Sydebolle

Many thousands of Thais ??? It is more man HUNDREDS of thousands if not millions over the last few decades ....... but officially prostitution never existed here in Thailand, as many other things it was just "overlooked" ????

I claim nothing but you cannot identify pure tourism anymore. Immigration screens people for their ability to enter/leave Thailand which include i.e. working expats or hundreds of thousands of Thai nationals - just to name some groups showing up in the immigration database of non-tourism character!

900'000 travellers in total (in, out or in/out?) could be an AOT figure which include Thai nationals, expatriates working as well as all the transit passengers changing planes in Bangkok, i.e. coming from somewhere and continuing their journey to a third country. The domestic figure is irrelevant as some (like me) fly weekly domestically for work and I am not alone. We're talking tourism figures and some government offices blowing their own trumpet - as usual.

God help us all and Phiphat can go and close his tourism ministry, tourism authority and all other circuses under the tourism flag. See what happened to Sihanoukville and you'll see Thailands prime destinations devastated in no time. Well done, mission accomplished - unbelievable!

Chevrolet packed up and left Thailand quite some time ago. I would see "B Quik"; if they cannot fix it then they certainly know, who in town is your man! Here some details on how to find B Quik (in the compound of Robinson) in your town: บี-ควิก โรบินสัน สกลนคร (ติดปั๊มบางจากสี่แยกบ้านธาตุ), phone: 042 713 029, GPS: 17.179158 104.118426, open daily from 08h00 - 21h00 ;-). Good luck!

Phiphat and his boys at the Tourism Authority Club are having yet another light moment at the crystal ball. Border passers (Lao, Cambodian and Burmese) as well as Thai citizen do NOT complete a TM6 arrival/departure card anymore. All arrival by air, irrespective of nationality = ditto. Any idea, where these figures come from - neither airline nor immigration can have these figures?

The brethren in the big red North have gotten Prayuth over to Beijing more than once to receive instructions. So the puppet master of Thailand sits behind the Great Wall. The Saudis, well, that is another story. But as the princes of their Kingdom sort of wrote off the heist of the century dating back to 1989, everything is OK, fine and happy now. If these groups, together with South Asians, would be ranking in the class of "quality tourists" .... is yet to be seen; I for one would not vouch for any of them. The Russians, burning money as if there is no tomorrow, enjoy particularly Phuket. Rest assured that all those high spenders are gone the minute they can travel to Europe again; for the time being Thailand is an option, if you want to leave the Siberian winter behind you, as Russians cant travel to any European country - with compliments of Zelensky and Co. .............

If Prayuth would be doing anything to fight corruption he would have a conflict of interest .....

Instead of studying tourism in any Western university I might suggest that such students just keep reading, what those experts in Thailand do with their country. Epic teaching material and new stuff coming each and every day! Keep up the good work; one day you'll be surprised. And, on that note, be aware that you can do many things with money - except eating it! It's not the 300 Baht (no clue how they want to collect that at Bangkok's airports which are a mess in the arrival halls by people being slowly screened by immigration or wait 90 minutes for luggage off a domestic flight. No, it is the clear message "you tourist, you are here to be skinned alive and there is nothing you can do about it." Same with national parks, museums etc. - Well, there is something those tourists can do and that is voting with their feet! You've been warned, the writing is in huge big capital letters on the wall!

If I or anyone I care for would get attacked, I would take the case through all the courts and once I've won the case, the money would go for some charitable cause. Then the dog would be served its last supper - my treat! It is not the dog's fault but why should my loved ones suffer just because the dog's owner is a p1rck? It's time to start doing the jobs the lovely authorities and forces in this land strictly refuse or are simply too stupid/too corrupt to do!

As proven again, you can distinguish the difference between friend and foe during election campaigns or a reading of a testament ........ your call!

Details, details, details ........ The last run for the government house saw 6+ million votes for a party nobody ever expected when the dinosaurs pulled the plug, declared party and leadership illegal and hence 6+ million votes got ..... deleted. Any other country with a whiff of democracy would have cried foul - to start with. If there would have been a real election error/mistake, the whole process would have been repeated. Lets see what 7 May brings this time; maybe they will have to void 7, 8 or 10 million votes - your call and good luck to all - from "under the rock" as suggested ????

Valid question indeed. "still alive" would apply only, if nobody wakes the fellow up for meals "by votes" depends on how much lose change is involved and since Dr Thaksin most politicians understood to reward voters AFTER the vote with promises for which the VOTERS (in form of taxpayers money etc.) pay.

No Sir, that is not what I meant. In certain central European countries the court has the possibility to hand down fines according to income and wealth. A parking or speeding ticket goes according to tariff; continuous disregard to parking rules gets passed on to the court (I do not know, how many times you have to park wrong at the very same spot until that happens); so do driving "irregularities due to alcohol or substances. I recall reading an article about a filthy rich banker who used to get chauffeur-driven straight to the doorsteps of the bank which he served as a board member. The access was through a walking zone, i.e. except utility vehicles (ambulance, garbage, cleaning etc.) all other vehicles were banned to drive there. He could not care less and collected a daily fine of the equivalent of USD 40. Upon the 14th ticket, the police station in charge passed on the entire file to the court. There was an official hearing and the gentleman at fault was fined USD 288'000 - in accordance with his salary and wealth. Question is two-fold: did he ever consider driving there ever since? did anyone else ever consider breaking the law, pay the petty fine of USD 40 - or abide by the law? Your call!

How interesting indeed. Two questions: is the electorate ready for all those handpicked candidates; it could be that none of those proposed sweethearts of Thai politics will ever make it again all those populistic election promises, i.e. wage increases, adding dozens of public holidays and other goodies so graciously granted by the government; does the electorate know that THEY pay for all this? The government can only spend money it got/took from somewhere else and the private sector is laying flat already with trillions of losses carried forward from coronaphobian ideas and other governmental wisdom!

Interesting, everybody is equal in Thailand ....... some though are more equal than the others. Throw in skin colour, religion or cuisine into the equation and the result is, that non-Thais may not carve ice or run a barber/hairdressing saloon - among others. Thailand, when looked up, translates into "Paradise for dinosaur" - spot on, keep up the good work!

What a relief; so all those lies about those thousands of bars and houses of ill repute - one big lie! Praise the Lord for this good news then - your call!

Well, now the Indochinese junta can meet for tea again ...........

The territorial snake fight in full swing, it seems!

If Prawit happens to make it through the next round of Thai democratic elections, then I suggest the government's sign maker will be entrusted with "Wake up for meals" sign board and a battalion of young, good looking cadets to follow around for the timely handling of the sign board.

Some other throne-seekers might be shedding tears over this article; after all, what do Anutin and Thammanat have in common? It is all about face and power; not one of the above listed nor anywhere else named persons have the slightest clue of the word "democracy". Zarathustra has not spoken yet (in this particular case), yet . The non-elected chamber (250 out of 500 members) is indeed an overpowering parliamentary entity who have their little interests to be looked after as well. Street protests interspersed with violence over the past two years have been steamrollered with all sorts of means and despite living in a army-controlled environment the boys in uniforms failed to get it out of the way. Lets see if we are seeing the end of a dinosaur area on all levels or, unsurprisingly, it might be just another "encore of Thai democracy" .......... your call!

Earlieron there were articles referring to the fact, that the blood test was taken five hours after the incident ........ time warp or "back to the future 4"? Book the fellow, fine him according to this wealth and only then the semi-divine police "force" might start getting a whiff of credibility and pass on the bucket to the courts in the land. There the next hurdle is waiting but given the fact, that Thai judges can "relax" in illegally built villas paid for by the taxpayer, explains the rest of this farçe making Thailand the laughing stock of Planet Earth!

Well, it is a start - after all. The remaining millions got away by pure luck or a little lose change ????

The minister must have been enjoying seriously good weed. Combined with (by then) 500 - 1'000 Baht landing fee the country will be seeing explosive increases in money flows; from China and India, apart from our brethren in the sand. Keep an eye on Pipat, let's see where he is in 2027 .......... at Swampy airport welcoming the 80 millionth tourist? Stay tuned ????

It has been like that for the last four decades I can recall and it will not change anytime soon. Unless, of course, the Thai people will start to realize, that the biggest crooks, thieves, liars and gangsters are among their own people. There are countless cases where HUGE manila envelopes have been moved and are moving still. While in a normal country police (domestically) and army (along the borders) are here to protect its people, Thailand managed to cultivate its electorate to serve police and army. Among 500 senators you find 250 hand-picked non-elected members by a non-elected prime minister - your call! Does anyone, seriously, still believe in Easter Bunnies and Father Christmas? Well, you better do as they are alive and kicking everywhere in Lalalaland ..........