Sydebolle

Now he is selling the retirees the fast monorail to the suburbs, so they can keep their hard earned savings .......... I must have read this wrong ????. Well, at least the headline is spot on with Anutin sucks

Cannot be, Saksayan has been living off social welfare hand outs on a daily allowance of 284 Baht ....... and (many digit) change ????

Does not really take much more than a lip service. But, given his happiness on the subject, he might focus to attend to the next irrelevant nuisance, the fantastic air quality in the Land. The Thailand map is accurate, 4 March 2023, whereas the Nong Khai reading was taken Wednesday earlierst morning, i.e. three days ago.

Here we go with a visualization some ten minutes ago (Saturday, 4 March 2023 at 09h20 Thai time). So, for once they cannot blame it on the Khmer, Lao or Burmese ..........

Given the presently lower temperatures it can be assumed, that the "90%" is more than just a conservative estimate. As long as the law is not enforced ...... In the past (and I am talking 30 - 40 years back), farmers would plough their fields, keep microorganism of the soil intact and the air breathable. Unless seriously stiff fines (six digits) on land owners are imposed and executed, nothing will happen. If the culprits (in their thousands) cannot cough up the fines, then confiscate the title deed and auction it off for social welfare and slap a juicy jail sentence of at least six months to get the message across. Go seriously public and within weeks you will have eliminated the Thai side of the burning and have set an example of how to keep your people out of the smoke. The money for 500 ridiculously less than those submarines without engines, so what on Earth are you waiting for? Ah, I forgot, the semi-divine Thais rather die a slow coughing death than possibly stepping onto the toes of the "phuyays". It might take a Royal Thai Airforce toy to crash-land in Chiang Mai or anywhere else due to the haze to re-inforce my point!

How times have changed; anyone in the realm, say, 40 years ago, remembers when tourists were "invited" by a tout to a sleazy upstairs establishment. "No cover charge" for the Thai couple performing "obscene sexual acts" on a brightly lit stage back then. Difference to today is that the show as filmed recently was free of charge, no touts (except possibly some gold hunting katoeys) and no overpriced drinks were served. So the only point I can see is to arrest them as they possibly had no work permits for jobs, which are restricted to the semi-divines performing in Patpong, Nana Entertainment Plaza and those rip-off dungeons in Pattaya ........ But, to be sure, check with the Department of Labour as well as the Department of Immigration on the type of visa as well - just to be sure ???? Once that is cleared, check with the Ministry of Neaderthal headed by Gen.Sup.Com.Lt. Vishavartranam Kanotbeleaveitappans, also known by his nickname "Stoneage" - hurry up as he might be promoted to the country's biggest ministry, the Ministry of Inactive Posts and Unbelievable Jokes.

Honet to God; do these people look across the border to see, what other countries are doing? Malaysia has (had?) a programme on five-years visa, first car tax-free, second car 50% tax, non-Malays can (could?) own ONE property, irrespective of room, condominium or house. The reason why that programme never really took of were those five-times-a-day "prayers" all over the land and, as there are plenty of such towers, people voted with their feet. Clean up your tremendously complicated immigration with all sorts of TM-forms from 1 - eternity. Grant one-year visas against presentation of a local health insurance and proof of means where a bank book updated on the day of application suffices. Charge THB 10'000/yearly for the visa which includes an automatic multiple re-entry, no TM30, no 90 days and no other funny ideas. Facilitate and streamline all those ridiculous forms. You can send at least 50% of the officers packing, do more online applications and you're getting there. Do not forget, the customer has the choice and Thailand is, the longer the more, in direct competition with other SEA nations, apart from African and Latin/South American alternatives ????

So schizophrenics at the immigration results in "red cards" now? You could take the straight short cut and deport them at the first moment already. Here you take finger prints and the works - not as complicated as overly-correct Europe or the even worse USA with data protection - and Bob's your uncle.

The taxpayer will be, once more again, delighted over the fact, that they finance pre-election vote-buying for the present set of circus directors. Wondering how long that can go on ......... you see, what kind of commercial havoc such subsidies can trigger off ........ If you cannot produce competitive rubber, then grow something else or study, how to become more efficient

OK, and once the whining is over, let the Swiss go over the moon on chocolate, the Babylonians over beer and the Tamils over Kari (Curry). What a hopeless kindergarten; the Thais have been faking and cheating for decades on literally anything from garments, watches or entertainment (CDs) etc. and now they go apes"*ç%t over desserts? Most non-Southeast Asians will not touch the stuff anyhow for being too sweet and "interesting" taste. Or, possibly, it is a slow day at the news desk and the journalists just had to pull out a (boring) story!

Throwing a tantrum - explained! Anutin moves on rather thin ice - me thinks. Chuvit must hold some trump cards (he ran massage parlours in the past and who knows what, who and how often recordings by the "security CCTV" - if any - took place?). Quite clearly Chuvit maneuvers around freely, keeps on standing on various toes and still has not seen anything on fire, blown tires or worse ........ Possibly a fight of the Titans?

Thanks for your input; interesting enough is that on Monday WE (Thai Smile) announced seizing operations due to a THB 20 billion loss .......... TG +10, WE-20 = who pays the difference and, if it is such a money pit then why fly until end of 2024? Just wondering .........

Grant Wilson, 61, the Australian living in Vietnam for six years, during which he travelled to Thailand more than 30 times. a) nice to know that he's the ultimate reference of the travel business in SEA b) why is he travelling back and forth all the time? I would make up my mind and move to Thailand if I would be him. Fact is, that I would travel much more often to Vietnam, if they would allow being 30 days in the country without a visa; similar to Laos. But these decisions have to be made by the goons of their tourism ministry .....

Some points spring to mind - as an aide memoire for TG's present big banana, Mr. Piyasvasti Amranand: a) try to imagine, how many more billions, trillions or even zillions could have been made if all those indefinitely parked aircraft in i.e. Bangkok Suvannaphoum airport would be flying rather than just stand around to the disgrace of Thai aviation b) before you want to shop for new equipment, work out something for the present large fleet sitting idle - see above point. Either way some crooks in the past shopped till they dropped for aircraft without a plan nor an idea of necessity. Possibly those suggesting new equipment now are equally brain damaged or focussing too much on "personal" interests". c) it is proved beyond reasonable doubt, that TG (like many other dinosaurs, i.e. State Railways of Thailand) have been managed by thieves and, if not thieves then they must be ignorant and blind. Maybe you want to outsource that to professionals, irrespective of nationality, gender and/or age. Japanese and Middle Eastern companies of same/bigger proportions put the best candidate into the driver's seat with great success; something which cannot be said by i.e. TG.

Ford is an excellent car; the problem is, that their network of agents in Thailand suck big time .... so experienced in Rayong, Pattaya, Chonburi, Udon Thani and Nong Khai. Exception to the rule was Khon Kaen. This explains why Ford had serious issues to put their foot into the Thai door. An executive of the assembly plan of Ford told me, that it is easier to find a third agency for any known Japanese brand (i.e. Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc.) than anyone picking up the sole agency for Ford .... back in the day. I - for one - had more than ten Ford trucks; all good vehicles. I ultmately switched as their agency network had too many unreliable loose cannons. I could write a book about it ....... what a pity for an excellent brand. The first time you buy a product it is the promotion, catalogue, sales staff, the price tc. Any further purchase of the same product depends on the experience with the first purchase. Or - to wrap it up - customer service is not a department but an attitude ???? Latter not understood by most Ford dealers across the land - how sad ????

How lucky Thailand must be having a health minister putting his nose into literally any case standing around; this time it's the interior ministry's turf. I - for one - sleep at midnight already but the closing hours have nothing to do with health but it allows the boys in brown to skim off bribes from every watering hole having switched off the light boxes, turned down the music so the interior minister (under which you'll find the police and the immigration) will be happy to hear. Wondering, when this country will wake up and consider voting for people working in the interest of the electorate rather than their own bank accounts.

The answers could include: populistic action by the ruling few in sight of the upcoming elections. Take as much money from tourists; after all, they can go on faraway holidays while Khon Thai has to stay home lining of pockets like all those other slush funds (nobody every accounted for the "wild boar" or the various "Tsunami" crowd funding) this week's story of a British lady being hit and left to (almost) die on the road who ultimately clocked UKP 40'000 in hospital expenses. I am pretty sure that the health insurance, so wisely being a 11% part of the tourism fee, would pay within the framework of a tiny fraction of it. why should Khon Thai (making money on tourism) cover health costs for tourists, if fellow tourists (not responsible and not making any money on visiting Thailand) can be creamed? We are not far away from the scenario shown in "No Escape 2015" ........ Thailand, quo vadis?

One point six million Thai Baht - an amount not to be sneezed at. While the hospital might want to justify all those (possibly inflated?) expenses the Royal Thai Police might kick into action and make use of some of those CCTV cameras so befittingly purchased and paid for with taxpayers money. I am pretty sure that nothing had been done in this regard - remember 20 - 30 years ago the daily caption reading "the driver fled the scene"? What is the worth of the bike's insurance? Needless to say to take the travel insurer into the equation as well. The only victim seems to be the apparently innocent accident victim. Maybe Phipat (the c"*çn-in-chief of the tourism ministry) takes this as a pristine example, where tourism promotions worth eight and nine amounts in Baht are going out the window - latter also on behalf of the Thai taxpayer!

Not the colonnello della polizia is the problem but his greedy seedy underlings ....... get those off the road and you're in paradise ????

......... the government has spent a whopping 28 trillion baht of taxpayers’ money. Thailand’s competitiveness has fallen to 7th place among a total of ten ASEAN countries. Corruption went up 25 ranks on the world's corruption scale over the last nine years. Drought-stricken areas increased to 2.24 million from 640,000 hectares some nine years ago .... Unless a miracle happens, the same swines will feasts, possibly with a difference in pecking order, on the very same troughs refilled regularly by the uneducated electorate called tax payers .......

I remember 30+ years ago, when all those inter-provincial coaches were full with staff from Patpong, Cowboy and Nana. They ran - physically - from the beach into the sea to welcome the over_orny service men. The only difference to today might be, that some coaches will carry some male service staff - in addition to all the variations of genderism in between ???? The MPs will be strolling the roads and Sois of ill repute to protect the image of Uncle Sam's boys while the latter will burn fistfuls of green back. Do those alien actually also need a work permit when exercising the defense against those war mongering Khmer or those agressive North Koreans arriving by the sea?

So Don went to get the details of the next marching orders and priorities like preferred treatment of the red brethren of the North, the missing railway link between Vientiane and the Malay-Thai border as well as an update on the imminent submarine status? Maybe some catalogues of what else could be purchased from China against tax payers money?

Well, wish you luck. Another issue is the following - KEEP ALL THE PAPER WORK! I paid into the Social Security Insurance and wanted to claim a pension. By the duration of membership and the paid in amounts I would be entitled to 3'000 Baht a month or THB 36'000 yearly. The final ruling yesterday was, that they could only find my record (which had all data correct except my birth year which made me 10 years older than I actually am) from my last employer 2000-2007. Prior to that they had no record. The sad thing about all this is, that my employer from 1985 - 2000 became a victim of Covid and went out of business. Copies of my work permit (to be renewed yearly upon presentation of copies of paid taxes and copies of social security contributions) did not help. Bottomline is, that I shall get a one-time-payment of just over 60'000 Baht; quite a short change to be accepted as fighting the Thai bureaucracy and avoidance-of-face-loss-by-all-means tremendous adrenaline, legal expenses et al. Lesson is, to keep ALL paperwork ever presented, ALL receipts of paid contributions (both available with your employer). So, irrespective of wrong numbers, age, spelling mistakes - if you have copies of everything, then there is possibly a fair chance to get what is due to you.

Two Kodak-moments: September 1988, flight Rangoon-Bangkok (Don Meuang), 45 minutes, queue at Thai immigration 130 minutes. The seasoned traveller went for a leak prior to landing to avoid losing the place in the queue. January 2023, flight Udon Thani-Bangkok (Swampy), flight 42 minutes, queueing at the baggage carousel 70 minutes. I hence assume that nothing has changed. If you don't wait at the immigration (like after a domestic flight) then they have you poking noses at the baggage belt ????.

Just naming Paetongtarn Shinawatra will, most likely, backfire big, big time. Can't see this young lady with zero experience and lack of charisma getting the necessary votes from all those grannies and uncles upcountry. The old rule "get voted on the country side to secure urban rule" still prevails for the time being. A different thing though, if it is clearly mentioned, that she will be her father's mouth piece. Back in the day Thaksin woke up sleeping dogs and, despite all efforts by literally anyone, it is impossible to put those canines back to where they came from. On the other hand, Thaksins time runs out. It needs to be understood, that Thaksin has a lost face to recover and a lot of open bills with quite a few dinosaurs in the land need to be cleared in Thaksins favour (he thinks). It is not about money (alone) but it is predominantly about power. So he will do everything possible to arrange a big pay back to all those people who ripped away the prime ministerial carpet under his feet just before the general assembly of the United Nations on 19 September 2006.