Sydebolle

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?

This American clown with a serious MINORity complex never misses an opportunity to: - try to make headlines - writes letters to the sitting prime minister If Heineke is serious about it, why not just starting in this hospitality empire of overpriced while more than average accommodation and then present the overcharges with big fanfare to whomever he wants. It is foreigners like him giving the non-Thai business community an undeserved poorer reputation. Yes, he sits on a Thai passport but he is as much Thai as a green-painted penguin is a frog!

What a load of bol...... ocks! As long as I can see staff standing/running around in air conditioned offices, shopping centres or predominantly government office buildings wearing Himalayan-proof winter gear ........... As long as I see supermarkets and shopping centres without air curtains on building exits ..... Many municipalities running street lights during the day (not on a survey/repair trip but for months) and nothing is undertaken despite calling them twice a week ......... Every 2-star hotel featuring a (sometimes huge, family size) fridge in the room for the pleasure of two glass bottles of drinking water .......... Education, education, education ......... would be the answer and not the bar lights!

Well, an UK citizen is sitting on a passport which is owned by the government and hence a court order can cancel his passport with immediate effect. Inform the Thai authorities which makes the fugitive an illegal immigrant. Now, instead of clocking overstay he then is extradited on a "laissez passer" being a "one-way/one-trip-only" identification paper for a repatriation back to the UK. Throw him into the slammer and keep him there for the full eight years (which is a joke as well; rapists should be, like pedophiles and drug dealers, facing the gallows) and then latest nail him for the costs involved in getting him back to the motherland.

Chickens come home to roost? Prayuth might now realize, that he was nothing but a puppet run by the puppet masters who, themselves, are run by puppet masters .........

If you sit on a Permanent Residence Status (lifelong stay permit without 90-days, yearly re-application, minimum fund etc.) then you have to get a TM22 which will allow you to leave the country on a re-entry basis. Beware thought, that this TM22 is valid only for one year; should you stay outside Thailand after the expiry date of TM22, then you will lose the PR. Attached hereto I send you the respective form TM22 for your perusal; good luck! TM 22 BLANK.doc

Unless you want to go through the (much, much cheaper) process of three juristic Thai entities owning your properties you might want to consider another country. They really do not know what to do; who puts 40 (legal) millions for three years not having a clue, where the forex will stand in three years from now?

Even better would be to move Prawit, Prayuth and all the other cronies to ........ another continent ????

If a pitbull would attack one of my loved ones or myself ...... go figure ???? Most Thais cannot care for canine or even a pussy cat 8-)

What a load of ......... Before June it was ILLEGAL hence very few medical cases 1) appeared and 2) got reported. So compare apples with apples and as there were no apples before June the entire statement of 566% is absolute rubbish. Below 20, well many things are forbidden for teenagers (smoking, alcohol, visiting short time establishments and houses of ill repute spring to mind), yet it happens on a daily basis. That would be law enforcement and is also not a relevant figure. Yet just another useless media contribution to bias the reader. I - for one - welcome the legalization as it takes the criminal element out of it. I never tried (nor will try) the stuff but it certainly brought the crime rate down .............

Back in the day, Air Asia (FD) had two daily flights between Udon Thani and U-Tapao and I used this service weekly. The big drawback then was shuttling between the airport and Pattaya (where my family lived). The minibus service dropping off people in/around Pattaya would give me the big ride on the merry-go-round and worked only U-Tapao-Pattaya. Took it once as the flight (50 mins) was in no relation to the minibus (130 minutes). Pattaya back to U-Tapao = hopless, Thai-style. The taxi mafia creamed off anything between 1'200 - 1'500 Baht for a 40kms trip between U-Tapao to Pattaya, Nong Khai-Udon (70kms) was 600 Baht. At the end, I opted Udon Thani-Suvannaphoum and a private taxi (Camry, Accord) to Pattaya for 1'000 Baht. Eight daily services (and many more in Don Muang is an option), marginally more time consuming and overall considerably cheaper. But then, the big wigs deciding on whose pockets are being lined next, don't fly coach and use buses and taxis from/to airports ..... I assume ????

"Thai Beverage controls 80% of the spirits market and has 18 production facilities nationwide as well as control over imports via companies in its portfolio." One of these facilities (Thep Arunothai Co., Ltd.) บริษัท เทพอรุโณทัย จำกัด, GPS: 17°55'12.3"N 102°48'30.2"E) is on Road 212 when leaving Nong Khai towards the east (Phonpisai). On KM 7 on the left hand side there is a HUGE production. The waste (sludge) of the booze/beer production is pumped across the road into fields which leaves behind an unimaginable stench. The police, upon consultation, said to sort it out with the factory manager directly, who remains inaccessible. Money talks, stinking sludge stays .......... thousands of people in the neighbourhood are affected but nobody dares to open the mouth. Apart from the terrible stench nobody knows, what how if and when they pump out ...... for the betterment of the environment?

Works out to cost THB 86.60 for a stubby (330ml) ...... "uncheap", if you ask me for a local brew ????

......"police closes ...... the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center MRT station from Nov 16 to 19 for safety sake"....... Well, if the conference would be for the better of the people those "politicians" represent, then you would not need any concerns related to safety. Without closing entire Bangkok for three days (holidays paid by the private industry) and make life for those in the area miserable again; the bigwigs could have moved entire roadshow to IMPACT Exhibition and Conference Centre with absolutely no hinderance to the Thai public. But yes, then the limelight effect would have been gone and the government could not blow its own huge trumpet!

Did anyone tell Kamala Harris already, that she might have to queue like every other Tom, Dick and Harry for an extended period of time until Somchai with all his rubber-stamps has flipped through her entire passport, ask her if she is here "for the boys" (as I, male, was asked if I like Thai girls) and then stamp into a brand new page despite having plenty of space on half-used pages? How stupid of me, she does not need a passport, most likely ........

Back in the day I used to buy books from an (English) second-hand book vendor. I once asked him, what people would read these days to which he answered, that "Pattaya is not visited for reading books"; a ten-out-of-ten answer and we had a good laugh. Well, the deputy bigwig just outdid that lighter moment of long gone days with the "new Pattaya Walking Street painting is ready to impress tourists". Out with the old, in with the new; Pattaya wants to be visited for its paintings rather than for its endless choice of houses of whatever repute! You cant make up such stuff, thank you for this beauty!