Sydebolle

Let the whole real estate business go down the halligally; it will make the "Tom Yam Goong" crisis of 1997 look like a tiny poor dress rehearsal. Serves 'em right!

Give that little sweet heart a passport and let her travel to foreign lands to see, what kind of zero impact Thai real estate investors have had on the GDP of any EU country. Non-Thais will be kept out of the race as much and long as possible by the oligarch elite. The latter has been looting its mostly poorly if not completely uneducated citizen of any real estate deal. So much property and land is being passed on by inheritance, new business models (mainly agricultural) are being not understood by the 19th century farmer background. Loan sharks etc. are the answer, apart from daughters and sons plying their illicit trade in the Walking Streets of Pattaya, Hua Hin or Phuket. It is an endless circle. “In the future even though our children live in Thailand, it is in terms of… renting… with the village group headmen and the village headmen being foreigners." is not only utterly racist but shows, that Former MP Pareena Kraikupt is scared s....t; if non-Thais would be in the real estate business, her cheating and encroachment would have resulted in a proper jail sentence - if the scores are dealt among Thais only, a hug and huge "wai" is sufficient to enjoy the absolution of the fellow oligarchian establishment and in not too distant future she will be carrying on. Thailand's biggest problem is their own people but ...... as the saying goes ....... somebody voted for these people. If the electorate sold their votes, did not understand the system or have no clue about how a democracy works, remains their issues. What a joke the whole story is .......... ????

Biden might need to be reminded over the fact, that his predecessor Obama did not leave a lasting trail on his visit to the Cambodian capital. Wondering, what else will be the outcome apart from a fantastic bill of Biden's little sojourn on the expense of the American tax payer. The elder folks among us might remember much better, how John Gunther Dean left Phnom Penh like a thief just before the Khmer Rouge rolled in almost 50 years ago. Dean was haunted for the rest of his life for having been forced to a part of US gunned foreign policy, those days under Nixon/Ford and ol' buddy Kissinger ????

Wondering if crickets, Somtam Poo and other delights of the Siamese kitchen will be met with standing ovations of the dignitaries. For the big wigs from Myanmar, China and Russia - should they attend - ensure, that they will be enjoying their very last supper as Min Aung Hlain, Xi as well as Putin are high on the list of those you want to dispose of to make space for whatever else is to come as the latter is definitely better than the status quo. As to the hosts I shall keep my thoughts to myself .......... but a nicely running stomach might help yet they are used to the stuff already ????

Keep on dreaming; those China boys are sooooo much smarter than Somchai the police guy in his too small uniform, face mask, sun glasses and his particular selection of guns and motorbikes of the day ????

I had a dream. In the dream the police was running quite a few gambling dens themselves while others were closely monitored. Latter not for law enforcement but for frequent milking of contributions which enabled the police to look the other way. Interesting, what people sometimes can dream, don't you think so?

Some envelopes were too small this time?

The incidents date back to 2004, so it happened on Dr Thaksin's watch. The army reported to the government (and not the other way round as in other times). Present DPM Prawit has been pulled into the limelight of that sad stage by Dr. Thaksin as Prawit apparently ran the boot camp called Thailand back in the day. Almost 20 years ago "Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expressed regret for the deaths, but he insisted there had been no wrongdoing by military personnel" according to Wikipedia. The difference between then and now is Zero, the story would be swept under the carpet one of the other way. None of the players, then nor present, will ever face the music and this tragic incident is just used to smear accusations around.

Wait with the continuation, I need to get my popcorn ready. You simply cannot make this stuff up, a digital nomad with 40 million Baht loose change ????

Well, the Miss can say whatever she wants. She has, arguably, a better stage in a momentary limelight but it does not mean, that she speaks for and on behalf of the official Thailand. Hence, take it for its worth ...... Her opinion is noted but will it change anything ........ honestly? She should concentrate on looking "pleetee", make as much sponsoring and money out of the deal and leave the stage quietly next year, when yet another Miss is crowned. For me interesting is, that politics have entered beauty contests meanwhile. I am also against Putin's war mongering but it does not belong into a Miss competition ????

Well, the last visa to the US was a B1 (or B2?) visa some 40 years ago, valid for ten years then but I have not been back in 35 years and have no intention to go there again. So I am at loss with your reference to a "K1" visa. My point was to sound out all options, not knowing where the lady's home town is as well as not knowing, how far it is to the next Thai consulate or the embassy in Washington DC for a new passport ????

Pawatch needs to be woken up to get the message .....

I am a dual national and know what I am talking about. If the passport office in a home province is 100kms away (i.e. in the triangle between Nong Khai, Buengkan and Sakon Nakorn), then it is a trip. The US embassy in Bangkok will have to move the visa from the invalidated expired document to the new document; if she's in luck, a consulate nearer to the home province might lend a hand. But "not my monkey, not my circus"; I for sure would at least check the alternative in the US. Ultimately she will decide how she wants to spend her vacation in her homeland .........

I remember some birthday gifts in the form of a nine-digit figure on a cheque some time ago ........ by one of those booze icons ???? The local firewater under the trade name of "Lao Khao" retails at 60 Baht/bottle. The duty/excise/VAT on imported spirit in same volume taxed manyfold this amount. So the cartel Thai style explained!

Let her call her embassy in Washington; they must be issuing thousands of passports every year (or transmit the data to Bangkok and get the passport couriered back to the embassy from where the UPS, Fedex, DHL or any other company will take over. The pilgrimage to Muang Thong Thani on 9 December might be cheaper but possibly she's glad to use that time for anything else but pleasing the Thai bureaucracy ????

Well, for Prawit it is simple. "Wake me up for meals" while for Uncle Tu the slogan remains, that his deputy is such a lucky fellow having been given all those beautiful watches of the latter's meanwhile deceased friend. All this reminds me of "while the opposition tries to make ends meat, the power boys are moving the ends". Lets see next year's spring show .......

If memory serves me right, Thai Airways accrued 300+ billion (not million) Thai Baht losses and most of these "losses" were due to the fact, that Thai Airways is like a 7/11 without cashiers at the exit, i.e. help-yourself-with-whatever-lies-around and leave the premises. That might put the 900 billion Thai Baht into proportions and what are the projection of where the Thai Baht might be in four years from now? And I also could not figure out the return-on-investment nor an interest rate ..........

Stop it for a moment, I need to get my popcorn and then carry on the soap opera of ever repeating bashing, raiding and hunting ........ too good to be true; what a hopeless farçe! Keep up the good work, it is bloody useless, will kill your contributions in those little brown manila envelopes but had a more than satisfying entertainment value for the distinguished reader ????

Phoodoo (Pudu) is a remote post with very little activity; I passed through many times with my car. Latter can slow down the process considerably as a temporary Thai export permit, a DG53 (same on the Lao side for the import) plus the passenger(s) arrival/departure cards have to be processed. If you are very organized (I have all those papers in the computer to be printed out as a complete set; add date and signature and Bob's my uncle), you are through in 20 - 30 minutes. The road from i.e. Uttaradit to Phoodoo is rather remote, so is the road from the Lao border via Kengtao upto Paklay, where you cross the bridge and carry on to Xanakham and Vientiane, a partly bumpy road on lone road grid. Bottomline is, do the entire trip CNX-UTH (Udon) on Thai territory by bus, get a bus from UTH straight into Vientiane (if you have a Lao visa) or a bus to Nong Khai Friendship Bridge, do the Lao visa and carry on into Vientiane proper by local bus. One day per leg is gone for sure. Doing the trip via Phoodoo by public transport is a "mission impossible" but nothing became possible if not someone tried the impossible ???? As long as the journey is the destination - that is! Good luck!

In the West it is called "blowing its own trumpet" - me thinks!

Move

Never heard more cattle manure; anywhere similar programmes running in Europe? But maybe it is indeed necessary to protect tourists from this utter absence of common sense ????

Wraps up Chinese business practices in Thailand nicely. Thailand's leaders invented Article 44, strengthened some other law in the 110-119 range and outlawed other stuff pre-dating the law. This poor primate is a pristine example of Thainess and I mean the official Thainess and not the one being practiced by millions of lovely kind people in this land. If raping by a pedophile would be made illegal now, you still could go and take a culprit to the cleaners for issues which predate the law - just saying! Get that primate out and let's hope (s)he will survive any trip to any less brutal, more common-sense making land. Absolutely despicable ........

Might improve uncle Tu's lack of self-confidence but hardly improves his popularity which he never had .....

Once upon a time ....... I've given up long time ago, wrote off the loss and will never ever board a TG aircraft ever again. Good luck with Thailand's biggest fraud on the public; somehow they would even have to recover 300+ billion Thai Baht which did not disappear into thin air but possibly got stashed away somewhere else ........ Any news on the Thai employees who were on the taking side of the Rolls Royce bribe; the UK part is apparently settled and court-decided already ???? Just asking for a friend