Camelot

From later in the article -

Quote

This guy is a f*%&ing moron and that isn't even remotely true.  New infections in Thailand have dropped from +150,000 per year in the early 90s to 10,000 per year now, roughly the same per capita level as the United States.  Southern African countries have 20-30% of the population infected and Thailand has less than 1%, and most of them infected more than 10 years ago and the number of new cases are relatively small.

I don't know if he is incredibly misinformed or he is deliberately spreading misinformation to keep people away from Thailand or because he is against prostitution for moral reasons.  Either way he is an uninformed bigot

katabeachbum, on 2012-01-31 11:09:17, said:

Same Same - Maybe the like feature will useful to make this known to MRO.

MoonRiverOasis, on 2012-01-30 18:18:22, said:

Your wrong, l and others read them.

beano2274, on 2012-03-31 08:07:52, said:

Bath is worth seeing, as are St Ives and Poole... if it is summer, the OP should go to nearby Sandbanks too

The OP can skip Plymouth, Portsmouth and Southampton... I have close ties to all three but I am afraid to say they are all now quite miserable places that have been infected by the chav virus...

...in the Southampton/ Portsmouth region the OP would be better advised to spend time in the villages of the New Forest (eg Beaulieu)...

... in the Plymouth region there are many lovely villages by the sea (eg Kingsand) as well as Dartmoor nearby

You can fly into Bristol from Amsterdam via KLM.

Sorry but am from that part of the world, why would anyone go to Bristol, if going around there I would choose Bath, then also take in Cheddar Gorge, then proceed to Bristol only to catch a train to maybe Birmingham or further up, or even from Bath a train to Exeter and go down towards Plymouth and Cornwall.

You could do Bath, Exeter, Plymouth, St Ives, then come up along the coast to Portland, Poole, Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton, along into Kent, taking in Dover, then back round into London.

prefabs, on 2012-04-16 12:26:23, said:

There are probably ways of personalising FB but they don't seem adequate. I have turned off everything I can find and I still get daily requests from unknown people asking me to add them. I originally joined to please my daughters, I now seem stuck with a growing crowd of their friends and friends of friends. Frankly I just don't see the point of it, email satisfies my needs. Perhaps I'm just a Luddite.

Facebook has become a way of life, live with it or ban it. I would ban it.

ralphlsasser, on 2012-04-15 11:18:43, said:

The type of incidents you mention obviously shouldn't happen. But it's the incidents that re wrong not the whole event. Every large event and may everyday things have dangers. So should all clubs and bars be closed down and alcohol banned? According to you they should, because these things lead to rape, murder and other things. And why not ban shopping, as I've heard some bad things have happened to people when they went shopping. Songkran is fun. Some bad things happen, but many of these would have happened anyway. Bad things happen everywhere. I had great fun. I'm happy for you to stay in and avoid life. But I feel very sorry for you.

Oh, just realised that you can't stay in because I heard that some people get murdered at home. Better ban houses and then no-one will ever get murdered at home again. You are so funny. LOL.

So will I now be able once again to buy it at my local pharmacy or will I have to go to a hospital to get some. I need it for both chronic sinusitis and blocked Eustachian tubes.
Further if I fetch a supply back from England is this now legal or am I drug running. Would a British medical certificate cover me?

CalgaryII, on 2012-04-04 16:26:28, said:

How dare the Democrats follow the rule of law, they should employ a mob of thugs to terrorise the center of Bangkok and burn it down, like more popular political parties.  Or  question the PM in Parliamentary Question Period if she ever attands parliment again.

masuk, on 2012-04-03 15:35:58, said:

You're not married yet then???

-mel.

Air travel just gets steadily worse, I must remember to pack my jammer.

I can still remember the good old days when the longest delay was waiting for you luggage to appear on the carousel.

Well I'm no fan and never have been of the British embassy, their ambassadors and staff, having observed on many occasions the supercilious attitudes and actions by  staff members, from the Ambassador on down, over the years in different parts of the world.


The British Consulate section in Bangkok has been slated for years over their attitude to Brits who go there seeking help and in particular to those wishing to take their Thai girlfriends and spouses to the UK. There have been letters to the Times on this and even questions in Parliament for literally decades; long before the brief tenure of Mr Asif  and , while I have no personal knowledge of whether he did anything to improve or worsen those relations, I doubt whether anyone else out there in internet land has either, and you can hardly blame him for a problem that has been there for as long as anyone can remember.


The Consulate is headed up by a Vice Consul and it is to him we should look to complain if his staff’s attitude towards to British citizens and others who go there seeking assistance or to apply for visas is anything but what should be reasonably expected.

Although clearly the Ambassador is the overall boss, in practical terms I doubt frankly whether he has much to do with the day to day running of the consulate. His main tasks lie in other areas of Anglo/Thai relations.

It was quite a revelation to me when I watched his extensive interview with the Nation. The man is a polished, highly intelligent diplomat and he had a wealth of knowledge and information at his fingertips.

He was no fool and he explained the British government’s stand on many issues very lucidly and why the embassy acts as it does, how the so-called extortionate fees are calculated, and so on. You may not accept what he has to say, but at the very least you have to concede  that it is all out of his hands- he simply follows orders – rules and regulations set down by the foreign office in London.

So many of the complaints made by expats in Thailand have absolutely nothing to do with the embassy – the big one being the British government’s stand on pensions. The Ambassador very politely acknowledged it was a big issue and he said he had passed on the community’s concerns to his masters in London– but that is all he can do. He doesn’t make the laws.

Then there were the nutters who were urging the ambassador to make representations to the Thai government on anything from Thai corruption to Thaksin’s criminal activities. Do you really think it is the ambassador’s place to become involved in such matters? It is absolute garbage.  

How would you feel if the Thai ambassador in London complained to Cameron about Tony Blair’s criminal activities? Diplomats simply do not get involved in the domestic politics of other nations and if you don t understand that then I give up.

I have no idea why Mr Asif is leaving Thailand after such a short tenure and neither does anyone else. Maybe it was always planned this way or maybe he really did ‘blot his copy book’. I doubt we will ever know, but as for this racist nonsense about his wife banning pork or supposedly setting up a Mosque in the embassy grounds as a reason for his removal; it is - in my humble opinion – a load of old hogwash….

Please please, don't let Thaksin come to Laos. One of the reasons us expats like to live in Laos rather than Thailand is that it is relatively safe - no downtown free-fire zones in the capital, no closure of airports to name a couple of episodes. Yes, there is a lot of stuff that is wrong with Laos - poverty, sclerotic political system (but just because Thailand has "democracy" does not mean that its system is less sclerotic when power resides with 40 families etc) and sometimes not easy to get things done. But if you want peace and tranquility, you can find it in Laos. What we don't want is a Thaksin who will create chaos and who merely enriches himself on the backs of the people while making them think that he has their interests at heart.

Actually I think that we should take up a petition to keep Thaksin out of most places on the planet where he can cause trouble - even a "Keep Thaksin off the moon" petition would get my vote!