Foxxster

I remember when I was at university reading in the local paper that two American girls were killed when they stepped out directly in front of a bus. Happened right next door to the uni I was at so I assumed they were also students. Unfortunately we also drive on the left here in Australia, same as Thailand but obviously the opposite of America. 

1 hour ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Don't be silly - bike rental guys would loose income, plus they make like bandits on bike repair claims from the driver.

They wouldn't just lose some income, my guess would be a minimum of 75% 

And now a helicopter crash carrying a prince and government officials...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41881058

It is a legal requirement for tourists to have their passports on them. Yes I know this is not often enforced but it is still currently the law. Either on admission or at some point of the hospital stay or even on discharge , the foreign patient should be required to show their passport.

If they do not pay their bill then arrangements (ideally reciprocal) should be put in place via the embassies to arrange for any outstanding amounts to be repaid by either withholding social security if they are not working or via the tax system. The amount taken each week need not be onerous if they are really in financial distress, maybe $10 a week for example. Word would get out that you cannot get away without paying and hopefully more people would voluntarily get insurance.

Perhaps the question needs to be asked is where was the minivan driver going? Was he heading to the airport to pick up some arriving tourists as the accident was near there and the timing is right for a morning pickup. Could have been a lot worse if he crashed on the way back rather than going. But who knows, maybe he was heading home.

"Two years ago, the victim's family called for a speedy investigation into the murder, which prompted the DSI to treat it as a special case."

This may sound cynical, but I wonder how much reward money was offered by the victim's family? Seems a bit strange the RTP would sit on their hands for 6 years and then suddenly take a renewed interest in the case based only on the pleas of a bereaved family (when no such special consideration as a "special case" was given in other cases with equally devastated families).

I would suspect the Japanese PM is pushing for this to be resolved before investments etc are continued with as it wasn't that long ago that "dear leader" got summoned to go meet with him to put him in his place a bit.

It could also be payment for letting that gun toting Thai policeman off so lightly on his recent trip to Japan. There would be a delay in announcing it so that no clear connection can be made between the two events. Maybe, just a thought.

Bit concerned about how many suicide vests and bombs are still out there. Now that the bomb maker seems to have been caught, will we see panicked cell members using what they have in the next couple of days before they get rounded up..

So the Army are monitoring everyone's Facebook messages now?

I would think members of the UDD most certainly are being monitored and by the trail they have left they do not seem to be the brightest.

Most disturbing is the possibility of a southern connection via the type of bomb used. Cooperation against a common enemy?

The CAA in Australa is also adding more inspections of Thai Airways flights as well as liaising with Thai aviation officials regarding their CAA safety issues.

This issue is spreading. I heard on the radio this morning that the Australian civil aviation authority is starting to implement further checks on Thai Airways planes due to the concerns raised. It is also liaising with the relevant Thai authorities. Cat is well and truely out of the bag and urgent action is obviously needed as the issue is now spreading to the wider area of the travelling public. Mentions of safety issues and inspections by your country's authorities on an airline is going to have potentially disastorous impacts on ticket sales.

"... degrading to women and portrays them as sex objects ..."

OK, so equal it up by having a spread of sushi on a naked man next to her.

And, in future, have a 3rd spread if the 3rd sex is officially recognized by the Constitution.

Somehow I think the name 'naked sushi & Sai Krok isan' restaurant might be a bit of a mouthful..

Me. I did Latin to A level

Should I refer to you as Dr, or your holiness?

Do the ladyboys on soi 6 or Beach rd understand you in Latin?

Perhaps I'm not as familiar with ladyboys or Beach Road as you are?

Think Rgs2001uk uses Greek when having meaningful intercourse with the ladyboys.

<snip>

I really can't see a for example Russian (as they seem to be the biggest % of tourists these days) family with young children being happy lying on a mat versus having a chair.. And are the mats really going to be 200 baht, twice the old chair price? If so then bring back the old way.

Have to say that last high season at Kata beach most of the Russians shunned the seats/umbrellas and prefered to lie on a towel for free.

Might have been the case at Kata but certainly not at Patong. At least they should be given a choice.

So umbrellas will be free but mats will be available to rent? Just to be clear what happens if we bring our own mat? 5555

Honestly this whole thing is ridiculous. There must have been more important things to target than each chairs and vendors? They could have worked something out in low season, had a while to put in place a proper plan that would keep tourists happy and ensure legal and correct protocols were being followed. Instead they pack everything up and are now struggling to organise themselves.

And all you 'locals' can get stuffed too with your "it looks so much better now". There are plenty of beaches in the south if you want the natural look. Plus It's the tourists that make that town go around not you ex pats drinking cheap ass beer on some bar down nanai.

Just out of interest has the same thing been done over on Koh samui?

Countless numbers of tourists visit Bondi beach in Sydney, one of the most popular in the world, where there are no rows of deckchairs. The main problem in Phuket, IMO, was not so much having deckchairs but the fact that they simply took over the whole beach & if you did not want a deckchair some thug would tell you to move along, not allowed to sit on the sand. Give them an inch etc. There is already plenty of evidence of everything creeping back to "normal" after the army cleaned up.

After telling all us locals to get stuffed I assume you have taken a survey amongst the tourists to determine their views. Many expat locals support the economy in many & long lasting ways & I find you abhorrent with your cheap ass beer statement.

I don't think you can compare Bondi with Phuket. Bondi is a local or more backpacker type beach. Phuket has become much more of a family beach destination where people come for the beach. The tourists going to Bondi are not going primarily to spend a week or two at the beach. And most are not family groups.

It is incredibly stupid that they have not worked out a suitable plan to allow maybe 50% of the beach area in Phuket to have chairs which could be taxed at say 10 or 20 baht per chair per day. This would still leave plenty of profit for the vendors.

I really can't see a for example Russian (as they seem to be the biggest % of tourists these days) family with young children being happy lying on a mat versus having a chair.. And are the mats really going to be 200 baht, twice the old chair price? If so then bring back the old way.

Oh, and sorry for my previous non post above. iPad malfunction or more correctly, fat fingers.

^ Make sure you go "commando" that day, as well.

You think he wears underpants under his mankini?

I actually see TWO other people in that CCTV footage. There seems to be a girl with long hair but also there seems to be someone on her left, right in the corner of the image who appears to be male but it is hard to make out. Seems like a young couple.

If you are driving a Burmese car, one thing to be aware of.

Half the cars in Myanmar are left-hand drive and the other half are right-hand drive.

Crazy, I know. Scary, too if you're in the wrong kind.

Actually from what I saw, about 95% of cars are RIGHT hand drive which of course is the wrong side for driving on the right side of the road. I did a few counts when I was walking around Yangon because I found the situation so weird. Also quite strange is the total lack of motorcycles in Yangon as they are banned. Especially as they are so prevalent in all other 'developing' Asian countries cities.

Most probably they have an aircraft or 2 having a C or D maintenance check, hence leasing an aircraft to cover this.

Would the lease of the aircraft also include the crew? I flew on the Bulgarian airlines plane in December and the crew were also Bulgarian. I was very surprised too at this, - that Bangkok Air would use a Bulgarian plane.

Here is a photo from Twitter, taken apparently minutes before the protest leader was shot:

The report said he was shot on a truck with speakers, so that is probably the truck they are referring to.

Doesn't seem to be the same truck as the one visible in the video posted a few pages back.

Yes there is. It passes right to left at the bottom of the screen. Only briefly visable.

The manifest is correct. I noticed there is a Ms J Rhodes listed as a Lao national however there are also 2 Rhodes listed as Australians. I am assuming that Ms Rhodes is a dual national and used her Lao identify to board the aircraft but was married to an Australian.

Porsche Driver Turns Himself in

The driver of a brand-new Porsche who slammed into a 17 year old girl from Laos turned himself in to police yesterday.

The driver of a red-plated Porsche, Peerapol Thaksinthaweesap, who slammed into 17 year old Kambai Inthilat, surrendered to the Pathum Thani police yesterday.

The accident happened on Friday.

The driver said he was travelling at 120 kilometers per hour when the girl ran in front of his car.

The driver said he went to the hospital after the accident as he was hit hard in the chest by the air bag.

Amidst all the conspiracy theories here as to who was actually driving the car and the aftermath might I throw another one into the mix ?

I have highlighted above that the driver claimed he was injured when the airbag deployed. Nothing unusual there, its one heck of a force. What is unusual is the ability to drive 10K after airbag deployment as the Cayman has an inertia switch behind the airbag that trips when its deployed and cuts of the fuel pump. That is a primary safety measure. That car won't go anywhere under its own steam until its plugged into a computer at a Porsche dealers.

I have no answers to this, just pointing out there are more holes in this account than a piece of Swiss cheese.

I think also that if the airbag had deployed then it would have caused him to lose control of the car - the force / and the size of the airbag would have thrown his hands off the wheel, and caused a shock reaction that would have temporarily disabled him (for a couple of seconds at least)..and at the speed he was doing he would have ended crashing off the road.. Also, the damage to the front of the car - where the airbag sensors would be does not seem anywhere near enough for them to 'trip' and deploy the driver's airbag... there is barely a scratch to the front of the car..

&lt;deleted&gt;! Older Farangs will just stop going to Cambodia -- and remember -- we're the one's with most of the saved money. BTW, Central American countries will welcome you with open arms. So will Malaysia. What a bunch of losers -- no common sense at all.

so will China;

There are several reasons for the good safety record for Qantas compared to some other airlines. Maintenance (or where it is carried out) is perhaps one aspect although I am not convinced it is a major factor. Some other reasons are;

• our relatively benign weather - we do not get freezing icey weather that plagues most of the northern hemisphere. Qantas planes are not exposed to this weather anywhere near as much as a European or north american / canadian airline. Similarly we do not get monsoonal downpours that Asian airlines in particular are exposed to. Although the incident in thailand where that qantas plane ended up running off the runway onto a golf course (and probably shoud have resulted in a 'hull loss') and which was the indirect result of management cost cutting was in these weather conditions.
• the fact that we do not have a large number of aircraft operating many short distance flights (we do have the melbourne / syd and Brisbane / syd routes). American and european airlines have more short routes which exposes their aircraft frames to more fatigue and also their engines.
• the relatively young fleet that Qantas had up until about 10- 15 years ago. I remember they used to publish the average age of their aircraft in their on board magazine (do they still do that?) last time I looked was about 10 years ago - the average had crept up to about 8.5 years - from around 5 years. and they had just converted two 747 freighters into passenger aircraft. One was 9 years old, the other 15 years old !

I believe that the last point may be one reason why there are more problems occuring now - especially with the 747 fleet which must be getting near the end of their life. This would be impacted by the delay of the A380 and the 787 as well as by general cost cutting.

I will only fly qantas to redeem my existing points (if i can ever get a booking) and even then will try and get a code share airline. I have flown many other airlines that have always been cheaper than qantas (who seem to be only about the 4th or 5th cheapest), and the other airlines offer better service - thai, singapore, even Emirates who are much more price competitive. Qantas has been in decline for a while and I suspect that manifest itself in the attitudes of the air crew (low morale). the constant costs cutting are one cause.