mic59

Might try Surin next time I'm in Thailand. I've already been to quite a few parts of Thailand and I have a 60-day holiday starting in September. And the public transport's so efficient in Thailand it's easy to get just about anywhere.

Does Thaivisa colour my view of Thailand? The answer to that would hve to be a resounding no. Not because I have travelled widely, I haven't anyway, but because I take anything on the internet with a grain of salt. Sure, you can get good advice on specific details but when it comes down to opinions I just shut it out. People are different and something that may seem to mean a lot to one person may not affect me at all.

I just had a call about an investment to triple my money in 3 weeks time. Unfortunately I could not take it as I was already taking a call from someone who was going to help me lengthen my penis.

I had this problem once. It was not with an ATM but an internet account but the same concept. What I did was have most of my money in one account and only transfer to the internet account the amount I needed. So there was never any available to be scammed, the rest was in an account which had no PIN so any unauthorized access could be easily traced by the bank.

Just done a google search on the name Chula Sukmanob. Google only brings up 3 pages of entries, most of them within the last 24 hours. Googled Chula Sukmanop and got more than 10 pages of entries, a lot of which are when he was not a minister but a private businessman. So I would assume this is his real name. Still a comical name though. Unsure whether it was a typo or a joke that led to "Sukmanob" being used.

Chula Sukmanob. Now there is the perfect surname for a man in Pataya!

I was going to make that joke.

250 kmph is just on the steep downhill sections. Hold on to your lunchboxes!

Isn't that why we come to Pattaya? So we don't have to hold onto our lunchboxes?

Love that every time an Australian is convicted of doing something overseas they start bleating that the government is not doing enough for them. Well, maybe if you didn't get in trouble in the first place then they wouldn't have to. And why should they anyway, it's not the laws of Australia that have been broken or that there is some kind of human rights violation. Oh, I know what some people, especially Corby's family will say, that someone else put the drugs there. Strange that people who support her have nothing to say when it's pointed out anyone can say that. And reasonable doubt does not mean that there is a chance, however laughable, that some unnamed person may be responsible.

Too bad she wasn't going to Malaysia. This would have all been forgotten by now.

I last took one of these travelling to Pai from Chiang Mai along the "road of a thousand turns". The drivers are maniacs and even though it takes some hours more I now take public buses. Apart from the safety issue you can get seriously carsick in these things.

I'm not a hydrologist, but as a recreational fisherman I have noticed that when a river is in spate the tide may be increasing levels while the flow is still seaward. As spring tides seem to coincide with high flows in the Chao Phraya, I wonder if shutting the mouth of the river at such times would be a good idea.

It definitely is and it will be the ONLY possibility to prevent Bangkok from a major and utter horrible disaster!

I have been warning since many years that the greatest danger for Bangkok is NOT just the excessive water masses from up north but the high spring tide at the same time during a dangerous storm, combined with a full moon!

That only happens in rare weather conditions but the possibility is real.

We have seen the same (several times during the ages) in The Netherlands in 1953 and New Orleans in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina as an example!

I know that many will say that Thailand doesn't have hurricanes but a heavy SE storm, blowing the enormous amounts of waters from the Gulf into the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, combined with high tide AND huge amounts of water coming from up north will effect in a horrible disaster, totally destroying large parts of Bangkok and surroundings!

That's why I fully support the plans to build a dam; the sooner the better but of course in Thailands' case, in combination with bridges, water reservoirs up north and channelling systems for oversupply of water from up north.

The Netherlands completed such dams already and New Orleans is in the process of doing and completing dams and it's the only solution for Bangkok as well.

If such a disaster happens, both Don Muang- and Suvarnabhumi Airports will be totally flooded for many months, not to speak of the drama about shipping and fishing vessels, power supply, drinking water, distribution and much MUCH more!!!

The majority of the economy will come to a total and complete stillstand

Dams in The Netherlands:

http://www.deltawerk...taworks/23.html

Actual parts of the finished dams in bad weather; the locks can be opened during normal weather.

You'll pardon me for wondering where ~6000m³ /sec are intended to go with the mouth closed.

I think Plod is working on his giant sponge design as we speak. This will also have a separate budget.

This is an exceptionally valid comment. The recent flood in Queensland, Australia caused massive loss of property and life and was due in the main to the dam above the towns it was meant to protect. There is no point in having a dam unless it is properly administered. What happened in Queensland was that the dam was allowed to get to 140% capacity before water was released. When this was done the overflow was too much to be released safely and sped down the river at a great rate. When discussing dam capacity, 100% is not a full reservoir but what is considered the highest level where water should be released, most dams release water at 85%. With the speed water can flow into any river in Thailand they may find it safe to release water into overflows at as low as 70%.

Well Davey, your Bangkok world seems to be more perfect than mine. On a recent night about 9 PM I had experiences with 5 taxis. Two demanded 200 baht and no meter to go from Sathorn to Ekamai bus station. Two simply refused to go. The fifth said ok for the meter, there wasn't heavy traffic and the total was 70 baht.

The taxi police may have made a nice headline but had absolutely no positive effect in the real world.

taxi drivers have sometimes suggested up to 10 times the fare for them to not switch the meter on. The problem is that 600THB is approximately $20 and sounds a good deal to a new tourist.

Just making it a blanket thing, one hour and you're out does seem a bit harsh. If the place is crowded then people should move on, I don't know many who would not voluntarily do so anyway. And if they buy nothing or very little then again, 1 hour and you're out. But this needs a bit of common sense and whether the person is a customer you want back. I have sometimes sat in a cafe doing crosswords or puzzles for an hour but, apart from the cafe usually only being half full, I have generally spent over $15 there. I could understand the management losing patience with me if I bought a small drink and stretched my time there but I spend a lot and go there once or twice a week.

Most of the roadside vendors I see are just selling Thai food, water or soft drinks anyway. This will be just like the police bans on prostitution anyway. Nothing for 51 weeks of the year, then drag a few in and slap them with a fine that will cost a night's work and business as usual.

Maybe they thought it was a losing ticket and threw it away. I once nearly threw away a ticket I thought was a loser but I had to claim for another so I got them to run my ticket through the machine and it was a winner. Only about AU$10 though. I think I'd have noticed myself if it had been AU$99.14(that was the figure reported in the Australian press).

In answer to the last post, about 80.5 million euros. The amount the story refers to is probably in US dollars, although by my calculations it should be US$103.9.

Some, but not all of the LB's are a problem but this is the same with the female prostitutes. Most of them are just trying to earn a crust and they add to the colour of the place.

She should spend her holiday in THB300 a night guesthouses in Chiang Mai and eat at markets and public food courts, you don't taste the best of Thailand by staying cooped up in Hilton hotels and driven to tourist traps.

Maybe my maths is a bit wobbly but that's 100,000 bucks per tourist

The original definition of a trillion was a million million millions but has since been watered down to a million millions. Based on the original trillion your calculation of 100,000 dollars is about right. However, I would believe it to be more like this:

THB2,000,000,000,000(2 trillion) total tourism revenue divided by 20,000,000 tourists equals THB100,000 per tourist. exchange rate between 28 and 30 depending whether Australian or US dollars and average per tourist is about $3333-$3571. Not unreasonable, some people stay at places like Trat and Pai and spend very little, some stay in Pattaya, Bangkok and Phuket and spend quite a bit.

Great place to visit, Thailand. Plenty of people I know also who are spending a great retirement or end of their working days there. But unfortunately you also get these stories. The laws forbidding foreign ownership of land are a necessity but can lead to misplaced trust and loss of all assets. And the previous posts where it has been mentioned how did he spend 5m THB in 2 years. Yes, how did he? Even A whole year renting a pretty good room in Pattaya and having sex every night and expensive meals and plenty of drinks couldn't come to more than 250000 THB.

The first time I went to Pattaya the prostitutes were not so obvious. Although thick on the ground, most of them did not offer themselves to you and could(possibly) just be assumed to be women around their normal business. It is where there is a Whitechapel type "Jack the Ripper" situation where prostitutes look like prostitutes that the police are concerned about. Having said that, I am also of the opinion that the police are just having to be seen to be doing something and that Beach Rd would be a sleaze rd, not a "nighttime relief" rd if they closed it down. I can't talk for others but I have used Beach Rd for 3 reasons, long time, short time and non-sexual date with agreed rate.