Xonax

In genaral the whole country is ugly along almost every road / street. Remove all unnecessary signs, remove the concrete poles and put the wires under ground.

That you now will need to get an approval, before you can place a sign along the street, sounds to me more like a new way for the officials to get a piece of the cake.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with people begging in the streets particularly if they have no other means of support.

Yes, I've heard all the arguments like...

'they are organized by someone to whom they must give all the money that they collect'

I've even seen a Documentary in which at the end of the day the beggars were collected by someone driving a small bus............this was ,allegedly, in Bangkok.

But there is no way on God's great earth that I am going to walk past a small child with a hungry look on it's face,dressed in filthy rags

and not give said child a few coins.

I know that it is considered very un PC

I know that the Govt. frowns upon it but cannot not do it !.

One time,instead of giving money I went into a nearby 7-11 and bought the child an ice cream and a small bag of lollies...........

the mother was not impressed !!

This is exactly why they keep bringing the children to the streets. It is much better for the business.

My heart is crying every time I see these children too, but if we continue to give them money, they will never get out of the streets. Instead of giving money to beggars, I regularly donate money to organisations that is supporting homeless children, handicapped children, children with HIV / AIDS, old people, blind people, sick or handicapped people and other under resourced people in general. Almost every shop in Thailand has one or several boxes where you can donate your money.

Good idea to remove the Cambodian beggars, but please also remove the Thai beggars!! No world-class tourist will be able to spot the difference between Cambodian and Thai beggars.

All this negative publicity will certainly keep me and my family out of Phuket for a long long time. We have enjoyed visiting Phuket many times over the years, and all we previously had to deal with, was the totally in saneTuk-Tuk prices. And it was easy to deal with this problem, by renting a motorbike or a small car, which we have done ever since our very first and only tuk-tuk ride in Phuket. I never deposit my passport at and motorbike or car rental shop, so we always rent through the hotel, which keep us safe from any possible rental scams.

Now that harsh gang-beatings and killings has been added to the risks, we will simply stay away from Phuket, untill it has proven to be a safe family destination again. I am just afraid that this will never happen, in a place where the BIB is not enforcing the laws, but let the criminals work freely, as long as they get a piece of the cake. We really need a miracle to save Phuket and other parts of this amazing nation. :bah:

I bought some Spelt flour in Villa Market (BKK) a few weeks ago (packed in 500 g plastic bag from Dijon Foods, Australia). I use it for mixing with normal wheat for baking bread or pizza´s.

It's not just Phuket that has Tuk Tuk issues...

In Hua Hin it is not possible to find a single meter taxi either. I needed a 15km round trip so woke up a sleeping Tuk Tuk driver and asked how much he would charge me for that. "1,000 Baht" came the reply. I offered him 500 Baht for the 30 minutes or so work but he declined and went back to sleep.

MINIMUM fare in Hua Hin is 150 Baht BTW.

150 Bath is Farang price only! Thais pay way less than that! When you bring your Thai wife, you are supposed to be charged the Thai price!

I will stay away from any double pricing destination like Phuket and Hua Hin.

I am unable to buy the original music from iTunes, just because I live in Thailand and only has a Thai credit card. For that reason I don´t feel guilty, when I buy the copied CD´s in malls and markets.

Enforcing the law in Thailand? I hear that the BiB are too busy running casino´s and collecting money from street vendors and bars!

B1.7 trillion - What a joke!!!! :lol:

NO way this price can be real! Put B1.7 trillion in the bank, and the interest alone will be able to feed each and every person in Thailand with imported rice!

It would be much cheaper to just build some local reservoirs, to collect rain water in the rainy season and distribute it to the fields in the dry season.

Don´t worry! We will all soon be safe by living in "Miracle Thailand"!

Amazing Thailand. I had to look in my calender if i´ve missed that it is 1st April today! There will never be a more perfect slogan for Thailand than Amazing Thailand. I have always loved this slogan and now it will soon be gone. To change this perfect slogan to "Miracle Thailand" sounds to me like the stupidest idea TAT has ever had. Wishing to spend 8 Billion Baht on this project is just as stupid, and can only be because some of the big bosses in TAT are (again) hoping to let some money fall into their own pockets.

What miracles are Thailand expected to provide, in order to attract 30 Million tourists to Thailand each year?

Are they planning to clean up the country and the polluted water surrounding the country?

Are they planning to do something about the extremely poor hygiene standards in this country?

Are they planning to fight the massive corruption?

Are they planning to get rid of the double pricing system?

Are they planning to get rid of the Tuk-Tuk and Taxi mafia, and force Taxi´s to use the meter and accept to actually take you where you want to go?

Are they planning to get rid of the Jet-ski scam´s and all other scam´s this country welcome tourists with?

Don´t keep all your money on the account attached to your debit card. I have two bank accounts and I can, without any fees, transfer money from my savings account to my debit card account, and never keep more money in the account than I can afford to loose.

More worrying is, that I always carry two Thai credit cards (KTC and City Bank) with a total credit of more than THB 500,000. The conditions for both cards is in Thai so I worry about what would happen, if the credit cards were lost or stolen! Could anyone be kind to inform me, how the consumer protection for credit cards in Thailand is?

Definitely not this week!

Pictrure taken before the beach chair rentals was established. Today you are not able to see the beach for the thousands of beach chairs.

Central normally always have a good promotion (50-70% discount) for some of the quality brands. Just look for the promotion area in the bedding dept. or in some stores in the plaza.

Fair price I think.

One can wonder where he originally met his Thai wife. She was obviously in it for the money only, and unfortunately you keep hearing this kind of story over and over again. One can only imagine, that he met her in a bar, and had to pay her for sex the first time or two.

Hellman´s, Best Food´s and Kraft all produce the real stuff, and they more or less taste the same way. Make sure that there is written "Real Mayonnaise" on the package, or you will end up with something you will not like. Way cheaper to buy mayonnaise in plastic bags, but then more difficult to keep and use.

Many mountain / hill resorts have smaller areas for camping. I have seen it several times in Kanchanaburi and Suan Pheung.

With a 10 Million compensation, the Red Shirts will be able to afford to pay a small fracture of the damage they made on Central World and many other parts of Bangkok!

So what's the real difference between a dog and a cow - apart from the endearing expression? and that's a real question...

A dog can sleep on the sofa!

So can a cow, if the sofa is just large enough!

Good food wasted! What is wrong with eating dogs? They actually taste real good!

The local dogs in my soi bark and howl all day. I really wish that someone would come and eat them soon!

Why don´t you go by train or bus then? I used to enjoy the first class sleeper on the train to Surat Thani. Buy a first class train ticket to Surat Thani, with joint connection to Samui by bus and ferry, and pay a little extra to have a single room on the train, if you are traveling alone.

I can't wait-let's hope the service is frequent during peak times.

I'm really afraid peak times are going to be terrible for the next year and a half.

As I understand ,they are already using all their carriages on Sukhumvit line during peak hours and it happens almost daily that I have to wait for a second train to manage to get in during peak hours.

I read somewhere they just ordered extra carriages so that each train will have 4 instead of 3... but it takes almost to years to complete the delivery.

I can't believe they didn't manage to look at the stats and figure out a few years ago that they'll need more capacity now, not in 2 years.

As I understand that have plenty of carriages left, from when they changed to the new chinese trains on the Silom Line. These are supposed to be used on the Sukhumvit Line, when the extension opens.

What on earth is Hachiban?

I actually thought that Germans would be smarter!