GeorgeO

Please Gen Prayuth, for the love of Mary, do not relinquish control back to the Shinawatras. All your good work will be undone in days. The good news just keeps on rolling in, something we have not seen since the dark day that Thaksin ascended to power. Hooray for Gen Prayuth!!

Agree, a quote from a Professor of International Politics for when elections are held in the future.

"To choose the Thaksin regime is to guarantee the death of democracy for Thailand's foreseeable future"

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0529-thompson-thai-coup-20140529-story.html

You forgot something in your quote " a yellow Thai professor" but yes, if half story suits you better....

Ikke, I see you're another one who's having difficulty getting over your hero's downfall. The days of colours in Thailand are over, get used to it and sit back and watch the recovery of this nation...!!

Under the new laws on censorship, expect to hear more news like this.

I have been bumped out of business class on Thai more than once and if you do not get them to issue you the right form it takes ages to get the refund.

It used to be that Thai management got free business class travel when they reached a certain level, MPs and Senators also got free First/Business class travel on Thai.

Under the new censorship rules I wonder if we can expect pics of a General travelling Economy soon?

I see you're still smarting from the collapse of your hero's regime and unwilling to give the good General a thumbs up for any of the improvements that he is making, even though it's probably very clear to you that he is certainly making a few.

I just wonder how you manage to link 'censorship rules' to a shake up in Thailand's national carrier...?!

You need to let go of all the bitterness and start to recognise the General for what he is, the saviour of this otherwise doomed nation.

There are three Air Chief Marshals on the Board of Directors.................

...which somewhat undermines the red apologists' argument that he favours certain groups over others. He is clearly sweeping clean, and doesn't care who he upsets, since he has only the interests of the nation and its people at heart.

It just goes to show that the (pre-coup) municipality of Phuket have conspired to keep the ripping off of tourists rampant in the private transport system.

Already there are objections.... who cares about the livelihoods of the ripoff merchants, we all found out yesterday they have millions of baht in their banks.

It is a great idea, and a tuk tuk driver can make a lot of money with a hop on hop off system, and will keep them busy instead of lounging around in the shade most of the day and just relying on a few trips at huge profits for them.

Great that people now have the confidence and bravery to stand up and voice good ideas.... Now that the mafia are all but done for.

I agree that there is plenty of money to be made with such use of the tuk-tuks.

Many people have become so wary of these scammers that they are prepared to walk a mile or so to get where they want to go rather than flag down a tuk-tuk. With such a hop-on hop-off system, the drivers would find themselves very busy, and ultimately, very happy...!

Yet another sign that the military coup is not as bad as people have been trying to make out.

More lives saved by the coup.

People bang on about freedom of speech, even though our speech is still relatively free.... Yet it is a small price to pay for 'freedom for people to live without being blown apart for exercising freedom of speech'.

It also seems that the weapons amnesty is leading people to reconsider their previous positions, which, I believe will probably lead to huge numbers of sudden appearances of weapons and explosives out on the streets just before the amnesty deadline.

If any of the extremists decide to hang on to their war weapons, then they will leave themselves open to long prison terms if they are subsequently found in possession of them.

Hats off to Gen. Prayuth in every area that he is involved in, which of course now includes a clean-up of the economic mess that the previous incumbents left behind...!!

I, on the other hand, have just experienced a significant reduction in bank charges for transfers from the UK to Thailand.

For transferring funds from HSBC (UK) to Bangkok Bank, the sending bank (HSBC) used to charge me £17.00, but I believe the Ombudsman has been applying pressure to the UK banks, so this was recently reduced to just £4.00. Yes, £4.00, even if I am transferring £10,000 ... difficult to believe I know.

Furthermore, Bangkok Bank do not levy any charge for receiving the funds. I always ensure that the funds are transferred in Sterling, as I find I get a much better exchange rate at the receiving bank than if I were to accept the sending bank exchange rate.

Given the transfer is being made from Jersey, I would think the UK Bank ombudsman could apply ant pressure - Jersey is not in the UK.

I made no mention of Jersey. I was offering my recent experience of a transfer from the UK to Thailand...!!

This not just scaremongering. I was in Taipei when the earthquake hit in September 1999 and the number of buildings that collapsed there through faulty construction was devastating. Almost 2,500 people died, with about 11,500 serious injuries. Many people died when the storeys between floors five to nine simply caved in on themselves as a result of the lack of structural integrity.

I, for one, am glad that I live in a townhouse here, and not in one of the upper floors of an older high-rise building.

I'm guessing this replaces the stern enforcement they introduced so loudly in March,

...yes, but now under new management...!!

Nationwide BS tried this on with me a few yrs ago. On top of the original £15/£20 Swift transfer charge, another £20 charge appeared in my UK account about a month later. It happened twice and the 2nd time the 2nd charge was different. Nationwide head office, who didnt seem to really know what happens with these transfers, said it must be coming from the receiving Bangkok bank. On arriving in Udon Thani I went to the branch, who were very helpful but had no idea what the charges were, and they gave me print outs of the 2 transactions. One showed an intermediary bank as HSBC, the other was, I think, London Midland bank. Udon even phoned Bangkok bank head office that initially receives their international transfers. I actually spoke to the dept head, who spoke excellent English, and she assured me that no charge was ever made by them. The only charge was 200baht at the Udon branch.

I scanned and sent the transaction print outs to the Nationwide dept Id previously dealt with, along with a letter containing the name and phone # of the lady in Bangkok to confirm no charges were made. I received no reply so I phoned them again on returning to the UK 4/5 mths later, They claimed no knowledge of my correspondence.so I then filed an official complaint arguing that if charges are made by intermediary banks then they surely must know about these and include them in their sending charge or they should inform customers of the amount in advance. They later refunded the charges without any real explanation. I have not made any Swift transfers thru them since, preferring to ATM withdraw all my money in Thailand with fee free UK credit and debit cards. I have found the Visa and Mastercard exchange rate is nearly always better than any bank's exchange rate even including the 150/180bt fee. Halifax £9 international transfer fee is the cheapest charge I know of in the UK.

SunsetT, as I have posted already, the cheapest, as of May 2014, is now HSBC, at £4:00, for any amount up to £10,000 (the maximum).

If any Tv.com member has any issues with any bank in the UK, the way to deal with them is to write directly to them and make it clear that you are going to forward your complaint to the banking/financial ombudsman, who you can contact at:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html

You will invariably find that the bank will write off the charge rather than having to place resources into dealing with a complaint raised by the Ombudsman...!!

GeorgeO. I am sorry you are wrong. The receiving Thai Bank does make a charge upon receiving funds, usually it's between

200-500 thai baht dependent upon the amount sent. One poster mentioned the percentage. This is certainly the case with the Bank that's under discussion here.

..well, gentlemen, regardless of whether you insist that Bangkok Bank is applying a charge for receiving the funds, the absolute fact is that in mid-May, I was quoted a total of THB 291,655 for a transfer of £5,500 from HSBC using the UK exchange rate.

Having declined the UK rate, and insisted that the funds were transferred in Sterling, the amount that I received into my Bangkok Bank account was THB 297,160 (THB 5,505 baht more) with no indication of any additional receiving bank charges; of course, if there were additional receiving bank charges, then the exchange rate gain was even more impressive.

The gain roughly equates to £1.00 = 53.02 vs 54.02, for the UK rate vis-a-vis the Sterling transfer ... almost 1 baht on every 50 baht = a 2% gain...!!

As I have already mentioned, the transfer fee from HSBC is now £4:00, regardless of the amount, so if anyone is looking for an extremely cheap way of transferring funds, here it is...!!

I, on the other hand, have just experienced a significant reduction in bank charges for transfers from the UK to Thailand.

For transferring funds from HSBC (UK) to Bangkok Bank, the sending bank (HSBC) used to charge me £17.00, but I believe the Ombudsman has been applying pressure to the UK banks, so this was recently reduced to just £4.00. Yes, £4.00, even if I am transferring £10,000 ... difficult to believe I know.

Furthermore, Bangkok Bank do not levy any charge for receiving the funds. I always ensure that the funds are transferred in Sterling, as I find I get a much better exchange rate at the receiving bank than if I were to accept the sending bank exchange rate.

We must never forget the debt we owe to our now I suppose grandfathers and grandmothers along with our (my generation) fathers and mothers for their efforts in W.W.2.

My father was in the El Alemain and middle East,theatre of war so of course he missed D.Day.

However later he served a tour of duty in Germany at the end of the conflict. Being a professional soldier his service term was extended beyond the wartime requirement.

They would be great grandfathers and grandmothers now; I served during a period well after World War 2, from 1971 to 1993, and I am a four-time grandfather already.

Thank you for your service. We may have passed one another during our time in. LOL.

91B5M

USA Ret.

1968-1988.

Rest In Peace Fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Patriots.

Kudos to you too Benmart. I believe that we can hold our heads up high for serving full military careers...!

Irrespective of who's weapons they are it is yet more weapons that the PTP and CAPO were unwilling to uncover through either an agenda driven lethargy or through incompetence. Either way, one can conclude they are either affiliated with the militia or they are simply incompetent.

After seeing the rice scheme as well as Nattawut who is an accused terrorist UDD leader sharing that role along side being a PTP minister I suspect a mixture of both.

Well done again General and even less weapons on the street that can kill or maim my family.

Cannot deny the progress the democracy restoration team have made.

How much more proof do the terrorist sympathizers on here need to see before they will admit that what Gen. Prayuth has put into motion was totally necessary...?!

It is abundantly clear that the PTP, the UDD and the inactive police force were setting this country up for a full-blown civil war. All of them must now be ready to take responsibility for their actions.

Strange that the TVF UDD sympathizers have stopped even trying to put some spin on these discoveries; mind you, I suppose they fully accept Wanchai's explanation for these weapons.....

"The suspect, Wanchai Theerarattanakhet, reportedly admitted he used guns for sports but said the war weapons found in his home were not his"...!!

Do you think that the weapons found so far are sufficient to win a full-blown war? Or even to start one?

Are there any public allegations by the army that the weapons found proof such intentions on part of the

RTP, PTP and UDD leadership?

And before you call me something charming like "terrorist sympathizer" - I will say it again, it is good indeed

that the weapons are confiscated, and no, does not look like people had them as collector items. That said,

it is still a far cry from a massive organized effort to bring the country on its knees. If it was, though, and if

this was its full extent - than perhaps we can all take it down a notch, not very impressive as underground

movements go.

On the same note, the current reports are mostly centered on searches connected with red-shirts. Fair enough,

they probably earned that. Would be interesting to know if searches in PDRC strongholds will yield similar results.

I think that the weapons discovered so far are of sufficient concern to suggest that there are huge stockpiles that have yet to be discovered.

Exactly how many weapons would you like to see before agreeing that it's a matter of concern ... a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand...?!

And please don't be so defensive...! I'm not about to start referring to you as a "terrorist sympathizer", unless of course your posts start to reflect such a stance...!!

We must never forget the debt we owe to our now I suppose grandfathers and grandmothers along with our (my generation) fathers and mothers for their efforts in W.W.2.

My father was in the El Alemain and middle East,theatre of war so of course he missed D.Day.

However later he served a tour of duty in Germany at the end of the conflict. Being a professional soldier his service term was extended beyond the wartime requirement.

They would be great grandfathers and grandmothers now; I served during a period well after World War 2, from 1971 to 1993, and I am a four-time grandfather already.

...and, quite unbelievably, there is an advertisement immediately below this thread for "dermal filler"......!!

As there is no longer free press and we have to trust whatever the army sends out as news it would be wise to think before we applaud them onto greater discoveries. Dare I say a not to effective PR campaign from an outfit that has its thinking and ideologies entrenched from over a century ago. They find these weapons caches and yet when the C n C was asked many questions , by the foreign journalists, he muttered one word and walked away.

I have not doubt there are serious weapons out there, on both sides, whatever they find will not scrape the surface. Its a scary thought when you are trying to control the masses to accept your doctrine, that one might have your name on it.

Doubt we will see here as news is censored but just saw one of Thaksins aides on Australia Network discussing the setting up of a "network" of peaceful resistance to the current junta. All he would say was that it would not be in a ASEAN country but they would have a base in a country which has a democracy model they wish for Thailand and have free unfettered access to the press.

Has the fightback begun?

Since the majority of post is utter nonsense, I will simply respond to your last line .....

Yes, the fightback has begun ... it kicked off on 22 May, and will be complete when the Shin clan and their trusted henchmen are behind bars...!!

I just wanted to find out what nose filler was, had a funny impression of people filling up their nostrils for some silly reason

Yes, had me wondering too. Strange what names they give to things. I believed for years that Pollyfilla was an embalming process for parrots...!!

Rubbish. The junta are also saying in the Thai press that the world supports the coup which is crap. Never believe a single thing coming out of the mouths of the military rulers.

Sad to see that there are still a lot of you sore losers out there.

In time, you will come to realise that what the military has done is for the good of the nation, and I for one look forward to the day when KhunT, the man behind all of this mess, is firmly behind bars, and all of his assets are returned to the Thai people from whom they were stolen...!!