The week that was in Thailand news: Surviving the sinking ship of Thai tourism, without an amulet!

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Surviving the sinking ship of Thai tourism, without an amulet!

 

 

Seeing the red flags flying on the beach at Koh Samet this week – and translating several stories about yet more capsizes in the nation’s seas and rivers – Rooster was reminded about a remarkable event in the 1980s that I remember to this day. Not least because it was one of the times this columnist came closest to going up in smoke inside a temple chimney.

 

This week was also a reminder that while the country has made some progress in becoming safer that progress is rather in the manner of cute, ineffectual and face-saving steps rather than any giant leaps into modernity.

 

It was May 1986 and along with my best Aussie mate Mark and girlfriend Lin we had decided to go to Koh Samet as we all had the following day off. The thunderstorm and torrential rain raging outside all night was not going to put these intrepid young people off.

 

We nearly changed our minds looking outside at Soi Sri Bamphen in the morning. The water was waist high for six-foot something Mark, nearly up to my chest and Lin needed a snorkel!

 

As we later found out it was the highest 24-hour rainfall – 12 inches – in 500 years of records. The entire downtown area of the city was completely inundated, far worse than we had ever experienced.

 

Still, a traveler has got to do what a traveler has to do – we set off for Ekkamai bus station on foot with our bags hoisted above our heads tentatively stepping along the middle of roads past abandoned cars hoping not to be swallowed up in uncovered drains.

 

The walk was well over two hours but we made it. It was memorable for many reasons not least of all for seeing diners at a noodle restaurant with waves from buses flooding over their knees, a taxi door opening and water flooding in making the driver laugh and watching people fishing – yes fishing with nets – in Rama IV. The ponds in Lumpini Park had disgorged their contents!

 

The bus journey to Ban Phe was largely uneventful and flood free but the stormy weather made us wonder if the fishing boats that ferried visitors to the island would be running. They weren’t.

 

But again, we were not to be denied. Using my fledgling Thai I persuaded one fisherman and his son to take just the three of us across for the normal 40 minute crossing. We armed ourselves with important “safety” equipment – a large bottle of Mekhong to swig from for Dutch Courage - and set sail.

 

How the boat didn’t sink and how I am sitting writing this 34 years later I will never know. The seas were mountainous and at one point we had to hold onto the roof to stop it blowing off in the wind. Two hours later we reached the other side. The boat captain was white. We were red. We’d finished the entire bottle of spirits and were completely sober, tanked up on whiskey with an adrenaline chaser.

Ten people, mostly Thai students, died in two separate boat disasters just meters from the Ban Phe shore that weekend. I resolved to never be such a gung-ho numpty again.

 

Like New Year resolutions, it didn’t last.

 

Back in Bangkok they held the annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony at Sanam Luang where sacred oxen ceremonially till the soil then chose various products to determine what the weather will be like for farmers in the coming year.

 

The oxen chose corn. Not surprisingly this signaled lots of rain.

 

This week as the monsoon raged throughout Thailand tourists were warned not to go in the sea. One foreigner washed up on a beach in Krabi. In Bangkok a pleasure boat belonging to a hotel in Koh Kud sank though all onboard were saved. A salvage operation was conducted to find the deceased from the Raja ferry sinking off Samui. Then a truck carrying coconuts was nearly deposited in the sea when a bridging ramp, also belonging to Raja, collapsed.

 

As if on cue, hapless tourism and sports minister Pipat came up with the latest sound bite to save the ever-sinking ship that is Thai tourism, a campaign entitled “Safe and Sealed”.

 

‘Safe’, that on the surface appeared utterly absurd, apparently referred to only allowing entry to tourists from non-Covid areas. ‘Sealed’ was the fact that Pipat intended to imprison his much-needed visitors from the moment they stepped off the plane.

 

But sealed? Rooster couldn’t banish the image of a nailed down coffin along with a Post-It note to the relatives that a committee of inquiry would be set up and no stone would be left unturned to get to the bottom of all the reasons Thailand has ever messed up!

 

Predecessor Khun Kobkarn was lucky to preside over a boomtime for Chinese travel to the kingdom. So her “ban the sex industry”, “promote Durian flavor Kit-Kat” and ‘get all tourists playing Pokemon-Go’ schemes were simply consigned to the bin of dim ideas.

 

Billionaire Pipat has faced tougher challenges in an era when, according to the Thai Chamber of Commerce, 2 trillion baht has gone AWOL, the economy is worse hit than after the Tom Yam Kung crisis of 1997 and tourism is down 83%.

 

Whatever you do minister, don’t take any boat trips.

 

The aftermath of 1997 was memorable. At first there was a bit of a “phony war” as everyone held their breath as to what the financial collapse in Thailand would mean for the region and the world. Rooster celebrated still having a good job by buying my first car, a new Soluna for just 374,000 baht. There was bewilderment at the showroom as the sales lady just stared at me. I don’t think she’d seen a customer for months. A Pepsi was found somewhere so I wouldn’t leave without buying and I was shown to a parking lot where columns of Toyotas gathered dust.

When I signed there and then on the dotted line, they couldn’t believe they’d made a sale. I arrived back the next day with an English pal; I couldn’t drive and he took me home. After six days practice I was confident to try a longer journey. I backed straight into a tree, a dent that remains to this day on my now ex’s car that has done one million kilometers.

 

The baht behaved very strangely back then and very differently to now. It collapsed from about 40 to the UK pound to 50 almost overnight. Then stabilized a little before gradually slipping ever further into the abyss (from a Thai savings perspective) to over 90. At some points it was changing a full three baht a day.

 

To those modern-day residents and tourists who think Thailand is unsafe nowadays and the baht is weird I have a simple message: You haven’t lived!

 

Of course, coronavirus and all its implications will inspire stories with which today’s newbies to the kingdom will regale their Thai grandchildren. This week warnings continued about a second surge far worse than the first. Seeing a huge crowd at a Nakhon Sri Thammarat concert with nary a soul wearing a mask made people jittery. The organizers face jail for that and it may well be warranted.

 

Jail is also something that might once again be in the back of the mind of Red Bull Boss after the case was recommended for reopening.

 

“Surpris Surpris” as my French grandmother used to say. Now he had taken cocaine and it wasn’t his dentist. Now he was doing 177 kmph when he dragged Sgt Wichian around Thong Lor in 2012. Now he would have to face the music.

 

If he ever leaves Silverstone and comes back to the “Sukhumvit-ring”, that is.

 

Plod in Chiang Mai got their collective fingers out again to find out if the death of a key witness, who was convinced that Boss was driving sensibly, was really an accident. Frankly Boss could have done with his testimony even though finding someone in the case who is not lying is like finding a farang who can say “mai mai mai mai, chai mai” (green wood doesn’t burn, does it?) correctly.

 

Meanwhile, TAT chief Yuthasak and BFF Pipat announced that they were turning to expats and their love of discovering Thailand to revive tourism. The tourism council chief insisted that it was time to welcome back Mr and Mrs Woo.

 

The head of the hoteliers’ association called for a 100 billion baht fund to help the tourism industry and large scale expansion of “soft loans”.

 

Let’s face it Thailand needs all tourists. People in the industry are worse than desperate. It was also good to see that a petition urging the government to reunite lovers separated by the pandemic was receiving online attention. It came out of a hashtag trending around the world #LoveIsNotTourism.

Indeed it’s not, otherwise Mrs R would have packed me off to a hotel years ago. She was happier this week after receiving her blood pressure meds through the post. This ever-expanding initiative is excellent and keeping hospital visits to a minimum.

 

Top crime of the week was a shootout at a gambling den in Rama 3 where several people failed to beat the odds. As always happens when the shenanigans at casinos come to light, this case resulted in the transfer to inactive posts of a met commander, a station chief and four senior underlings.

 

A couple of days later as the new station chief got his feet under the trough, all the CCTV at the casino was secretly removed and bloodstained baccara tables went missing. The locals were sure that Thung Mahamek plod had not been round.

 

Big Too again pretended to be a civilian saying that the police were now his concern and not those of Big Pom. One almost expected him to say that there mustn’t be corruption “not on MY watch”.

 

Top story for interest among those who need to extend visas in Thailand came when a 34 year old woman was nabbed with 55 ‘fake’ stamps she allegedly used at the interestingly named “Thai Visa Centre” (no relation) in Bang Na. Big Oud – Immigration Bureau chief Sompong Chingduang – had got a warrant for forging documents from the Chachoengsao court but even this former border policeman expressed surprise at the arrest in Bangkok.

 

Upstairs at the house plod found 60 marijuana plants and such items as a vacuum packer and lots of plastic bags. An American man was also carted off muttering that the “organic” ganja was all for his medical use.

 

He must be in a lot of pain, or soon will be.

 

One could almost hear those who have paid under the table for “visa processing” scurrying for cover. The visa agency said there had been a lot of misreporting and many posters praised their service. 

 

In related news, the full legalization of medical marijuana became a step closer as Anutin’s pre-election pledge got closer to ratification. This will mean that medical practitioners, traditional healers and those with a doctor’s certificate will be able to grow weed. And it will pave the way for ganja that has been seized to be used to make legal drugs.

 

It is high time that the law is amended, pun intended.

 

Main news to come out of QUOTES this week was a group of 100 hopefuls gathering mussels blown onto Jomtien beach. Many on the Facebook arm of the Thaivisa forum suggested this was a sure way to get Pattaya Bellyache (different to the pains induced by sitting on a barstool all day) from the filthy sea.

But the real reason for not eating the shellfish came from marine biologist and arch Pattaya poster Professor Thon of Kaset uni fame. He noted there had been a plankton bloom and many of the mussels washed ashore in the monsoon would have already died.

 

One of the only things that has made Rooster seriously ill in Thailand is eating a lot of mussels in the crispy omelet street dish “hoi thort”. I failed to treat amoebic dysentery properly, developed an abscess in my liver and was obliged to enter St Louis Hospital for a week and missed seven weeks of employment.

 

Not to worry though; my cheeky nurse in the hospital was called Apassara and constantly giggled her way through the week when I compared her to Thailand’s first Miss Universe of the same name.

 

In international news thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port in Beirut exploded killing well over 100 and injuring many thousands. Some estimates put the explosive power at one tenth that of Hiroshima, the 75th anniversary of which was commemorated on Thursday.

 

The Lebanon disaster brought to mind an explosion of potassium chlorate in San Pa Tong district of Chiang Mai in 1999 that killed 36 factory workers and damaged hundreds of houses injuring many members of the public. This chemical has been mixed with other substances and is used as a fertilizer by lamyai (longan) farmers.

 

In virus news Queensland and New South Wales shut their border as Australia continued to experience renewed problems.

 

In the US Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic filed for bankruptcy though rather like THAI it is a ruse to save the company, not an admission it has utterly failed. I knew a plummy teacher who taught Branson at high school in the UK. He always gave him a “D” with a “could do better” report.

 

As much as I like this story, I preferred one wag on Facebook who said that the only thing Mr Branson was good for was his pickle.

 

At a deserted Wembley Stadium full back Joe Bryan scored twice to win the richest game in world sport and propel Fulham back into the English Premier league at the first time of asking. They beat Brentford 2-1.

 

Back in Thailand a list of 34 top end hotels and suites was announced for well-heeled businessmen and foreigners as part of “alternative quarantine” to state sponsored 14-day porridge. One was 500,000 baht for the two weeks. I just hope that the maid is removing the virus from the gold-plated bath taps.

 

Fortunes varied in the week’s road accidents. In Bangkok a man who was a “pantomime villain” in the Likay theater played good Samaritan and stopped for a cop stranded on an elevated road. Along came a pick-up and the actor was thrown below to his death and the police caption was crushed. The actor’s girlfriend who was in the parked Civic phoned her boyfriend and not surprisingly got no reply.

 

Fortune was better for a lady called Arunee who found herself in the path of a careening dust cart hurtling round a bend in Rayong. Along with a 15-year-old on a motorcycle she somehow managed to see another day. Reporters first on the scene only had one question in their minds.

 

What amulet are you wearing?

 

It was a question Rooster might have been asked all those years ago in Samet.

 

Rooster
 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-08-09

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[statman78]

I wonder if the promoter of the concert is a general?  If so, he will just be transferred to an inactive post like the general who held the   banned boxing matches at the beginning of the pandemic where a number of people got infected.  At least no attendees of the concert tested positive.

[Samui Bodoh]

An interesting read as always.

 

33 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Let’s face it Thailand needs all tourists. People in the industry are worse than desperate.

 

It is unfortunate to see official Thailand running about like a chicken with its head chopped off regarding the issue of tourism; there are reasonable actions that Thailand could take if they viewed the situation(s) calmly. I say 'situation(s)' because tourism is an issue that must be viewed in its entirety rather than through the lens of the virus prevention only.

 

The lesson from Vietnam is that even if a country eliminates locally-transmitted cases for 5 months (Thailand is at 2.5 months, I believe), it can still come back. The lesson from South Korea is that even if you have a sophisticated, intrusive contact-tracing App alert system, it can still come back. The lesson from China is that even if you implement extreme lock-down measures and toss civil liberties under a fleet of buses, it can still come back. The lesson from the USA is that if you open too early and too stupidly, it comes back with a vengeance.

 

I am not a 'Thai-basher', but who is confident that Thailand will succeed in denying re-entry of the virus when the above countries failed? Thailand needs to re-open its tourism business a bit (and very, very carefully!) before all is lost and mass unemployment becomes permanent. A new and more effective communication strategy is needed for dealing with the Thai public; the virus will come back and it is better to prepare people in advance rather than waiting for it to show up and winging it. Life can continue with the virus; you just need to be very careful and pro-active.

 

Slowly relax some anti-virus restrictions, rev up the state virus-fighting machinery and open some borders. Assuming that is controllable (but, perhaps, not 100% virus-free), then slowly relax a few more anti-virus restrictions, further rev up the state virus-fighting machine and open more of the border(s). If that works, relax more restrictions, rev up the state virus-fighting machine even further and open more border(s). Rinse and repeat until a vaccine is widely administered and Covid-19 is in the rear-view mirror.

 

Thailand faces TWO massive problems; the virus and the economic evisceration of millions. They need to be dealt with concurrently and in a coordinated fashion so that simultaneous progress on BOTH counts is possible.

 

The current Thai policy of re-opening things in-country with the expectation that the virus will never return is the height of foolishness; who the <deleted> believes re-opening sports stadiums is a good idea?

 

Managed carefully, the virus is controllable and Thailand desperately needs to open in order to begin re-starting its economic engines.

 

 

[Justgrazing]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

One was 500,000 baht for the two weeks. I just hope that the maid is removing the virus from the gold-plated bath taps.

I'd be taking the taps with me at the end and they'd wanna be solid gold as well for 500k .. 

[AgMech Cowboy]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

like finding a farang who can say “mai mai mai mai, chai mai” (green wood doesn’t burn, does it?)

One of my favorite phrases when people ask me if Thai is hard to learn. ????

[pennine]

I thought we would have had a mention of Trump's Thighland.

[Saltire]

As someone who gets seasick just looking at a boat bobbing in the water, I have only been to islands with an airport.

 

Your story made me feel queasy just reading it. My worst nightmare.

 

A good read as always.

 

[ecoscape]

1 hour ago, pennine said:

I thought we would have had a mention of Trump's Thighland.

Oh , yes, thighs reopening

[Rainsberger]

Why do they continue to moan about tourism when there are NO flights to Thailand and no foreigners are allowed in, open up and i will be there quick to help you out it's been a long boring time for all of us. 

[puipuitom]

7 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

must be viewed in its entirety rather than through the lens of the virus prevention only.

 

The lesson from the USA is that if you open too early and too stupidly, it comes back with a vengeance.

 

Thailand needs to re-open its tourism business a bit (and very, very carefully!) before all is lost and mass unemployment becomes permanent. A new and more effective communication strategy is needed for dealing with the Thai public; the virus will come back and it is better to prepare people in advance rather than waiting for it to show up and winging it. Life can continue with the virus; you just need to be very careful and pro-active.

 

Slowly relax some anti-virus restrictions, rev up the state virus-fighting machinery and open some borders. Assuming that is controllable (but, perhaps, not 100% virus-free), then slowly relax a few more anti-virus restrictions, further rev up the state virus-fighting machine and open more of the border(s). If that works, relax more restrictions, rev up the state virus-fighting machine even further and open more border(s). Rinse and repeat until a vaccine is widely administered and Covid-19 is in the rear-view mirror.

 

Thailand faces TWO massive problems; the virus and the economic evisceration of millions. They need to be dealt with concurrently and in a coordinated fashion so that simultaneous progress on BOTH counts is possible.

 

The current Thai policy of re-opening things in-country with the expectation that the virus will never return is the height of foolishness; who the <deleted> believes re-opening sports stadiums is a good idea?

 

Managed carefully, the virus is controllable and Thailand desperately needs to open in order to begin re-starting its economic engines.

See how the European states + people did not care enough, as want to have parties, go in holidays and forget 99,99 % of al precautions. As a statistician told on TV: just continue all precautions a few cycles ( get infected - spread the virus) and we have CRUSHED the curve and not only flatten the curve. We now see the results over there, after the continuous blundering of let it spread the first time. Without a proper vaccination, we are stuck with that virus. A few months ago we had a few break-out points, now the virus is spread over the world, so let's see how autumn and winter will be. Remind the last pandemic, the Spanish Flue, which lasted 4 years, and killed somewhere between 0.5-2% of the world population.

 

Looking to Thailand: I cannot escape from the idea, not the publics interests are served but those of the owners of some stadiums, with the proper connection to the military. (as often in TH) 

 

Tourism will be for a long time on its bottom, as many - European - tourists hesitate to go outside of their country, and if.. not far away.

Second, as Ai Farang I would prefer to spend my holidays in a country where I myself am welcome also, and not only my spending.

 

[jerolamo]

2 hours ago, puipuitom said:

See how the European states + people did not care enough, as want to have parties, go in holidays and forget 99,99 % of al precautions. As a statistician told on TV: just continue all precautions a few cycles ( get infected - spread the virus) and we have CRUSHED the curve and not only flatten the curve. We now see the results over there, after the continuous blundering of let it spread the first time. Without a proper vaccination, we are stuck with that virus. A few months ago we had a few break-out points, now the virus is spread over the world, so let's see how autumn and winter will be. Remind the last pandemic, the Spanish Flue, which lasted 4 years, and killed somewhere between 0.5-2% of the world population.

 

Looking to Thailand: I cannot escape from the idea, not the publics interests are served but those of the owners of some stadiums, with the proper connection to the military. (as often in TH) 

 

Tourism will be for a long time on its bottom, as many - European - tourists hesitate to go outside of their country, and if.. not far away.

Second, as Ai Farang I would prefer to spend my holidays in a country where I myself am welcome also, and not only my spending.

 

Speak for yourself, do not implicate other in your "don't care story time". And you trust what pseudo remote expert TV show said ?

Ok....

You should open your eyes and read some other sources and compare death from this virus and Malaria or Deng or people die on the road, or from alcoholism, and anything else, but compare and try to thinking without TV hypnotist experts.

Also, sure, it should have more death and contaminated people than it appears in many countries they don't test enough (Thailand test 600 000 a bit up, from the start, it is close to what we test every week there in French), so they also have a kind of deny mind thinking about this. Look also at there own experts who, same as many other around the world, win money from pharmaceutic big companies... money, money, money... they all want to force population to buy a vaccine (big money), even if this one is not enough tested, even if the virus is gone, even if the virus efficiency defense will be around 2 month, even if the virus doesn't kill 1% of the population. But in the same time, welcome poor cheap worker (no more problem... for you ok...).

 

Please... look at facts first.

 

Again, it is not because of you or some other (all over the world there is some, depend on where the camera target and zoom your brain will only see what they want to show to you... don't be so easily manipulable) don't care that everybody same don't care and don't respect a law. Most of the people respect the law. Much more when they are not very young and have a family to care about.

 

My situation is not to be a tourist (what ever some Thai authority speak about tourism for everything disrespectfully), but to be married and to stay far from my family from 8 month now. You situation is not the situation of everybody. And many like us are locked or blackmailed (between 30 000 THB to 500 000 THB for 2 weeks locked in a 4 stars hotel i never go inside in all my life as i win my money who serve for all my family and don't want to trash it like that (without price of extra for food and more), reservation before to know if can come, no warranty...) by this kind of government, even if i have no virus contamination and care to stay safe to be able to come back when there panic attitude will end (by the absolute necessity and at very late time, i see...).

 

This year is full crazy.

 

And from my job, I know how the majority of humans get "weird" when a new, potentially dangerous, unknown event that can be exposed occurs.
Fear arises from weak brains who have never seen anything other than their city-dwellers' lives, and then the spirits are carried away, the experts speak for their employers (who lick their chops), preachers of the end of the world and miracle solutions that will save them, the business becomes that of the worst lobbyists because there will always be people wanting to take advantage of it. It's as old as business, as old as the world.
Take advantage of a situation of exceptional panic fear, intense emotions, favorable to all kinds of manipulations (as an initial prerequisite for any form of sectarian thought). What better today than a television to spread the commercial propaganda of the moment (in a free market world, what is there other than business?) And to surf on fear.
And all of this outside of all reasonable logic.

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by jerolamo

[Aussie Col]

For every day that tourism is closed to farangs is another nail in the coffin of Thai tourism which in turns means high unemployment

[Elkski]

I only started coming to Thailand for years ago and everyone says it was at its peak and prime 15 to 20 years ago so why is this drop in tourism so badd for Thailand now?   I think 10 million visitors each year is plenty for Thailand to handle properly.   Yes many people are going to have to find real jobs.   There will be pain but if they do things properly Thailand can become a better destination. 

[Chongalulu]

19 minutes ago, Elkski said:

I only started coming to Thailand for years ago and everyone says it was at its peak and prime 15 to 20 years ago so why is this drop in tourism so badd for Thailand now?   I think 10 million visitors each year is plenty for Thailand to handle properly.   Yes many people are going to have to find real jobs.   There will be pain but if they do things properly Thailand can become a better destination. 

Because 20 years ago there was not all the not so attractive infrastructure associated with recent numbers and that now devoid of tourists ,makes the place look like an ugly deserted ghost town. Indeed ,some aspects like the beaches and sea will look and be cleaner /better but knowing it represents mass unemployment and lost livelihoods takes the edge off somewhat.

[DogNo1]

Can guests who are not quarantining stay at the quarantine hotels? 

[umlungu2012]

Weekly summary too long, drawn out and ultimately boring. 

[Raphus]

Thanks for the weekly update. You did miss out that Thighland is not opening. But hey, that will be a good joke in soi coyboy when the country does open.

 

[Stargeezr]

I think that the Winter of 2020 will be very low in tourist numbers.  The Spring and Summer of

2021 may see some movement if a vaccine is effective and is being taken by the tourists

and people of all countries.  The USA will have at least 400 thousand less people by

2021 and most of the red necks will be less vocal to say the least.  I am hoping that I can go back to Thailand during the Winter of 2021 or for sure 2022.  Glad that I have a secure pension and have

not spent foolishly with the low interest rates.  Good Luck Thailand, Asia, and the rest of the

World, as most people who are not rich, will be very slowly getting their jobs back and their

savings restocked by 2022.

Geezer

[Stargeezr]

Thanks for another good weekly news update, with your usual Humour, Rooster.

  Where would we all be without you.  Some of the Forum posters seem like a gloomy lot, and if they are in Thailand, should be happy that they are not stuck in America, trying to escape.

Geezer

Edited August 9, 2020 by Stargrazer9889
error oops

[Farang99]

I arrived to settle in Thailand in August 1997. Much to my surprise, the £ was never worth so much again. I'm still here but the baht is hovering around 40/£ not the 90 I first saw

[Farang99]

As for the "mai mai mai mai, chai mai"  exercise, as I am elderly and tone deaf it all sounds like "no no no no yes no" to me

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Farang99

[rumak]

gone 

Edited August 10, 2020 by rumak

[rumak]

4 hours ago, Farang99 said:

As for the "mai mai mai mai, chai mai"  exercise, as I am elderly and tone deaf it all sounds like "no no no no yes no" to me

 

krai kai kai gai ?       

[rumak]

22 hours ago, ecoscape said:

Oh , yes, thighs reopening

There is a special committee looking into that 

[Aussie Col]

The junta have no business acumen, so are as much use as chocolate teapot when it comes to sorting out the countries problems.

[3NUMBAS]

tourism is a lost memory for a decade or  more so they better have an ace up their sleeve

[Aussie Col]

35 minutes ago, 3NUMBAS said:

tourism is a lost memory for a decade or  more so they better have an ace up their sleeve

Lost for Thailand. Other countries in the region will pick up the Farang tourists that Thailand doesn't seem to want creating jobs and security for the less well off in them countries.

[MyTHaiMyKe]

On 8/9/2020 at 1:16 PM, pennine said:

I thought we would have had a mention of Trump's Thighland.

Sure is a lot of people on this forum that have TDS! Can't even have one article without his name being slandered! What you going to do after he gets re-elected for another 4 years?

[tso310]

6 hours ago, Aussie Col said:

The junta have no business acumen, so are as much use as chocolate teapot when it comes to sorting out the countries problems.

Well they certainly know about investing in high quality wrist watches. 2nd hand market is always strong.

[oompie69]

On 8/9/2020 at 5:16 AM, Rainsberger said:

Why do they continue to moan about tourism when there are NO flights to Thailand and no foreigners are allowed in, open up and i will be there quick to help you out it's been a long boring time for all of us. 

Amen. Me too, and I think , thousands of others wanting to escape the virus-ravaged West.