minxwhale

If I had a baht for every loud-mouthed, beer-swilling brit I've had to move away from at a bar here...

Unfortunately it's the lower end of the social strata brits that make a bad name for the well-behaved ones that come. Get drunk, be obnoxious. Footie Hooligan, ship worker attitude.

I don't know how these sots even find the money to travel this far.

Prisoners are not helpless minorities. They have chosen to break the laws of the people and rightly so have no say in what happens to them. The majority of prisoners are young men and therefore should be last on the list to receive medicine for swine flu.

They are helpless in the respect that their ability to help themselves in this situation has been taken away, there is no denying that.

What they did to end up in their current predicament is largely irrelevant to this argument. They have been sentenced to a period of confinement, not death by disease, infection and lack of proper treatment.

Regarding young men being last in line for treatment, I fail to see why this should be the case, do you have something against young men ? Is this some chivalrous attitude from days long gone which you would like to force onto other people or are you just misinformed about the ages of the people whom this disease is killing ?

I'm going to presume here that you are not in the group of 'young men' who should be last in line for treatment, correct me if I'm wrong.

If it progresses in a similar manner to that of the 1918 H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic it will be the young people with good healthy immune systems who will be most at risk due to the 'Cytokine Storm' reaction which is thought to have killed many of the young and otherwise healthy victims back then.

This particular flu appears to be hospitalising and killing a disproportionately larger number of young healthy people than other recent flu epidemics.

Thankyou for this post..Less of the flippent posts by the old bores on here please... Some people need to get a life and get real!

There was no h1n1 flu in 1918. There was a swine flu but it's not the same as this one.

This thread is a waste of space and time. More and more trivial rubbish is being posted on this site.

Crackdown on illegal taxis begins at Suvarnabhumi Airport Friday

BANGKOK: -- Illegal taxis at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport will be targeted in a crackdown by the authorities from Friday, according to Deputy Director of the Department of Land Transport Chairat Sanguansue.

Speaking in his capacity of chairman of the sub-committee to regulate public transport at Suvarnabhumi, Mr. Chairat said intensified crackdowns on unauthorised taxis will start Friday July 31.

Notices have been issued and posted at the airport and a public relations campaign has been initiated to warn offenders, he said.

Meanwhile, police officers and security guards patrolling airport premises on Thursday began warning unlicensed tour guides before beginning to arresting those who are unlicensed from August 9.

-- TNA 2009-07-30

They should also post on signs with BIG letters warning people to stay away from anybody who approaches them about taxi rides, tours and hotels.

And they should urge travelers to report the offenders who should be cited on the spot.

>>>>>>>>>>>>> yet one of the cabinet members is a brothel madam, in charge of a vast empire of prostitution and people-trafficking.

Really? Who?

Hi.

I for one agree to these changes. Have you ever been in the situation where you actually NEEDED an internet cafe, maybe because your computer just died or you were far away from home when your boss called to tell you that you urgently need to reply to a business e-mail? Then you got to an internet cafe and ALL the computers were occupied with kids playing senseless shoot-em-up games, with more kids waiting in line already? So you went looking for another internet cafe and it was the exact same situation there? Happened to me, not once but twice already.

And how about parents bringing their three-year-olds to the theater to watch horror movies which, in the western world, would be restricted to 18+ audiences? No wonder everyone in this country believes in ghosts when they start "learning" of their presence in empty houses from such a young age. On the other hand if the captain of the Titanic is shown on an oil painting during a documentary about the Titanic, his cigar is pixelated. As is any beer bottle. However a minute later Singha and Johnny Walker run their advertisements (carefully avoiding to show the product, as if not even kids knew what that product is!)

So if all television is censored to be watched by toddlers, i very much welcome a rating system for movies. Just make sure it is done right! I.e. do NOT censor all movies to be suitable for The Children™ but run uncensored versions that may even show a nipple or a cigarette at times and make sure the audience is 16 or 18 or whatever required (ID check is simple).

They have this sort of rating everywhere in the developed world and nobody complains, so why not here?

Best regards.....

Thanh

The R rating in the US is not for the horror in the film, its the 5 seconds of a nud_e girl they cut into the film so they can get the rating they wanted, because R rated sells more tickets. True fact. And it has proven to up the sale of video games as well.

Don't write about what you don't know.

The R rating is also for graphic violence and language, not JUST nudity.

I think the point of passing laws for the karoke bars and internet cafes is to help boost the police pension program. After all now they have new laws for which they can extract more tea money. As for the movie ratings, I don't suppose local DVD vendor really checks ID for age when he is selling the pirated DVD's.

Seems like the current government must not have much to do worrying about such things as Karoke bars and internet cafes.

Excuse me. No laws were PASSED. that implies them going through the parliamentary process. This are regulations that are being imposed without public hearing or input from the regulated public.

WHAT A JOKE AGAIN.

Laying down the law

New regulations on karaoke, Internet gaming, film ratings set to take effect

BANGKOK: -- The Cabinet has approved new regulations that prohibit karaoke parlours from providing drinking or singing partners to customers, with their business licences being revoked if they do.

Deputy government spokes-man Phumin Leetheeraprasert said the Cabinet also assigned the Office of the Council of State to adjust some of the wording before the regulations are implemented.

The new rules, which also cover Internet cafes, allow children to play computer games for more than three hours and up to six hours a day, says Culture Minister Teera Salakpetch.

Those under 15 will be allowed to use the service from 2pm to 8pm from Monday to Friday and from 10am to 8pm during holidays and school breaks, while those aged 15 to 18 can play games until 10pm, Teera says.

The Cabinet also agreed that an IT system to keep kids under 18 from playing computer games for more than three hours a day should be ready before a ministerial regulation amendment is proposed later, he added.

Seven movie categories

Other regulations approved concern film ratings. The minister said there were seven categories: educational films people are encouraged to see; films suitable for the general audience; films suitable for those over 13; films suitable for those over 15; films suitable for those over 18; films restricted for persons under 20, and films banned from being screened in the Kingdom.

Teera also said that the ministry has finished making the six rating symbols and would submit them to the National Committee on Film and Video in mid-August before they are implemented.

The symbols are: "Sor" (from the Thai word song serm that means "promoted") for educational films people are encouraged to see; "Thor" (from thua pai meaning "general") for films suitable for the general audience; "Nor 13+" (Nor is from naenam meaning "advisory") for films suitable for those over 13; "Nor 15+"; "Nor 18+", and "Chor 20+" (Chor is from chapor that means "specific") for films restricted for persons under 20.

The two regulations should take effect in mid-August.

-- The Nation 2009 07 29

Wow! The government can issue REGULATIONS that apparently don't need to be vetted in public hearings. That's very fair.

Issuing regulations is a good way to also bypass Parliament where a debate would have to take place on changes to the law.

Quite....dictatorial.

I don't really think it will be a significant speed improvement as it is claimed because dinosaur providers such as TOT hardly use the CAT-IIG. They want to save costs and get most of their bandwidth from TM. They will tap into it over there probably.

The reason why I state it is that overall speeds to the USA are very reasonable but speeds and connectivity to EUROPE is a complete DISASTER. Instead of adding more and more bandwidth to the USA it would make more sense to double the bandwidth to Europe instead.

That in itself will increase the speed to the USA as well as now 70% of all traffic to Europe is passing through the USA which makes it enormeously slow. Think of 500 ms instead of 200ms.

It would also be good to instead have a few technicians who at least know the basics of routing data around the world.

Often packets destined for the USA traverse the European backbone, while packets for Europe pass through the US. Absolutely ridiculous. I have sent them already many emails about it but as with everything in the CAT and TOT dinosaur companies... nothing happens and not even a reply is sent back even though the emails have a delivery report.

Must have some real geniuses working over there.....

And as along as Thailand's Ministry of Information and Technology continues to focus SOLELY on hunting down offensive websites instead of improving the nation's bandwidth, nothing will change.

Vietnam has better bandwidth than Thailand. True Dat.

This is shamefull, the person serving time should be the person who posted not the forum people...

Lets see, if I buy paper and a pen, then use those to write a book that breaks Thai law, is it me or the pen and paper manufactures that go to jail????

Also why stop at the forum owner? What about the owner of the ISP that allowed him to upload the images, the computer manufactor that built the computer he used, the camera company of the camera he used, and so on?

You hit the nail on the head. That's why it's dangerous to run any business in this backward country

Usual blah-blah nonsense comparisons !!

49 years ago > 1960

There where the very first GIs from Vietnam discovering Pattaya for R&R spending 80 Bucks in two days...

I think you are 10 years off. Very few G.I.'s in 'Nam in 1960.

There were plenty of american military types in viet nam then.

U.S. military advisers arrived in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s and combat units were deployed starting in 1965. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive.

YOU PEOPLE ON THIS SITE HINGE ON EVERY WORD AS IF EVERYONE'S AN EXPERT. BE KIND< LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Then there are some people that choose to remain alseep and turn a blind eye, while the next TET OFFENSIVE builds within Thailand, only to complain how they got scr&wed out of their life savings, imprisoned, shaken down by the BIB and everybody from the time they landed to the time they are sent back.

Thats right my friend, close your eyes and go back to sleep.... it will all be better when you wake up.

AS usual...another poster misses the point...

If things are going the way of the Tet offensive, with such incredible sagely foresight, you'd better pack your bags now before the boogy man comes and gets you.

Usual blah-blah nonsense comparisons !!

49 years ago > 1960

There where the very first GIs from Vietnam discovering Pattaya for R&R spending 80 Bucks in two days...

I think you are 10 years off. Very few G.I.'s in 'Nam in 1960.

There were plenty of american military types in viet nam then.

U.S. military advisers arrived in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s and combat units were deployed starting in 1965. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive.

YOU PEOPLE ON THIS SITE HINGE ON EVERY WORD AS IF EVERYONE'S AN EXPERT. BE KIND< LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Not surprised since they are making it so hard for tourists to come into the country now. What else can they expect. I actually

plan on going over there in November for 4 months, but am unsure if they will let me (or if the borders will be closed due to swine flu)

I WOULD be bringing with me thousands of pounds to contribute to their economy (if they let me) and I have no issue with this. I love

Thailand, I just hope they let me in.

For all you schmucks who think the tourism drop in Thailand has anything to do with the numerous gripes posted on this thread, expand from myopia and look at the same news from the REST OF THE WORLD. The pain is everywhere:

RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS: Tourist arrivals in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands fell by 30 per cent in June, compared to the same month last year, under the impact of the global economic crisis.<<<<

REUTERS: Greek tourism industry groups said on Wednesday they see their revenues falling about 15 percent this year, dragging the country further into recession <<as a weak summer season hits a key driver of the economy<<

LATIN AMERICAN HERALD TRIBUNE: Tourist arrivals fell 11.4 percent in Spain during the first six months of this year, compared to the same period in 2008, the Industry, Tourism and Trade Ministry said Tuesday.

REUTERS: The global economic crisis took a heavy toll on travel to and from Britain last year, figures released on Thursday showed, while the first quarter of 2009 was also gloomy for the tourism industry. Visits to Britain fell to 31.9 million, down 2.7 percent from 2007 and the first fall since 2001, when the 9/11 attacks and a foot-and-mouth outbreak dented global travel, a report by the Office for National Statistics showed.

That's just a smattering.

'nuff said.

.

Nothing positive at all to say.

I guess most of you guys have been here for a while?

The first two weeks is great when you com to Thailand even the first couple of months even a year if you are traveling from place to place. And you really do see the Thai smile.

But when you settle in one place and people get to know your face you don't see the smiles any more.

I kind of realized that Thai people only smile when you are handing over money.

We moan and screw, but why are we still here?

I guess we must be scared of what's out there as for when we first came to Thailand we only herd good things.

I've lived here for six years and I still the nice smiles from the people I know and the local businesses and restaurants I frequent. They are always nice to me, charge me the same as everyone else and often give me extras, freebies.

Today in fact, my shoe repairman fixed my shoe for free WITH A SMILE.

I don't know where you're living, but Thais are nice and they're not trying to suck us dry. Only a few and that can be same for whatever country you hail. Admit it.

Before you start making claims you should make sure you know what you are saying.

1) Cut 30 day Tourist Visa to 15 days. (this is for entry, not visa and only at land crossing)

2) Raise the prices on visas (what??? they made the tourist visa free..)

3) Cut down, or cut out, visa runs for longer stays. (this was abuse by people not following the rules)

4) Blatantly have two-tier pricing for farang and Thai (it happens in other countries too..don't like don't go there)

5) Have people walking down the street with their families, including children, being accosted to buy sex merchandise. (the govt does not promote this)

6) Have motorbike "gangs" that deliberately target farang on motorbikes, especially at night, to beat & rob. (give me a break on this and the rest of your comments)

7) Have women proposition men on the beach for sex, and when they refuse, the "boys" move in to beat & rob him.

8) Raise the price of rooms in hotels to outrageous levels, while cutting the services down to practically nothing.

9) Besiege people from the moment they clear customs at the airport with "taxi pimps" who try to steer you to their taxis that refuse to turn on the meters, and will even tell you that the hotel you are booked into burned down last night, but they will take you to another one just as good, but have it turn out to be worse, but cost you more.

10) Have blatant scams in the airport that accuse people of stealing, and then forcing them to pay huge sums to be "cleared" of the charges and let go.

And this doesn't even include all the political B.S. that goes on.

Oh, Yeah, Thailand, you're really encouraging the tourists - to go someplace else!

I'm no lover of Thailand, even though I live here due to my job. But these are ALL red herrings and you'll be proved wrong when the economy turns around. It will bounce back to previous levels despite all of these ills. And they are genuine ills. But mark my words, they will all still be going on in five years and tourism will be rockin' again.

The scams, the sex trade, the corruption, political upheavals, the double pricing are nothing new and have been around seemingly forever. None of these ever mattered much to the vast majority of the ex-pats who post here nor to the vast majority of the tourists who kept on coming. The problem is that a relatively small group of organized criminals within the financial sector infiltrated the highest levels of the US government, scammed the world, took a lot of money for themselves, and then caused a significant contraction of the money available to everyone else. It is the resulting global recession/depression that has caused the large downturn in tourism, and not any of these trivial pet peeves that ex-pats have been griping about ad nauseum for decades.

correctomundo as the Fonz always said in Happy days

YOU ARE SOOOOOO RIGHT! It's the world economy and NOTHING else.

huskerpr, agree with your comments, I also think the Bank scam of 150 baht for using ATM machines is keeping tourists away. It's been well publicised and is an unnecessary expense for someone on a couple of weeks vacation.

...

Thais have to pay when they withdraw money from an ATM overseas, so why should a farang be the exception when withdrawing from a Thai bank ? Thais get charged 100 baht in most countries, at least most countries I have been to anyway. I never seen the 150 baht ATM issue on BBC/CNN/ABC.. this was not even regarded as news.

You've got it, dude.

Very common to be charged 1 time. But now they charge me 2 times! Check your accout report and you'll find out there's a fee for using the foreign ATM as ever:

27.04.2009 THB 20150,00 Rate 46,706510

- AT 24.04.09 15.18 BANGKOK BANK THA EC-GA CARD

FEE EUR 5,99 EUR -437,41

The Big Scam is there's no chance to get some money back as long as there's NO Receipt for the additional fee!

I have found the solution to this problem. It's only Thai banks charging this. Find a foreign bank like Citibank, Standard Charter, UBS or HSBC ATM. None of them are on the screw the foreigner bandwagon.

Since this fee was charged, I've gone to all of the four aforementioned banks and have never been charged.

I really don't think there were more than 11 million tourists 48 years ago in Thailand. Or 47, or 37, or 27, or 17 or even 7 years ago. What a crock of sh#t piece of journalism.

You are right. I call BULL**** on that too.

wow thanks for the link to the videos. very clear about the brit couple.

amazing that the bbc didnt watch that video.

i thought they had more ethics than the press in my homeland USA.

Some of the 'journalists' are on an agenda that involves embarrassing and discrediting the current government no matter what. If Taksin were in charge you would see very different reporting from some of the foreign 'experts' on Thailand.

That's because Thaksin bullied and intimidated the media and even threatened advertisers in papers critical of him.

Tourists warned of Thailand airport scam

Bangkok airport duty free

-- BBC 2009-07-20

For business I have to go a 4-5x/yr to Thailand. You must be crazy to buy whatever at the airport: prices of whatever are higher till a LOT higher than downtown Bangkok or wherever in Thailand. Even often at the plane you can buy drinks and cigarettes cheaper.

You're right. Duty free in BKK is much higher than in any other Duty Free shops I've seen, even in Japan.

Plus that King Power gives me the creeps. They're a bunch of corrupt bastards and have a monopoly on duty free at ALL international Thai airports.

I hope this news gets out across the world so that King Power will one day perish under the weight of its overpricing and poor service.

What a sad state of affairs this country has become. Add this to the gem scam, the "royal palace is closed" scam, the taxi tout scams at the airport and I wonder why the people Tourism Authority in Thailand don't address one of the main problems that's killing tourist opinion of this quickly eroding kingdom.

Cabinet approves Bt850 million to combat A(H1N1) pandemic

BANGKOK, July 14 (TNA) - The Thai Cabinet on Tuesday approved a Bt850 million budget to fight the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic which has killed at least 24 Thais, while infecting more than 4,000 others across the country.

//snip//

The Cabinet on Tuesday also resolved not to temporarily close schools to control the H1N1 outbreak.

//snip//

Political News : Last Update : 17:58:11 14 July 2009

Article link

Now wait a sec... does this mean that the decision to close the schools has been REVERSED??? My public school I teach at ISN'T being closed???

...dazed and confused, and not from the flu (bug, that is)

GETTING BACK TO THE THREAD AT HAND....

Now we have conflicting information. Anybody have an update on this? Get to work people!

In the UK, and I suppose other countries, it was stressed that washing hands WITH soap was effective. I haven't seen much soap in wash rooms in shops, bus stations etc out here. So is just putting hands under running water any use?

HOT water is needed to kill any bacteria. Since there is NONE in any public bathroom I know of in Siam, handwashing will have no effect here.

I wondered about that. Experts, is this true for washing with SOAP, hot water is needed? I would assume however, the cleaning gel (whatever it is called) does kill the bacteria otherwise what good would it be.

The cleaning gel works really well.

I wrote an article on this subject years ago for a newspaper I worked for as a reporter (long before any pandemic hysteria). The doctors I interviewed, including one from the CDC, said that if you have, and wash your hands with hot enough water (as hot as you can stand) for 20 seconds under it with or without soap it will kill all flu and cold virus. Obviously this is not practical here in somtamville.

On reading this article it looks more like there are closing the schools to sanitize them more than anything.

USELESS. The flu virus will not live outside the body for more than a few hours. Overnight will kill all the bacteria residing on any doorhandles or any place else snot-nosed kids lay their hands

In the UK, and I suppose other countries, it was stressed that washing hands WITH soap was effective. I haven't seen much soap in wash rooms in shops, bus stations etc out here. So is just putting hands under running water any use?

HOT water is needed to kill any bacteria. Since there is NONE in any public bathroom I know of in Siam, handwashing will have no effect here.

Finally a professional opinion about what can be done.

The schools should have all been shut ages ago. Are there public service advertisements out there explaining what people should be doing? We have just had a "longish" holiday and half of Bangkok migrated home which I am sure will contribute greatly to the spread.

What has been done so far has been typically piecemeal i.e. close the tutorial schools and internet cafe's but kids are still going to school and normal life is continuing. As they say, do something properly, or do nothing at all.

Funny how Thailand is taking such extreme measures and scaring the public when this flu is being treated like a seasonal flu in the West.

The hysteria created by the Thai media and government is unprecedented and I've never seen Thais so concerned about safety and health ever. It's truly laughable when you see a family riding with children on a motorcycle all of them sans helmet, yet dutifully wearing their useless facemasks.

The death rate in this flu has proven to be much lower than that of the garden variety seasonal flu, yet the BKK Post saw the need last weekend to write a screaming headline that 1,200 people in Thailand would die from the flu. No context as to how many people die every year from normal flu. Many more than 1,200 I can assure you.

Yeah let's shut EVERYTHING down, grind the national economy to a halt for a flu that will continue spreading and won't kill very many.