PeterRS

I always found that a problem in Hong Kong: air con in hotels and most shopping malls way too high. I was surprised when I learned that Government House, the large home of the Hong Kong Governor, did not have air con installed until the start of 1979. Had it been located on The Peak, the breeze would have kept the rooms cool. But it is a 2-storey structure situated very close to the harbour virtually behind the HSBC building.

When a reasonable percentage of your time has to be spent outdoors, AC is of little help.

Anutin is a real snake in the grass. He made no secret that he wanted to succeed Prayut. No doubt he is merely biding his time.

I remember my first year in Hong Kong. Having arrived from the UK in early March, the weather was pleasant although the humdity did start to rise quite quickly. By May the temperature was rising daily and by early June I was not sure I could take an entire summer of it, the more so as it was allied to a level of humidity I had never before experienced! But the body adjusted relatively quickly - or is that much more a young body? I can understand those much more used to a variety of seasons finding constant heat more difficult to bear year round.

Watching that vdo, I do wish each contestant had worn a number. I also found it rather strange that the models were all virtually identical in height with almost the same sculpted bodies. I'd have assumed a slightly greater variety (or perhaps would have wished for a greater variety since that model look is not my type 😉) I was not aware until I looked up wikipedia that Mister International was actually founded by a Singaporean and run from Singapore from 2006 to 2021. With the death of the founder, the organisation has been moved to Thailand and has a Thai President. Originally it was only for single men. Since the move, fathers, married and divorced men are now permitted to enter as contestants. It has always been held in Asia. Interestingly, the country with the most titles is Lebanon with 3. Vietnam and Brazil come second with 2. Thailand has never won nor have its entrants ever come in any subsequent positions from 2nd to 5th. I find that rather surprising given that of Asian contestants Vietnam, South Korea and The Philippines have each had 3 finalists in the top 5, whereas Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong and China have each had one. Last year, though, Mr Thailand won the Mister Photogenic prize.

Best way to serve cock 😵😵

So the Minister for Agriculture is another ex-army man. And not just "another"! He was deputy in the department in the previous government. Funny how this man served four years in jail of a six year sentence in the 1990s for conspiring to import 3.2 kg of heroin into Australia. Of course he now denies it but BBC reporters uncovered Australian court records showing he served four years before being deported back to Thailand. In a censure debate in 2020 he was accused of having lied to parliament about the case. He claimed he had imported flour! In the ensuing vote, he was rebuked by 17 members of his own small Party. In September 2021 he was sacked from that Party. He was also a known "fixer" for the 2014 Prayut junta. Odd, isn't it, how whenever military high-ups were accused of building for their own use on government land, their cases were almost always thrown out? Then there was the mask fixing scandal during the early period of covid when one of his aides claimed to have a stockpile of millions of masks for sale privately at a time when hospitals were desperately short of them. When the aide was asked about the stockpile by the media, his answer was, "I know nothing." Thammanat dismissed the story as an attempt to discredit him. The Prime Minister then refused to comment and also did nothing, despite the fact that stockpiling or profiting from the sale of sanitary masks was at that time a crime punishable with up to seven years in prison. In his declaration of assets for the 2019 general election he listed a Bentley, a Rolls Royce, a Tesla and Mercedes along with 12 Hermes and 13 Chanel handbags plus a stash of luxury watches. Not unlike a lot of the others in the list, I presume 😵

He has no idea? That has to be the joke of the month!

Sorry - it's actually already 200% as I was only away once in the UK and once in Taiwan in 2002.

Huh? I've been here 6 times (but then I've been returning home each time 🤣)

It was almost certainly a deal done and negotiated before he arrived. Remember his return was delayed once if not twice? Dotting of is and ts so he was 100% sure it was genuine. He would never have returned if he had thought for even one second he might spend his 70s in jail. Never!

Since democracy was introduced in 1932 the country has had 20 different charters - most changed after the latest military coup. As good a reason as any for getting the military out of politics IMHO.

Live in Thailand and you still have the enjoyment of returning. @10tazione has already mentioned the border runs which make it easy to travel to neighbouring countries with the joy of returning to look forward to. I live here and frequently travel to Taiwan, Vietnam and occasionally Japan. Airfares are a great deal less expensive than from Europe or the USA, I love those travels and I love returning. Best of both worlds! Plus it's much cheaper living here than in the UK.

Ditto! I am more than a year or two older than @vinapu (even though I may look younger 😵). In all my years of riding the Skytrain, only once has anyone offered to give me a seat - and she was a middle-aged woman. I compare this to Taipei where I am frequently offered one of the seats for those with special needs of one sort or another. And no, I don't carry a cane! 🤣

Only four of the scheduled airlines which were flying A380s pre-covid have not so far brought them back into service - Air France, China Southern, Malaysia and THAI. Not all the delivered aircraft are flying, but a good many more than anyone expected even a couple of years ago. THAI should never have bought them in the first place! It already had more than enough capacity on its 747-400 fleet which it continued operating until 2020, considerably longer than almost all other scheduled airlines. JAL retired its 747-400 fleet in 2011, Singapore Airlines in 2012, ANA in 2014, and Cathay Pacific its entire fleet in 2016. So TG did not need the additional roughly 100 seat capacity that it offered on its individual A380s, the more so when these extra seats were almost all in the cheaper economy cabins. When purchased, the airline only increased the number of high revenue-generating seats in first and business class by a mere 8 more than on its 747-400s. They had no premium economy cabin. Re THAI's plan to sell their six aircraft, in January this year Emirates purchased a second hand 14-year old A380 from a leasing company for US$30.5 million. It was actually an aircraft Emirates was already flying and so it was aware it was in perfect condition. That's roughly the amount it would cost THAI to get each of its A380s properly maintained and ready to fly again. Effectively, therefore, the value of each THAI A380 is now pretty close to US$0!

. . . and what's the top line? 😵

Must be @vinapu's cousin!

We have known for weeks that the Thai Elite Visa programme is being revamped. Folllowing the company's embarrassing climbdown mid-month over its cancellation of certain longer term benefits for existing basic 5-year Elite card holders, the new rebranded programme has been been launched. The eight different types of visa have been reduced to four and allegedly the benefits are more simple and easy to understand. That may well be the case, but it all comes at a massive increase in cost. According to the blurb, the company has four main targets - frequent international visitors, Investors and Digital Nomads, Expats and Retirees. That is the first time I have noticed that retirees are a target market. The pricing of the new programmes is - 5 year GOLD visa: 900,000 baht - an increase from the existing 600,000 10 year PLATINUM VISA: 1,500,000 baht 15 year DIAMOND VISA: 2,000,000 baht 20 years or more RESERVE visa: 5,000,00 baht (by invitation only and reserved for 100 members per year) If anyone is thinking of applying for the existing Elite programmes, you should act now as you only have until September 15. The basic visa for 600,000 will give you the option of upgrading up to 15 more years at 400,000 baht provided you renew and pay prior to three months of expiry. Or you can immediately purchase 20 years for 1 million baht. There is presently no indication that any form of upgrading will be permitted under the new programmes. Wait till the 15th and you will only get 15 years for 2 million baht! I suppose the question all retirees and potential retirees have to ask is: am I better with the existing 65,000 monthly inward remittance/deposit of 800,000 reducing to 400,000 annually held untouched in a savings account route? Unquestionably the answer is yes. At least with the deposit route, you/your dependents get the money back on permanent departure from Thailand or death. On the other hand, for those with a bit of cash to splash, 20 years for 1 million baht cash out can seem worthwhile, if only because it is basically hassle free and is especially useful for those who travel regularly. The allied question, though, has to be: for how long will the annual limits for retirees continue at their present level? If Thailand Elite has raised its fees by between 50% and well over 100% and retirees are included in the target market, will be existing annual limits for retirees also be due for an increase - perhaps sooner rather than later? https://www.asiaone.com/business/thailand-privilege-card-marks-20th-anniversary-grand-revamp-unveils-new-brand-logo

I think you probably meant "when most if not all the stations were built for six carriages." (do correct me if that is incorrect). I think the MRT stations could easily accommodate seven carriages. At Lumphini MRT station I once had to wait for four jam-packed trains to pass at rush hour before I could get on the next one. There have been calls for both the Skytrain and the MRT to increase the number of carriages but to absolutely no avail. I travel mostly outside rush hour. I guess the problem for both operators is that non-rush hour traffic does not merit six carriage trains as frequently I can get a seat. Could additional carriages be added during rush hours? I assume that is technically feasible.

There is a short-termism that has affected THAI ever since it broke free of its founding partner SAS decades ago. This seems in large part due to political interference through its constantly changing Boards and Presidents - and a heavy dose of corruption. First, it had way too many varieties of aircraft, ready to purchase every new type that the manufacturers produced. The annual maintenance bill must have been huge. It's biggest mistake, though, was ploughing money into its US routes with an aircraft type that did not really make sense. To be fair, other airlines thought the A340 would be ideal for certain long-haul non-stop routes. Singapore Airlines bought them for many European routes. But once it was in production and orders placed, the international airline regulators increased the amount of time a twin-engine aircraft could be in the air without having an alternate airport nearby. Thanks to significant improvement in engine performance, ETOPS (extended-range twin-engine operations performance standard) was increased from 120 to 180 minutes. Thus, in comparison to the upcoming Boeing 777, the 4-engine A340 became significantly more expensive to operate. New York using A340s was always going to be a stretch for THAI. Even with an enlarged business class, it could not fly the route with a full load of passengers and cargo. It was a gas guzzler that rarely, if ever, made THAI any money. To service New York and LAX, TG purchased ten A340s between 2002 and 2004. Several politicians including Thaksin Shinawatra were charged by the Anti-Corruption Commission in connection with the purchase but then - not surprisingly - cleared of all charges. Even so, the A340 worked for SIA's US routes for about a decade because the aircraft layout initially only had business class seating (later changed to a large business class and smaller premium economy). It therefore charged much higher ticket prices than THAI. When SIA stopped using them, it did a deal with Boeing to resell them back to the manufacturer as part of a larger deal to purchase 777s. THAI, on the other hand, tried to sell them on the open market. No one wanted them. With clearly no sense of urgency, the aircraft sat taking up airport space for 13 years and no doubt deteriorating badly before the airline managed to sell five of them last year for the paltry sum of 350 million baht. Yet four A340s still remain unsold! In the years immediately beforehand, THAI had sold 11 smaller 737-400s for 2 billion baht. Now comes the A380 saga with more 'rotting' aircraft being put onto the market. Interestingly, while most airlines apart from Emirates had retired their A380 fleet, many of the aircraft have now been brought back into operation to meet the unexpected high demand for travel following covid. Most of these aircraft were stored away from their home base in very low humidity places like Arizona or, in the case of Cathay Pacific, in Alice Springs in Australia, and routine maintenance was undertaken. Did no one in the THAI Board or management realise the huge amount of cash they were throwing down the drain by storing their A380s without regular maintenance in the heat and humidity at BKK? Indeed, why did TG spend so much on the aircraft in the first place apart from as a vanity offering? But that's another question! I wonder what percentage of each THAI air ticket goes towards paying for THAI's mega errors?

Hercule Vinapu Poirot finds the culprit again.

I know I am technologically somewhat backward, but I haven't the faintest idea what the above post is all about! "eating up"? "Teabagging"? I guess I also need to get my eyesight checked. I thought it might get interesting when I read Foreskin instead of FOrsakeN! 🤣 I assume it's a quote from some website or news media but no site is quoted.

I wonder how you increase flights with lower airfares which adds to congestion, and yet the PM expects the AOT to reduce congestion!

The personality factor in Thai politics preceded that of Trump and Johnson and their cronies. Thaksin was seen as a saviour when first elected PM in 2001. Before then, few Thais seemed to pay much attention to politics as the same old members of the corrupt elite formed governments. I suppose the only ones not to be a part of that swamp were General Prem, although I do not know if he was as revered during his 8 years as PM as he was later in life as Chairman of the Privy Council. The other was Anand Panyarachun whom the King, having surprisingly intervened in politics folllowing massive protests against the government and a bloody army massacre, asked to form his second government in May 1992. This was met with popular approval around the country. Anand was seen as one of the few to be sincere and incorruptable. No doubt the privations suffered by so many in the country following the Asian Economic Crisis helped steer popular feeling towards a relatively new party leader who promised much. And to be fair, Thaksin did deliver policies that helped tens of millions around the country. Yet, despite the PR spin masters, he was essentially massively corrupt and deeply involved in cronyism. Even so, I can recall talking with taxi drivers in the mid-2010s who still seemed to revere Thaksin and said everything would be better once he returned to run the country. But these were members of the older generations. It is the young who seem now to be driving politics. Certainly Pita Limjaroenrat has a ton of charisma and seems not to be tainted with corruption and scandal, although his former wife did take him to court alleging he was controlling and abusive during their marriage. That case was dismissed as false by the family court. The LGBT movement will be staunchly pro his party as he has promised to introduce same-sex marriage. Will his popularity continue even though he has been denied political power? We ought to get some indication after the Rayong Constituency by-election on September 10.

I remember the days before the Skytrain and MRT when traffic was horrendous. I once read of a family from the southern part of the city driving north to Chiang Mai for Songkran. To beat the traffic, they set out at 8:00 pm the day before the eve of Songkran and were prepared to drive for 24 hours. By 08:00am the following morning they had not even reached Don Mueang. They gave up! The problem is, as the Bangkok Post article I quoted in my earlier post points out, the public transport system is extending outwards. Nothing is being done about what the developer is quoted as calling "the first and last mile." I live almost exactly a mile from an MRT station and slightly less from a bus stop. For me that is hardly a problem as I rarely have to be elsewhere in the city around rush hours. I have a car park space at my condo but I do not want a car. If I had one I would get stuck in miserably choked roads between around 07:30 and 10:00am as the narrow road leading from near the expressway to the business district is packed with cars hoping to beat traffic on the larger main roads. It would take a good 20-30 minutes to travel the 300 meters or so just to get to that road. Add in the problem of flooding during the rainy season and many experts have stated the only solution to the inner city traffic problems is either to make it much more expensive to drive private vehicles (politically impossible in my view) or substantially increase the number of roads (practically nearly impossible in my view).