Tropicalevo

Wow. In Thailand, Reading, Riting and Rithmatic are innovative? Why am I not surprised. Surely these are the mainstay of any education system.

Good old Anutin. Never one to miss a photo op. I am surprised that he is not wearing one of his beloved weed shirts.

Include Nite Hunter IPA in that list. 6.8% Very smooth taste . Along with Beer Lao Dark in cans - available in Tops. I buy cans - more ecologically friendly.

Another reason is that the prisons are already full. I was helping a friend to fight a case in Bangkok. Outside the courts were illegal businesses, and people sleeping rough. I asked the lawyer why were they not arrested and put away. His response was that there was no point. Nowhere to put them, so they were left to stay there. It seems that prisons are for political detainees these days.

That is an interesting question. Here on Samui, some hotels paint the white lines to make a zebra crossing. They then have a guard with a red flag who jumps out and tries to stop the traffic. Is that a legal crossing? Back in the UK, the rule for zebra crossings used to be - Car has right of way but can stop if it chooses to. Once the pedestrian is on the crossing, all traffic must stop. Pedestrian has right of way. The bit that pedestrians tended to ignore is the first part. The pedestrian had to wait until there was a gap in the traffic. I understand that new traffic law changes have now updated that law in the UK.

I disagree. Lived here 24 years. Only had two units in that time - both Daikin. I only upgraded to the latest one (inverter type) when electricity went up to almost 10 baht per unit. Very economical, ultra quiet and cools the bedroom very quickly. I never have the a/c on all night - too cold. (Set to 29 C) Never leaks and no trouble at all. I'm a happy little bunny with my unit. Is the leakage problem lack of maintenance? When I lived in Singapore - all condo units had a maintenance contract for the a/c. Cleaned and checked every 3 months. It was compulsory and in the lease.

From what I have seen here on Samui, Thais drive quite fast through floodwater creating large bow waves that cause issues for the bike riders. The force of that water is quite strong. There is usually a collation of plates after flooding and we don't have the volume of traffic that Phuket does.

Nice one Italy. Shame that others do not follow suit.

This project is more recent than that. Many villas there are unfinished. : https://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2024/07/15/forestry-police-halt-illegal-samui-resort-construction/ https://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2024/06/26/samui-task-force-cracks-down-on-52-foreign-villas-with-hidden-rentals/

Only to rich foreigners. (Yes, in Thai eyes, all foreigners are rich.)

Very true. The DSI have been working on some cases where I live, for at least 8 - 10 years. Some time before that, they found that the 'master' land titles registered in Bangkok did not match the ones registered here. The recent helicopter surveys are only checking the obvious, newer constructions.

It would be interesting to really know what caused the fire in the first place. It seems that electric vehicles are prone to more or greater fires. Even if the fire was started by an 'outside' source, when the batteries burn - they really burn.

Another Thai who will not get the 10,000 baht voting bribe. Simple reason - no address, no vote.

Originally, 0.2% is the correct figure.

That is NOT a definition of poor or low income people.

I used to live on the border of Klong Toey - never felt threatened and still alive today. I have walked all around Bangkok. Poncy areas and slums. The friendly folk were in the slums. Often offered water or some snack. I define a safe city as somewhere where my wife was confident enough to walk home alone, in the wee hours of the morning, and not get mugged. (She was mugged twice in her home town - Birmingham UK, and that was during the day.) Bangkok is not that dangerous. It is only the large population that skews the stats. Most of SE Asia is very safe compared to many western/African/ ME countries.

Once the property is more than 10 years old, 'squatter's rights' seems to apply. They do not knock the houses down, just revoke land titles. A couple of examples (there are many more here) - The developer here had a nice plot of land - agricultural purposes only. He built a small house (for free) for a Thai family to live there. Free utilities. After 10 years, they applied to have the land re-designated as nor sor sam. Successful. The Thais moved on, the developer developed and sold the property. A neighbour bought two plots of land (One facing east, one west) built a big FU property on top of the hill behind me. Three pools, gym, sauna etc etc One section of the land is illegal. Forged chanote. Half of his house is legal (west facing) the other half is illegal. He has just lost the first appeal against the government. Final appeal in a year or three. When he loses that (and he will - even his lawyer says so) he can still have the house. (> than 10 years old). Revoked land title and he cannot pass the house on when he dies, nor sell it. Peppercorn rent for the illegal land. TIT

The development is right on the border of Tambon Bophut. I had to check that one as well. That original road was supposed to go to a country club that was to be built. Not sure exactly where. After a bit of legal argy bargy it was found that the land was forestry commission land and so the club was cancelled but the road was great for the locals for exercise. The gate was always locked back then, but folk would park cars on front of the gate and bikes could negotiate a ditch and park inside. They then cleared some land and made the car park. The rest is history. I was surprised when the Black Rabbit was built. Before that it was a wooden shack balanced on the edge of the drop, where you could buy refreshments etc after the steep hike up. I like the thought that folk were taking guns up there. Isn't the Black Rabbit run by Russians???

He rubs up all of the Generals the wrong way. That is why we have had two military coups to oust members of the Thaksin clan. Srettha was left alone when it happened, but drag the daughter into the fight now. Coup number three coming soon? Maybe not. Why go for a coup when Prayut's Constitutional Court can do the job more cheaply.

And the strings are being pulled by the government to get rid of the BOT governor as he will not bow to the government's demands for lower interest rates. The government needs lower rates because it keeps on borrowing money. Stay strong Governor Sethaput. As WBG says, it is the job of the police to stop crime. What's next - sue the car manufacturers for making cars easy to steal?

Most guns in Thailand are owned illegally. Many are manufactured illegally. Most Thai citizens who have guns do not have permits.

Great timing. The FMP was on September 17th

I did! Someone who owes me money told the military that I was operating an illegal business. Two generals, 6 squaddies and two girls from the Tessabaan turned up to check. They were here for three hours going over all of my paperwork and asking questions. Probably fishing for a bribe. They eventually left as there was nothing illegal to find. This was after they had found a few developments on Samui operating as illegal hotels. Taking bookings etc etc. We do not take bookings (apart from my own properties - long term only) . The owners do the short term ones.

All of this came about from the helicopter survey on the 23rd May. A couple of follow up links from that survey. https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2024/05/28/surat-thani-takes-resolving-koh-samui-land-issues-seriously/ https://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2024/06/26/samui-task-force-cracks-down-on-52-foreign-villas-with-hidden-rentals/ As someone else said - more to come.

It is called 'due diligence'. Something that many lawyers here on Koh Samui have missing from their vocabulary. (Some are corrupt as well.) All of my neighbours and customers that own properties have no issues with their investments. However, there are at least 14 properties nearby that are on illegal land. There are 90 properties in total here. When I checked my land, it was in a 'green belt' area. Then the local land office took bribes and redesignated it giving Chanote titles. The DSI investigated and are going to revoke the titles.