the Brits want to keep on the "tradition" - so be it. The American problem is not the locals shooting around like there is no tomorrow. The law makers keep the national rifle association and their idiocy alive. In my country every serving soldier (i.e. male, between 20 and 50 years of age) has a machine gun at home as well as 24 rounds of ammo. All those men are professionally trained in the handling of the gun and that results in the world's possibly lowest gun fatalities. The bridge jumpers; well, it cannot be the state's job to prevent each and every suicide as the state is rarely at fault to start with - me thinks

I am retired and hence no more contributions

Thank you VERY much, now that's sorted. Based on your kind explanation, I have been billed a base tariff of THB 3.897 (or THB 3.90) per unit (most likely kw/h) and that is to go up to THB 4.68. The increase would read THB 0.783/unit or 20% over the existing tariff. While I don't have an issue nor want to moan over that increase I wonder, how that goes down with the uncles and grannies upcountry with their electricity destroying equipment like old fridges and energy-inefficient rice cookers.

Was it the newest addition of the Tourism Authority of Thailand called "Barbequeue on the move"? Asking for a friend - Bonne chance, mes amis de la France"

Wondering, what kind of expert will analyze "political illness"

Well, so the King(dom) of Power(buying) comes to an end after 17 years in operation. During those 17 years they could enjoy a monopoly (like other retail business in this country), billions of Baht changed accounts and piggy banks and now they are "not happy"? Their unhappiness might be rooted in the fact, that the horn of plenty is not so plenty anymore after all these years - who knows. I - for one - never bought anything there as some prices were even more expensive than "duty paid" in town - luxury consumer goods like watches sprang to mind ....... It will allow now for ample additions of toilets; that was a real issue when Swampy opened in 2006 when they had more duty free outlet and space than toilets which were more than few and far between. Still better though than Santa Cruz International Airport of Bombay some 40+ years ago, where the toilets got forgotten all together which resulted in a delayed opening to add those private areas where one could "powder the nose"! Mysterious are the ways of the East!

Freedom of Speech - Thai style.