TheGhostWithin

Hi all,

Long time traveller, first time tryer we thought we would skip the usual flight with Thai Airways Auckland to Bangkok direct and try Qantas Wellington via Sydney as it had an earlier arrival time into Bangkok. THe price was fine, about the same as flying direct with Thai and Qantas does not have a bad reputation (until now in my mind).

We arrived 2 days ago, after the check in counter opened 2 hours before departure (yes, it opened 2 hours before) and the flight left late. Flight was filled with Filipinos (there were no Thais and only 2-3 kiwi families) with phenominal amounts of overweight baggage (we are talking 3-4 large boxes each, plus normal luggage). 1 hour prior to landing realising we were late I asked the onboard staff to make sure both ourselves nad our luggage made our connection. I was treated like an idiot and told the flight was on schedule.

We arrived and literally had to sprint to the plane after recieving a grilling from Australian customs through the transit gate (hang on a minute, we cleared customs in NZ right and never set foot on Aussie soil beyond the customs area). Having made the flight, before I even sat down I explained to the flight cabin purser that we had arrived very recently and wanted to be sure that our luggage was on board. I was told "sir, you are on the plane, and your luggage is on the plane, sit down, everything is fine".

Once we sit, we realise the passengers chair in front of us will not lock (that is, it is in a permanent reclined state) and inches from my partners face. Not good if we had a rough take-off or turbulence on ascent. A sure safety hazard. The passenger reported the issue to a member of the cabin crew who replied "OK thank you sir" and walked off. She was asked again a few minutes later by the passenger on the chair if he had heard her and her response was "we are going to deal with it soon sir" (which I assumed meant that the passenger would be moved as it was unsafe for his back, but also that my partner would be moved as the chair could fly back in her face). A few minutes later another staff member came back and secured the chair. He said "please tell me if you need the chair secured again because you wont be able to". As soon as the staff member moved away the passenger proceeded to "unsecure" his chair, and we took off. The chair flopped and flapped around during take off, and for the next 9.5 hours. Come landing, the crew did not re-secure the chair, and when the partner of the male in the chair asked him to get it secured, he stated "I don't care, not my problem". The lack of safety awareness was shocking.

Upon landing we were told that all of our luggage was left in Sydney, along with 20-30 other passengers on-board. I asked to speak with Qantas staff about our luggage, but also about safety concerns I had about the plane. The staff told me that the staff were busy loading the very plane we had come off and that I could email Qantas with any concerns. They also advised that because my partner was Thai they would not offer compensation because this was her country. My partner is a New Zealand resident, and has no physical or financial assets in Thailand. We ended up sleeping on the floor of a friends apartment for the first night in Thailand. I asked for personnel from Qantas in Australia to call me (I have asked 4 times now actually) but each time my request has been ignored.

We are now in the situation whereby Qantas is refusing to send our final piece of luggage after 2 days in the country to her home in Yala, as they do not have a truck to deliver here. My partner has no clothes, no shampoo, no soap, no make up and is using her families clothes and soaps to stay clean. Still no compensation offered to us. We don't expect much, my mother had her luggage withheld for 6 days on a trip last month from Townsville and recieved a pittance $350 compensation for 6 days of ongoing asthma attacks (no medication, it was in her bags), no clothes and having to stay with her son in a small inner city apartment.

We will be flying with Thai next time, no matter what the price of the ticket or the arrival time - think carefully if you want to risk an experience like this when flying with Qantas to Bangkok via Sydney, Wellington or Christchurch in the future.

Surapong (who can't even speak English as foreign minister) did you put in that letter the fact that the crisis is mostly to do with rejection of our country being run from Dubai by your cousin who is supposed to be in jail for major corruption.

Surapong, just like his cousin in Dubai, obtained a PhD, utilizing the English language, in the USA.

Despite this, he doesn't speak English in his capacity as Foreign Minister and uses translators.

You will notice some "students" at the language schools where you live tend to hang around in groups sharing one thing in common - their nationality. They communicate in their own language, eat their own food, and do not make friends with the locals. There are exceptions, but the vast majority of Thais, Koreans, Chinese and Saudis do this in my country. They go home to slap the "western education" sticker on their CV, but apart from that never learnt a damn thing here, and could not tell you the first thing about our (spoken) language or our culture.

Surapong was probably one of those uninterested rich Thai kids 20 years ago. Go figure.

I dont think these people realise the damage they are doing to their country. The country's elite trying to otherthrow a democratically elected government makes Thailand look like a 3rd world despot regime,

Some points here:

- The attempt to ammend the constitution using underhanded tactics exploiting loopholes in parliamentary legal process reduces the political prowess of Thailand to that of the level of Sudan (North Sudan, I refer to).

- Use of the current law which enables virtually anyone to become a target provided the "sore" party has enough money to make things happen in an attempt to silence critics and opposition reduces Thailand to the political freedom of the likes of Russia or China.

- The lack of "one size fits all" when dealing with protesters will be assuredly frowned upon by developed and developing nations with little or no economic ties to Thailand - I don't refer to Thailand's "friends" in China, the USA and Great Britain. This sounds a lot like what is taking place in Egypt.

- The last group of political reform through force burnt down one of the Major malls of South East Asia, crippled the capital of one of the busiest economies in Asia and has led to the demise of Thailand as the worlds major rice exporter. The suggestion that the PTP were elected into government legally is debatable, anyone up country understands that votes are bought and sold freely. We could compare this to the parallels of the likes of Zimbabwe.

- The wealth of availability of weapons and the lack of hesitation to use it could see this country fall to the realms of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Somalia - if you lived in the south you would know this is already a reality.

- Neither side has my support. The leader of the current opposition has stated he would not like his daughter to Marry a Farang, has said foreigners should mind their own business and stop interfering in Thailand. The current govt. speaks for itself.

This, from a country looking for a seat on the UN Security council although it cannot impose the spirit of democracy for the people - that being, the government is a conduit to facilitate positive change for the country and mediate negative situations for the best possible outcomes. Condemn those looking for true democracy to be lavished upon the people? It is time for absolute change in Thailand, but what are the alternatives?

I was given a wholesale pack of 200 condoms as a leaving present. That was 21 years ago.....

And as a measure of your "success" and "happiness" here in this wonderful country, how many do you have left? ha ha. Good man, great friends.

Thailand is to the "Farang", what the western world must be for western women: you can get almost everything you want with relative ease.

This is perhaps why it is loathed so much by western women when associated with western men. A toast to the happiness of western men in Thailand and Western women in the west!

I am finding that there is a clear difference in understanding of a marriage and implementation of married life between Thai and Foreigner. My girlfriend of 3 years wants us to get married currently, it is not something I am looking for at the moment.

I find that for her being Thai Marriage is more something to show her family we are serious, and to show we love each other to the world.

From a Foreigners viewpoint, at least in my generation (I am 28 years old, slowly getting older ) many view marriage strictly as an "arrangement" for financial and social convenience. In a western sense at least for me here in NZ, it can have very negative aspects financially both for wealth creation and in divorce (though so can a relationship lasting more than 2 years).

We have already shown the world we love each other, we hold hands all day when we are around each other and share our evenings together until our last waking breath. We slowly learn about each other every day (yes, we are still learning, one of the reasons I do not feel comfortable marrying yet) and are finding ways that we can make each others lives a little easier by helping one another out. This does not require marriage.

But, her mother wants the marriage, she wants the 1 million baht sin sot, she wants the social status and reputation to come with it. When you marry a Thai person you are marrying their family, and you need to consider that you are not only marrying the morals, attitudes and approaches of your lady, but also their family. When she marries me, she only has to accept me, because I can choose at any time who to bring closer and who to push away from my life.

To me, that is the difference in attitudes to marriage between Thai and Foreigner.

The sad thing is that in a country where the spirit of the system is not applied in direct reflection of the actions by those stewarding the system, polls like this mean nothing. Polls like this change nothing. The system is already corrupt absolutely to the core in the respect that the core function of the system is self-sustenance at the expense of the social system it was designed to uphold, protect and develop.

We have the same problem here in my country, with Politicians selling off state assets against the 80% or so resistance of the popular vote, then a prime minister rushing through the sale and stating on national TV "I don't care if you have a referendum, because I will sell the asset which is the subject of the referendum before your results can be released".

These types of things are not the mark of revolutionaries, but the mark of a broken system which catered to a humanity with much more dignity and expectation of "doing the right thing for the people". My generation no longer hold such reverence for the ongoing development of the world, they want it all and they want it all now.

Predictable. Did the Thai army and establishment really think they could act like gangsters internationally like they do domestically? Probably not, they just needed something to wind up the plebs to deflect attention from their nefarious conduct.

In Thailand there is 1 thing that is ALWAYS a constant, even if it is never spoken. It invades all facets of life:

Aim for the stars, the least you will do is at least hit the moon. Then tell everyone that you only ever intended on hitting the moon and the rest was lost in translation.

I believe that the protesters at Democracy Monument, a stone's throw from that trendy Khao San Road area, will welcome tourists with open arms.

This is not 2010 at Ratchaprasong, there's nobody in another country inciting violence.

I believe the warnings are a direct reflection on not only the arrogance shown by the current administration to push through self serving change regardless of any opposition (see Yinglucks response recently stating that if rejected by the senate the Reconsiliation Bill would be passed back to the house for 180 days and then submitted for Royal observation and approval) and also their confidence in the current Polical and Civil system to quell unrest without violence which may endanger nationals of the said countries more than them expecting protesters to be aggressive towards Tourists.

This in contrast with the Red Shirt protests of 2011 who were reported to be on multiple occaisions (and I personally observed, as well as a friend who owns a building within the old protest site at Silom and was refused right of passage through the cordon to enter her own apartment building) who did use violence against tourists, and any Thai person not directly serving their cause.

A slap in the face for the Thai government - one being from the same list of countries which they have just granted 30 day land border crossing stamps to. Amazing how that works.

What happens when a country/embassy issues a travel warning?

Do travel agencies cancel selling holidays due to insurance issues?

For a country like Thailand, Travel warnings have little current impact. However, it has a long term impact when countries are issuing warnings year after year as they have been for a multitude of issues (flooding, terrorist Islamic insurgencies, Political instability etc). The reason behind this is that as Thailand attempts to grow its' tourist market to attract more "quality" tourists, they will scare off the very people they are attempting to attract. "Quality" tourists are most likely to travel with insurance, as they both can afford and feel it better to have than not have insurance.

When a country issues a travel warning to an entire country, insurance is unable to be obtained from the day of the warning issuance. This means that "quality" tourists with heavy net worth will go somewhere safer, and guaranteed to have financial support should the worst go wrong. This is not so much the case for the middle income tourists Thailand currently attracts from the west. Unsure how the market is with other Asian countries.

The problem here is that TAT, Yingluck and the current cabinet are spouting about attracting quality tourists, however these same groups are antagonising not only their opponents but some of their own supporters creating the very instability which will undermine their attempts - in effect creating a stalemate for their country, ensuring a stagnant tourism industry relying on increasingly insufficient infrastructure to grow the market.

Shame that Australia and New Zealand have been excluded from this list. Would have saved me having to undertake a brief trip to Malaysia by land from Pattani just to get the stamp in 4 weeks time.. do you think if we shout enough they might add the "village drunks with a smile" onto this list of elite farang?

I notice no Scandanavian countries either. Maybe they feel we are already enlightened.

We have Chinese-made trains in our national rail network here in NZ. I am a rail network controller and have to deal with them every day.

Infact, exactly 1 hour ago I finished dealing with a train that for 76 minutes nobody could get to work. This is not a once off. This is a daily event, infact multiple event daily should be the correct wording.

Though admittedly not "high speed passenger locomotives", it is the safety technology which is flawed in the Chinese builds.. they are overbearing when they do not need to be, and fail to protect users when they should. Not necessarily the "cutting edge technnology" that the Chinese Government, who owns these railway industrial powerhouses back in China, would like you to believe they are. Google could make a hell of a lot of money getting involved in the safety side of this Chinese industry.

Happens more often in the Philippines (many more islands). I had always thought about bringing two liters of water in plastic bottles. If no life jacket (these things sink in minutes) grab your water, drink as much as you can stomach, put the cap on and at least you have a bit of boyancy, if you don't flounder around. just put one each under your armpit. It works in a jam. Another tip....take off your pants (long jeans i hope) and tie the cuffs in a knot. Zipper it up and trap air in them. Twist the waist and voila.......a life preserver.

Yes it happens in the Phils often, but the water and Ferries are a way of life for Filipinos who are outside of Luzon. It is the same as those country folk heading back home to Lopburi, Udon, or Ubon at the end of the working week to be with their families. Safety standards are generally regulated in the Phils and there are substantial penalties for accidents from what I have seen. Although corrupt and morally warped by the demands of extremist Christianity from the Catholic Church of the Philippines, the country does care and does what it can to keep its' people safe at sea.

Its funny to see those on the sofa busy with their phones and the others pointed at hem ...... and one more time some extortion from people with uniform ..... You want to avoid corruption ? PAY your army or police well .... that might stop them to ask for tea money.

It works in our homes LaurentBkk, I worry that corruption is so ingrained, and openly accepted in society here that it may take generations to make changes. No matter how many of these gangs you bust there will be another doing the same or similar, because they are simply like children copying what they see from the only gang sanctioned to operate within the country: the cancer within the Thai Police force.

I feel sad when I see good cops working hard, because it is those hard working guys that bust the gangs like this, whilst the crooks are out teaching these kind of people how to ply their trade and taking their cut for the efforts put in on their behalf.

Why does visiting the second most populous and (IMO) the most cosmopolitan city in the north eastern province of the country by the ruling PM make headlines? It is although the media feels it necessary to publish this so that it is noticed in advance.. rather than her being known for her acts of good will, hard work and kindness such as that which other leaders within the country have been known for, for their whole lives..

The ones it will discourage are the "quality" tourists they seek - mother and father and 3 kids, who now have to pay an extra 500 baht to enter the country. This compounded with the other increases in costs as suggested by another poster at the beginning of the topic compound to begin to make it a less-attractive destination than those directly competing with Thailand for "quality" tourists.

Compound this with the proposed 500 baht per person entry fee, and this "quality" family are looking at an over 3000 baht increase in the cost of their family trip - at least 2 nights accommodation. Not a small consideration for many middle class western families.

No. It appears you have misunderstood my statement which could have been worded a little better.I applaud your participation in the conversation which appears to now be beginning, nice to talk with someone with a different approach.

But statistics do not lie.

Who has the highest rate of non-age related illness in the country?

Who has the lowest rate of fluent understanding and ability to speak in the first language of the country I live in?

Who has the lowest level of integration and the highest levels of segregation in respect to establishing their own "neighborhoods" in order to exist without the need for cultural and intellectual integration?

Who least contributes to the GDP of the country?

When you establish who these people are, it is time to make it harder for these people to come in and bring in a more "promising" group until you find a group that begins going up the food chain. You don't just accept a "weak" migrant group and allow them to destroy what your ancestors have worked so hard to establish.

I am British !

If I go to Australia as a tourist I get a 90 stay !

I object to this blatant Aus. discrimination against Brits !

Just as a New Zealander would find it an issue getting Permanent residency, this is the intelligent Australian government taking a short term hit for a long term gain. The UK has been taking in all sorts of undesirables from the middle east, Africa and south Asia among other places for the past generation, with the rise of the terrorist threat one could say a direct result of this. We as Kiwis are subjected to less-free habitation of Australia than before, because of our weak Government policy allowing undesirable migrants from the Pacific Islands, China and other countries - it is possible to "buy" your citizenship in some countries which New Zealand grants "fast track" settlement processes for.. Australia is only protecting themselves against the mistakes in immigration policies of other governments.

How easy is it for a Thai to get a visa to go live in the countries you hold citizenship of?

My guess is its a lot more difficult than for you to get a visa to live in Thailand and my certainty is that your government(s) are more concerned with trade between themselves and Thailand than they are the gripes of a few of their citizens who have chosen to live elsewhere.

I live in New Zealand. My Thai girlfriend got her working holiday visa within 2 weeks (applying from Bangkok). She got her 2 year work visa within 6 weeks, applying after being here for 1 year. She got her residence within 4 weeks, after being here for 1.5 years. I very much doubt that Thai immigration would exercise the same consideration and respect which NZ Immigration extended to my lovely lady who is loving her time here, making friends outside of the Thai community and balancing the good of Thai and Western cultures while trying to weed herself of the bad.

I own an apartment in our name, which she has the right to take half the value of should we split up, even though I pay the full mortgage (the law here is outrageously ignorant of the purchasing pattern differences between stereotypical men and women).

There has been discussion of us both opening a business so that she can do something with less ups and downs and more enjoyment than what she does currently. She will own the majority of the business and I will have a small percentage of it because she wants to say thank you for helping her set up.

I have taught her the "system" here, to help her have a better life should we ever split and am prepared to lose half of my property, even though she insists she will not take it as it belongs to me and she does not ever want us to be apart.

Absolute respect to the NZ Immigration service for allowing my lady to be here with me, but I see plenty who do not deserve to be here. Many refuse to integrate, are not interested in integrating, not interested in our culture, and openly exploit our open system by buying into the property markets, opening businesses and sending the profits back when they feel the time is right. I am talking about Thais as well as a few other noticeable ethnic groups. (Malaysians, Indians and mainland Chinese predominantly). I wonder if they also have immigration knocking on their doors to interview them at 7am as we had?

The doors should be harder to open, vetting should be more difficult to get those with the right intentions in, and keep those entering "open" western countries not providing reciprocal rights in their home countries out. Unfortunately our governments profit in the form of taxation and temporary geographical asset reallocation and therefore doubt little will be done until the land on which we grew up on no longer belongs to us, is too expensive for us to buy back because we do not have the means to pay for it, and we cannot buy in the cheaper closed global markets.

Sorry for the rant, my thoughts are as clear and concise as I could make them.

I have been to this mall many times. It is a very new mall,I think 2-3 years old. Every entrance has security guards, supposed security entry gates and metal detectors. Every entrance has CCTV cameras, as well as CCTV cameras which span all floors.

The KFC is on the first floor, beside the banks. Most of the banks there are in the same area and there are 6 (I think) atms all in the same area. I did an "express" withdrawal last July where I made my withdrawal, used the bank with the new notes (of course!) at SCB. These banks all have their own security also, and their own cameras installed. Some, such as SCB also have a security guard within visible distance of the ATM.

Curious how she got away with this and managed to leave the building.. he did not even take a photo of her or have a photo of her?

For those of you that have not been to the southernmost provinces before (Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala specifically) once you leave Hat Yai and enter Pattani, your signal will be blocked. Your SIM will be blocked until you register the sim under your details with the local authorities. If you do not registere.. mai mee san yan ni...

Your signal does not work the same as it does in Bangkok.. and we don't leave our phones turned on when we travel, because that sets off the roadside bombs intended for Army Radio frequencies..

That is the difference between the registration process down south and the purchase process for the rest of Thailand. As I have said many times it is another world all together to what you are all used to seeing, smelling and believing.

Always find the anti Thai hate stuff a bit tiring. Dealing with tuk tuk, motocyke and taxi drivers is simple. AGREE ON A PRICE BEFORE YOU LEAVE, then pay as promised, throw in a small tip if you can.

Westerners in Thailand tend to see things from a Western perspective, why not try putting on the other guys shoes for a second. He has a family, he works long hours often 7 days a week, he deals with drunk, angry trouble makers (many times farang) often. Be polite, learn a bit of the language, work out a deal before hand and then you'll have no problems, no fights, in fact the exact opposite you can have a nice conversation, and learn a bit about another persons life.

I have spent about 3 years in Thailand, taken hundreds of Taxis, motorcykes and tuk tuks...never once has there been an argument about money. Treat people with kindness and respect, work out the price before you depart and your good as gold.

Evening Joe, yes, you are right - we should agree on a price before departing, we like many on here are the fortunate ones with the knowledge to do such a thing. But many, coming to Thailand and expecting smiles, expect the same attitude to come with the smile as it would back home. This is, compassion, honesty, and fairness. Sadly for those who are cheated and for those wonderful taxi drivers and Police who are honest and fair, there are some who are not. Pair one of these guys up with a Bahraini couple on their honeymoon who in all likelihood have never been out of the middle east, and we have a serious problem.

Is this the problem of the Bahraini couple for not understanding local customs, or the taxi driver for not understanding that tourists globally often understand little of local customs, and do not feel it necessary to learn? This is a global issue, with the Thai Police already communicating their decision outcome within their actions, and the government approving the actions of the police through their statutory inaction to protect tourists from rogue traders, scammers, thugs and mafias of all sorts.

Anything safe you can do in Thailand nowadays ?

Check in at the arrivals lounge, shop at duty free, and then catch your connecting flight outside of Thailand.. oops, that has proven to be unsafe too.

But seriously, if you are careful about who you interact with, and do not interact with anyone that approaches you first you should be generally OK. Keep a copy of your embassy contact card with you and give it to any cop that does anything more than what you would expect of an officer at home. Not all do, but Thai police are supposed to be the ones who uphold the law and apply penalties fairly and evenly.

Its crazy... when there is a rape its also the victims fault, Thais are never wrong. It gets real boring in this xenophobic attitude. Is it that hard to admit when a fellow countryman is wrong. I could not care less if a Dutch guy does something wrong. Wrong is wrong and needs to be punished not brushed under the carpet.

This is the kind of attitude which scares tourists away.

I have been coming to Thailand since I was 21 years old (8 years now), and this year am only spending a week in Thailand, but after my 1 week learning Khaen I am going to experience Vietnam. My only hope is that my Khaen tutor is not as merciless as Thai urban transport providers or as racist and heartless as the Phuket police have proven to be against non-Thais time and time again, regardless of color.

This is the real shame, that I no longer feel wanted or safe in my second home.

Cool. It has been announced by the police dep. peviously that most accidents are caused by thais who are drunk, think they own the roads and violate traffic laws even tho they are well aware of them. So now they are going to target foreigners to reduce the number of accidents that are mostly caused by careless thai drivers who got their licenses for 400thb after being able to tell the difference btw the steering wheel and the windshield to the instructor.

I believe it is going to solve the problem.

It is easier to target the white guy, give him a ticket then raise whiskey glasses and say "cheer" for a big success. Meanwhile Somchai heading home after drinking with the local Police, hammered from bottles and bottles of Leo drives on the wrong side of the road, and hits another driver killing them instantly, then getting off the next day after a brown envelope carrying a fee of innocence is exchanged.