Shaunduhpostman

The officials of Pattaya once again extending their invitation to the world to come and visit their paradise. Brilliant. I'm on that plane tomorrow, no more hookers bothering me when I am just trying to get down to the kind of beach I would fly 11 hours and spend 1000 dollars  just to visit!

Anything Thailand or any country does to maintain its sovreignty is a good thing, futile as it may be. It might seem that the internationalisation of the world would be a good thing. Perhaps it sounds nice on the face of it,  that things such as living wherever, going wherever you want would be easier, etc.But you only need look at globalising forces such as international trade agreements for example  the TPP (Trans-Pacific Parnership) to see that such kinds of "trade" agreements -they are not actually trade agreements-  have written into them rules that state global corporations may sue nation states in their own tribunal courts for anything that corporations and other business entities deem damages or threatens their profits. It is already happening more and more that corporations directly attack nation states , for example cigarette giant Phillip Morris who sued the country of Uruguay $25 million dollars for warnings about smoking on its cigarette packages. They then used this and a failed case with Australia to threaten the tiny and poor country of Togo with billions of dollars in court fees. Togo backed down from health warnings on cigarette packaging. This kind of freedom for corporations to do what ever they want to make profits at our expense is what is behind the movement towards greater globalisation the sinister reality of direct governance by financial institutions and corporations. It has been long in the making, since the beginning of the last century at least.   Nation states are in the way of these entities and have been for a long time. National systems are not proving to be much hope but at least they secure that there are some things in place, albeit heavily comprimsed,  whereby people could elect or otherwise force government to work in their interests. The way I see it, they have, as long as I have been alive, trying to sell us on this idea of a borderless world. The problem with that world is that there would no longer be anything between you and corporations. Essentially, you would have no possiblity of laws to protect you from anything that banks, corporations etc want that would enhance their profits. Just  being being born you would be beholden to them, essentially  the opposite of how they have tried to portray a global borderless world as one free from fighting between countries, one that would have equal rights for all, equal opportunities for all, freedom of movement ad travel etc. This borderless internationalisation of the planet in fact means our enslavement to Phillip Morris, Exxon, General Electric, Microsoft, the IMF, Dow Chemical, Monsanto etc. Of course all nations are heavily corrupted by these entities at present and thus mostly work for them, for example  in the United States these entities have recently been given the same rights as people, but at least in some countries there are courts that will uphold the rights of people to say defend themselves from the possibility of say Phillip Morris being allowed to sell cigarettes in the schools or food corporations that would  say that nutritional information on packaging damages their profits or that oil companies find it expensive to remove highly carcinogenic toxic effluents and by-products from  being dumped into their rivers and waters or that would uphold cases where workers were being cheated of their pensions or pay etc etc ad nauseum.

Aside from the topic of the article being way to general and unspecific to ever be able to make a good or interesting point within the scope of a short opinion peice, the OP's point that all of these farang need to go make some friends with Thai men, is a rather thoughtless and naive dismisal of a whole social phenomena, that would make a more interesting piece. Sorry that the writer is too blinkered by his annoyance with fat wife beater wearing half-drunk racist slobs or whoever it is he imagines to be behind these keyboards blasting the world with drivel to have seen the opportunity there.

You could interview people, both Thai and farang, as to why they don't have any  friends in their respective groups  and perhaps come to some interesting provisional conclusions or at least notions. Its better than just making unqualified declarations about how prejudiced and racist all the western expats are that they see Thai men negatively. It may be as much that Thai men don't want any farang friends that we never get to see how wonderful they are, it is not fair or logical to blame crappy western expats without any specifics to go on. You almost never see Thai and western men hanging out together aside from company functions or family events. Why not? It ain't just me because I am some kind of racist that I don't have male Thai friends and don't hang out with Thai men. 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The police allege that the pair have been involved in many similar cases of extortion with menaces against the foreign community. They are confident that there are other "foreign mafia figures" behind these two arrests.

So, I suppose we should expect that they would soon be released and allowed to carry on just as before. Or will it be different this time? I'm not holding my breath.

Interesting choice of words "confident." 

 Meanwhile efforts will be focused on making sure that people who have overstayed their visas will be deported and not allowed back into the country for years.

Now Thailand have Don too na.

Though they seem to be drinkable, tho not really that great, you ought to be aware that the cheaper wines in Thailand are not technically wine as they are made with a mixture of pomegranite and grape juice. Apparently this allows them to get around a tax and the cheaper wine price is passed on to you. If you look on the backside label, and in one of the corners of the label you see "fruit wine" that means it is not 100% grape juice. I feel it is also deceptive to the customer, because unless you are lucky enough to find out, you won't know that you are not drinking 100% grape wine, so I don't buy the stuff any more. 

But as for real wine, I really like the 300 baht+ per bottle stuff offered by TESCO, it is surprisingly good usually, it is some kind of Australian wine with a Kangaroo on the label. I know there are many Australian wines with a kangaroo on the label, but it is the only one that is under 400 baht. They have a number of different varieties as well. For red they have Cabernet, Shiraz and Merlot. To me, these wines are a no-brainer when wines that taste can taste worse are difficult to find for less than 500 baht these days. 

To me this kind of gouging seems like it is a form of  humiliation born of some kind of inexplicable bitterness.  Are there not other ways to get the same level of money out of foreign guests and also add to their experiences as opposed to simply demoralising people with outrageous fees and little to nothing in return? Couldn't many Thais have legit and rewarding jobs offering tours or running special accommodations or facilities or activities? No, there is just too much resentment and bitterness to be dished out and it is too important to show the world who is the boss here in Thailand for anyone to have a constructive and positive attitude, so foreigner you pay me now!. It is all just more of this toxic nastiness that you have to do your best to ignore and give a wide berth to should you be stuck here in this country for whatever reason and it is ubiquitous. I feel very sorry for people who have high hope s for a beautiful vacation in a nice country only to have to have meet this chip on the shoulder attitude which colors more and more of the things said and done in Thailand with each passing day.

I thought the pipe was there to  supply fertilizer for the coral reefs and the fish stock of Pattaya's main beach. Maybe I got that wrong... 

If you fly cheap as I do, there is always going to be something. A Vietnam air flight I took in 2007, Bangkok to Seoul was semi-traumatic. From the get go, the ticket already had an 8 hour wait in Hanoi which at the end of it all ended up being a 20 hour wait. Of course I am not complaining about having to wait 8 hours, and It wasn't so much the 12 hour delay as their trying to fix the problem and continually failing again and again. They apparently tried to get other airlines to help out to no avail. We had to constantly every few hours run to some other corner of the airport and queue for seats on other airlines they had switched us over to only to be told, sorry, no go, this is all cancelled as well, please listen for announcements for the new course of action. So you could not just take a nap or sleep, we had to stay up all night listening to announcements queuing in front of various flight gates and all for naught, 4-5 times we got a "No, sorry, cancelled again." .

The finale after a sleepless night running around and queuing at various counters was at sunrise when they boarded us, this time on one of their own planes.The prelude was a "we are so sorry here is a free box lunch style breakfast for you," there was an angry mob of shouting Koreans for several hours prior, so when the free food came out there was a mad push to grab food, people were shouting and pushing and grabbing and punching others a few emerged from the fray with 5,6,7 breakfasts, and most of us, those who wanted to wait calmly for food got nothing. The same pushing shoving angry style mob scene ensued at the boarding gate. I was grabbed by staff and told to wait and allow the angry Koreans to get on first. We boarded the plane, got going down the runway and the cabin soon became filled with the smell of fumes and exhaust. Next thing you knew we were back at the gate and were told that we had to get off the plane again. No explanation given. It was another 5 hours before we were on a Korean Air flight and finally arrived in Seoul where, probably needless to say, the people who were supposed to meet me for a pick up had long since given up, leaving me to my own devices.

 As much as I enjoy my beer and wine, I will not put up with that and I will simply stop drinking if it actually does come down to that. That or just brew my own. There are mail order suppliers in country of everything you need to brew your own beers. Just need to invest in some mash pots and a brew fridge as room temperatures are too high to brew most beers here. Works out to about 30 baht a pint, expensive for home brewing, but if you want a nice pale ale, a 400 baht craft brew pint looks to be setting you back 800 baht after the new tax , so 30 baht + your own elbow grease does not look so bad.

You might jump to the conclusion that the guy took mushrooms and Ritalin and then drank booze some of which may have been spiked with something, it is an even bigger assumption to say he took the Ritalin. He just says that got the stuff. As for him having been murdered, "scary guy with a mask" and his statement that his drink had been spiked could be the mushrooms altering his perceptions or could have been just that, a scary guy with a mask appearing after he'd had his drink spiked or any combo of those elements. In any case, we only have what he texted to go on which may or may not correspond to  what actually happened to the guy.  Ritalin is not known to have any fatal effects when mixed with alcohol and/or mushrooms, if indeed they were just mushrooms with nothing else added so it really does seem there was something beyond his own drug mixing that did him in. 

Yes a haven drawing millions every year from all over the world to visit the 25 potted plants scattered around the city and a total of over 800 coconut and casuarina trees growing along beach road, a haven for 2 species of birds such as pigeons and a refuge for English sparrows. Other attractions include Central Pattaya shopping Mall also probably a natural formation that somehow is also full of shops selling things. Naturally formed air is available for breathing throughout the city and in abundance when one goes indoors and 100% natural water flows from all of the taps and toilets city wide. It has been said that the lucky may get glimpse of even a herring or two gasping their last breaths along the edge of the peaceful sylvan cove that is Pattaya bay. Pattaya  is a national treasure and is long over due to be zoned as the country's latest national park. Thais 40 baht, foreigners 400 baht per day, pay at the kiosks on all out going roads as you leave the magic paradise.  

To my lazy armchair idiot's mind, on a simplistic level it makes sense that A country should be allowed to ask foreigners to fulfill certain requirements if they want to come in and stay. If people don't follow the laws and they are caught they should be sent back, end of story.

But the problem I have is that Trump seems to lay the blame only at the feet of the so-called trespassers. He does not want to go after the businesses that are luring  "illegals" over to come and work. So basically his idea could have the effect of making "illegals" more vulnerable while their employers continue only being subject to the the current ineffective programs and/or enforcement of laws against hiring illegals and thus have more of a leg up than they do now. I would also guess that there is also undoubtedly much corruption with immigration being paid off for favors or whatever it is, so why isn't corruption ever mentioned as a contributor to the problem. So, it seems to me that the effect of Trump's anti-Mexican campaign is basically to give the employers more leverage to say to workers "either you work at  this reduced rate or else I'll make an anonymous call to immigration and you'll be sent back pronto and I'll get someone who will acquiesce,"  and by that get  more willing to work for less. Over the long term then, this would seem to have the effect of making corporations hungrier for these kinds ever cheaper more maleable and expendable workers whose wages can be cut in a jiffy and thus increase the problem in the long term. Ways around Trump's wall etc will easily and quickly found and I would expect the problem of "illegals" will become exponentially worse.

They need to find a way to also have it make no economic sense to hire illegals if they are sincere about tackling their own self-defined "problem" of illegal immigration. But then I suppose, going after businesses for the practice of hiring illegals is not as sexy or reality show worthy  as say, chasing Mexicans down, stun gunning the varmits and hog tying them and shipping them back to Mexico would be, it just isn't as entertaining to the electroate to try and find effective solutions that don't cause unnecessary harm to people, some of  whom have already suffered as a result  of  the US's own NAFTA trade policies and due to an inability to make a living as farmers or a decent wage as post-NAFTA factory workers in Mexico find that it makes more sense to try and hop the fence and see if things don't improve trying to make do in the USA.

You can guess they'll try and make the bars buy, install and maintain their own CCTVs. And of course it will be cheaper and easier for the bars  to simply not comply, since there is little chance the cops are going to get around to systematically checking each and every one of the hundreds of bars in the Walking Street area and that will probably be the end of it. It will just be another rule they can wave at some bar owner to insure they get their fines and bribes on an as needed basis.

Your odds of seeing a doctor who is actively trying to wreck your health, or who can't be bothered, or who is a full blown nutcase, or utterly incompetent are about 50/50. Throw in not being able to communicate in Thai let alone English, with 99% of them and anyone would be advised to seek medical help elsewhere such as Malaysia, Taiwan, or Singapore.

Another stunning achievement in law enforcement and one that is sure to be immortalised with a shrine and a museum commemorating the bravery and heroism of these officers. 

Thanks for the report, will be doing a similar run as yourself in a few months time. Reassuring to read that as much as things have changed and continue to change, the non-O process and requirements remain the same at Savanakhet. With all the arbitrary case by case requirements, complications and corruption that seem to be rife at many internal immigration offices, doing the non-O  multi seems to be a more sensible way of doing your long term stays .

Foodland in Suk soi 5 used to carry the German beer Schneider-Weisse's Aventinus, an absolutely delicious double bock with a refreshing ice tea, clove and raisin taste, 8% and 110 baht for a largish bottle. They inexplicably stopped selling it to make room for an expanded Chang section or something else just as criminal. I was just gutted at the time. Wishbeer sells Aventinus and its  stronger 12% derivative, Eisbock, also very good, which is the same beer but put through a freezing process where the top frozen layer is scooped off leaving a more concentrated beer. Wishbeer sells Aventinus for considerably more per bottle around 200+, but it is still worth it to me when they occasionally have some left in stock. Seems they are always out of it as hey are more focussed on more trendy craft beers, but I think it is also just a very popular beer with those who know it. 

It's kind of like the Thai no pointing of feet taboo, there is no way to avoid pointing your feet, the toes or the soles will always be pointed in some direction no matter what you do with them, so technically you are always creating a problem just by being here. Same with what is defined as work, in my layman's understanding of Thai law as translated into English, what is defined as "work" is so broad and sweeping that technically it is illegal to role over in your sleep or even breath for that matter. Out of sight, out of mind is how to avoid trouble with the authorities or those who would report you,. There is no way to be legal or safe from prosecution and thats the way they want things. Luckily it seems Thais are much better at overlooking things, so you will likely be able to carry on working on your house without it occurring to anyone that "technically" you are breaking both foot pointing taboos and Thai labor laws.

In our rural area, 6 months ago  TOT simply just stopped providing service, no explanation, no notice in fact it was worse than that, they strung us along for two months saying it would be fixed in a few days, up to the day we cancelled service when we were billed for the next month as part of the cancellation ransom when they also said, "Are you sure? Why? We will have the connection up and running tommorrow." They have no interest or incentive to do any such thing as an internet big bang, unless that refers to the whole thing collapsing. The single gateway thing is what I would guess this is about and that seems to be a way to shut the internet off as many experts have warned you can't run a country's internet on a single gateway.

Even so, even if I did what I always do, carry my garbage back to my room if I don't see a garbage bin enroute, does the Health Department ever consider what the average hotel does with the garbage?

In many areas of Thailand there is no garbage collection. The garbage is burned or dumped somewhere else.  Management of garbage disposal in Thailand is the government's responsibility yet it's the attitude of this health minister that indicates that they think we are totally responsible for this, that they are not interested in helping the public interest with any of it.

It is not only an eyesore, but it is a menace to people's health that they are spending hours a day enveloped in smoke from burning toxics in waste that is personally attended to and disposed of. Tourists and ordinary people or even businesses are not in a position to dispose of their waste properly, if disposing of waste means moving it to be recycled or put in a place that is relatively safe such as a designated  landfill. The attitude of this Health Ministry guy is a bigger part of the problem and scolding and pointing the finger at the public is simply attempt to shift the blame.

A few years ago, when all this single gateway malarky reared its head, people in the internet industry, professors in IT etc all weighed in advising the government not to do it, that a single gateway won't work, that you can't have a working internet with a single gateway. I would bet that it not working is hardly a concern and essentially the single gateway means simply shutting internet in Thailand off. Seems that in various forms and to varying degrees its happening everywhere. For example, I think I read somewhere that Trump will be handing the internet over to the media corporations to do as they see fit, not that a likely utterly corrupt US government agency is much different than the corporate sector anyway. Oh well.

Forgot about the bright color avoidance thing a few days ago and wore a neon red shirt and a cobalt blue with florescent orange scarf. 10 minutes after I was already out the door and right in downtown Bangkok remembered the sombre attire thing. But As usual was mostly ignored by most including people I tried to talk to such as sales people. I don't think it is a problem at all anymore, no one some much as even blinked at me in 6 hours of running around town in screaming red, blue and orange psychedelia. They probably mistook me for a lorikeet.

The doctors at the big expensive hospitals in Bangkok are mostly pretty awful. Most seem to be pretty out to lunch, either so indifferent they don't even seem to be paying any attention to what they are doing. Its well known many of them only get work because they speak English and that is about the extent of their expertise.  The upper classes hatred of foreigners really can end up in your ending up maimed, seriously neglected or I suppose even dead when it comes to Thai doctors. A few I have seen were outright out of their minds, one guy snickered and chortled into his sleeve that they would be amputating my foot for an ingrown toenail. Another doctor, when I went to see him for problems with a minor Plantar's fascia problem told me that nearly all of the bones in my foot were broken  to pieces. He told me he had never seen such extraordinary case, that a person could actually walk around without feeling any pain when all the bones were broken in thousands of pieces. He told me that I needed to go home immediately, stay off of my feet and that he would be calling me shortly after he reported my case to his colleagues. He never called or emailed as promised and didn't return my calls, completely disappearing, I never saw or heard from him again. My wife said he appeared to be completely insane in her opinion. A country eye doctor seeing me for a mild eye infection asked me what I thought about letting him just jab a needle into my eye and removing my eye altogether that way, that I may have serious infection that could spread to my brain. A neice was having chronic headaches and the doctor said he thought they probably just ought to get her to surgery pronto and remove the top of her skull and have a look. She told him no thanks, saw another doctor who gave her some pills for headaches and the headaches disappeared never to return. Another doctor suggested that I stay at the hospital for a week so they could monitor a 1/4 inch abrasion on my knee that had started to get infected. i said, "How about if I just stay home and come back if the anti-biotics don't work?" Without hesitation she said, "Oh sure, if you'd rather just stay at home, that's fine," as though I knew better than she did, no explanation as to why she had at first suggested I stay there. Another otherwise good dermatologist, an older lady, who was treating me regularly for minor skin cancer for some reason would say incredibly rude things such as "You seem like the kind of person who bathes about once a week." I bathe twice a day and have never been told by anyone in my life that I smelled or seemed filthy dirty. Another time she told me, "That shirt looks terrible. Where do buy such badly designed  clothing, in your home country?" In response to my attempt to be friendly and chatty, she said with this angry look, "You really think you are cute and clever don't you?" If you aren't in seriously bad shape, they seem to not want to see you, is what I have concluded. The way most doctors I have seen seem to operate in Thailand is that they  would prefer you wait till it was too late.

If you are lamenting Trump I have some reasons that Hillary may have ended up being worse.

All the lamenting of Trump being elected seems to be in stark contrast to the almost non-existence of criticism and complaints regarding The DNC and Clinton's horrifically dishonest and catastrophic election campaign and its contempt for the electorate, the rigging and obstruction of voting in many states not to mention rampant mass media collusion to stop Bernie Sanders. Seems the press is back to being a little more honest now that they aren't sending their articles to edited by the Clinton campaign. So, as we found out in the Wikileaks, that type of corruption of the media by Clinton Inc. will at least stand a chance of abating for now under Uncle Donald. 

We also found from Wikileaks that Clinton has known and withheld knowledge that Saudi Arabia and Quatar are the primary funders of ISIS while at the same time these two governments are major donors to the Clinton Foundation. What has also been unraveling is more and more evidence of the Clinton Foundations role in helping Russia with their control over U.S. Uranium which now stands at around 20 percent, while the Clinton goes on a red scare rampage during her campaign. The destruction of Libya has much to do with Clinton which in turn has opened the flood gates of refugees to the rest of the world. And we would have been asked to let someone like this lead us through the quagmire developing in Syria.

Recent Wikileaks have shown the Clinton campaign edited articles for the New York Times, the WAshington Post and other media outlets. In light of the disclosure she made at a Goldman Sachs speech that she has a private and public position on most everything as part of her modus operandi, we would have seen, I think a completely opaque government come into power with greater and greater levels of propaganda in the mass media. This public and private face aspect that Hillary advertizes to her big bank supporters almost surely means that Clinton would have done an about face on the Trans Pacific Trade partnership which essentially ushers in a complete and open multi-national corporate take over of national sovreignty. The horrific nature of this agreement and all it entails would be no less than if America were taken over by a hostile foreign nation, you can Google TPP and read all about it if you don't know what it is. The record anyway stands at Clinton having shown support for the partnership 45 times prior to her suddenly announcing during her campaign that she would not support the TPP wholesale, whatever that meant. Trump has so far registered nothing but opposition to this agreement. At least under Donald we may all dodge the TPP for awhile.

We now know that half of a million dollars was given by a Democrat congressman active in Hillary's election campaign  to the wife of a top level FBI official involved in the investigation of Hillary's email scandal. So, there is evidence that Clinton Inc. has corrupted the FBI and would continue that relationship to likely even greater damage.

What we are dodging here is essentially a globalist pedal to the metal take over of the most influential government in the world via a Clinton Foundation White house. I am not optimistic about Trump but it is certainly nothing to bemoan given what we would have had under Hillary. Essentially, Hillary has given us Donald Trump by rigging the primary election to put herself the less popular candidate in the driver seat. If Bernie Sanders had run against Trump it was clear Sanders would have likely won. They stole the election from Bernie and now Trump is what we get. They knew that and ignored it.