ableguy

Make sure you can scuttle back to the UK if you get very sick in your old age. I am not joking; Thai health care is not only suspect, but it will cost you an arm and a leg. Typically senario: if you can't pay they won't operate, and I mean pay in advance. If you can't pay then they will nurse you until you die.

Apart from the lousy weather I think the UK is brilliant. Only all those foreigners coming into the country putting a burden on the system.

if you think the UK is brilliant I guess you have not been to too many places, if sick in the UK try and get an appointment with a specialist find out what a waiting list is, same if surgery is needed

The UK is one of the most policed countries in the so called free world one of the heaviest taxed, has the worst food wailing mosques on every street corner in short the place sucks that is why there are so many Brits over here

How long before the Election Commission is fired and a new batch brought in?

GOOD POINT

Oh my! Though I suppose it frees him up to commit still more despicable acts.

Oh say! What's the immunity situation there?

Yes but he wont be getting paid with tax payers money and also he will not be able to dip into the cookie jar, however expect an uproar from his buddies in government.

Strange... there are several farang suicides(and suspicious deaths) every month in Thailand but I've never seen the girlfriend "detained"...

Looks like he will be "stitched up" as Ratcatcher suggested, particularly if its Pattaya police involved...

But if he did throw her off, Im sure he'll get his punishment at the Bangkok Hilton.

Either way hope she recovers, surviving 7 floors is incredible.

This is a very sad story and no doubt booze was involved, I have said this many times any Brit when staying in sin city should insist on ground floor and leave the upper rooms for the Russians.

This made the Thai press a few days ago -- apparently the woman called him in Singapore late at night and told him it was all over, whereupon he flew to Bangkok and committed the crime, stabbing the guy 17 times -- fairly impressive long-term rage.

Don't forget, he lost face.

17 times ?sounds like an accident to me.

I hope next it will be all those disgraceful sex establishments and perhaps while he is in full flow he could do something about those dreadful people who arrive at the airport in flip flops and vests, it really is quite appalling.

Now now... lets slow down here, I do agree on the personages arriving in flip flops and t-shirts and would make an addtion request that any resident farangs who wear dinner plate sized buddah amulets or similar be deported and black listed immediately for their own good...

And also the guys that wear black socks with shorts and sandals, disgusting.

The problem is the whole barrel of apples is rotten.

Rant.

One thing that all drivers in Thailand should be aware of is that when you are turning left, the Thai turning right coming the other way will be on a direct head-on collision course, and if on a motorbike will swerve to pass on the wrong side.

End rant.

100% correct but we have to accept it and be aware as nothing will ever change.in our lifetime.

Thai Airways Reduces Flight Planes due to Drop in Passengers

The Thai Airways International Public Company reduced the number of airplane flights after the passengers cancelled their travels during flooding.

Thai Airways International Public Company cut more than 500 domestic and international flights due to a dramatic drop in passengers who remain uncertain about the flood crisis.

In addition to flight reduction, Thai Airways will downsize its airplane in correlation with the numbers of passengers in each flight.

The company will assess the situation on a daily basis.

The company will make sure that any changes made has minimal affect on passengers and hopes the situation would return to normal in December.

The flood crisis will have an extensive impact on the company's income this year, pointing out that the company normally earns a large amount of profit during the high season period.

Thai Airways has already lost around 4.8 billion baht in the first nine months due to money exchange rate fluctuations and an increase of fuel prices.

Airport of Thailand Public Company or AOT Manging Director, Anirut Thanomkulabutra said that six international airports nationwide experienced a 9 percent drop in passenger numbers when compared to last October.

As for the Suvarnabhumi Airport, the number of passengers went down from 130,000 to 100,000, while the numbers of flight reduced by 100 from 900 to 800.

-- Tan Network 2011-11-18

Absolute nonsense. TAT said tourism would go up due to floods.

At the 7/11 shops here in Pattaya they have no more "Chang classic", instead they sell now "Chang Export"

Sato run out of stock as well...

Cloggie

Same in Hua Hin many shops only have Chang export, why ? must be not too good methinks.

Thailand is basically a mono-crop culture. So much reliance on rice has its problems, and this flood only highlights one aspect of its problems. 16 months ago it was claimed by Thai gurus to be "The Worst Drought in 20 Years!". .....also problematic for rice.

Democrat MP Nipit Intarasombat said the flood crisis would have been less severe if the number of rice harvests had been reduced from three to two this year, and the water released after the second.

Three crops per year on the same parcel?!?!? Even two crops per year is dicey. Soil need to be replenished, rejuvenated. Thais know nothing about composting and very little about mulching. Each year, many rice farmers burn most parts of the rice plant left over after harvesting. . Just as important, there are a slew of crops that are as well, or better suited to Thailand's climate/soil conditions. I've listed them before, so I'll just make a web page, rather than list them all again. Try Brazil Noi treesfor a reasonable alternative. Hemp is better crop than rice for a dozen reasons. Both have many times more value in baht/kilo and in nutrition.

If anyone asks you; "What's Wrong with Trying to Grow so much Rice in Thailand?" You can tell them the info above, and you can add that the rice in Thai food bowls is basically starch, nearly devoid of nutrients. It's like a filler or something to make paper mache glue. Such a nutrition-poor staple also affects the thinking ability of Thais - particularly children.

Even from my "city-guy" perspective, Thailand's agriculture looks extremely conservative and narrow-minded.

I have the impression that they are obsessed with a few kind of crops and won't even try to consider if there are alternatives that can actually generate more revenue.

I had an interesting discussion with my in-laws, some of whom are farmers and land-owners upcountry. They laughed at me when I asked why they didn't try to get a loan to invest in machines who could help them take care of their rice crops. I was even ready to participate. I had an answer sounding like: "This farang is so funny, he clearly doesn't know anything about anything. Everyone knows you can't use no machine for harvesting rice".

It took me a minute on my mobile to find pictures of such machine as they are used in Japan or Korea.

At first, they were stunned... but they recovered quickly: "Oh, but that's in Japan! Here is Thailand, it's not the same. In Thailand, you cannot". End of discussion.

My guess is that there are a LOT of people who benefit from this ignorance from the farmers. And it includes those who pretend being their political voice.

We had a visit from the Thai/German Organic Rice Co-operative here yesterday. About 8 guys and a translator. They where doing there annual inspection of the rice farms to see if they meet all the requirements of being "organic" and setting a price for this years crop.

The father-in-law has no idea about organic farming and was only interested in the price he might get later on in the year.

I asked the German guy who seemed to be in charge of this outfit if the figure's stacked up and he told me that they where "so so", meaning that he understood that these where all b/s figures and started to question the father-in-law who was lost in finding answers to his questions.

I know for a fact that this crop and many before it are not at all Organic, nor is the neighbours, however they have been sold this idea so that they will sell the rice to that mill who will then go and market the crop as 'Organic" and fetch a higher price that the farmer will not see.

I also mentioned to the father-in-law about using machinery to harvest the crop, but all he could was laugh and tell me what would a falang know about these things!!!

Bring on a decent education system for the kids of Isaan simpletons!

But let the daughters still come South

We visit the beaches down there a couple of times a year to get away from Hua HIn, very good info well done.

Give these people some slack. I think this is trivial compared to the corruption that will be involved when distributing the 900 billion baht of recovery money.

My friend this is food we are talking about for people who have none and to them very important, what is so sad is to watch a nation intent on stealing from the less fortunate ( ie those not employed by the mafia like government )

So can anyone confirm or deny the road from BKK to Hua Hin the no.35 is now impassable? or is this just a stock photo? Although I do see it is saying North of Rama 2 at the moment

Still open

Here in Hua Hin I paid 4000 baht, though at another lawyers I was quoted 12000.

I'm also hoping (keeping my fingers crossed) that there is a proper approach to planning, hopefully including:

- A broad based respected and credible committee which is able to push greed, corruption and collusion to the side, to some extent (totally removing these factors is of course impossible).

- Developing proper / appropriate background & future assumptions.

- Proper study of the correct and applicable historical, current and forecasted weather / water flow / water volume data etc.

- Thailand's economic growth and hopefully incorporating a better (and if needed subsidized) spread of economic development and work opportunities

- Transparency, and proper community / public involvement and debate

- A step by step logical approach to all of the above, and enough time to do it well.

Am I asking too much?

YES

running out of beer in some peoples minds is fine ,but when you run a bar or club paying huge rents and employing lots of staff ,how are you suppose to pay the rent and staff wages when you cant sell anything,this could force bar owners to either shut up shop or lay off staff ,which in turn hurts the landlords who rent rooms to these staff as they wont get paid and they in turn cant pay there mortgages to the banks and so on and so on ,not a good time ahead for a lot of us farangs or thais im afraid....

Got me crying in my beer.

On first thought, I was also going to joke about it... invoking emergency laws to prevent beer shortage to happen... but then I remembered the hundreds of thousands of people really affected by the flood and so I refrain from joking around...

yet, you basically still told the joke...

i'm not having a go at you, just found it amusing

I DON'T find it amusing that you DO find someone's (curtailed) amusement, amusing .

I find amusing what you do not which makes you amusing

Why are people going to moan at TAT doing its job whihc is to promote Thailand. Admittedly things are difficult right now, but what do people want? TAT to say hey dont come to Thailand it is screwed? Or to highlight the reporters without borders campaign? The job of TAT is to try and promote tourism whatever, and they arent being unethical by saying stay in flooded Rangsit as it is dry or something...

Get real, they are a bunch of clowns.

Speaking for hua Hin the town is full of people fleeing BKK, traffic is horrendous, stores half empty of products and TAT think we should encourage farang tourist to come here ???? they really are a joke LOL land of miricles.

A quote from a UK government web site: By law, you must carry your passport with you at all times in Thailand. Tourists have been arrested because they were unable to produce their passport upon request.

MSPain

And you think the UK government would know Thai law? or would they just translate 'ID card' to 'passport' to make their suggestion idiot proof?

I saw a hippy type of looking guy get pulled by the bibs for not having his passport on him, they hauled him away. This was at Chatajack market ( excuse spelling )

A city the size of BKK must have several huge garbage dumps/landfills.

Does anybody know where they are and if they are flooded???

Sukhumvit Soi 23 to Nana

It is sad to hear that Bangkok is flooded for so many days already.

I do hope that the flood will be over soon.

As for the Thai government, I think that they have done quite a good job to minimize the effect, but the flood is too bad.

I don't think that any farang country can do any better if the flood (at the same intensity) hits their country.

You are dreaming.

On average 50% of my incoming mail gets stolen, I only mail out even birthday cards registered and 30% dont make it, Iguess its the English writing

You are not going to find anything in the vicinity of the US embassy for THB 500 per night. The area around the embassy is probably the most expensive you will find in Bangkok. I reckon the cheapest place to stay thats within easy walking distance of the US embassy is Jim's Lodge in Soi Rumrudee (sic spelling), even there I guess you will be looking at THB 1,500 to THB 2,000 a night.

Ah, I see, thanks for the advice. Do you know how close the skytrain is to the embassy? Maybe I could stay somewhere cheap and close to the sky train and take it over, would that be a possibilty? And if that is possible, are the skytrains running with the flood?

sorry for all the questions, i appreciate the advice though!

A six to eight minute walk. or take bus no 62 from nana