Sydebolle

A juicy bill for six weeks - or am I getting this wrong again? 18.447 billion Baht = approx. 500 million USD - or 230 Baht per each and every living Thai national ..... the mind boggles ????

Excellent idea, the puppet master's sister managed to crawl upto the PM throne by screwing the economy in increasing the wage from 200 to 300 Baht and a minimum pay of 15,000 Baht for anyone with an university degree. 1) did the efficiency increase by 50% (from bottom) or 33% (from top) 2) this populistic election promise was to be paid by the private industry Uncle Tu jacked up the salaries again to 350 Baht or 14%, so I assume that the efficiency of the Thai worker increased in line or 67% in ten years Thaksin's "proposal" is of course yet another electoral jump starter. Go for it and Thailand will see most industries departing elsewhere as the efficiency, in all fairness, dropped over the last ten years. But the Thai voters have always managed to achieve a suicidal outcome; just see the consecutive governments which have been doing everything possible to line their own pockets on the electorate's expense. Go figure!

She was fallen .......... as she was suicided!

Woodoo dancing is next, just let me get the popcorn ..........

An alternative to "not keeping up with installment payments"? Maybe the car was insured - we shall never know .......

The immigration is, to the best of my knowledge, under the police and latter again under the Ministry of Interior. Maybe by facilitating immigration with one stamp for extension including multiple re-entry at 7'500 Baht, no funny 90-days reports, TM28, TM30 and TM-God-only-knows-what-number will free up at least 75% of the existing staff force. Move those people to Khon Kaen (postings in Thailand are not related to the actual place of chosen residence) and Bob's your uncle ????

Interesting line-up of problems which existed forever and are simply not addressed: law enforcement, even in Thailand a zebra crossing means, that pedestrians are to use it to cross the road safely. In a normal country of the 21st century that means, that the minute a pedestrian sets foot onto the zebra crossing, the pedestrian may cross and any vehicle must slow down or stop completely. If the zebra crossing has traffic lights, even clearer it is not a matter of education, the biker is a preek in his own right and should be taken to the cleaners for voluntary manslaughter. Hand down a juicy jail sentence and publish is all over those soap opera channels. Would work wonders but if nothing is done (see the bikes on pavements, which are all back after uncle Too had his 15 minutes of fame on the issue) ..... That "gold card" of health insurance by the government should not be limited and curtailed with all sorts of ifs, whens and why-nots. If a country like Thailand insists on getting paid prior to treatment and eventually might even leave a passenger on a gurney in the hall to fade away, then the country has not managed to leave Neaterthal yet. Maybe the sweetheart at the Ministry of Public Health could concentrate on this rather relevant issue next Quite clearly, those at the bottom of the ladder are pushed down further and might be reprimanded even for going public on social media ...... what's next?

Spot on, one does not exclude the other .........

Lets wait and see. Somewhere somebody has to separate the Thais from non-Thais. If I put "Thailand" as nationality I'm off the hook? You can enter anything you want, the physical check of ticket/boarding pass against ID is done at the airport only. My details in airline databases contain a long-expired passport number and as a dual national I use whichever passport makes my trip more convenient. Irrespective of all this it shows the shortsighted vision of the people in charge of promoting tourism; it is not the 300 Baht, it is the thought behind this "tax". But, as said, lets wait and see; I am not affected by it but I do not really believe it will jumpstart tourism again to former glory ...... but I might be wrong here as well ????

I has been all over the news, dailies, everywhere for decades. This country has been run in succession by crooks, thieves, looters and clowns. This is Thailand and it belongs to Thais, if they cant get a grip on this supermarket operation without cashiers at the exit, then so be it. After all, they cannot blame it on anyone else and they all feel the impact for generations already. But, as the saying goes, the bottle neck is always on top of the bottle ..... go figure. Having a convicted drug smuggler, whose overseas conviction and time served in an Aussie slammer does not count, as it did not happen in Thailand ...... I rest my case ????

What a joke; it took 'em 23 years to find out, that the Adireksarn clan had its fingers in the honey pot too? No wonder why many Thai-related movies are filmed elsewhere, going back to 1957 "Bridge on the River Kwai" which was shot near Kandy/Ceylon (today Sri Lanka); many other movies followed being done in Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines. If it is not the work permits and the goons at the censoring bureau then it is something else. 20th Century Fox though will cough up the fine of less than USD 300,000 with pleasure as it will reactivate the interest in "The Beach" ...... oncemore again. I assume that this fine is being used for the uglification of beach strips like the "change" of trees along Pattaya beach etc.

This just shows you, how off the scale this government is. With the listed salaries you cannot make ends meet as the poverty line was drawn at +/- 12,000 Baht/month (or 400 Baht/day). Even at that rate you fight quite a challenge which explains, that those lowest on the ladder keep their children at home as they cannot afford the overpriced school uniforms which have - in some cases - the characters of a circus full of clowns. Mowing my lawn takes half a day and I pay, with pleasure, 500 Baht as requested so by the gentleman doing the job. Changing tiles on my terrace clocked 1,000 Baht for a six hours job and I am very happy with it. Such salary levels (and I have no clue, who earns that little to be frank) explain a lot. Even at double the rate people are financially not motivated to do any work and that explains the shortage on un- and low skilled labour. As increasing the lowest levels to a below-the-poverty-level triggers off discussions with better paid staff as they want to see an adjustment as well. Just wondering what those illegal workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia get these days ...... certainly not anywhere close to the government's latest blessings on the subject ????

The government is well advised NOT to touch the price of diesel, except reduction. Adding anything on the present diesel price is suicidal and will result in revolts on the countryside where 75% of the electorate is using at least 75% of the entire diesel production. Touch it and you're toast ....... ????

Sounds simple but I wonder if the check-in staff at JFK, Heathrow or Leonardo Da Vinci/Fiumicino airport is aware, that my ticket has to show the 300 Baht surcharge while my Thai spouse does not. The nationality is not an element of ticketing for a good reason. Dual nationals enter/leave Thailand as Thai citizen while enter and leave i.e. France as French citizen. If they want to go ahead with this fee, then it applies to all or none, anything else cannot be handled by the aviation industry ..... for the time being. Looking forward to endless queues in arrival halls of Thailand's international airports with exchange booths as well as staff feeding the 300 Baht into automated ticketing machines and then hand over the receipt for this tourism tax to the (sometimes) dead tired tourist from faraway land ..... those airport tax machines, still standing around somewhere with liquid-painted 25-digits inventory numbers spring to mind. Or did they float away when Don Meuaiong International Airport was flooded some +/- 10 years ago? ????

Is it not wonderful to see, how precise some offices work and spill the detailed exact number of acres and yards within days of a deluge? Explains the wise farsightedness of the government with their three submarines; maybe start training oarsmen in time so once the subs arrive they can also be maneuvered around upto Phitsanulok and Nakorn Sawan .... Every year the same melody, some years more than others, depending on who sits at the watergates of water dams .........

Well, what do you know? Some 23 victims are identified while the many other skeletons in the various closets of authorities, offices and files most likely keep pockets lined so dust can settle and yet another avoidable disaster tatters away into oblivion ..... ????

Thailand managed with tremendous efforts to book Rakesh for a oneway trip from Canada to the Holy Land - well done and they certainly rid the planet from a serious crook. Could the same experts now focus on other sweethearts which ran from various little mishaps and have been jumping bail. They made the Thai law implementation the laughing stock of the world. While pocket lining has been a favourite pastime activity, Thailand would gain a lot in reputation but I am aware, that these still free roaming, bail jumping crooks, thieves and murderers are, unlike Rakesh, Thai citizen? Wishful thinking ..... I know!

Reciprocal .....

The answer to this is EDUCATION, show gruesome pictures on the telly and in ThaiRath as well as other dailies. How about creating TV clips where someone at home in a household over the kitchen sink wants to wash veggies and upon opening the tap there's the present sludge of Klong water splashing all over the virgin veggies. Buying bottled water which, upon pouring into a nice clean glass at home, results in smelly oily waste water coming out of the bottle. Cheap in production and a massive impact by visualization of the problem. After all, it is the society's responsibility to keep the black sheep identified and punished. Award people nicely for reporting those pristine examples of dwellers dumping God only knows what when nobody seems to see anything - and put juicy fines onto these idiots. There is no way around calling a dirty pig a dirty pig, irrespective of losing face. Likewise it might be interesting, why the authorities manage to clear the clogged waterways from 5 - 10 tons of serious garbage only.

Of the 49'000+ Laotians a mere few percent, if at all, made it beyond Makro, Big C, Lotus's and some DIY-stores in Nong Khai mega city. While they certainly spend ....... ahem burn ....... money on shopping, the traditional tourism industry of hotels, sightseeing, wine and dine remain completely untouched by them. Apart from emptying the shelves in supermarkets, the Laotians (at least the upper crust in their Toyota Prados and LandCruisers, Range Rovers, Jaguars and other SUVs) fill up petrol on leaving Thailand. Congratulations are in order for the Tourism Authority of Thailand for getting people dumping some money, despite not having done a single thing for this kind of (presently only) traffic from Laos.

I am surprised, that an airline professional, executive and CEO is serious about this issue. Even if they would go ahead and try to collect the fee, there are some obstacles on the way to glory: if collected from passengers directly upon arrival, imagine the mess, overcrowded arrival hall space, linguistic challenges apart from X different currencies or credit card operation and staff force needed to handle the horn of plenty. if collected through airlines, the carriers would have to produce a passenger list separating Thais from non-Thais. Technically speaking, non-Thais would have to pay those THB 300 (in which customer board point currency at what forex rate?); no airline reservation system is geared for a surcharge (or discount) by nationality - yet. I also wonder, what the boys at IATA/ICAO in Montreal have to say to this. if collected through airlines it only works, if all passengers are levied with the same fee, i.e. including Thais. This is already happening with airport taxes on departure, which never disappeared as a fee. Contrary from a direct collection from passengers as separate payment at check-in it is today an integrated element of an air ticket with departure Thailand these days. To me it is just yet another completely derailed idea of one of those countless experts with which Thailand is blessed. Apart from an almost impossible task to charge only non-Thais it also communicates very clearly that the government is only interested in the rip-off. Last not least, be realistic; there will not be any high season splurging Caucasian geese laying forex golden eggs this winter for sure. Europe is in the doldrums for the foreseeable future due to a massive cave-in of economy related to the American-Russian proxy war in Ukraine. The Indians share a can of Fanta among three of them at the doorsteps of a 7/11 and the Arabs are also not arriving in droves. The Russians are having other fish to fry domestically, so go figure who is left? Thailand has never been able nor will be able in the future to benefit of the top cream of tourism cake, that is left to true professional destinations with a X-fold revenue due to service, service, service. So Thailand is stirring the bottom of the tourism drum which results in the necessity of handling tourists groups; the ratio might be dealing with 15 low-/middle class visitor compared to one high-income earner. No rocket science ???? Pattaya was - in the past - the best example of not being able to handle larger group traffic; the nightly traffic jams all over the place were proof enough. Try to imagine, if ten times the numbers of 2018 would arrive ......... Fire the whole lot of daydreamers in the tourism ministry and the tourism authority of this country; they must be smoking, seriously, the best weed on a daily basis as no expert can make any common sense of what comes out of these offices ????

Let the present team of leaders just carry on until they outstayed their welcome. Riots are next and, if in sufficient numbers, it might finally tilt the jar - a long overdue element in the democratization of this country.

This leads me to recheck with the immigration, if a valid non-quota visa can be transferred; something I was always uncertain about - thanks !

There's a lot of money being made in road constructions. Budgets are there to be burnt - by all means - see the second bypass around Nong Khai. It will finish November 2023 (inshallah) and hopefully little busier than the first bypass. Irrespective of the little traffic the first bypass, fully operationally for +/- two years, is being in constant repaving. Road 212 from Nong Khai towards Phonpisai got repaved for absolutely no reason - except for burning government money to the benefit of ....... not essentially those who drive on it alone ????

Thailand is not known of greased lightnings once it comes to decision-making.