HannahD

The ridership required to generate adequate revenue to amortize the massive loans is almost certainly unattainable. I can not imagine any sensible investor buying bonds that promise payment based on revenues. This project can only go forward if repayment is guaranteed by the people of Thailand not the State Railway of Thailand.

Implement a one-time wealth tax on high net worth individuals.

How about a value added project? Convert the rice to beer and sell the beer. The best beers are usually made with rice. Or convert the rice to pork or chicken which can be frozen and released to market gradually. Something has to be done and fairly soon. Edible rice has a limited silo life.

It appears to me that the wily Mr. Suthep is planning to "plunder" a warehouse which he already knows is empty. What then?

If the owners won't open the warehouse for inspection then he can just have some farmers burrow into it. Should the owners of the warehouses find themselves short of the rice supposedly contained therein then they shall have to resurrect it.

Maybe it is time to call on the NSA. Surely they have records of all the bank transfers.

If the police and the army remain passive, the military trained Red Shirts will make the draft dodging elites wish they had taken advantage of military training when it was available rather than buying their way out.

The real fly in the ointment is China. More than likely they would absolutely love to get a foothold in the newly constituted state of Lanna and the Shinawatras would turn to China to protect Lanna from the central government. The Chinese might even promise to throw in Shan State like the Japanese did just to get back at the Burmese for turning away from China's warm embrace. And then there is the matter of the up country Army garrisons. Would they or could they remain loyal to Bangkok?

" The Post quoted Supon, a former policeman as saying "The majority of redshirts really like the idea of a separate state. If they stage a coup, we can live without Bangkok."

Yeah right. Then you will end up like other land locked metropolis' such as Loas, Afghanistan, South Sudan etc etc

Yup they really struggle in Leichtenstein Andorra and Switzerland the richest countries in Europe,Vatican,Austria not doing too bad either.

Once the Slowvaks checked out even the Bohemians are doing fine albeit recovering from decades of Russian serfdom.

I think a soul cotrolled by geography is limited.As to your substantive point I think the split unlikely as America wouldn''t like it.This is why the Chinese may encourage a new "Lanna" planner .Interesting times.

In the late '90s after the crash of the Thai Baht it was just the opposite. Significantly cheaper to buy tickets from Thailand to North America than NA to Thailand. Now that the prai by the sweat of their brows have brought about a full recovery, the parasitical ammart are once again flush and the country is awash in money.

All these oft quoted airline fare rules are applied when the target market has lots of money and waived when the market is thin. Any other explanation is specious at best. If you doubt it, peruse some airline sites. Check availability of a First Class seat out of Bangkok to any highly desirable destination.

Certainly a most despicable act. Let's hope for a complete recovery. There is no place in politics of any nation for armed assault. By the way, it is claimed the shooter sped off in the direction of Pibun Mangsahan which is in Ubon. Very strange.

Some suggestions: Breakfast cereal. Bran cereal included. Milk which you can get from 7/11 as you need it. Fruits ready to eat. Fruit juices. Yoghurt. Get some unsalted nuts and make a caveman meal of fruit and nuts. Roast chicken. Can be had without spices if you ask. Thai pumpkin properly cooked is very nice. If you like noodles you're really in luck. Eggs. Bread and jam. Roasted or boiled ears of corn perfectly safe when first removed from heat and eaten without the sauces. Beans. Sardines. Ayam is a very high quality local brand. If you have or can get a refrigerator you can get and keep the makings of quite good sandwiches at any of the large supermarkets. Plan on going a couple of times a week to get a good meal out and to stock up. Some will cook your fish for you. Try to get plenty of greens. Drink plenty of water. Hope this is some help.

In response to another poster's question, if Thaksin had sway over the courts he would have been here long ago. The courts - and the laws they enforce - are the one thing that is keeping Thaksin from here - hence the Yingluck administration's failed attempt to have his convictions nullified in the massive blunder of the amnesty bill.

Agreed, but how does dismantling democratic process achieve this? If the court system works, then the legal checks and balances are there, so any illegal actions from the governing party can and should be brought to the courts by the opposition.

What is needed is not reform but simply the enforcement of existing laws.

Suthep has played his hand.

The Dems don't want an election because they know they can't win it.

Therefore he wants chaos.

The people pulling his strings are willing to risk all (read my earlier posts) because the prize is so big.

A totalitarian state run paying lip service to monarchy, the establishment back in control.

Big business won't care, tourists don't care as long as there is some signs of stability.

But of course there are the people, who won't stand for this.

So we need to have a revolution and sort out these elites once and for all.

As I stated earlier, we are witnessing the death rattle of the establishment, who won't go down without a fight but it's too late, you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

The military needs to be careful, the USA won't accept any more coups which put these bastards back into power.

So just as the establishment yielded power to the people in most western democracies, so they will yield here too.

Really bobmac, you can't seriously believe the establishment in most western democracies has actually yielded power to the people can you? The White House and Whitehall are spying on their own people and governing secretively. The EEC appointed the Finance Minister in Greece. Etc., etc. Sure doesn't sound like power to the people to me.

It appears to me that the Burmese military realized that they had two choices: open up to the outside world or be completely taken over by their neighbor China who already controlled a great deal of Burma and would ultimately make Burma just another returned breakaway province of China. (The Kublai Khan sent armies into what is now Burma starting in 1277.)

The only way to open up to the outside world was to get the removal of sanctions and the only way to get a removal of sanctions was to grant a degree of political freedom to the people. Faced with a choice of granting some political freedom or takeover by China the Burmese military chose the more palatable alternative.

While driving to work in the US one morning I saw a car coming off a side street and headed right at me. The woman driving had both hands occupied flossing her teeth. Fortunately she dropped the floss and resumed driving the car. A bit further on I entered an Interstate and overtook a car in which the driver had a newspaper fully opened was reading while he drove.

Neither the gauge or equipment could be Victorian, or they'd still be working well! The Victorians were brilliant engineers.

And they did it all with Silde Rulers...

And now it is done with a sly drool.

Say you're a sex maniac and need at least 6 a day, that will fend them off

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No it won't. They will just send out for more women.

If only they would concentrate on sorting out the current railway system first before embarking on the HSR circus.

Due to the SRT being forced to charge uneconomical fares it is hugely in debt and never has money for anything beyond fixing problems. They have no estimates of the economic viability of HSR and it will have to be heavily subsidised to attract passengers in numbers.

No feasibility studies, cost a fortune to build, cost a fortune to run - just what the doctor (Thaksin) ordered.

It appears that the original plan in Thailand, as in the western US, was for the RSR to collect rents on its quite valuable real estate adjacent to the railway to help pay for rail service. It was quite probably never envisioned that the railway would be able to operate on fares alone. It would be quite prudent to audit the rent collection to verify that these rents are being used for the originally intended purpose.

I remember in the late '50s and early '60s zipping across Ontario on the CNR Inter City Limited at 80 mph (128 Kph) smoothly and comfortably. If the RSR could just meet that standard from over 50 years ago it would be very acceptable rapid service. No need for Shinkansen or TGV speed at fantastically high cost. Just good, reliable and on-time service.

I also remember that in the mid '60s in Thailand all that was needed to know the station was the timetable and a watch. Delays were very rare.

What is hard to believe is that I rode these same trains from ubon Thailand to Bangkok starting in the early 70's 71=72 and

I see no difference today except allot fewer accidents back in the 70's.

And far, far better on time performance.

There is no such thing as pessimism. There is just advanced realism.

Over the past 15 years there have been many, many bus accidents claiming many dozens of lives on this relatively short section of highway in Phitsanulok. Nearly all major bus accidents in Phitsanulok Province occur on the Nakhon Thai-Den Sai route and almost always are the Udon-Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai-Nakhon Phanom lines.

First this is an article that was written for the most leftist liberal news(?) service inthe US. Huffington even kisses Obama's assets.

Now on to the article. I agree with the posts that the American's tend to forget that like all the other problems they left behind in Vietnam they also left Khaosan Road and Walking Street. Let's face it the vets that came to Thailand for R and R them came to let loose get laid, smoke some weed and get drunk. These bars were created by them for them. To be honest it was the war that educated me about Thailand.

Huff also forgot to mention that these houses only exist because of the people that come here. If the god people of England , Australia and the UK decided not to come here then it would not exist.

As for the mafia yep you definitely do not want the Russians as they will not pay as much kick back to the police.

They left behind Khaosan Road? Say what? I stayed on Khaosan Road in 1987 when it was just a few guesthouses and small restaurants. As far as I know it only really got started as a backpackers center a few years before that. Of course now it is a frigging zoo and full of bars and clubs, but I really doubt the American presence during the Vietnam War had absolutely anything to do with it. Did you mean Patpong Road, perhaps? Even then, I think it's development had more to do with German sex tourists in the 70 and 80s.

Virtually every nightspot that existed in Thailand during the Vietnam War is long gone.

During the Vietnam War the GIs that came to Bangkok for R&R were catered to by establishments set up on Petchburi Road Extension just for that purpose. The nightspots had the usual drinks and hostesses and loud music appealing to American teenagers. They are all gone now though some of the hotels still remain but usually in a rather decrepit state. It was after all 40 to 45 years ago. Patpong Rd was mainly for European tourists. Prostitution existed long, long before GIs came here and has continued long after they left. There is a vast commercial sex industry in Thailand though visitors (and most Thais) only see the few spots that cater to foreigners.

I remember visiting Thailand 45 years ago and in villages throughout the country Thai women went topless. Only in cities did women wear blouses. Even there they might wear only a Thai style long-line bra in the neighborhood. If people want to talk about tradition and history, they ought to learn it.

This would require the Elites to pay out money to build, control and plan for decades ahead.....with no real "profit" to be made, so why would they?

Let us not forget, Thailand is run for what the Elites and Millionaire Generals can make, not what is best for Thailand and the nations future.

Aren't nearly all countries run for the benefit of the elites? It is just easier to see in some countries than in others.