spidermike007

Why wasn't the chief admiral of the Thai navy relieved of his watch, along with the ship captain? Who has taken responsibility for this calamity which could have likely been avoided?

Does Hua Hin even have a marina for boats? One of the reasons the Gulf is of so little interest to yachtsmen is the lack of marinas, service facilities and ports of interest. Is this another case of the Thai officials grossly over estimating their attraction to the outside world? Putting the cart before the horse? In most nations, you build the marinas and facilities, then the yachts come.

Are we no longer able to use the term ladyboy, or katoey? Is the term transgender something that applies to only post op people, or anyone who identifies as a woman? Just wondering.

I think the consensus is that the shiny tile looks a little like marble. And it is cheap to install, and easy to clean. So, it appears to be a false appearance of luxury, over safety. I dislike the shiny tile. It is beyond dangerous.

One wonders if Prasansuk is attempting to pick up the mantle of the big joke, left vacated when he was fired as immigration boss, some time ago. Will he become the new foreigner hating guy at immigration? This seems an extreme thing to do. I would understand red cards for known felons, or people committing serious acts of malfeasance. However, no one knows where the bar will be set, and this program would be ripe for abuse, and just more corruption. Same old, same old. Just new opportunities.

Excellent work, Charles. Those ingrates should have been ousted already. Talk about a lack of dignity. One wonders how much prodding Harry has succumbed to by his boss, the wife.

Seems rather arbitrary. Is breaking the law jaywalking? Urinating behind a bush in a park? There should be some established threshold.

By charging tourists and expats 10 to 20 times what the locals pay, one could easily argue you qualify for status as a mafia chieftain.

They seem to use a poor grade of hops, barley, and the production process seems to be entirely lacking in pride. Typical of the big monopolies. Even a large production beer, like Beer Laos blows away any Thai beer, hands down. Thailand desperately needs a vital craft beer movement, and the youth are ready to mount it. If only the dinosaurs would stop protecting their "bankers" and move out of the way. In other words, allow some progress, you mindless simpletons! Boon Rawd Brewery, which makes Singha, and ThaiBev, which brews Chang, the country’s best-selling beer, are owned and run by two of the wealthiest families in Thailand. Through longevity and political influence, these two breweries have dominated Thai beer for nearly a century, forcing out or crushing any competition, foreign or domestic. And we all know how they easily accomplish this. Thaopipob Linjittkorn, or Thao as he is more popularly known, a lawyer and homebrewer, was very publicly arrested in 2017 for making beer. He used that publicity to win an election to Parliament in 2019, along with 80 other members of the Future Forward Party. This progressive, pro-democracy party included in its platform a detailed plan to deregulate the beer industry, as well as a proposal for the legalization of marijuana, citing both as ways of putting money into the pockets of small businesses and local farmers. The opposition that Future Forward was up against is a military-backed, hardline government that supports the duopoly with strict regulations that allow it to control over 99% of Thailand’s estimated 180 billion baht ($5.8 billion) beer industry. The duopoly was originally made untouchable with the first Thai Liquor Control Act in 1950, a law which has been amended several times since to push legality even further out of reach of any small brewer. Prayuth's administration has done much to reinforce the isolationist and nationalistic policies that Phibul established in the 1940s and ’50s, and has called again and again for citizens to display a certain level of “Thainess,” which the PM defines in part as unquestioning loyalty to the government. Do not be disobedient! For small breweries, it requires production of at least 100,000 liters (852 barrels) but no greater than 1,000,000 liters (8,520 BBLs), and stipulates that all beer must be sold on the premises. At the same time, the minimum amount for an industrial license was increased from one million liters to 10 million liters (85,200 BBLs) per year, as well as requiring that the brewer demonstrate available capital of at least 10 million baht ($320,000). Just to make sure small brewers were thoroughly intimidated, the rewrite also increased inflated penalties. Fines were increased from their original, almost quaint 200 baht ($6) for possession of bootleg alcohol to 10,000 ($300). For actually brewing without a license, fines were increased from 5,000 baht ($150) to a range of 50,000–100,000 baht ($1,600–$3,200), plus jail time. Reporting in 2017, The Bangkok Post estimated that in order to meet the new regulations, a brewer would need to have a billion baht—around $30 million—in start-up capital. For some, craft beer is associated with anti-establishment politics. “It’s very similar to the French Revolution, which started from a cafe in Paris, where people drank coffee,” says Taopiphop. “The fuel of the revolution is not coffee any more, it’s craft beer.” Taopiphop adds that, after the 2014 coup in Thailand, many pro-democracy activists chose to meet in Bangkok’s craft beer bars.

Let us hope this was an accident. They do happen in bathrooms, with the highly slippery tile.

This would only be surprising if one is expecting actual law enforcement work from these guys. I sure don't. They are franchisees.

It does seem bizarre that one can die from snorkeling. But, apparently there are quite a few related deaths per year worldwide. It is often caused by a pre-existing condition. Swimming-induced pulmonary edema (SIPE) will initially cause shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, or extreme coughing when in the water. It can rapidly cause fluid to build up in the lungs stopping oxygen from entering the body. https://www.watersportgeek.com/drown-snorkeling/

Might be best to just shut down the pub. One less pub on Khao San road won't be missed. For that matter, all of Khao San road would likely not be missed by many.

So, this has firmly been established about netizens: 1. They are some of the most petty people on earth. 2. They have way, way too much time on their hands and do not appear to be working hard enough. 3. Their skin is thinner than tissue paper. 4. These so called netizens find the most ridiculous things to fume about. Perhaps they should get a life?

I don't know about the preservatives. But, I do know Thai beer ranks right up there with Serbian and Italian beer, as being some of the lowest quality beer on the planet.

This is the very definition of a nothing burger. Why does it mean so much to you, and why are you so focused on tiny details like this? Who cares? Not everything is about racism.

Message to the hopeless one. It will take alot more than some fancy, expensive clothes, likely bought with illl gotten money, to woo the youth. How about helping them, instead of locking them up for showing their extreme displeasure with your reign of nonsense and horrific leadership?

You know the judicial system is completely broken when a misfit like this keeps getting released, or does not get sentenced to begin with. Send him to Russia.

I hope he comes up with substantial confirmation of major corruption amongst active members of the ruling party. The nation needs that to be able to say the final goodbyes to Cha Cha, Prawit and Anutin. Total misfits.

This, coming from the man who has continued to do two or three straight to video disasters a year for quite some time, at as little as $200k a pop. No honor. And bad hair.

Oh please. Likely closer to 50 billion, when you consider the massive bribes and corruption at stake. There is no way he or Cha Cha are not buying votes. Otherwise they would end up with only a few thousand.

Exactly. It is money over health. Money over the well being of the masses. Money over change and progress. Ultimately, the choice to burn sugarcane comes down to money: leaving leaf trash attached to the canes means hauling more material to the processing plant. This requires more trips and more time in processing, which is expensive. Other green harvesting methods, like removing trash in the field, require additional equipment and attention, both of which cut into profits. https://foodprint.org/blog/sugarcane-burning/

It means progress. Burning crops is so 14th century. When it fouls the air to the extent it does here, something needs to be done. And soon.

Rething this: 1. Fix the dozen things that needed to be addressed long before covid, which was a grand opportunity to improve the country, and not just sit on your lazy bums. 2. Give rich tourists an incentive to come here and stay. Start with lowering luxury taxes, thereby making yourselves competitive. Then move on to the ridiculously high wine taxes. 3. Then offer tax incentives and property ownership. You goons talk about high end expats and tourists. But you do nothing to attract them. Have you ever heard of the concept of making sacrifices to achieve a goal? Or does your wealth and hubris prevent that?

All insurance companies are like the mafia. Any excuse to not pay. It is always about finding a clause or an excuse to not fulfill their obligations and behave in an ethical fashion. I have no trust in any of them and use them as little as possible.