BCP

They will have to find something solid to give the search any direction at all.

The MAS senior executives are doing a rather good job at making themselves look stupid.

How can they write off the idea that the plane might have flown on for up to 4 hours? In my book an aircraft embarking on a 6-hour flight would have something like 8 hours worth of fuel on board. If 'something' happened an hour into the flight would that not leave 7 hours worth of fuel? And now they have u-turned and are saying it might have flown on for a long time after losing contact. However likely or unlikely it is, If it did fly on from where it 'disappeared' it would have flown into someones air space and be picked up on their primary radar as an unidentifed aircraft entering their airspace. Would that not solicit at least some response from whose ever air force it concerned?

Good luck to them but these are not the brightest of people to be handling this difficult situation.

You probably have to go to the Amphur Office and fill in some forms... in triplicate :-)

How does a foreigner report corruption?

Easy.... The same way a Thai does.

Write down your complaint on the back of a 1000 Baht note...

A sweet little memory from Pattaya.

About 15 or so years ago, I had a couple of bars in Pattaya and it was Loy Kratong. The night shift had all turned up for work, all dressed beautifully in their traditional dresses, hair and make-up all done and all looking lovelier than ever. The day shift girls, not wanting to miss out on a good party, had doubled back to the bar an hour or two after they had knocked off. They were also dressed up to the nines and all done up for the evening. One of the dayshift girls walked in carrying a bag with a tail sticking out of it.

I said "Noi, what is that?"

I'll never forget what she said to me.

"Sorry boss, don't know English... Mickey Mouse, big one."

I was till laughing when I told her to keep it out of sight so it didn't frighten off the customers.

I now live up north and it's very common to see what look like miners headlamps out in the rice and corn fields at night. It's the local lads hunting rats with their homemade spear-guns. My wife often buys some and wok's them up for breakfast for her and the girls. I have tried it and I must confess I would not be able to tell the difference between that and pat kapow moo with all the garlic and chillis but I'll be sticking to my bacon and eggs in the mornings thank you very much.

seems the court missed the opportunity to send him off to chop chop square. No doubt a brother or Uncle will now commit an honour killing on the girl for bringing shame on the family. 160 lashes a year. 13 a month should keep him on his toes. I imagine the psychological torture of knowing the lashes are coming each month will be just as bad as the torture his daughter went through every time she heard her father come back in the house.

"chop-chop square" are you suggesting a beheading?

In my honest opinion there is no punishement anywhere near severe enough for any parents who betray the trust of their children like that. Unfortunately, even where laws exist there is rarely true justice in this world. Taking his head off would be too good for this one.

It looks like a simple case of the greenback (or Baht) versus what is right. Economics over morals and as usual money will win.

The man's weight may have had some affect on the woman's injuries. Without any reporting on this fact, we can only imagine. Nonetheless, a large percentage of farang tourists are overweight. Having put in my comments, now I send my condolences to the man and their family. I can't imagine the grief the husband must feel to be the cause of his wife's death.

What a load of b*llocks. I guess that's settled then. The headline should have read 'Fat German fell on his wife and killed her'. Blame McDonalds... case closed.

Thailand will have many more tragedies because causing harm by gross negligence usually goes unpunished. I don't know if the straps or whatever that held the seat were properly fastened or in good condition, or properly designed and fit for purpose. I can only surmise that they fell short in at least one of these areas. That is what probably caused this tragic death, not an accident, and don't blame the guy for being overweight.

I was bitten silly last time I was in Thailand, dozens of bites, especially to my legs, they even bit through thick denim jeans, they bite your back through your shirts, its a plague and the Thais dont get bit at all.

So if the Thais are getting bit, I think I will stay away from Thailand for a little while until well into the middle of 2012, I dont fancy being eaten alive.

I have tried (Autan), (Jungle Formula), (Citroenella) everything, still get bit, apparantly mosquitos prefer blood type (A+) to other blood types and can smell and detect your blood type before they bite. I belive there is an injection you can get from your Doctors in the UK, which camoflages your blood types as to appear less attractive and so you get but less.

I think everybody is mis-reading the situation. All these mossies are doing is trying out alternative food souces now that all those fresh-off-the-plane tourists that they enjoy sucking the blood of so much are going somewhere else. As soon as TAT announces another run of free tourist visa's the mosquito problem will abate.

If you get bitten by the little buggers... try Tiger Balm. It cures everything from AIDS to broken legs, including taking the itch out of mossie bites.

It is a pity that little sister and her big brother's cronies have not been spending as much time and energy in using the current plight of Thailand and all the flooding to unite the people, instead of using it as a smoke screen to to try and sneak Thaksin back in. If you'll excuse the pun, there is nothing better than a national disaster, the likes of which Thailand has been going through over the last couple of months with the floods, to build bridges between a divided nation. It is a missed opportunity to use a bad situation to the benefit of Thailand and of all Thai's.

There are still many Thai's who believe Thaksin is God's gift, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Most of the people I talk to where I live, in the poor north, have no clue about politics but he obviously came across to them as someone good. They are rice planters, concerned about where their next meal comes from and no more. After the last election, some didn't even know what party they had just voted for, they had cast their vote for number 1 or 2 or whoever purely because of how much each candidate paid them. I was amused at some of the conversations on how much they had been paid. It appears that in areas where there was a very clear favourite, they got paid much less than where it was closely contested. Any election result in these circumstances has got to have no meaning at all. Nearly all Thai's accept corruption as a way of life, so what did Thaskin do wrong in their eyes? They still can't see how he robbed them, it is way beyond their level of understanding. At least Bernie Madoff robbed the wealthy and not the poor.

It doesn't matter how much we all rant and rave on Thai Visa nothing at all will change until Somsak, out planting rice in the fields in Phetchabun, Phitsanulok or Khon Kaen has some degree of political awareness, a better education and has much less tendancy to accept corruption as a way of life. Better education might bring with it, over a generation or so, some political awareness but getting rid of corruption is one huge cultural change that none of us will ever see in our lifetimes so you'd better get used to it.

Hey, whatever is good and bad about Thailand, this is just one more potentially dangerous situation arising from the flooding that has been recognised and from that, now has the opportunity to be properly addressed. Whether it will be properly addressed is another matter, but recognising the threat and sounding off about it is at least a good start in my book, even if it comes a little late.

Cannot stop Mother Nature at this point. She's has always been in control. Even now!!

Water flows towards the sea, not up into the mountains.

Hopefully, Thai government officials and experts not only from Thailand can come together to assist Thailand with this major issue.

Absolutely, you can never stop something as powerful as Mother Nature. However, there are an awful lot of things that can be done to mitigate the effects. If managed properly this can lessen the suffering. If managed incompetently it increases the suffering. Judge for yourselves where Thailand is at right now with this issue.

I'm travelling down to Swampy airport from Phetchabun starting about noon today. Does anyone have current info on the roads, routes from the north to Swampy?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

50 million cabic metres per second?

Can anyone imagine the size of such a pump?

No I can't,but I can't either imagine that there are people , who are old enough to post on a public forum, that don't have enough brains to realise that there might be more than 1 pump used.

The figure of 50 million m3/sec is an obvious mistake. That is 8,333 times the rate given as the maximum (in flood) disharge of the Chao Phraya into the Gulf of Thailand. The tsunami it would cause would have Thailand accused of washing Singapore down to the Antarctic.

While I was driving home this evening, at about 6:00PM, the sky went dark and we had a very heavy downpour. I slowed down, had my head lights on and my wipers at full speed. Many other vehicles hadn't bothered to take these rather obvious precautions. The local drunken idiots were still in the middle of the road throwing water, oblivious to the heavy rain, flooded roads or to the poor visibility due to the darkness and rain. It doesn't matter at all what road safety campaigns are put in place when Thai's have no concept of obvious danger and put themselves, and others at risk.

My link

The charts at the bottom of this link give the numbers since 1998. The raw numbers look to have bounced back pretty well from SARS and the Tsunami.Is there any reason they won't bounce back from all of this year's political turmoil?.. But break the figures down further and there has been a considerable change in who is visiting Thailand. Japan and Malasia between them make up over half the number now and Malays usually visit only for a few days and don't spend much at all. Thailand has chased away the Europeans who stay longer and spend more money in favour of the asians who don't. Well done TAT.

It looks to me like all the numbers that have been crunched about Thailand by these Security Firms on their computers over recent times are just now starting to filter through.

There does have to be some price to pay in the form of less tourism revenue for all the recent upheval in Thailand. Whether this 'Terror Risk Index' is correct or if it is well off the mark doesn't really matter, just add it to the cons side of the argument for visiting LOS, along with all the misleading reports by the BBC, and other news agencies, about the War Zones and all the other trouble.

Those of us that know Thailand a good bit better than it may be portrayed oversea's will know none of this 'bad press' will keep the tourists away half as much as a strong Baht and poor exchange rates. When the Thai Government manages to get the exchange rate on the Pro's side of the argument for coming here, no-one will take notice of any 'Terror Risk Index'.

I think they should make a movie about it .

That's the idea.......... burn loads of it to get the street prices up so the Taliban don't have to sell as much to make ends meet.....................

The BIB nab 259 people for gambling..........now what were the odds on that.

I called in at my branch of BKK bank early on Tuesday morning to get my letter for immigration, expecting to get the letter the same day, as in previous years. I also got the '3-day' story from them. I picked up the letter first thing on Thursday morning for 100 Baht. I'm sure I used to pay 180 Baht for the letter???

I went to Phitsanulok Immigration the same day, to extend my THAI WIFE visa. It is easy to find and a very pleasant location, on the East bank of the Nan River just south of Route 12. The staff there suggested I go for the RETIREMENT visa, as they could do that there and then, whereas I would have to wait and then go back next week to get my THAI WIFE visa extended. I followed their advice as I live in Phetchabun, a 2-hour drive away. I found I only needed a fraction of the paperwork I had with me for the THAI WIFE visa.

The staff at Phitsanulok were all extremely polite and most helpful and everybody there spoke good english. But then again, I have never had a bad experience at any of the 5 different Immigration Offices I have used in my 15 years here...except for the queues at Soi Suan Plu.

Regards,

Another satisfied customer.

Non-washable, just take off clothes and shake them clean would be the answer to a MAN's best Dream. Whoever could design jeans, men underwear(etc)like this would be an over night Multi-Billioneaire.

Just have an Aberdeen shower with your clothes on....

For those of you not familiar with an Aberdeen shower it is a quick squirt with an aerosol de-odourant

What is particularly ironic is that many (most?) of the graduates of Thai business schools study marketing. Does the concept of 'know your customer' have any meaning to these folks at all. What this really demonstrates is how little the management of Thai Tourism understands it's customers. I guess they have their jobs because of who they know and competence doesn't enter into it.

Obviously....

It's a common concept in Thailand. It's called 'know who' and not 'know how'.

I got it all now........immigration office changes, visa rule changes, world reccession, shut down swampy airport...it was all designed to cut down on the number of tourists visiting Thailand.

They were preparing the ground for not having to report too many farangs....keeping the paperwork down....very green...chop down less trees etc.

So....................Where did you stay?

The old favourite Kosit Hill. I didn't book online as travelled a couple of days earlier than expected but still only paid 800baht for a standard room but no breakfast included. To be honest I don't even know of another hotel anywhere near town.

Head through town on the 21 and before you get to the last set of traffic lights (the ones with the big sign showing the number of road traffic accidents and deaths) there are hotels on either side of the road. I live about 10 kms away so I've never stayed in any of them and I can't comment on what they're like.

With the recent changes and all the extra hassle with Thai visa's, extensions and everything else at present, immigration are providing a market for the dodgy Law Companies who say they can get you a 'no hassle' visa for a fee.

If anyone is thinking of getting backdoor visa's or stamps let our French friend be a warning.

I expect in the future we'll be seeing many more threads like this one, but don't expect any sympathy from me.