Sydebolle

Well, the Chinese finished the part through Laos from Boten to Vientiane within record time, on time, and within budget. The Chinese started in 2016 and ran the first commercial services five years later; through rugged terrain, through mountains and valleys with countless tunnels and bridges. Thailand's decision-making boys are at the rudder since 2014 (two years prior to the Chinese start) and are nowhere close to anything indicating, that the Thai part will be operative in the second decade of this century. But Saksayan Chitchob and his gifted minions will walk off the stage one day, leaving a heavily delayed construction site way off budget ....... nothing new. If it works in Thailand then it works everywhere - and that you can take to the bank!

Well, which Somchai sold the stuff to the French gentleman in the first place and what is the ink between the "whale skeleton" and the "elephant tusks" in the OP picture?

Ah ..... the "Thai Foreign Business Act" again, much better known as the "Alien Business Law" - what a handpicked collection of completely outdated medieval nonsense written by stone agers and Neanerthalers alike. Among others you'll find architecture, ice carving and indeed, hairdressing and tour guiding being restricted to the semi-divine Khon Thai who are unwilling, unreliable or unloyal towards an activity called "work". Not even half of all those Thai tour guides (also protected in above set of laws) speak languages needed to accommodate foreign tourists. And I am not referring to Greek, Portuguese, Icelandic or other possibly more exotic languages but understandable English, French, German or Spanish. All of them are in for the 20% - 35% commission on purchases done by tourists. If the Chinese "steal" jobs, then go and hunt them down in droves to find the stolen items. In closing, anyone with a fairly decent eye sight can witness the skills of the local figari when passing i.e. a school yard. While indeed, strictly speaking, illegal, the subject is pathetic and serves for a good laugh at best! In closing, the really hard working people are found in i.e. the rice fields of Northeastern Thailand; their almost complete absence of education restricts those to hard labour.

Well, the US priorities are defined very clearly: - Cambodia was systematically destroyed by Nixon and Kissinger 50 years back and none of them faced the music. Biden must have gotten the wrong briefing or missed in geography classes, that Cambodia and Colombia are two different countries pretty far from each other - Thailand was definitely second choice as the granddaughter's wedding in the White House was given priority over APEC 2022 Go figure; the China man chuckled all the way over the US' handling of today's foreign policy - for sure!

I am surprised, that the Louis Vuitton store on Avenue des Champs-Élysées or Prada Milano Galleria Donna on Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II lets Thai customers sink money by the 10-wheeler withOUT passport checks. But then the customer base as well as the retailer segmentation is slightly different ..... Passport into a discotheque?

That happened faster than usual ....... some envelopes have not made it to the consignees in time?

Thailand’s Narcotics Control Board, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, a.k.a. the top dinosaur of an oligarch elite with zero touch to reality. Is this sweetheart of Thai politics aware, that there are (most likely) more weed stops than 7/11 and family mart outlets together? Or is it that some easy cash, which flowed in the past, has trickled to zero? Wissanu is quite obviously not aware that the internet can be accessed outside Thailand as well and the latest "idea" of the gifted few shows the absolute incompetence of the lame ducks; how ridiculous can this get? I, for one, never smoked weed and never will do so as there is no need for it; yet the legalization took the criminality out of the equation and hence is, to my irrelevant point of view, a good thing. Literally a day after legalizing cannabis one could witness sellers of plants along the streets (in Nong Khai); those super plants grew in a day, what would have taken anywhere else months! Mysterious are the ways of the East ????

It is possibly time for you to floor the gas. Finish the roof and tell your wife to shut up. She likes it = fine, she does not like it = fine too. Tell her, that those footing the bills are those who decide and if you decided to do the job yourself, you might have had your reasons. Alternatively leave the roof unfinished and tell the Missus to finish the job with whoever she wants as long as it is her money ???? After all it is a shed for her motorbike 8-) Make sure that the Thai expert gets a hand tip from you in compensation for the headache with your wife so he might be available in the future for less complicated work you do not want to do yourself.

Usually, such opportunities like conferences, meetings etc. are also being used to present the very best of local goodies from the kitchens and gardens of the host country. Correct me if I am wrong, but is sturgeon caviar listed as basic staple food, say like Somtam, Khao Nieaw, Laap or Gai Yang? Wondering if the wet market in Udon Thani features caviar in abundance; apart from most likely massively inflated billings to the tax payer ..........

Well, Prayuth's 15 minutes of fame; assume this exchange was done in fluent Thai. On a more sombre note, who pays for the wedding and the use of the White House infrastructure - just asking for an (American tax-paying) friend. Interesting also is the priority allocated to the wedding of a granddaughter over the attendance of the Asia-Pacific-Economic-Conference, known as APEC. Is the sweetheart in a sudden hurry so that this wedding could not be moved by an inch?

............... all the while they've just killed all non-Thai PayPal customers in Thailand; makes perfect sense!

Welcome to stone age ???? It is like photographs of the house number - these clowns stop at absolutely nothing!

Clear the cache on your computer and delete the cookies from those sites you've been looking at for air fares. Wanted to book MIA-BKK (via ORD and TYO) and found a fare of USD 1'400. When looking up the same the next day = USD 2'150. My IT geek told me above; I followed suit and guess what, the USD 1'400 were back. Using carriers with a transit stop en route can also have a massive influence on the tariff; look up i.e. Oman Air for surprises ????

What a sick society ......... apart from the pimps/madams and the customers one should also nail the parents of those minors. Most likely the "financial compensation" went to the parents - wondering, how much of it will be available to the affected minors once they are of legal age. Pedophiles, rapists and drug dealers - the whole bunch should face the death sentence; you cannot heal pedophiles nor rapists and drug dealers are in "voluntary manslaughter business" to say the least!

Interesting, what kind of quality tourism is being attracted by Thailand. Assuming that it might be an "interesting" challenge to arrive in the Kingdom with all that gear, the question remains - to me - where all the stuff obtained in Thailand came for. Called Makro, Lotus's and Big C Supersupersuperextra - they all confirmed not carrying such commodities. Your call! The German bloke and his lovely wife are to see the slammers from the inside; he for arrogant stupidity and she for marrying such a pristine example of the alien lot ????

Love it, they blow each others trumpets. The only newsworthy element in all this, to my irrelevant belief, is the fact, that Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu has apparently the ability to write ......... or knows someone who can write!

The IMF congress of October 1991 springs to mind. They closed Bangkok and declared "public holidays"; reason given was, so school children could share the pleasure of the IMF congress as well. The Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) got erected in nine months only while Ratchadapisek road from QSNCC to Sukhumvit road got a concrete wall. Latter got painted by school children - to hide the slums behind those walls. Well, little did those participants know on how roads can be emptied very professionally and the entire "holiday break" for the enjoyment of school children was paid for by the private industry. In other words, no link to reality of day-to-day mess in Bangkok. Another lovely bonmot is certainly SEA Games 1998; lower Sukhumvit got brand-new pavements, fixed in record time with pavers. A mere week after the games ended, the trucks came along, picked-up all those interlocking pavers again and the pavements looked like before - just if nothing ever happened! Unclear remains to this day, if those "collections" were done by the municipality or if Somchai helped himself to some hardly used building material..... Dr Thaksin pulled the best hat trick in 2003. Bangkok's subway MRT was unfinished and behind schedule. The only stretch serviceable was between QSNCC and Sukhumvit Road. So, for the occasion, the Thaksinians flew in (you read correctly FLEW IN) three MRT wagons, one wagon at a time with a chartered Antonow AN-124 (Ruslan) from Europe to Don Meuang. Never found out, what that little stint cost the Thai taxpayer but, trust me, possibly the most expensive tube trip of all times; just to lead those dignitaries for a one-station trip underground through Bangkok. With compliments of the Thai taxpayer, of course. More to come, surprises are here around the corner, daily, everywhere, endless .......... ???? Face is absolutely everything; once you understood that, Bob's your uncle!

Those counters were open when I went through earlier this week and ...... surprise, surprise ....... hardly a living soul early morning. Nothing to complain, was through with greased light speed ????

Do the maths: per minute = 3 passports per hour = 180 passports per shift of 8 hours = 1'440 passports two shifts = 16 hours = 2'880 passports 20 counters @3passports/minute, every single minute over 16 hours = 57'600 passports No "pipi" break, all 20 counters stamping - like machines - 3 passports per minute over 16 hours? I rest my case ????

The IMF congress of October 1991 springs to mind. I had the pleasure of accompanying an European finance minister during his stay in Bangkok and, like now, they closed Bangkok and declared "public holidays"; reason given was, so school children could share the pleasure of the IMF congress as well. I picked-up the minister at his hotel and accompanied him to the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) which was put into place in only nine months. The Ratchadapisek road from QSNCC to Sukhumvit road got a concrete wall which got painted by school children - to hide the slums behind those walls. The minister and I got chauffeur-driven with police escort and managed to race against (usual) oneway roads, no red lights and completely empty streets (except other ministers and officials shuttling between their hotels/offices and the QSNCC. The visiting dignitary asked me in the car, why there was all that bad mouthing about Bangkok's traffic; as far as he could see, there is no traffic and better than in any other European capital. Well, little he know on how roads are emptied very professionally and the entire "holiday break" for the enjoyment of school children was paid for by the private industry. In other words, no link to reality of day-to-day mess in Bangkok. 30+ years later, the same formula is applied again to ensure those ever so important dignitaries are not being disturbed in being playing important again - and again - at the account of the private industry. The Bangkokians though will be fleeing the capital for enjoying traffic jams in Pattaya over the next week's mother-of-all-conferences, irrespective of the absence of Biden and Putin ????

The silliest thing I ever heard on this issue was the following. The (present) law stipulates "no alcohol sales" before 11am, between 2pm and 5pm and as of midnight again to the next morning at 11am. This also affected restaurant operators and other wholesale customers. Initially they allowed sales of purchases of 10 litres or more per purchase; later on that got stopped. A booze sale license (available at the city hall) allowed shopping for wholesale customers until that got stopped as well. The reason given for these booze ban hours was to "protect school children from alcoholism". Well, kids are at school from mornings to noon and then again after lunch until 4pm/5pm. So, during those hours the kids are at school, it is prohibited to sell booze - to protect the next generation of Somchais ...... Your call ........ Yet, as with everything else here, there is no issue. Except the big VAT-operating sales outlets (i.e. supermarkets) you can get anything you want 24/7 and, more than once, I've seen police in uniform getting their daily supplies during booze ban hours from a little non-franchised "convenience store"; since then I understand the word "convenience" ????

Did I just read "gun welfare scheme"? Asking for a friend ...........

Well, MBS is not known for his diplomatic pussy-footing around anything; the little consular affair in Turkey springs to mind and all that would have never happened if not explicitly sanctioned by MBS. But as the saying goes "Money talks, (M)BS walks"; just wait for it to happen one day in the future. He is not as popular and well liked as he is kept believing by his satellite underlings ......

Enjoying raw bat meat is an absolute delicacy when combined with the world-famous "Wuhan" dip ....

The next thing will be dogs which can detect the world famous "Wuhan" dip for smoked bats. What, on Earth, has the world become, honestly?