Shaunduhpostman

I'll see it when I believe it, street food is pretty integral to just about everyone's lives. What do they suggest, that people cook at home? MAny apartments don't have cooking facilities, and I doubt most people are rolling in the money enough to eat in at a proper restaurant night in and night out. Food courts will then be the go to option and then they will have less competition, prices could go up and as follows naturally the quality goes down. People need the income and people need their street food, you're not just talking slapping more taxes on people's booze. Just another poorly thought through crusade that hopefully they will soon lose interest in pursuing before the month is out.

I agree that Singapore has some excellent food courts, so much variety and for the most part very well done. With forethought, planning and a gradual phase out of sidewalk blocking street food vendors they could improve the street food in Bangkok. But even major cities in much more developed countries, Korea, Taiwan have sidewalk food vendors, albeit less than you see in Thailand.

Whereas the CIA who was headed at its inception by none other than the head of Nazi Germany's head of military intelligence Reinhard Gehlen and which has been behind the non-democratic overthrow of some 84 governments are not a hostile non-state enity?

What a laugh riot. Sounds like he has his employee, the President of China, right on the case. He's a hard worker... so should be piece of cake, whats wrong with you guys come on!. Hahaha! If you just listen to your Uncle Don here you'll see its so simple! OK huddle up now listen this is what we do, We send some boats over there to China or Korea or wherever it is and get into the harbor there or the bay, the Great Northern Bay of Korea, and we get on  the bullhorns and start workin! We'll try real hard to  talk old Kimmy baby back down out of his tree by tellin him if he doesn't climb down this instant were gonna blow him and the tree up, ya see, its that simple ya understand? No, this time...this time we got the President of China out there, what a hard worker, he's awesome, unbelieveable talent, those other guys Obama, Bush none of them had him out there workin for us, and let me tell you he can work these special pullies and turn like nobody's business these crankwheels or whatever it is they use to coax recalcatrant despots out of trees when they get off course as they so often out there in Korea and China and climb up 'em, yeah he'll be in there with that socialist hard workers elbow grease, just nailin it man, its like the American good ole college try applied to screwin pickle jar lids down tight for 15 hours a day 6 days week for 45 years and BANG! Whadaya know!? And if that doesn't work  We got Kim's best buddy Dennis Rodman on the team, and Dennis is amazing, look what he did for the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons, he was Madonna's boyfriend for awhile he was the first NBA player to wear a dress and get piercings and tatoos, he's awesome, Dennis always does a great job,  so we'll get Dennis workin the bullhorn   night and day, a 5 time NBA champion to try and talk Kim down out of the tree. And I'll be there, if I have time, the President of the United States personally inviting him  too, and Problem solved!

Waiting for Godot.

Hopefully the new president isn't so leftist that he annoys someone to the point that we see another Kissinger-Nixon style U.S. sponsored coup ala Chile shortly after the lefist Salvador Allende was elected in 1972 I think it was.

Even so, it would seem that a lot still depends on the UK not just going ahead and storming the embassy illegally under pressure from the U.S. of course.

I hope you and others will be able to have something done about this, turns my stomach reading about it and it is all too familiar if only at a less significant levels than 100,000's of baht. I am lucky the ripoffs I have had to sustain are relatively trivial. Nevertheless it goes with the territory, this country is essentially 3rd world and people feel they have no other way to wealth and riches than  to cheat and steal from others even if it is not returning small change at the corner shop or false advertizing of products that don't work or are even harmful. Once again there is no rule of law, so there is nothing to stop anyone from ripping anyone off. Most dealings with Thais under the legal set up really are unthinkable

Sounds like the usual lies of omission that is ubiquitous in this society's interaction style and almost seems to be an acceptable way to present or talk about anything in Thailand, especially when someone wants to do business with you or sell you something. The classic one in my experiences of being ripped off or otherwise left high and dry is, "Well, we already told you about that before, why you not listen?" or "Why you don't know that already?" The reluctance to put things in writing and perhaps the aversion to literacy in general may not be unrelated to securing that the minions can continue to be played for many more decades on the "we told you before" one. Even in communication about relatively trivial things with Thais, I have become quite paranoiac constantly noticing what is not specified or seems not quite right because the background or important key details are not mentioned. And in too many cases my questions to clarify things are not well received.

Again, I am sorry to hear about what has happened and much that happens in my dealings with my bank suggests to me they are not to be trusted for a minute. I keep most of my money in a country where there is some semblance of rule of law. Keep us posted about how things develop, I for one would like to know if they are made to return your money.

Why is this news? Impunity for the wealthy and well connected is the rule, does anyone need to be reminded?

I wouldn't say either that  it was beyond the realm of possibility that some enterprising supermarket managers wouldn't try and make a bit of extra cash and stock fake booze and ciggies on the shelves, not sure all of it would be so easy to spot as the old Johnny Worker Black Labial either. Nice job Bureau of Sin Tax, poison the nation,  just as long as you and the medical industry all get your immediate 100 percent spike in revenues.

The TAT can also add all this to the list of tourist attractions, highest priced drinks and the highest levels of methanol poisoning in SE Asia, two for one! Hey why you don't know already, Thailand whiskey is most expensive and not good for health! Silly foreign man!

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 .