writeshack

So two out of three don't oppose lewd acts. Interesting slant on a story in a country where democracy means the "majority" can do whatever they please.

what a confusing story and headline - SAS, SIA, Thai Airways. Agreement cancelled, no wait, it's been signed, Huh? Who's doing what and with whom?

When will some TV posters realise it's not just about farangs. Many, many foreigners who cannot be classed as farang also visit and stay in Thailand.

Na Doon district is in Maha Sarakham, Yang Sisurat is the adjoining district. From comments and other posts made above it would seem Da Nayshun has screwed up yet again

We get 5-7 80kg bags of hom mali per rai - in a good year, not many of those. No irrigation, only one crop a year. So by the minister's criteria a huge area of Isan is inappropriate for rice cropping. Trouble is, not much else grows on much of the land. But he's a poo yai with vast farming experience - he must be, he's the minister for agriculture, isn't he? - so he must be right. Maybe they'll follow the US model and pay us NOT to grow rice. Now there's a goer. I know my family would love it. Another populist policy!

Why does being a deposed deputy mayor make him a "former politician"? 100 to one he's still a "politician". He wants the job back, or maybe the top job -- more kick backs.

I suspect many posters here would be shocked if they knew just how many Thais they work with have guns in their cars, maybe a gun in their bag or in their drawer at work. I know for a fact several of the people I worked with do this.

Loosen up guys. The story's from Not-The-Nation. It's tongue in cheek. There's not a genuine quote in it.

It was good place to go to in its heyday, not the sleezy dump it (and other areas nearby) finally became.

Buses to Pattaya used to leave from the Ekkamai terminal until late at night. I used to flag them down on Bangna Trad road around 11pm-midnight. They still do as far as I know. Can be a hairy ride, though. They're not farang tourist buses. Often no toilet either. If it's crowded, you stand up and wait for someone to get off and then jump for the seat

I'm surprised there aren't more accidents like this everyday. Every time I drive this route I try to keep my speed at about 120 km/hr depending on traffic and these passenger vans blow right by me so fast that I can barely see them in my rear view mirror. My guess is that they were going at least 140-150 km/hr minimum.

You drive at 120kph on the Bang Na-Trat road, not the tollway? You're as bad as the van drivers. An accident waiting to happen

Not to hijack the thread but this reminds me that I've never heard an explanation for the restriction on booze sales from 2 pm to 5 pm everyday. I've assumed it's to stop people from getting drunk during their work or school day. If that's the case, isn't it a bit embarrassing to have to make a law like that? Sort of like saying that one's population doesn't have enough self-control or maturity to be responsible.

This nanny-state hours ban was originally introduced with the professed aim of stopping school children obtaining (often by older people buying it for them) and drinking alcohol before, during and immediately after school. So, of course, instead of simply enforcing existing laws, adults were expected to accept the inconvenience of limited selling hours in the interests of saving truant children from themselves. And.......the adults would benefit too, from drinking less..

Why the fuss. It was well known he was rich. His family was wealthy and he had the patronage of a very senior retired general. He bought his way to power. He didn't stand for election, just set up a party and put himself at the top of the party list. Before the general election he stated that if he could remain in power for eight years, two terms, Thailand would never be the same again. It isn't and won't be. That does not mean he did not abuse his power in office to further enrich himself and his cronies. He did.

Does The Nation know something that apparently the Judicial Sytem doesn't?

Sondhi Limthongkul faces a suspended sentence and may not be able to lead the protest, will this affect the PAD leaders?

(Reuters) - A firebrand media mogul and leader of Thailand's royalist "yellow shirts" protest movement was jailed on Tuesday for 20 years for securities fraud, but immediately bailed on appeal.

The Criminal Court sentenced Sondhi Limthongkul, who led protests in 2005, 2006 and 2008 that undermined two elected governments led or backed by ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, to a total of 85 years in prison, but commuted the term twice to 20 years.......................

...................It was the fourth time that Sondhi, 64, the charismatic leader of the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had been jailed by a top court but released on bail pending appeals.

http://in.reuters.co...E81R0EQ20120228

Seems like the amataya is very much alive and kicking...............

Use a big gardening fork

A woman I know first sold her daughter to a 'husband' when she was 13, and after that 'marriage' was annulled because of the girl's age she did it at least twice again before the girl came of age, despite warnings from police. The girl's older now but mum continues to tout her daughter, now demanding she get a farang husband (she's had many hooked but they flee once they learn the hard news about mum's gambling habit). Interestingly, one of her early 'husbands', is now mayor of Pattaya.

Edit: Mispelled 'annulled'. Shock horror. I'm about to be targeted by the spellcheck brigade.

Maybe the TAT powers that be should rethink the word "miracle". It has a very specific, religious meaning to a lot of Catholic Christians. If another country, nominally Christian, started promoting itself by using a specifically Buddhist term, then there are many precedents that show that Thailand, and its government, would be foremost in complaining to the world about the misuse of its religion and its terminology.

Sejeal is printed in Algerian Script. It is known that Al Queda has been planning attacks in Algeria and Iraq and training terrorists. Originally the Iranians arrested with a warehouse full of fertiliser and chemicals for making bombs stated that they were for export to other Countries (perhaps Algeria) the stickers in Algerian font may have been destined to go with the exported bombs. Perhaps the arrest of the Iranians with the warehouses full of bomb making chemicals has switched the Iranians and AL Queda's focus to revenge in Bangkok for the arrests previously made. As you can see the stickers are Algerian style:

SEJEAL (Algerian font)

So if it is printed using NewYork font, it must be Americans behind the bombing?

Algerian font? what a load of irrelevant babel. You truly are a font of all nonsense.

Since you are obviously uneducated why comment on something you know nothing about, I have lived with it. I spent six years dodging the Algerian Al Queda in the Sahara desert, in just one incident one of or Engineers was held up by a group of them carrying AK47s and they stole his 4 wheel drive, tied him up and dumped him 8kms from the nearest dirt road in the middle of the desert. I was a Technical Writer at the time as well as studying Arabic and have read the Koran from cover to cover. If you can use a computer you would know that Algerian font is a selection as is arabic, Thai greek etc The Algerian font originates and is popular in Algeria. I have been involved in printing technical publications in many countries including Thailand. The point is the origin of the stickers, they are printed somewhere and the font selected is Algerian style. The Thais tend to use Angsana, Verduna or Calibri, where as the British tend to use Times New Roman (it is the most popular British Standard for Technical Publications), the French use Arial, the Israelis use "David" font. You can often tell where a manuscript originates due to the font selected. The point is that the origin of the stickers is important and gives a clue as to the ultimate origin. The Iranian's romanised popular fonts use a plain capital "A", whereas the font selected is unique having the popular Algerian letter A

Sorry to disappoint you, I'm very well educated and know the printing and publishing industry well. It's still irrelevent babel to the Bangkok story..

Far more interesting and relevant for me is this:

I was just watching this very same story on Thai television news..channel 3.

They showed those very stickers and the Thai police dusting them for fingerprints.

But at the same time they also showed a cache of ammunition and explosives....quite a major cache of war weapons.

For example, some were clearly M-79 grenade rounds...which are fired from a shoulder launcher. There were 144 of them according to my wife's translation of what was written in Thai on the display.

There were also some wrapped items...so I couldn't see inside...but they were the right size and shape to be M-79 grenade launchers.

There was also a very signifigant display of ammunition for semi-automatic and automatic weapons. 7.62 and 5.56 mm rounds which could have been used in AK-47 and M-16 automatic rifles...to give two examples.

Believe me, IF these weapons and ammunition ARE part of the ammunition recovered...then this was not planned as a minor or one-off terrorist attempt.

IF that ammunition was used, hundreds of people would have been killed or wounded.

But I DON'T KNOW if that was what was intended or not.

All I will say is....I don't think we have the full story yet. In fact, we may never get it.

Reminds me of when Mark arrested some grandpa Red-shirt jay walkers.

But at the same time they also showed a cache of ammunition and explosives....quite a major cache of war weapons.

The arms cache was found in Surin. It has nothing at all to do with the Feb 14 bombs. Learn to understand at least a little Thai if you live here.

Why do so many posters on TV have to be nasty about other people? Weird, possibly, but maybe the man really loved her. Have a heart guys. There are a lot of other stories you can vent your spleen on.

Chinnakhet 1 is dry.

Thanks everyone

I need to go to Chaeng Wattana government complex from Bangna. There's no option. I have a 4x4 pickup but dont want to submerge it unless necessary. How bad is the flooding? Can I go on the expressway, down to Vibhavadi and then left to Ch. Wattana road (to Pakkret) , then into the govt centre? Or should I just take the skytrain to Mor Chit and then jump on a truck?

Took the #10 van from Central to Chatujak this morning. Most of Chaengwattana seems dry, but the van did use the overpass over Klong Prapa, and it seemed there might still be some water in the road in front of Lotus, not sure. On the other side, the road seemed dry, but the army base still has water. One of the passengers watned to get off at TOT, there were a couple of inches of water in the curb lane. Driver let the passenger who wanted to go to IT Square off at the bottom of the flyover for Viphavadee-Rangsit. So instead of the normal route, the van went over V-R flyover, then U-turned to get back to V-R and then to Chatujak...that part was all dry. Would have to assume there must be water in front of IT Square if the van avoided it? Should have an update on Chinnakhet area tomorrow as one of my staff is going into retrieve stuff.

There is no water around IT Sq neither behind it or in front of it.

Chaengwattana Road is dry. My staff tells me that some of the sois still have water, so it's possible the gov't complex has some water. You could drive, park at IT Square since it seems that's dry or else at Avenue Chaengwattana or Big C, Makro or Central Plaza and take public transport into the complex if there is water that is too high for your 4X4.

This morning's Nation said the northbound lane of V-R still had water from Laksi which probably explains why the van detoured yesterday.

I need to go to Chaeng Wattana government complex from Bangna. There's no option. I have a 4x4 pickup but dont want to submerge it unless necessary. How bad is the flooding? Can I go on the expressway, down to Vibhavadi and then left to Ch. Wattana road (to Pakkret) , then into the govt centre? Or should I just take the skytrain to Mor Chit and then jump on a truck?

Took the #10 van from Central to Chatujak this morning. Most of Chaengwattana seems dry, but the van did use the overpass over Klong Prapa, and it seemed there might still be some water in the road in front of Lotus, not sure. On the other side, the road seemed dry, but the army base still has water. One of the passengers watned to get off at TOT, there were a couple of inches of water in the curb lane. Driver let the passenger who wanted to go to IT Square off at the bottom of the flyover for Viphavadee-Rangsit. So instead of the normal route, the van went over V-R flyover, then U-turned to get back to V-R and then to Chatujak...that part was all dry. Would have to assume there must be water in front of IT Square if the van avoided it? Should have an update on Chinnakhet area tomorrow as one of my staff is going into retrieve stuff.

There is no water around IT Sq neither behind it or in front of it.

The article was interesting but member post are embarrassing at the display of both ignorance and stupidity of some of the members.

Why would you expect anything else? After all, this is the ThaiVisa Forum.

Lot of posts from uptight guys here. You got caught out didn't you, guys. Got "her" to the room and then bottomed out -- whoops. Live with it.