recom273

I don’t know if anyone is interested a new series - always interesting - it seems to have moved on from the actual waves of nazare in series of 1 and 2 - now, amongst other stuff, long term effects of big wave surfing in e01.

I wouldn’t expect the grand palace to be included, I wouldn’t be bothered if it was or wasn’t. It’s a special place for all Thais, not sure why westerners would qualify for a special price - but I hear you with the fillipino thing, they should be embarrassed, sneaking into a national park or a pile of old bricks is fine, a working religious site, nope.

This is one of the jewels in the crown, everyone talks of it forums. An overnight stay in the jungle and a night on a floating bungalow. We booked a cheap bungalow, we arrived by bike and they tried to sell us a tour, we declined and upset them for the duration. We already had the government bungalows on the lake booked. Dinner - was outrageously priced, breakfast - stopped at a coffee shop where the vans were picking up, the wife picked up the menu and put it down, refusing a coco. An unguided walk in the jungle was nothing I hadn’t seen anywhere else for free at a local authority park (no doubt there are some great sites inside the park when on a guided tour). Next we went to the dam, where we negotiated a ride out with a boatman, the price was OK, but I could hear what prices other people paid when they booked via an agency .. extortionate. In all, we paid a fair bit of money for a bank holiday weekend, whatever, it was a break out on the bike from the city, but visitors paid a whole lot more and got less. I just thought visitors were being exploited, I felt ashamed.

I did this teaching project for a term, it was a really nice experience. Visiting these little schools in villages in Songkhla province in places I never knew existed. Kids were quite poor. I never forget, as you say, the uniforms were all hand-me-downs, a lot of the kids had socks that finished at their ankles, and they tucked them in their shoes.

I get a little annoyed when kids present cut and paste homework - but like, instead of correcting the grammar on a Chinese students dissertation, I just run it through AI to begin with to give me a head start. I have used it to write exam questions, it does a pretty good job, but also, it can draw pictures .. makes life easy. I saw an AI voice assistant in action, I want to try and run a local model myself, but a little strapped on processing power and money to run a local server. I saw a video where a human calls a salon to book an appointment and its a AI booking system, and both the AI assistants are talking to one another, they come to the conclusion that they are both AI assistants and move from English to speak in "babble mode" - crazy.

There are a few series, I missed a couple of episodes or series, and I just sat there watching, Gomorrah was one that I found from the regulars here - I sat watching the episodes until the sun came up. I did the same with this, missed the first 4 episodes, saw your post and binged on all 4 in one night, awesome. I love the Tom Hardy character, Pierce Brosnan is pretty cool, Helen Mirren, not so - but all in all - awesome show. I really enjoyed The Diamond Heist documentary too.

Getting rid of the uniform is a start - hopefully it's a step towards stopping the activity - (per capita) Thailand is the worlds biggest scouting nation, but It's not scouts as we know scouting - bob a job, collecting badges, etc. it's paramilitary, they spend a lot of time practicingmarch up and down. In the west there is a leisure / educational / community aspect, where in Thailand it's a method of propagating a culture of discipline, loyalty and obedience, "Scout leaders are often school teachers, and they carry a very authoritative role, sometimes more so than in regular classrooms". In the UK, there is the scout motto or something, "we promise to do our best, for the people, .." in Thailand I remember listening and it's spun around to focus on one person. I lost count over the number of missed English classes due to kids parading up and down with a forked stick.

It refers to the Franks, a major European group during the Middle Ages. This term was used broadly in the Middle East and Asia to refer to Western Europeans. It passed into Persian as “farangi”, then into Arabic and eventually into South and Southeast Asian languages.

Khon Kaen immigration used to be in the bus station so I used to see a lot of the intercity buses - geez - there was a time, before air travel became affordable that these buses were the main way to travel. It looks like they should be banned and taken out of service, they look a real mess now.

Thanks, it sounded like a quote from Nigel Farages YouTube channel, that’s why i asked. i did check gov.uk and it said there were no updates until after Easter. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/weekly-summary-of-small-boat-arrivals-and-preventions? That’s quite a big jump, a rise in last years figures, but even if you worked it out across the board, it’s now only 7% of net migration that comes from irregular methods. I noticed that French coastguard turned back an additional 7 boats with 255 passengers, and also interesting, on the same day UK government were in talks with France discussing one-for-one deal.

100% While posters may commend the actions of the bouncers, the rest of the world sees news reports - Dickheads are always going to come to Thailand, does it mean Thailand has to be dragged down to this level. What’s the problem with just standing strong, asking the guy calmly to go home and calling the police. If this country wants to attract better tourists, they need to distance themselves from this behavoir.

Just wondering where you got this report? Thats a lot. I think there were only 2 days over last summer when illegal entries went over 700. March 15 saw the biggest entry, 11 boats, loaded with 500 odd .. a number that you stated must have got some newspaper coverage, but I didn’t find any. Do you have a link?

But the focus of this article is about the asylum seekers from small boats and hotels - Illegal entrants only make up 10% of net migration.

I may have been a bit confused there .. maybe I was confusing the NHS surcharge for migrants, which is a little over 1000 quid per year. It only applies to those applying through legit channels. Sorry, my bad. i think this is the link I wanted to post before https://fullfact.org/immigration/illegal-immigrant-benefits-access/ Yes, There is money, food and accommodation available, but what would you think, does the UK government round them up and put them behind a barbed fence? I was more replying to the post that mentioned “free money”, which I don’t think is true. If their ex-hotel provides a basic meal, then they get 8 quid a week to spend, hardly a goldmine. Accommodation is provided, with often up to 4 single males to a room. What I find more shocking than the refugee situation is that it costs the UK tax payer, £4.3B quid per year and there is such a backlog (created by the conservatives refusal to process) that it can take 3 years to process a claim, a majority of the ex-hotels are operated by private companies, one company, “Clearsprings Ready Homes reported profits of £62.5 million” clear spring is also mentioned in reports that 16M was paid directly into an offshore account, so someone hooked their mates up pretty well - other companies are the mears group, serco. Britannia hotels (I think, 40M profit in 2023) I don't know anything about shady illegal economy, but “Once granted refugee status and authorized to work, many refugees begin contributing to the economy through taxes. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that migrants of working age contribute around £19,500 per year in taxes, comparable to the average UK adult”

It’s a total mess, no argument there. My objection is the untruth that’s banded around by the likes of reformUK and farage. Life as an asylum seeker is pretty bad, and they make it sound like it’s a matter of rocking up on a small boat, being handed a phone and you on the path to the promised land. I find The Telegraph article interesting, like you say, a lot of the problems were created by the conservatives, some of these places aren’t local authority controlled, people are making money out of this - ex-hotels aren’t the places to keep asylum seekers, it was a program created by the conservatives whilst they weren’t processing asylum claims. I think your post is very relevant, the UK may have laws, but there can be a work around - years ago I worked in a company where I was one of the few English nationals, most were foreign students, migrants, illegals - the work was bad, the management were up to no good, they were paid minimum wage and worked like dogs. When you have situations with the possibility of exploration, there will be.