brommers

Very soon we will see the grandiose new parliament building is leaking from the roof and flooded by the Chai Praya. A fitting tribute to the incompetence of choosing the site and the shoddy building standard of Sino Thai. A fitting metaphor for the crowd of idiots who claim to run this country.

And the authorities said that the new flood control gates built after the disasterous floods of 2011 would prevent flooding in the city. When will Thailand swallow its pride and bring in real experts like the Dutch?

Quite how many visitors does he think can read Thai!

Sad to see that part of the city wall near Chang Phuak Gate has collapsed. It is to be hoped that a careful restoration is rapidly undertaken. Rapid is not a word usually associated with Chiang Mai but this time the mayor and the governor need to wake up.

Yes it is beginning to look much more like a planned park and less like the overgrown weed patch that it has been for years. It remains to be seen how much more development is going to take place. All we need now is for 7/11 to start keeping its frontage clean. It is an absolute mess of discarded food containers, drinks cups, old masks etc. They don't even have a litter bin so that the few decent patrons can dispose of garbage responsibly. And the Bangkok Bank ATM is so filthy it is unusable if you value your health.

Anyone who feels more confident is suffering from temporary unwarranted exuberance. The coming months will see most of the world enter into economic stress and consumers will have to cut back spending on discretionary items like travel as well as anything but essentials. Only the wealthy minority will avoid a major lifestyle downgrades throughout 2023 and governments worldwide will be unable to fund major support programmes. Those who think Thailand can evade the effects of this are delusional..

Just more PR from some hyperventilating drone at TAT. A very small percentage of Europeans will travel long haul because of high airline prices and seat shortages. China will not open up this year according to Nomura and maybe not even next year if they continue the zero Covid policy. Indians might increase in number but they do not spend freely and markets like Japan and Korea will hardly bring in major numbers. So Teflon Thailand will in fact be a historical tourism hub and will remain a laggard in terms of recovery.

The interpretation of the latest regs can differ from place to place. But in CM a friend who was overseas recently for three weeks went to Immigration on his return where he was told it was not necessary if he was living at the same address as last time he did a TM30 report.

The state of personal finances in most western countries is deteriorating rapidly so discretionary expenditure is under threat which means much less demand for long haul travel. We have noticed that our customers split into two groups, higher income well behaved and lower income badly behaved. We have never before suffered theft and crass behaviour like we have in the last 3 months. In fact we will soon introduce measures to keep the loso creatures away in order to protect the decent customers. It will impact our already stressed revenue in the short term but should enhance our appeal long term. We see no chance of the country meeting the breathlessly optimistic rantings of TAT, not that we ever paid much attention to them anyway.

As my dearly departed mother used to say, "<deleted> sticks to a blanket".

Yes, sadly David's Kitchen is permanently closed. It became very reliant on Chinese customers and so it's business was devastated by Covid. I much preferred it when it was at the original out of town riverside location rather than its city one.

I second Weladee, Enoteca and Wanlamun Rim Naam. For a pleasant outdoor lunch beside the river try Nakara Jardin near Alliance Francais and for beautifully presented Thai cuisine there is Krua Ajarn Sayud, but take your own alcohol. Very inexpensive northern Thai food at Gramber is also a pleasant option being set in delightful gardens. And finally in the old city is la Fourchette for good French influenced cuisine opposite Wat Chedi Luang.

Love the irony of a "government" that came to power holding guns is so enamoured of soft power!

I went to Immigration at Central Festival yesterday, at 10:26 am to be precise. The young lady, amongst 5 colleagues seated beside her at the check-in desk, checked my documents and gave me a queue number before indication of to where I should go. I sat for 2 minutes while the Immigration officer completed the processing of the person seated at his workstation. Less than 2 minutes were taken to complete my processing and I left at 10:32. All very well organised and pleasant staff to boot. Count me satisfied.

You can enact all the regulations you want, if they are not enforced at ALL relevant venues you will achieve nothing. Thailand is indeed deep in laws & regulations already but the utter corruption that infects every RTP member and other enforcers simply negates them and will do the same to new regulations.

The next one admitted on humanitarian grounds will be Putin!

Just another smokescreen behind which a herd of civil servants pretend to undertake futuristic projects, when in fact it is nothing more than a job creation scheme allowing otherwise useless paper pushers to draw huge salaries paid for by taxpayers. Show us one example of how all this technocrat has created one meaningful benefit for tourists or the Thai tourism industry.

Never seen it in a decade & wouldn't use it if it was available. It's nothing more than a vasoconstrictor that merely reduces redness without addressing the cause & with frequent use causes the redness to worsen. And I should know because I worked for the manufacturer. There are a range of better eye drops available in a good pharmacy which address things like allergy, infection or dry eyes. And remember not to use any eye drop that has been opened for more than one month.

I second Khun Sumalee. She has undertaken various jobs for me over the years, including my will. She is fully bilingual and is used by many non Thai, but she is very busy as she is in great demand so an appointment is essential. Look at her website, 29tanin.com for all the details

Airports of Thailand have been remarkably quiet about the deficiencies in their aircraft landing systems, the runway, their ground safety equipment and safety staff performance in this whole farrago. When is the mighty Thai press going to send an intrepid reporter to interview their CEO. They are as complicit in the failings as are Nok!

You can only laugh at stuff lIke this. Full of incomprehensible buzzwords, government propaganda and the mindless utterances of those who have no idea what is happening in the real world. All current evidence shows that European travellers are trading down because their financial situation is deteriorating, they are less inclined to have long haul holidays disrupted by the airport chaos engulfing most major hubs and so are trading down to shorter holidays taken closer to home. And now TAT is pushing up market against all evidence. But I suppose they have to empty their budgets asap or they won't get any more funds in the next round of allocations.

Wow, like this is a revelation! Why is there not an ongoing clearance schedule to remove this cr*p because it happens continually. Surely the rainy season does not come as a surprise every year.

Oh really! The cock-eyed optimist is under the influence of some happy juice if he is pleased with the numbers. Just look at the reality of 50% hotels not open and those that are " enjoying" 30% occupancy. Look at the whole tourism plant that is not remotely profitable. Look at global condemnation of the proposed " dirty farang" two tier hotel pricing, look at the inability of global airlines to operate due to staff shortages & airport chaos. Does this give anyone but a delusional person cause to be pleased?

Waiving these fees is just a lame attempt at apparently improving the competitive position whilst the really important issue is the proposal to levy two tier accommodation pricing. Thailand, and particularly this government, is adept at shooting itself on the foot and then using a band aid to try to cover up the self inflicted damage. No airlines are going to rush to increase capacity to here when they see nothing but negative behaviour by those currently in charge. So TAT etc can kiss goodbye to any meaningful growth in tourism numbers this year.

Take note, the committee is chaired by non other than the man whose family controls a large construction company, the same company that delivered the monstrous new parliament building that is shoddily built, floods frequently and was delivered years late and hugely over budget. Wanna guess which company will get the lead contract for this extension?