Sydebolle

Everything happens for a reason and it remains to be seen, which bigger fish they fried with this stint to deviate the attention of ? Over time we might know ......... or not!

Forget about cold Western climate patterns and increased cost of living. Fact of the matter is, that the chickens came home to roost. Thailand's governments has anticipated for generations the un-education of the electorate. Due to the lack of power separation those in charge of education were beneficiaries of the fact, that the Thais remain uneducated until today. After 15 years of Thai education they may hand out magnetic cards on a drive-up to a tollway or apply for telephone operators etc.; I do not know of any foreigners - who can afford the private education fees of international schools - who would have their child(ren) attend a Thai school; likewise the price tags of the international education institutes remain simply out of reach for 95% of the kids. The educational level of an apprenticeship is unknown; some parents are blinded when the "universities" offer a traineeship (ฝึกงาน) which is a fortnight of folding papers, wrapping something or just watch another employee doing something the trainee has not the slightest clue about. From this particular "horn of empty" the employment market recruits its staff. Latter, facing the uphill battle serving other people (which might be a loss of face for the youngster and hence flatly refused), the inability of applying basics of foreign languages, irregular working hours at salaries their bosses would not even answer the phone ....... go figure! As said, the writing is on the wall in big capital letters. Revamp the education system, allow "alien" to work here without this tremendous avalanche of bureaucracy, photocopies to be signed with blue ink only and allow passport photographs which are, sidewise, off by one millimeter. Offload 50% to 80% of your "government officers" to increase the throughput and use the saved salaries to compensate the remaining workforce with proper pay ..... otherwise Thailand will go down the same drain as the Philippines after 1986. Your call!

So this particular demand can be filed together with all the other demands for the PM and his cronies to clear the stage and book an extended stay at the Hilton in Bangkok ????

Don't be fooled; it is neither the "Government" nor the "Cabinet" giving out gifts; it is the Thai Taxpayers generosity again, with which the Government is playing its own trumpet here.

Whoa, lucky me as I am neither Thai nor interested in any photographs with any of those semi-divines. After all, it is illegal and will be reprimanded with 14'700 years in the slammer, 500 Baht .... or, worst case scenario, BOTH!

Maybe a silly question but why on Earth does an immigration officer need to see you boarding pass once you have arrived? On departure I would understand, although there as well it is irrelevant. What counts is valid travel papers and, depending on local regulations, presentation of a visa which allows to arrive in the country. Access into the country remains at the decision of the immigration department as per pre-defined rules. Hence, what is that story with the boarding pass now?

My Math professor, back in the day, taught us all COMPLETELY wrong. A company with a reported accrued loss of USD 10 billion (a year ago), still not having been able to refund thousands of passenger claims for services sold but not provided is now in the process of getting some additional new toys by a supplier who expects to be compensated by selling or leasing aircrafts? Less than six months ago they hoorayed the delivery of three brand-new B777, featuring First Class cabins (again). Another reason to certainly NOT fly Thai Airways or any of their Low Cost Carrier involvements .... my long, long overdue refund is apparently used now for subsidizing yet another "deal" ...... go figure!

I assume that Thai Airways inflight announcement on approaching any Thai airport from outside Thailand will be "Ladies and Gentlemen, kindly buckle up, put the back of your seat in an upright position, fold up your table as we are in the process to land in the Land of Dinosaurs". Or am I getting something wrong again?

Excellent PR for tourism; Makro and others will be having a supply problem which will send prices ..... maybe Prayuth should call his red brethren in the North and enquire about those three sub-marines; they would come in handy now. The supplies of amber liquid and local firewater will be exhausted sooner than anyone thinks, me thinks ..........

To start with; I am non-British and come from a country with a completely different government structure. Yet, maybe it is time to realize, that all those tree huggers and do-gooders out there are not on the wrong path but on the wrong highway. And the latest PR stint of "les infants terribles" proves it, once more, again. Outspoken Ms Markle can counter Mr Clarkson's comments and - trust me - he can take it, no worries there. This gold-digging lady knew EXACTLY, what to expect if she wants to be showered with jewels and gold. Well, Sweetheart, you cannot have your cake and eat it and hence it is either IN or OUT. You've opted out, which is better late than never, but making publicly fun of the royal protocol is nothing but despicable in its finest order. In addition, she managed to pour extra oil into a fire between her lovely husband, Mr Harry Windsor and his brother, the future King of England. It might take a little extra vocabulary to get the message really across and Clarkson has managed, once more again, beautifully well. Keep up the good work; in this particular case = no damage done whatsoever. And, to Ms Markle, keep your shirt on, stay where you are and stop putting your nose into things you were never willing to learn, understand or adhere to. It is a British matter which you, for one, certainly never will comprehend ????

Well, look at Betong (no flights anylonger, despite two airports), the "new" airport of Chiang Rai or the excellent work performed on the runway extension of Mae Hong Son back in the day ........ your call!

Still believe that rapists, pedophiles and drug dealers should be eliminated for good, in the interest of society and individual defenseless people. These years in jail = taxpayers expense; the death sentence would be the cheapest and absolute guarantee that this particular person never ever commits the crime!

Honestly, who cares really? Does the UK have no other problems these days?

Unless the Missus did not - by mistake of course - clean out the balance between was left after borrowing the daughter the 50 grand ......... or even asked the daughter to withdraw the 50 grand herself and return the ATM card (or phone) later on while forgetting to mention the remaining balance being transferred as well .......... As one comment said, unless you are fluent enough to understand the entire conversation, the Missus might have given out the bank details (possibly even in good faith) and now, due to a complete loss of face (and of lesser importance, the money) she has "forgotten" this tiny detail. I get spam calls almost daily and I answer all phone calls, even those where I do not know the caller's number (like courier delivery boys, new customers etc.). A spam caller is kindly requested to hold the line for me to finish quickly something else and then I just put the phone down, leave the connection open until the caller realized that (s)he has been taken for a ride. Some call a second time, the longest someone waited was a solid 48 minutes but usually those who I hanged out to dry do not call ever again. The bank can certainly tell you, how the balance got booked off the account; take it from there!

After all these years, the Thai authorities and its gifted leadership still amazes me with what kind of ideas they are coming up with. Cables and ropes are not the solution of the self-inflicted issue and traffic jams. Such transport is used in rugged terrain, across rivers, up hills and mountains, across valleys etc. and nowhere used as mass transport. Latter would suggest ample parking for x-thousands of cars and a vehicle free city zone with buses roaming on fixed routes. Much cheaper and, except a huge car park, no other infrastructure. Since Switzerland is quoted, you might want to look at the holiday resort of Zermatt; vehicle free for ages. You MUST arrive by (public) train, bicycle or foot from Täsch, some eight kilometres further North. Zermatt is doing thriving business and, few and far exceptions, everyone else absolutely enjoys the fresh air without noise and people can roam anywhere by foot. The train runs 84 times daily and between midnight and early morning there is a service every hour to the hour. But yeah, putting such a bus service in place here in would not bring the expected cash shower for the selected few ............. In closing, we all know that after some seriously overpriced feasibility studies, the entire idea will disappear into thin air until another expert comes up with the splendid idea of proposing an underground train network ????

Farsighted again - congratulations. Yet, as there is no prostitution due to its illegality, we can all stroll at ease along the beach but I like the farsightedness of the authorities. Exact fines are not revealed as they would be a matter of bargaining skills - or natural compensation in lieu? Anyhow irrelevant, as prostitution is illegal!

Many years ago a wastewater officer was asked by a TV reporter, when and how long the wastewater plant would run - as the rotating drizzle arms (one of the last processes in water treatment) were standing still. The bloke answered honestly, that these rotating arms would only rotate when high VIPs would be arriving such as the PM (at the time, it was Anand Panyarachoon) but once he's gone, they would switch off the system until the next bigwig would show up. While this is 30 years ago, I am pretty sure that not much has changed ever since; except the TV screens which got flatter in the meantime ????

Possibly news for Paetongtarn, the newest kid on the block. Your lovely Auntie, spending an extended holiday with your father since 2014, had already such devastating ideas. Auntie Yingluck promised, in a very populistic way to underline the most uneducated electorate, a salary increase from 200 Baht to 300 Baht and, guess what, she got elected (among other ideas of plundering state coffers at 15'000 Baht/ton of rice and 15'000 Baht minimum salary for university graduates). While politicians have funny ideas, it is the private industry to pay for it; same applies with the tremendous increase of "public holidays"; announced by the government which got standing ovations while the cranky looking industry had to follow. It curbs inflation (everybody was wondering, why i.e. the noodle soup skyrocketed from 25 to 60 Baht) and makes Thailand even less attractive; nobody gets staff at those minimum wages anymore (except those crooked Chinese with their mills and farms employing Burmese, Laotians and Cambodians which are all hired below the belt line, no permits, no insurance, no nothing).

Welcome to the 21st century, or any century after year Zero for that matter ????

Given the way they handle medicaments here I would assume, that your luck can be found in Lazada, Shopee or similar ????

Grief over the fact, that he was from the right origin but did not make it in time for the award given to the 10th million tourist by Prayuth. Latter knew Friday evening already, that this award goes to a passenger disembarking on Gate 10 on Saturday morning ....... but some sporty fellow was faster than him ????

There is more to this particular story. While the RPT is doing one of their world-famous "hunting" jobs the Cambodian story is incomplete, to say the least. On that note I also wonder, who pays for the outrageous bills for which the Bangkok -Pattaya Hospital is, meanwhile, known worldwide for? Irrespective of all, it is of course simply not acceptable to resort to torturing in any form and needs to be reprimanded with the full force of the law. Question remains, if the brown envelopes or the law prevails?

Proof again of another ridiculous UN resolution, giving the geeks in New York yet another reason for a champagne reception; well attended by our African, Asian and Latino friends. Another proof that Prayuth still does not speak/read English, otherwise he would not make a fool out of himself.

Flush the floor drains regularly (once a week?). It should ensure that the smell trap works; a brass/stainless steel bell mounted to the floor drain grill covering the drain pipe, whereas the floor pipe is a few millimetres higher than the bell rim. When "flooded" you have a water film outside the bell cover which keeps the smell ........ in the pipe. If the floor drain is connected to any other drain (wash basin, urinal etc.) and the bell overlapping the floor pipe is minimal, then it takes very little to eliminate that water film = it smells. Eventually you will have to change the floor drain, which usually comes in a set; keep floor drain diametre in mind when getting a new drain. The bigger the water film is between the bell rim and the drainage pipe, the better it works; good luck

Well, well, the fortune tellers at work again. The circus knows now already, that tomorrow on a flight from Saudi Arabia the ten millionth tourist arrives. I query this irrelevant number (which serves to please the ignorants as a pre-election populistic statement) as I am shuttling back and forth across the Mekong from Nong Khai to Thanaleng. Some days the Thai immigration wants a TM6, some days not. Planeloads of aliens arriviing daily by air without any TM6 so how on Earth do they count the tourists. But as said, it is yet another smoke screen covering utter self-profiling incompetence; hotels remain below 10% occupancy; the long weekend (the private industry thanks for the ongoing increase of public holidays) hikes exempted.