spidermike007

I can understand why they would want to keep this a secret, it was likely negligence on the part of a crewman, or faulty maintenance. The captain of the ship should have not only been fired but he should have lost his position entirely from the Navy. They have a lot to cover up, the armed forces in Thailand are not exactly what we would refer to as transparent, nor are they accountable, and they certainly would like to keep it that way.

Check out the temple on the northern end of Ban Krut bay it, has the most extraordinary stained glass I've seen on any temple in Thailand, it's really worth a visit. Nice area. Very peaceful. Great beaches.

You're analyzing this way too much, the bottom line is they don't make enough and it makes no difference whatsoever for any of us to give them 20 Baht when they deliver food. Zero difference in our lives, but a significant difference in theirs.

Incorrect. I know people whose family members have bought positions in the police department for 2 million baht. Were they just making that stuff up? Do you honestly think a Thai family is going to come up with that amount of money if they don't know what kind of profit is involved? This is not speculation.

Wow talk about a man of conviction, it takes a lot of guts to do what he did, yes it does seem crazy to most of us but that is what I would call moral conviction in action. And I think it is a reflection of the level of outrage and disgust at the campaign that the IDF is engaging in, and the disproportionate level of their incredible destruction of Gaza and the murder of innocent women and children. Israel's in a very precarious position at this point, and is finding itself increasingly isolated on the world stage. They had better be very careful. If the US abandons support of Israel they are in big trouble.

Do you have any understanding of how the police, immigration and customs work in Thailand? Do you know anybody that is an officer within any of those institutions? I do and it's very well known that positions are bought for significant amounts of money. Do you honestly think that a hard-working Thai family would invest millions of baht to purchase a position if there wasn't a hugely lucrative franchise connected to that? Your insistence that the RTP and it's higher officers are innocent of corruption is somewhat purile and has no foundation in reality.

That's a completely juvenile response and it really has very little to do with my original post. This has nothing to do with whether or not my friend had excess baggage, this simply has to do with what he was charged for the excess baggage. Most airlines have policies that are in line with the majority of airlines around the world. Malaysia Air does not, the amount that they're charging for excess baggage is insanity, and is well beyond the price of the original ticket. Just say no to Malaysia Air is going to be my lifelong policy.

He is guilty by association, he's the deputy director of the RTP, there's likely less than a 1% chance that he's not guilty of laundering money. How else would he hide the hundreds of millions of baht that he's likely been collecting? Your presumption of innocence seems quite naive knowing the RTP like we know them. Perhaps you believe in the whole clean cop PR program that he has been engaging in?

It is of extreme importance to differentiate between people protesting against Israel's approach to this war in Gaza, and antisemitism. They are two completely different things, however Israel is an extremely thin skinned nation, and very intolerant of any sort of criticism. As a Jew I know that many Jews are thin-skinned when it comes to any sort of criticism of Israel, and it's often interpreted as being anti-semitic. I've been called a Jew hater for criticizing Israeli policy so I know how sensitive the issue can be, and it's very important to interpret it correctly. Jews and all people have the right to be critical of Israeli policy, especially now that the extremists have taken over gotten the support of a hateful PM, and are engaging in what could be called a ridiculously disproportionate campaign against the Gazans. Israel must be very careful at this point as they are losing support around the world, by the day it's gotten to the point where there are very few nations who are still supportive of Israel, and the IDF, and even the US is considering withdrawing some support. That would put them in dire straits, and very isolated. But, they deserve that, in my opinion.

I think we are very safe here, safer than in most other nations around the world. Think about it, though Thailand does ally itself with China, if a major conflict were to break out Thailand is not particularly useful to anyone. It's not particularly strategic and it doesn't have enough minerals or other resources to attract the attention of nations with bad intentions. Granted if things were to get really crazy then the biggest cities in Thailand are probably the last places that you want to be. But, in general, I think we're very safe here. Especially in smaller towns and rural areas.

This is wrong, this will not have any effect on tourism, a big zero. What might have an effect on tourism would be lowering the import wine tax on fine wines, and growing that part of the industry. Perhaps that would help to attract the wealthier tourists that Thailand keeps droning on and on about. Tourists who have very deep pockets are highly offended when they come here and try to order a bottle of wine that they pay $100 for at home, and it's $500 to $600, or it's just not available. And nobody knows anything about them because the wine industry is so severely oppressed due to the heinous taxation issues. This administration needs to start getting some smarts, and exercising their brains rather than behaving like buffalo, and passing one policy after another which make no difference.

A fully compromised woman visiting a serial killing, land grubbing, ridiculously corrupt, illicit multi billionaire, ex PM. Good optics. The PT continues their descent into moral oblivion.

And we must assume that governors in Thailand are comprised of only the most noble and truthful people, and they never earn anything beyond their salaries. His level of credibility is on par with all governors. None. Say and do anything to avoid the truth.

Patong is a horrific area, with no redeeming qualities. It is a pit of desolation. They used to at least have hot women there. No longer. Now, mostly old, fat and not at all attractive. Yikes. A few hotties at go go bars. Just a few. And traffic is miserable. Phone poles and trees are very unforgiving. The must be avoided at all costs.

The sugar cane industry is evil. These farmers seem to have no regard toward their fellow Thais and are causing massive destruction to the environment. And the rich refiners are totally complicit in this crime. Either the government steps up, or they remain another lazy, do nothing administration. Sretta, are you a do nothing man, or not? Rather than partnering with our campaign, the sugar industry has demonized it, but their fear-mongering just crystalizes the truth for more and more Floridians. Take just a few moments to do the research and you will discover that green harvesting is anything but “anti-farming.” As a multi-million dollar industry, Big Sugar’s claim that green harvesting is too difficult, while less wealthy sugar-growing nations around the world have moved beyond sugar field burning, is an insult to American ingenuity and an outright lie. https://www.global-organics.com/post.php?s=2021-06-03-the-alternative-to-burning-sugar-cane-is-a-win-win-win-solution-opinion

These quilts were mind boggling in their intricacy. The silver and gold jewelry is astonishing. The list goes on and on.

Well most seem to ignore them, and we all know how difficult the legal system is here, so how many tenants are going to take a landlord to court to fight them over an electric bill?

Some strange happenings of late, there's some pretty weird people out there. I'm not singling out Thailand, this kind of nonsense happens all over the world, but you just wonder what drives people to take another man's life. It seems like a pretty extreme thing to do, for those of us that are not pathological maniacs.

It's very important here when moving into a new rental to discuss electric rates. It's very common for landlords to use that as a profit center, which should be illegal but it's not. Often times they will double the cost of electricity so that's always something that I discuss during the lease negotiations, and if the landlord is not willing to charge me the actual rate from the PEA, I won't rent the house or condo.

Well obviously this is a very subjective topic, I've been there three times over a period of 15 years with and without my woman, and I think they were slightly friendlier when I was traveling solo, but my Thai woman has a Pan Asian look so they would assume she was a local, which didn't help, as they don't seem to like mixed couples. But in general I found them to be a lot less friendly and a lot less hospitable than the majority of Thais. But as I say this is very subjective. My Thai woman felt the same way and I never have any need to go back.

I've spent a lot of time in India, I lived in worked there for a couple of years, and been all over the country. The handicrafts are astonishing, the silver jewelry, the jewelry done with semi-precious stones, the paintings, the hand woven carpets, the weaving, the woolen shawls, the list goes on. I could literally recite 75 different areas where the handicrafts are world class. Perhaps you haven't traveled enough when you were there.

My guess is that in private he shows just as much disrespect and disregard for his supporters as he does his opponents. That's just who the man is, he has no honor, no respect, and no dignity.

It hasn't been, and I didn't mean to imply that they weren't, all I'm saying is that since Thailand is not a real democracy, and since elections are ignored, it's very likely they are going to hold Thailand at a very high level of disregard, and not consider the request to be particularly important, nor earnest.

Voting doesn't seem to matter anymore and the fact that a free and honest vote can be stolen like it was recently, and a well-qualified, smart, earnest reformist candidate like Pita can just be tossed by the wayside, will no doubt help to establish more apathy on the part of the population. They must look at this and they say if our vote doesn't matter, if the extremely toxic and corrupt army is just going to steal the election anyway, what good does it do? It really does prove that Thailand is not a democracy, until they diminish the power of the army it never will be.

Even in non tourist areas, everywhere you go in Bali, India, other parts of Indonesia, or Mexico you find very high quality handmade silver jewelry, tapestries, paintings, drawings, wooden crafts, paper maiche, of exceptional quality. The list goes on. Very, very little of that is found in Thailand, the handicrafts are of exceptionally low quality. It is quite possible it has something to do with the educational system and the fact that this system just does not encourage creativity. Of course it could be a multitude of other cultural factors too, but the bottom line is that most of us know that Thai handicrafts are pretty marginal.