Sydebolle

The government is well advised NOT to touch the price of diesel, except reduction. Adding anything on the present diesel price is suicidal and will result in revolts on the countryside where 75% of the electorate is using at least 75% of the entire diesel production. Touch it and you're toast ....... ????

Sounds simple but I wonder if the check-in staff at JFK, Heathrow or Leonardo Da Vinci/Fiumicino airport is aware, that my ticket has to show the 300 Baht surcharge while my Thai spouse does not. The nationality is not an element of ticketing for a good reason. Dual nationals enter/leave Thailand as Thai citizen while enter and leave i.e. France as French citizen. If they want to go ahead with this fee, then it applies to all or none, anything else cannot be handled by the aviation industry ..... for the time being. Looking forward to endless queues in arrival halls of Thailand's international airports with exchange booths as well as staff feeding the 300 Baht into automated ticketing machines and then hand over the receipt for this tourism tax to the (sometimes) dead tired tourist from faraway land ..... those airport tax machines, still standing around somewhere with liquid-painted 25-digits inventory numbers spring to mind. Or did they float away when Don Meuaiong International Airport was flooded some +/- 10 years ago? ????

Is it not wonderful to see, how precise some offices work and spill the detailed exact number of acres and yards within days of a deluge? Explains the wise farsightedness of the government with their three submarines; maybe start training oarsmen in time so once the subs arrive they can also be maneuvered around upto Phitsanulok and Nakorn Sawan .... Every year the same melody, some years more than others, depending on who sits at the watergates of water dams .........

Well, what do you know? Some 23 victims are identified while the many other skeletons in the various closets of authorities, offices and files most likely keep pockets lined so dust can settle and yet another avoidable disaster tatters away into oblivion ..... ????

Thailand managed with tremendous efforts to book Rakesh for a oneway trip from Canada to the Holy Land - well done and they certainly rid the planet from a serious crook. Could the same experts now focus on other sweethearts which ran from various little mishaps and have been jumping bail. They made the Thai law implementation the laughing stock of the world. While pocket lining has been a favourite pastime activity, Thailand would gain a lot in reputation but I am aware, that these still free roaming, bail jumping crooks, thieves and murderers are, unlike Rakesh, Thai citizen? Wishful thinking ..... I know!

Reciprocal .....

The answer to this is EDUCATION, show gruesome pictures on the telly and in ThaiRath as well as other dailies. How about creating TV clips where someone at home in a household over the kitchen sink wants to wash veggies and upon opening the tap there's the present sludge of Klong water splashing all over the virgin veggies. Buying bottled water which, upon pouring into a nice clean glass at home, results in smelly oily waste water coming out of the bottle. Cheap in production and a massive impact by visualization of the problem. After all, it is the society's responsibility to keep the black sheep identified and punished. Award people nicely for reporting those pristine examples of dwellers dumping God only knows what when nobody seems to see anything - and put juicy fines onto these idiots. There is no way around calling a dirty pig a dirty pig, irrespective of losing face. Likewise it might be interesting, why the authorities manage to clear the clogged waterways from 5 - 10 tons of serious garbage only.

Of the 49'000+ Laotians a mere few percent, if at all, made it beyond Makro, Big C, Lotus's and some DIY-stores in Nong Khai mega city. While they certainly spend ....... ahem burn ....... money on shopping, the traditional tourism industry of hotels, sightseeing, wine and dine remain completely untouched by them. Apart from emptying the shelves in supermarkets, the Laotians (at least the upper crust in their Toyota Prados and LandCruisers, Range Rovers, Jaguars and other SUVs) fill up petrol on leaving Thailand. Congratulations are in order for the Tourism Authority of Thailand for getting people dumping some money, despite not having done a single thing for this kind of (presently only) traffic from Laos.

I am surprised, that an airline professional, executive and CEO is serious about this issue. Even if they would go ahead and try to collect the fee, there are some obstacles on the way to glory: if collected from passengers directly upon arrival, imagine the mess, overcrowded arrival hall space, linguistic challenges apart from X different currencies or credit card operation and staff force needed to handle the horn of plenty. if collected through airlines, the carriers would have to produce a passenger list separating Thais from non-Thais. Technically speaking, non-Thais would have to pay those THB 300 (in which customer board point currency at what forex rate?); no airline reservation system is geared for a surcharge (or discount) by nationality - yet. I also wonder, what the boys at IATA/ICAO in Montreal have to say to this. if collected through airlines it only works, if all passengers are levied with the same fee, i.e. including Thais. This is already happening with airport taxes on departure, which never disappeared as a fee. Contrary from a direct collection from passengers as separate payment at check-in it is today an integrated element of an air ticket with departure Thailand these days. To me it is just yet another completely derailed idea of one of those countless experts with which Thailand is blessed. Apart from an almost impossible task to charge only non-Thais it also communicates very clearly that the government is only interested in the rip-off. Last not least, be realistic; there will not be any high season splurging Caucasian geese laying forex golden eggs this winter for sure. Europe is in the doldrums for the foreseeable future due to a massive cave-in of economy related to the American-Russian proxy war in Ukraine. The Indians share a can of Fanta among three of them at the doorsteps of a 7/11 and the Arabs are also not arriving in droves. The Russians are having other fish to fry domestically, so go figure who is left? Thailand has never been able nor will be able in the future to benefit of the top cream of tourism cake, that is left to true professional destinations with a X-fold revenue due to service, service, service. So Thailand is stirring the bottom of the tourism drum which results in the necessity of handling tourists groups; the ratio might be dealing with 15 low-/middle class visitor compared to one high-income earner. No rocket science ???? Pattaya was - in the past - the best example of not being able to handle larger group traffic; the nightly traffic jams all over the place were proof enough. Try to imagine, if ten times the numbers of 2018 would arrive ......... Fire the whole lot of daydreamers in the tourism ministry and the tourism authority of this country; they must be smoking, seriously, the best weed on a daily basis as no expert can make any common sense of what comes out of these offices ????

Let the present team of leaders just carry on until they outstayed their welcome. Riots are next and, if in sufficient numbers, it might finally tilt the jar - a long overdue element in the democratization of this country.

This leads me to recheck with the immigration, if a valid non-quota visa can be transferred; something I was always uncertain about - thanks !

There's a lot of money being made in road constructions. Budgets are there to be burnt - by all means - see the second bypass around Nong Khai. It will finish November 2023 (inshallah) and hopefully little busier than the first bypass. Irrespective of the little traffic the first bypass, fully operationally for +/- two years, is being in constant repaving. Road 212 from Nong Khai towards Phonpisai got repaved for absolutely no reason - except for burning government money to the benefit of ....... not essentially those who drive on it alone ????

Thailand is not known of greased lightnings once it comes to decision-making.

Another dinosaur law for only one sole reason - "power" over everything. No smoking or drinking at the beach, beach chairs only on Wednesdays in Phuket and all other absolutely mindless idiocy spring to mind ....... But no panic, most places dont give it a toss, sell the booze 24/7 for the benefit of the industry. So let them talk .........

Well, after almost 300'000kms in Laos over the last decades ...... no surprises anymore, except that many "fixed", "repaired" and some "new" roads have a short shelf life ......... regretfully

You cannot enter Vietnam with a left-hand driven car; exception permits to be issued in Hanoi only. Tedious process and not worth the effort; been there done that.

Second that, correct. What you might have to do is to get a new re-entry permit into the new passport, if they do not transfer an old (yet still valid) one form your expired passport. Latter I do not know as I always switched passports without any valid endorsement/re-entry permit.

I cross into Laos weekly and wish to correct the following: - if you hold a driving license issued by an ASEAN state (i.e. Thailand), then an international driving license is not required - the roads are like Europe looked after WW2, it is a real challenge to drive from Vientiane to Luang Prabang in one day meanwhile. The Kasi bypass (Road 4C) requires a 4WD at times and can be closed completely due to the ongoing land slides while the old 13N remains a pothole challenge in its own right. The road from Oudomxay to Phongsali is impassible as a landslide sent the entire tarmac into the river. Here some urgent action might happen as it had cut off Boun Neua and Phongsali completely off the grid. Road 13S from Vientiane to Thakhek is also in disarray. As Laos is - by all accounts - technically bankrupt without any light at the end of the tunnel for the time being, you might just keep above in mind when travelling overland through Laos. The trains though run flawlessly except that the entire booking system is a huge mess.

Suvarnaphumi Airport and this building was apparently built by the same company; one of the big wigs of this company is presently so busy with the Ministry of Public Health which might explain the leak. In addition to all this, the extension of Suvarnaphumi Airport will be undertaken by the very same company ..... I hear. But then some other ministers of this gifted government ordered some submarines in their wisdom so everything is OK and a leak cannot derail this government for sure, unless of course, the not yet commissioned engines for the subs would not make it in time ????

He was meditating about what watch he would love to borrow from one of his many watch collecting friends ........

Total disintegration of the Thai society - full stop. Somchai the driver's responsibility is, each and every time, to check, if and what is left behind in the van. Would he have done that = child alive. Yaovaluck the teacher's responsibility is a roll call in the morning, unless that has been verified at the daily raising of the flag/National Anthem intermezzo. It might have also been possible to discover an empty chair in the class room. Last not least, teach the children to report, if they think, somebody is missing. No need for expensive software, which Khon Thai cannot handle anyway and usually does not work.

At 3 a.m. on a stroll to enjoy the vibe? She must be a hell of a dance instructor then ....... Having said that, it is despicable by whoever groped the woman but, as said, 3 a.m. strolling around in Thailand's biggest city of ill repute ...........

You get voted into office on the countryside but rule in the urban environment (of Bangkok). Abhisit, certainly qualified and has all the tools to run a country, will not make it as the grannies and uncles work on Somtam, Likae, (cash) handouts ..... the works. Put Anutin or Thammanat in charge and nothing happens, except possibly the statement of bank accounts of some might rise further .........

Go easy on the submarines .......... Look at central Europe where the basic education is free. Actually it is not free - of course - but it is paid with taxpayers money so everybody chips into education funds as ultimately everybody benefits of an educated work force. Apart from university degrees a much more important education element is vocational college. In i.e. Germany and Switzerland the student attends one or 1 ½ days of business school, where professionals teach the youngsters on a focused job-related basis. Cooks are taught about hygiene, how to handle food and the work place they are working in. Commercial apprentices learn basics of how banking, financing, accounting works together with business laws and basics like 10-fingers typing on a keyboard as well as the framework of trade (letter of credit, international shipping, insurance, the works). That education system is still taken up by the majority of students which formulates the economic and commercial backbone of countries like Switzerland or Germany. Result is professionalism on the whole as well as research and development which is needed to keep these countries ahead. As said, no submarines which are completely useless except for those pocket liners and Bob's your uncle!

There is a freedom of speech act and everyone is the same in front of the law. What a non-Thai has to learn and accept is, that the freedom of speech thing might apply to Thai nationals only while everybody, Thais as non-Thais, are the same in front of the law. On the latter it helps to understand, that some are samer and/or more equal than others. Quite simple actually ????