Emster23

The Mia Noi in this soap is different than most shown in the soaps. She is outspoken, knows what she wants, is ambitious and not the typical meek type that the ministry prefers. My god, what if the real Mia Nois used her as a role model? Big problems for the philandering husbands. This cannot be tolerated.

I suggest a new reality tv show for Thailand: "The Real Mia Nois of Chonburi" (or some alternate location).

Good comments. I had to copy and paste that CS Lewis observation. Until there is freedom of press and speech, there will be no democracy or freedom in Thailand.

they should make a channel for only jet skis coming in to shore and out. The rest of the time they should stay at least 150 meters from shore, or some other reasonable distance.

Current situation is like renting a high powered motorcycle to someone who's never ridden, and releasing them in a mall parking lot.

" Why would he run away instead of assisting the injured man." was asked. This is typical Thai behavior for any accident or situation that may involve personal responsibility.

I own a condo in Jomtien. In the 7 years there I have never gone swimming, just dipped the ankles in while walking on the beach. The water is so nasty there it is very easy to get some sort of infection. Ear infections are the most common, I understand. It's nice water to look at, but I wouldn't want to swim there. Safer to rinse your toothbrush in the toilet, imho

I am not so green as to believe much if anything comes from this. Mission Impossible for sure. My two cents is that the impossible mission of getting the police to be like real police should be number one. The "enforcers of the law" set the tone for the whole situation and scene. If their role modeling says it is just fine to scam and rip off tourists, who are the locals to go against that?

"I believe these girls are hit with 500 Baht fines most evenings." Ha! made me laugh....

In New Orleans Mardi Gras the chant is "Show us your tits!" which is often followed with (ta da) showing tits....

Culture Cops should have just ignored it. As it is, everyone wants o see video.

I live in BKK and have condo in Pattaya. I shot a video a few years back of topless boobs in pickup truck going down Jomtien Beach Road. It was Katoey's, though they'd had the augmentation operation. Nice jobs, too, I must say.

So if you're a man with a great set of knockers, you can show them, right? But not if they are the real deal...

I see plenty of topless European women on the beach in Pattaya, and once some Katoeys.....

Makes me think of Billy Crystal's "It's not how you feel, it's how you look and you look mahvellous" but modify for Thailand

"It's not what you do (corruption, oppression, etc) but how you look (topless) . And you look dangerous"

I would rather go to Thai immigration any day of the week than have to deal with the US embassy and immigration, and I'm an American.

90 day reporting is not too much imho. We are aliens, remember.

A visa fee would not stop me from going most places, unless it was huge, such as to the USA. My guess is that what puts off travelers is the never ending scams, corruption and shake downs that make visiting a lovely country like Thailand too much like running a gauntlet.

The idea that backpackers are somehow not worthy is in error. They are more likely to use local guest houses, eat at locally owned food outlets, use local transportation. They may spend less, but the money goes to the local people, not some corporation like Hyatt.

Pattaya must be jealous of the other P town. How dare they? Asiacheese has it right about Pattaya bus station rip offs. I walk across the street 90% of the time, but now it takes 3 trips to get to Jomtien.

Back to subject: People take cruises to relax, be pampered, and avoid the hassles. That's what they pay the big money for. They don't want to have to visit forums, research local prices, haggle with drivers and all that we living here have become accustomed to. Tour operators know that so book the day trips in advance to avoid those hassles.

If I were managing a cruise line I would make the wise easy decision: take Phuket off my list of stops. Incidents like the one here can spoil the attitudes and memories of the trip, and should be avoided at all costs. Problem solved, for the cruise line.

Well, another case of blah blah blah

They should blah blah blah

Things will never change til they blah blah blah

In my country they blah blah blah

And so forth

If you knew right away it was a hoax, then I would guess that either you haven't been in Thailand that long or don't pay much attention to government pronouncements. If there was a give away, it might be that Thailand would be copying Cambodia, which given the current political climate, is somewhat unlikely. But you never know in "Amazing Thailand" do you?

"Just one of these people to touch it mildly could destroy any prosecution. Isolate and contain a scene is basically day one / week one on any police course." Gee, maybe that was the Keystone Kops intention. Ya think?

That video almost made me physically sick.

In a country that makes such an issue with face and such, this thing was off the scale, as is true with so much coverage.

ya think the police will have the driver go back and re-enact the crime like they so love to do? About the same chance as Elvis doing a come back tour date here.

The argument about maybe only going 50 kmph doesn't hold water. Did you notice how far her lower torso was from the road? I don't think it walked there on it's own.

I like the Aussie definition of culpable driving. A responsible drive anticipates and drives defensively. This was reckless, to say the least.

Seems that the father could be (in countries with laws) arrested for supplying the police with false information and obstruction of justice for saying the car was stolen. Fat chance.

I can't decide if I am more angry or disgusted.

hmmm Busted in transit. Technically not bringing drugs into or out of Thailand. So no chance for payoff to appropriate and regular suspects..... looks like getting tough on drugs, but does nothing to stop problem here. I guess this might lower chances of Thailand being another "hub". This one for drug distribution networks. Was this discussed with tourist authority?

And just this morning I was musing about Thailand being ahead of Japan regarding the possible radioactive water there in the taps. Here problem solved because you shouldn't drink from tap anyway.... Coke and beer seem the way to go to replenish essential bodily fluids. See Dr. Strangelove for further information

Hub-ba Hub-ba. Like what ratcatcher said. One of the unmentioned attractions, or at least not mentioned as something to promote is "world's largest car park": the street system. Bangkok has a culture already, of sorts... Pollution control would be nice. Recently noticed my Reeboks have been literally eaten by our delightful air..... hadn't worn them for awhile

Reports down, local handling extra-judicial (beer and cig money) up. Makes me think of book Freakanomics that argues crime went down in USA when abortion became legal, after a 15-20 year lag time. Perhaps should try that here, but then again, that involves thinking beyond the end of the month. Never mind....

Agree you can always pay too much here in Thailand. I also take issue with calling the perp a "Youth". 23 isn't a youth in my book. Should have done like gangs in Mexico, hire underage teens to do the wet work.

Get to wear Oakland Raiders jersey, jeans, Man U jacket, Reeboks. Great!

Warming can cause cooling. Saw what might happen with pole ice melting: stop gulf stream due to dilution of salt water by fresh. North Europe start to look like Siberia. An End to Barclay's English Premier League as we know it. hard to play in 3' of snow. That ought to lead to some action on climate change!

Has anyone ever tried to have "service after the sale" here? Taken something in for warranty repairs? maintaining things? What's that?

Reactors are hugely expensive, so there are just too many opportunities for bribes and payoffs to be ignored, too many corners to be cut.

Thailand could cut it's energy usage greatly if there were just reasonable standards for air conditioning. Almost everywhere there is air con, it is overdone. I can't go to a mall or theater for too long simply because it is like being in a walk in freezer. Another area is traffic management: all those vehicles just idling away for hours at a time, generating heat and pollution, using up fuel.

I could go on and on...

I am sure we can all rest easier knowing they only designed it for a lower level quake. And just what person decided that a 9.0 quake was not in the realm of possibility?

If this is not an convincing argument against building one in LOS, I don't know what is. The combination of corruption leading to cost cutting and shoddy workmanship combined with the lack of "service after the sale" here would make a quake unnecessary.

regarding detective "work" and results: if you don't dig anything up, you don't have to cover it up later.... More efficient!

He was just celebrating "cultural diversity" when he got to the Finnish line...

Well, they didn't ask her to bring in proof like an electric bill to show she lives there..... Whatever the hassle, it has to be better than trying to deal with American immigration.

I'm all for a special roped off area for the Rooskies to have sex on the beach. C'mon it's too cold in Russia for such outdoor activities. Give them what they can't have back home.

Here's a slogan for the quality tourist pitch: "Thailand: a great place to die!"

And where does the money spent by "quality" (read: wealthy) tourists go? To the corporations and rich friends of you know who, not your average mom and pop guest house or food joint. As has been said since time began, Thailand needs to clean up all the corruption, scams, lack of the rule of law, etc etc.... they are killing off the goose and it's golden eggs.

The Buddha said suffering is caused by attachment. In this case, to the temple. It is so good to see two Buddhist nations follow his teachings and solve this attachment in a cool heart way. Not.