In The News This Morning

[chiang mai]

Two stories today from the news, the sum of which reminded me of some of the postings on Thai Visa! The first is a very sad case of a plane crash in Indonesia that makes me think of how people react when there is a crisis:

“Police Chief Col. Genot Hariyanto earlier said rescue teams arrived at the crash site. Setyo Raharjo, head of the National Commission on Transportation Safety, said 90 bodies were found near the wreckage and that the search for the 12 others was continuing.

The claims were repeated by everyone from the chief of Adam Air who extrapolated to say that a dozen people survived to senior aviation officials, high-ranking military officials and police.

The Minister for Transportation later came on air to say that the plane had not in fact been found and earlier stories had been rumours received from local hill tribes.

Descriptions were vivid, with officials saying corpses and debris from the plane were scattered over a 300-yard area of forests and jagged cliffs, highlighting the often unreliable and chaotic nature of disaster relief efforts in the world's largest archipelagic nation”.

The second is a list of some of the questions asked by tourists at a national tourist office in the UK. The bottom line here is that we all know what we know and nothing more:

Are there any lakes in the Lake District? Is Wales closed during the winter? In what month is the May Day demonstration? These are just some of the bizarre questions dealt with by staff on a daily basis at one of Britain's busiest tourist centres.

Staff at the Britain & London Visitor Centre on Regent Street in London have been left scratching their heads at some of the lost-in-translation queries they receive at the help centre.One visitor wanted to know: "What is the entry fee for Brighton?"

Another asked: "Do you have any information on (former Page 3 girl) Samantha Fox?"

It is not known what mode of transport was envisaged by the person who wondered: "Can I get to Jersey any other way apart from sea or air travel?" Unimpressed by the planning behind royal homes, one tourist wanted to know: "Why on earth did they build Windsor Castle on the flight path of Heathrow?" Other geographically-challenged queries included: "What Tube line runs to Edinburgh?" While tourism officials were able to keep a straight face and answer most of the off-the-wall questions, some queries were so surreal they left staff speechless. Encounters could be just as strange north of the border at the help centres of VisitScotland, where questions from tourists included: "Is Edinburgh in Glasgow?" Another tourist wanted to know: "What time of night does the Loch Ness monster surface and who feeds it?"

[astral]

I am not sure of the relevance to Thailand, but the last section deserves a place in the Jokes forum.

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